General Chat

Thanks for all your posts. I will think about posting a request but on one of my brick walls (Collins in Hampshire) despite having all the baptism, marriage and burial CDs from Hampshire Genealogical Society and taking a visit to Winchester Record Office there are too many entries to confirm a definite one. Although I have narrowed it down to to two most likely marriages, one for the parish in which my great grandfather was born, both the wives in question would have been well into their 40s by the time he was born and I can't find any other siblings except possibles about 30 years earlier.

How about this for a weird family story. My grandfather was registered at birth as George Mountain Willan. The reason given was that his godfather was George Jehosaphat Mountain the Anglican bishop of Quebec in Canada (who was a real person). Georges father was supposed to have been in service to the bishop as his valet. However, the bishop only made 2 visits to England and the dates just don't seem to add up. I have traced George's line back to 1595 including all the wives and his mothers line back to 1775 and there are no Mountains. I have been in touch with a descendent of the bishop but, apart from recommending some books to read, she was not able to help. The strange thing is that George had 6 siblings and I have found the baptisms for all of them in the same area except for George. Perhaps they forgot to baptise him and felt guilty, but why the Bishop of Quebec who most people in England have probably never heard of.?

Any more strange family stories?

Hi Gwyn,
If you remember it was you that cracked my log jam on my mother's side by coming up with Annie Maria Halford (nee Cawley) from the Worcestershire canals who ended up in Kent, where she left her husband (or he died, or something, that's still a bit of a dead end) , had a couple of kids with my great grandfather and got round to marrying him, maybe bigamously, several years later as a "spinster" in her maiden name.

I'm pleased you've got one of yours down: a bit of lateral thinking goes a long way !

I battled with one of mine for many years.
Last week I asked for help on the Trying to Find board and Janey cracked it.

My person ,Florence, had no beginning or an end, just 2 sightings in 1891 and 1901, then lost again.
I knew her birthdate was before her 'parents' marriage in 1885,, so had also hunted for her being born or baptised c. 1882 in her mother's surname.
The 1911 census showed very few examples of a Florence being born in her stated birthplace village. From those names a marriage was found and the named Florence had the same surname as someone living in her father's household in 1881 census.

I'm awaiting arrival of her marriage certificate, hoping it gives confirmation of her father's name. We think it was HE who took an illegitimate child into the marriage, not his wife. It seems likely that the child's mother died in childbirth.

I was so fixed in researching Florence's supposed mother's family, that I hadn't considered that she was the natural daughter of the husband.

Someone taking a logical view of the facts can sometimes come up with a different scenario, ....and the answer !

Gwyn

Hi Pamela,

I had a brickwall that took over 10 years (and another census) to come down! My friend is still whittling hers down brick by brick - 20 years!
In my experience, other people's brick walls are a lot easier to blast than your own.
Why don't you take up Annina's suggestion and get the super-sleuths onto it. Choccy sorted something for my friend recently that had been a mystery for over 50 years :-)

Janice

Hi Pamela, we all have our brick walls,my biggest is my maternal grandmother,either she was a liar or came from mars,nobody can find her.

Have you tried for help on the boards? They don't bite, but do bark sometimes, but can be very kind and helpful.

Hi Brian

Glad you replied. If no-one had replied I'd have been even more discouraged.

I had a breakthrough after trying to find my grandfather for about 15 years. He had added 2 first names and knocked 10 years off his age when he married my grandmother

I've knocked a few of my own down, but my biggest success was in locating a living relative and proving that the ancestor she had been searching for for twenty years had changed his surname and was our common great grandfather.

I have 3 brick walls at present and could do with some encouragement. Have you had a brick wall which has eventually given way. How did it happen? I would love to hear about it.