| Anyone on here researched their family tree? 09:43 - May 3 with 1484 views | BehindBlueEyes |
I was cruising until I got to the Smith side of my family. Come to a grinding halt with my great grandfather, John Smith. Trying to find anything on him is a nightmare! Even worse, he was a soldier in the Royal Artillery & his children were born in Ireland & India while serving.
Found all the census results from when they were in the UK but can't even find out the name of his wife who is down as Hannah, Anna & Annah in the census results.
Any ideas where I go next?
Looks like his father might have been John Smith as well.
This could take a while...  |  |
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| Anyone on here researched their family tree? on 09:48 - May 3 with 1461 views | WD19 |
Think the easiest thing to do is to seek personal fame and fortune and then get the BBC to do all the hard work for you. |  | | |
| Anyone on here researched their family tree? on 10:13 - May 3 with 1430 views | Guthrum |
Very common names can be extremely difficult.
However, there are a few things, depending on the time period.
I can't remember the exact year, but at the beginning of the 20th century they started recording mother's maiden names on the index of registered births. From that - assuming her surname wasn't vastly common also - it is likely to be possible to identify the marriage. If you then buy a copy of the certificate, that will give you a load more info (e.g. their fathers' names).
If you have his birthplace and approximate year from census, you might be able to narrow down his birth in the register to only a few, which can be investigated further.
www.freebmd.org.uk has a vast number of the indexes transcribed and searchable - plus is free.
A lot of the older Royal Artillery records (esp. WWI) were destroyed by bombing in WWII, unfortunately. But it might be worth seeing if his service record has survived. |  |
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| on 10:15 - May 3 with 1425 views | _ |
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| Anyone on here researched their family tree? on 10:27 - May 3 with 1404 views | JoeSoap |
I'm assuming you subscribe to Ancestry.com or a similar company, it costs but makes research so much easier.
I've taken one branch of my family back to the 16th Century. Unfortunately, like you, I've also found some Smiths, they can be troublesome, but I've had more problems with Cattermoles.
Trouble is it only takes a subtle christian or surname change, misspelled on a record, or a marriage/birth outside your research area, and the entire thing gets very complicated.
I think if you try to find birth or marriage certificates for the children of your Anna/Hanna you might find the mothers name on them.
I also have about 5 generations of 'John' Hopes which is again difficult when trying to differentiate between generations, especially when they are all listed as farm labourers, and most served in the Royal Horse Artillery.
I find it easier to drop a problem branch for a period and concentrate on a different one for a while, you can then return refreshed a bit later.
Sorry, not very helpful advice I'm afraid, you just have to soldier on. |  |
| “At first nothing will happen to us, and later on it will happen to us again.” |
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| Anyone on here researched their family tree? on 10:38 - May 3 with 1377 views | hoppy |
Apparently, Ullaa said it was quite easy when he did it... |  |
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| Anyone on here researched their family tree? on 10:40 - May 3 with 1371 views | Kieran_Knows |
I haven't done, but it is something i'd like to do. I've got some time off work coming up soon, so might take a look in to it then. |  |
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