Genealogy Chat

Cliff and Alter - your suggestions are noted and will be tried on the various villages I'm finding. Merry - that sounds like something for the 'Coincidences' thread that was on here a couple of days ago. Small world eh? Barbara

And I found a village site and emailed the webmaster to ask if a particular house was still standing? ''Yes'' he said, ''That is my home''!!! LOL Merry

Don't forget to 'google' for the town/village where your family lived. I found one village site for a member of my Father's family - found that he was the licensee of a pub which was later run by one of my Mother's ancestors. Then I spotted that the village greengrocer had the same name of another ancestor, which led to a whle new twig tree. Cliff

local historical societies for a particular village- you might just get lucky-google the name of the village and the words genealogy or historical.

Annie and Elaine Thanks for the further pieces of information. heather and OC - its nice to know that if I don't find mich on one line - chances are I will find it on another. I've now found a few more lost siblings on IGI for my Nottingham families. I'll just have to keep looking for the others. Barbara

Heather I have the same problem - there is so much stuff on A2A for my Holdens that it would cost an absolute fortune to get it all - over 700 hits, so far! But the most exciting and informative bit on there I got for FREE - it was a newspaper cutting which was 'too small to photocopy' so they sent me a transcript by email. It solved a problem which had been bugging me for years and I would never have found this information anywhere else - I didnt even know I was looking for it LOL Olde Crone

For the last couple of years I have gone to A2A and gleaned just a few tit bits for my lot - and I use to salivate at what others of you found. NOW I have started dads Sussex line, Im getting so many results, I dont know what to do about them. It would cost a fortune to buy all those documents - on NA Wills there are about a dozen aswell that look real possibles. I wish I could just have all middle of the road people, not so poor they never got any documents listed anywhere but not so well off that they had too many.

If any of your ancestors were tradesmen you may find a historical directory which covers the area - try googling historical directories. It is also worth looking to see if any old gravestones have survived or even old local newspapers.

Barbara, The British Isle Vital Records Index (BIVRI) is not searchable on line. It is a set of data discs - but quite a few people on the board have them and will do look ups. The website just shows you how well each county is covered (or not !!)

My thanks to Annie and Elaine - I'll have a look through both those sites and hopefully come up with something. Barbara

You can try the British Isle Vital Records Index - http://www.genoot(.)com/downloads/BVRI2/ ... the website shows coverage - quite a bit for Northumberland. People on the boards will do lookups for you - or if you want to send me a pm I´ll check your names out.

The a2a access to archives site has an index of records that have been deposited in local record offices. If you have any unusual surnames try searchng by name and see what pops up. I also searched by village. I am currently waiting for a history of a local hospital written by one of my great great aunts from Gloucestershire record office - they only charge 50p a page fpr photocopying. They also have the school admissions record for the local village school which I plan to look at on a rainy day. Rootschat which is free to join should also give you an idea of local recourses as will Genuki. I am sorry I am the other end of the country. The national archive site may have details of family wills. If you find one it can be downloaded for £3.50 which is a real bargain.

Thank you all for your advice. Its nice to know there's help out there if its needed. I'll have a look round the various sites suggested and hopefully come up with a bit more info. Barbara

Thank you again Olde Crone. I can see that working for three of the four names - but 'Robson' in Newcastle upon Tyne is still going to cause a few problems I fear. I do at least know which Chapel some of them were baptised in though, which should narrow it down a bit. Barbara

Barbara A useful tip for searching for relatives with common names (like mine) is to do place searches, rather than name searches. For example, my Holdens come from a small village in Lancashire. Lancashire is stuffed full of Holdens, so when I was researching my branch, I used the name of the village and then the name Holden, rather than the other way round - this cuts out all the superfluous Holdens! Olde Crone

Heather, if it is the one I am thinking of then it was just a few batches of baptisms from St. Nicholas Church in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk were put up onto the IGI as Earsdon By North Shields, Northumberland. I don't think there are any others. Kate.

Thanks for the suggestion Heather. Its definitely not something I'd have thought of doing! I will do now though. Barbara

Didnt someone say the IGI had mixed up Norfolk with Northumberland? May be worth you entering Norfolk??

Glen Thanks for the tip about the IGI. I have found a couple of 'missing' children there thanks to an unusual Christian name. Unfortunately two of my families come from Northumberland and the records don't seem to be fully transcribed yet. I'll keep looking. Barbara

Thanks for the suggestion Karen, I'll try that one. Olde Crone, thank you for all the information. Unfortunately my names are all fairly common, which makes life more interesting - but it does make it much more difficult to sift through information. Barbara