Last Friday had an awesome experience searching for my mother-in-law's long lost counsins in Scotland.
Ethan now goes to kindy, Lydia was sleeping, I had done most of the housework so I had hours of free time which of course means family history! A few weeks earlier mum (mother-in-law) came over and asked me to help her start a search for her father's family who he never talked about or visited when living in Britain. Since coming to Australia around 40 years ago there had been no contact at all. So I told mum to bring me everything she had so I could study all the details at hand and make a decision as where to go next. What we knew: her father was George Hay, and his father was William Wilson Hay and mother Jane Stewart Lees and that he had two sisters named May and Jean.
My first attempts for information were made on the the Scottish government website called Scotlands People where for a fee you can search for births, deaths and marriages from the 1500s to 2000s. I couldn't find anything definitive for May or Jean Hay. We already had a death date for William Wilson Hay but no certificate. I realised that certificate was what we needed. It would have an informant listed with their name and possibly an address. So we found his death and sent away for the certificate which I realised now we did without even checking what a Scottish death certificate contains but we had faith and a lot of hope that this certificate would give us a lead to George Hay's family.
A few weeks passed and the certificate arrived. Our prayers were answered and it contained the best possible information citing Mary Murray, daughter of William Wilson Hay as the informant living in Glasgow. It also had his wife recorded as Jenny Rodger Lees with their address also in Glasgow. by going further back in our research we found the clues we needed to start searching forward.
So Friday I had the house to myself and I logged onto Scotlands People. I found a marriage for Mary Murray quite easily since she must have been Mary Hay (who we thought was May). She married Thomas Price Murray in 1951, in Bridgeton, Glasgow and was recorded as Mary Rodger Hay. I was happy to see the Rodger there because I already know that was a family name (Jenny Lees mother's maiden name) and helped me know that I had found the right person. So after they were married I could only assume that they had children. I went to search for births in Glasgow. I entered the surname of Murray and was hoping to filter the search using parents names of Thomas and Mary. Unfortuantely this facility was not available. So I could only narrow the search by year range and location. I narrowed the multitude of children with the surname of Murray down to a list of four pages, with each page costing me one credit. I thought that when I paid to look at the records it would list the parents and I would be able to identify which children belonged to Thomas and Mary. After looking at the first page I was so disappointed to see that the parents weren't listed and I just had a list of childrens names, dates and locations. How was I ever going to know which children were theirs?? I paused for a moment and pondered on the value of paying for another three pages of names that I could not identify. I felt a strong desire to keep going and even though I had just about run out of credits and thought I could be wasting these on nothing I clicked on the next page. I scrolled down.... nothing. I clicked on the third page, I scrolled down and nearly to the bottom I found a girl named Mary Rodger Murray!! She was born in 1962 in Bridgeton, Glasgow! I could not just ignore this name - it had to be connected to our family.
I quickly searched for a marriage for Mary Rodger Murray and found one in 1978 to Robert McTavish Wright in Glasgow. I was a bit surprised that she married at age 16 but with the full name of Mary Rodger Murray I was sure I was on the right track. So now I had found my mum's aunty and cousin but how were we going to contact them?
I hardly know how it happened. I just did a google search for relatives in scotland and came up with a website called 192.com which offered searches for phone numbers, addresses and electoral rolls. It was so strange because I had tried to search for these kind of details before during that week but had not found 192.com. It was the answer I needed to my question because I did a search for Mary Wright and on the first screen of free results I was able to scroll down and cross reference her name with other occupants of the same premises. It wasn't long until I found a Mary Wright within the right age bracket and listed as other occupants were Robert Wright, obviously her husband, and none other than Mary Murray - her mother!!! I was blown away, I was so excited! Then of course I had to go through the process of paying for credits to be able to see the full details of the household. For some reason my computer decided to play up on me and I had to call Tim at work and frantically ask me to help me sort it all out and also share this story of how I'd found his mother's family. He was also so excited of course. We got the computer sorted and I was presented with an address of 84 Wellhouse Crescent dated from 2009 for Robert and Mary Wright and hopefully Mary Murray as well. I tried white pages but no luck with any phone numbers.
I was planning to ring mum anyway to ask if she could babysit for me that night so it wasn't long before I was on the phone sharing this all with her. Of course she was so happy and brought to tears when I explained all the common names and places that had lead me to finding her family. Later that night when I picked up the kids she and dad were still soaking it all in and planning to write a letter to see if this family really was the connection we've been looking for. Out of the blue dad decides to do a google search on Wellhouse Crescent. Low and behold up comes the details for a local community centre located on Wellhouse Cresent with a phone number listed. So before we knew it mum was on the phone to Scotland and a lovely lady answered the call and when she realised what we were doing offered to "just pop round" in her scottish accent and deliver a message to the occupants of 84 Wellhouse Cres. Well we received an email from this lady which said that Mary Murray was there and they were completely shocked to hear from us but very happy and that they would email us shortly.
What a wonderful day it was for me to be involved in such an awesome experience. I've been telling everyone I meet about it and now I have finally recorded it here with permission from mum of course.
Monday, 29 August 2011
Wednesday, 22 June 2011
Now that's what I'm talking about!
This will be my first entry to exemplify what I hope to be the majority of my posts.
A few weeks ago my mother-in-law asked me to do some work on her family history because her computer was temporarily on the blink. Well it had been such a long time since I did any research on my hubby's line so I wasn't sure where I was going to find any new names for mum. I opened up my husband's family history folder and was presented with a large pile of miscellaneous papers and certificates - which I can't blame on my hubby - they were definitely left there by me. So after sorting through these I found quite a lot of information on the Hele family, my husband's maternal grandmother's line. I jumped onto familysearch.org and realised that mum hadn't done much on this family so here was my chance to have some names ready for her in the short amount of time I had.
After updating the information that was already there for Robert Hele and his wife Maryanne Cook I was able to add another two generations for the Hele line complete with mother's maiden names and children. Two whole new families! I was desirous to have the same success for the Cook line. All I had to go on was Robert and Maryanne's marriage certificate which said that Maryanne's father was Albert cook and that at the time of the marriage, 1880, he was deceased! Oh well it was better than nothing.
After a further sorting of papers I found an 1881 British census record for Mary A Hele which I remember finding years ago (2005 in actual fact). I must have done a search for Robert and Maryanne hoping to find them together on their first census as a married couple. I do remember finding this record and the reason I printed it out was because even though Mary A Hele was listed as being married she was living with a couple named Charles and Fanny Rich. I thought it was a bit strange that she wasn't recorded with her husband but when I looked at her marriage certificate again I realised that the witnesses to the marriage were none other than Charles and Fanny Rich! Now that was all I needed to know that I had found the right Mary Hele, and that is where I left it in 2005.
Can you believe the other night I finally read the census record thoroughly enough to realise that Mary was listed as a daughter to Charles and Fanny! I had finally found her mother! I subsequently jumped onto Free BMDs online and found a marriage for Charles Rich and Fanny Cook in 1876. Then I realised that I should be able to find the marriage between Mary's biological parents. I entered the information but had no luck. I tried some different spellings and name combinations. I widened my search for the whole of England. Then finally I searched back to the 1850s and found Albert Cook married to Fanny Hurse in the correct place!! I was so excited to have Mary's parents and to be able to connect them together after so many years of research.
When those search results come up on the screen and you know that you've found the right name there is just such a wonderful feeling of success and fulfilment. I literally raised my arms in the air and said "YES!". Nights like these are what keeps me coming back to family history research time and time again. And as I write about it now it all sounds so easy but I think the hardest thing is putting in the time. I probably could have sorted this out years ago but even though I didn't, I believe now was the right time for me to have this awesome experience to inspire me to keep going.
A few weeks ago my mother-in-law asked me to do some work on her family history because her computer was temporarily on the blink. Well it had been such a long time since I did any research on my hubby's line so I wasn't sure where I was going to find any new names for mum. I opened up my husband's family history folder and was presented with a large pile of miscellaneous papers and certificates - which I can't blame on my hubby - they were definitely left there by me. So after sorting through these I found quite a lot of information on the Hele family, my husband's maternal grandmother's line. I jumped onto familysearch.org and realised that mum hadn't done much on this family so here was my chance to have some names ready for her in the short amount of time I had.
After updating the information that was already there for Robert Hele and his wife Maryanne Cook I was able to add another two generations for the Hele line complete with mother's maiden names and children. Two whole new families! I was desirous to have the same success for the Cook line. All I had to go on was Robert and Maryanne's marriage certificate which said that Maryanne's father was Albert cook and that at the time of the marriage, 1880, he was deceased! Oh well it was better than nothing.
After a further sorting of papers I found an 1881 British census record for Mary A Hele which I remember finding years ago (2005 in actual fact). I must have done a search for Robert and Maryanne hoping to find them together on their first census as a married couple. I do remember finding this record and the reason I printed it out was because even though Mary A Hele was listed as being married she was living with a couple named Charles and Fanny Rich. I thought it was a bit strange that she wasn't recorded with her husband but when I looked at her marriage certificate again I realised that the witnesses to the marriage were none other than Charles and Fanny Rich! Now that was all I needed to know that I had found the right Mary Hele, and that is where I left it in 2005.
Can you believe the other night I finally read the census record thoroughly enough to realise that Mary was listed as a daughter to Charles and Fanny! I had finally found her mother! I subsequently jumped onto Free BMDs online and found a marriage for Charles Rich and Fanny Cook in 1876. Then I realised that I should be able to find the marriage between Mary's biological parents. I entered the information but had no luck. I tried some different spellings and name combinations. I widened my search for the whole of England. Then finally I searched back to the 1850s and found Albert Cook married to Fanny Hurse in the correct place!! I was so excited to have Mary's parents and to be able to connect them together after so many years of research.
When those search results come up on the screen and you know that you've found the right name there is just such a wonderful feeling of success and fulfilment. I literally raised my arms in the air and said "YES!". Nights like these are what keeps me coming back to family history research time and time again. And as I write about it now it all sounds so easy but I think the hardest thing is putting in the time. I probably could have sorted this out years ago but even though I didn't, I believe now was the right time for me to have this awesome experience to inspire me to keep going.
Wednesday, 8 June 2011
Just a coincidence?
Well here's my second entry - I was expecting this to be my latest family history research breakthrough but something small but not insignificant happened yesterday which I wanted to record.
Yesterday morning I had a friend over to work on her family history. We have been meeting together for about a year and we have learnt many things using new family search. But when we discovered a loop in her family tree, meaning that a person had been linked as their own grandparent, I was nearly thrown for a loop! So I tapped into the Help Centre (which may I say is the best online help centre I have ever used) and did a search for a solution to our problem. The first search result was what we needed and after a quick study of their suggestions we found the answer to the problem. It was caused by someone combining the wrong records and we just had to separate the ones that didn't belong. So it was a great exercise since it's been a while since I've had to learn something new in family search.
Now here's the coincidence. Last night while doing some of my paid family history work I was faced with not one but three families where branches were looping and repeating themselves because sons were coming up as their own grandfathers etc. It could have added an extra half an hour to my friends bill, but because I just learnt how to solve that problem it was all fixed in a jiffy! Now don't try and tell me that there isn't a heavenly helping hand in this work of family history.
These coincidences, light bulb moments, God sends or whatever we call them is what makes this hobby so fulfilling. I feel so inspired when I can work to effectively bring families together.
Yesterday morning I had a friend over to work on her family history. We have been meeting together for about a year and we have learnt many things using new family search. But when we discovered a loop in her family tree, meaning that a person had been linked as their own grandparent, I was nearly thrown for a loop! So I tapped into the Help Centre (which may I say is the best online help centre I have ever used) and did a search for a solution to our problem. The first search result was what we needed and after a quick study of their suggestions we found the answer to the problem. It was caused by someone combining the wrong records and we just had to separate the ones that didn't belong. So it was a great exercise since it's been a while since I've had to learn something new in family search.
Now here's the coincidence. Last night while doing some of my paid family history work I was faced with not one but three families where branches were looping and repeating themselves because sons were coming up as their own grandfathers etc. It could have added an extra half an hour to my friends bill, but because I just learnt how to solve that problem it was all fixed in a jiffy! Now don't try and tell me that there isn't a heavenly helping hand in this work of family history.
These coincidences, light bulb moments, God sends or whatever we call them is what makes this hobby so fulfilling. I feel so inspired when I can work to effectively bring families together.
Saturday, 4 June 2011
The Launch
Bec loves family history - and has done for the last 10 years! I'm a young woman in my 30s and have had various times in my life where I've been literally addicted to doing family history research. And in case your wondering I'm am a member of the LDS church (Mormon) which is why I got started with this in the first place. I have four young children and an awesome husband and love being a stay-at-home-mum. So yes when the family history bug bites me, my day literally revolves around how much research I can fit in between everything else! So don't ask me why I've started this blog...I really don't know to be honest. One reason is because I have just started doing some paid family history work for a friend and would love to turn it into a regular income and thought this may eventually drum up some business. Another reason is because I have some wonderful experiences doing family history research which brings me so much happiness and thought I should start writing them down. So this is where I've decided to do that. So for my first entry I thought I would share my first ever family history discovery - that I can remember!
I was about 22 or 23 years old and my LDS chapel had a family history centre but it always looked so dark and mysterious! Don't ask me why but I was kind of scared to go in! But every time I walked past the door I just knew it was something I should do. So finally I found a time to go to the family history centre. I met a wonderful lady in my ward named Yvonne Vincent. Can I just say now that if Yvonne had not taken me under her wing and given me so much encouragement and taught me so many skills then I don't know if I would have taken this as far as I have. So the ice had been broken. I grew up thinking that my parents had done our family history but when I received a package from my dad with all their information I was excited to see that there was plenty of work still left to do (and that is still the case after 10 years!).
On my second or third visit to the centre Yvonne was helping me to look up my family on the 1881 British Census on micro fiche! I think the CDs were available at that time but I think the one computer in the centre was being used. Of course Yvonne was a pro at using the fiche anyway so it didn't take long to find the right one. My parents had done quite a lot of work on researching our direct line but hadn't been able to add the various siblings to many of the families. So the 1881 census was going to do that for me. I put the fiche into the reader and went to the correct frame. Before I knew it I was reading the names of my ancestors. Sarah Ann Pawson with son Charles Pawson - names that I already had - and daughters Frances, Georgina and Hannah!!! I gasped in joy and amazement and caught the attention of everyone in the room. They were all happy for me to be discovering the delights of family history research. I just couldn't believe that these names had been sitting in the filing cabinet drawer in the family history centre for a long time just waiting for me to find them! And it all just happened so quickly. That was a wonderful experience for me and I have felt uplifted just reliving it now as I type.
That uplifting feeling has confirmed to me that starting this blog is a good thing to do. I hope that as I share my small but not insignificant experiences I may one day inspire others to search out their kindred dead because when we do I know that it can bring so much happiness into our lives.
I was about 22 or 23 years old and my LDS chapel had a family history centre but it always looked so dark and mysterious! Don't ask me why but I was kind of scared to go in! But every time I walked past the door I just knew it was something I should do. So finally I found a time to go to the family history centre. I met a wonderful lady in my ward named Yvonne Vincent. Can I just say now that if Yvonne had not taken me under her wing and given me so much encouragement and taught me so many skills then I don't know if I would have taken this as far as I have. So the ice had been broken. I grew up thinking that my parents had done our family history but when I received a package from my dad with all their information I was excited to see that there was plenty of work still left to do (and that is still the case after 10 years!).
On my second or third visit to the centre Yvonne was helping me to look up my family on the 1881 British Census on micro fiche! I think the CDs were available at that time but I think the one computer in the centre was being used. Of course Yvonne was a pro at using the fiche anyway so it didn't take long to find the right one. My parents had done quite a lot of work on researching our direct line but hadn't been able to add the various siblings to many of the families. So the 1881 census was going to do that for me. I put the fiche into the reader and went to the correct frame. Before I knew it I was reading the names of my ancestors. Sarah Ann Pawson with son Charles Pawson - names that I already had - and daughters Frances, Georgina and Hannah!!! I gasped in joy and amazement and caught the attention of everyone in the room. They were all happy for me to be discovering the delights of family history research. I just couldn't believe that these names had been sitting in the filing cabinet drawer in the family history centre for a long time just waiting for me to find them! And it all just happened so quickly. That was a wonderful experience for me and I have felt uplifted just reliving it now as I type.
That uplifting feeling has confirmed to me that starting this blog is a good thing to do. I hope that as I share my small but not insignificant experiences I may one day inspire others to search out their kindred dead because when we do I know that it can bring so much happiness into our lives.
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