Breaking your Family History Brick Walls!
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- Опубликовано: 8 авг 2024
- Let’s chat about the kinds of research paths you can take once you hit a brick wall while doing your family history research. All of the examples of these strategies working come from my own research, because I’ll never tell you to do something that I don’t do myself!
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A special thanks to the following institutions for their dedication to digitizing historical records and the Public Domain images used in this video, which are over 100 years old:
The Yale Center for British Art
The Internet Archive
Special thanks to Camilla von Massenbach for the photos of Cilgwyn Chapel.
Timestamps
00:00 What is a Brick Wall
01:15 Basic Genealogy Research
01:44 Siblings & Descendants
06:54 Work
10:30 Friends
16:25 Records in Other Languages
17:44 Place
25:58 Important Places
31:44 Names
33:34 Ancestors Migrating & Welsh Language Thoughts
Really enjoyed this episode, and the lesson of looking beyond the comfort zone to find the answers. A great set of ideas on how to crack a brick wall when a time machine is not available. Thank you.
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed! Hehe we're not all lucky enough to have a time machine! But it's still fun to research people from all different angles from the comfort of my room haha
Cheers Dai, some very useful advice there. I also enjoy employing the old "shotgun" approach when getting stuck, although I haven't used the trade clues so much before. I will definitely be trying it out where I've stalled on the tree.
I heartily agree with your comments about boundaries. One example I have are a milling/slate quarrying side of the family. At one point they lived in a place called Blaenglesyrch, which is/was (because of course these boundaries often moved over time) in Montgomeryshire, but they lived next to the river which formed the border with Merionethshire, and they were a few hundred yards from Corris, which was the biggest place for miles around and where the work was. Naturally some of the family ended up hopping back and forth each day, many moved across the border more long term, and some stayed on the eastern side. And then on top of that, it was only a few more miles south to Machynlleth and onwards into Cardiganshire - which indeed is what that line of my family did!
I think I mentioned before that I did my undergrad at Lampeter (four incredibly happy years!). As you know, the Teifi river is the county boundry. Whilst my peers and I were students in the 80s it was still illegal for pubs to open and sell beer in Dyfed on the Sabbath, but it was ok across the river in Cwmann. For many the Sunday stroll to Cardiganshire was a weekly pleasure. For the lazy ones amongst us, it meant using the back door to each pub in Lampeter on that day of the week!
Thanks for your great comment! That's an awesome example of how county boundaries are a lot more porous than they look on paper or than how they appear in the genealogy databases. And what a fun memory from your undergrad. I wonder how far back that law goes. I'm sure I would have had lots of ancestors skipping over to Carmarthenshire too hehe
I have decided to take a look at my family tree again after several years, I have been successful back to 1800, but you have inspired me to try again. My surname is Davies and were farming in Llangammarch
That's awesome! I'm sure that you'll have some new perspective on the research since you've taken time away from it.
That was a very interesting video. A lot of what you talked about, I've run into over the years. One thing that I did early on in my family history research was to pinpoint the farms mentioned and find out who exactly were living on them and marked them on an Ordinance Survey map. It gave me a general idea of who was where and who was possibly belonging to who. There were too many people with my surname, most of whom were not related. It helped a bit but added to the confusion slightly. I got a general overview of the locality, in this case the parish of Ystradyfodwg in Glamorgan. It also helped to separate out all of the Hopkins families which there were a number, totally unconnected. I think that if you get a feel for the overall community, it helps. Thanks again. I find your videos really interesting.
That's a really great way to go about it. I do a lot of farm studies like that too. I might do a future livestream about this one farm that I did a timeline of across 300 years. That might be useful. I also agree 100% with what you said about getting a feel for the community really helping.
I love the idea of tracking occupations. In my tree there are many ministers, carpenters, farmers, and recently, electricians. A wonderful idea os making an occupational tree. The other interesting idea that my brick walls are really opportunities in disguise is refreshing. I'll work with this new frame of mind! Thank you very much!
Glad you found it helpful! If you haven't yet seen my latest video on my chapel study, it shows how useful it can be to study the ministers that your ancestors worked with or those who came before them at the same place. There's so many connections among them. And yes, brick walls are 100% an opportunity to go really in-depth.
@@GenealCymru I don't know where my g-g grandfather was from in Wales. He was 8 years old when he arrived in the United States. The manifest list a man and woman along with two other boys with the same last name. Appears to be parents and three sons. Beyond that, I have no way of finding any other info.
@@GenealCymru Yes! I just watched it for the second time. So much information. Thank you very much!
The best advice I can give for your migrant ancestors is try out all these strategies on the US side. Who were their friends, who attended their important life events, etc. Collect as much information as possible, and if any of those people turn out to also be Welsh migrants, see if there's any patterns in where they came from in Wales. It's possible that they spent time with people who they knew from Wales while in the US. I've had that happen quite a few times among my ancestors.
@@GenealCymru Thank yu for your time. The obvious is what I'm after.
Love this ❤ Thank you it's so very interesting and informative xx
Awesome! Happy that you find it useful :D
@@GenealCymru ❤️
Military Records
Not something I work with very often, but yes they are sometimes packed with information. I was looking at one the other day and there was a page listing all of his siblings and their addresses. Really helpful for 20th Century research! Thanks for your comment :)
Hi dai I’ve hit a brick 😩my grandmother Mary Jane Edwards was born in Tahesyn cardiganshire 1892 she had 4 sisters , to Lewis Edwards & Ann Ellen isaacs married in 1892 in machynelleth Montgomeryshire registry office I think they may have lied about their age . Lewis Edwards was born 1872 Eglwysfach cardiganshire , and Ann Ellen Isaacs was born 1873 in Llancynfelyn cardiganshire , Lewis’s father on marriage certificate says David Edwards ( deceased) I’ve found him on a census Married to Mary ? And John his first son aged 3 , Lewis is his second son my great grand father . David Edwards was born in Towyn merionethshire and Mary ? Eglwysfach ,I’m in such a muddle with it all any help would be appreciated many thanks Julie
Hey! Hmm, the thing that stands out to me are all the different and very distant places you've mentioned. Tahesyn(is this a parish or a farm, I googled and nothing came up), Eglwysfach, Llancynfelyn in Cardiganshire and then Machynlleth and Towyn in Merionethshire. What made them go from Cardiganshire to Merionethshire and are you sure they're the same people? Can you focus in more on their farm names or addresses to make sure that you have all the same people? Have you looked at all the siblings?
@@GenealCymru hi dai my heads gone to mush 😩 , I’ve focused on Mary Jane Edwards born 29th October in llancynfelyn 1892 to Lewis Edwards (B 1873 ) in Eglwysfach cardiganshire (stone mason) and Ann Ellen Isaacs (B 1872) Llancynfelyn cardiganshire they were married on 6th June in 1892 , which means she was 4 months pregnant and they lied about their ages it had Lewis 22y and Ann 21y and both fathers were deceased David Edwards and Richard isaacs . I found Ann Ellen on 1891 census as a servant aged 18 at melindwr farm William evans was head , they must have moved to ynysybul Glamorgan just before 1901 census llanwonno Mary Jane was on there born cardiganshire her sisters were born in ynysybwl they were Catherine Elizabeth , Gwladys Gwendoline, Nancy maud, and Maggie Ellen . So I deleted the rest because I’m not sure I’m stuck on the father David Edwards and wife ? Hope you can shed some light on him many thanks Julie😊
The best I can help here is to say, plot it out visually. I use Libre Office Draw to lay everything out in boxes, so I'm not clicking around to different pages and forgetting information. If you'd like me to do some research for you, I do do client work. You can send me an email at GenealCymru [at] outlook [dot] com.