John Titford gave a light-hearted talk with slides on the serious subject of how important it is to make sure that you are not following a false trail when researching your family history.
He gave us a series of case studies with morals to the stories. He told how he was once given a test by a Family Association from the USA. He did not realise when he started that he was being tested until he was told he had passed. The first man he found was not correct as he never went to America and John soon discovered that although he was following the right name he was in the wrong generation.
Uncommon names: John gave us tips about how to find a location where there is a larger population with that name. He went on to explain about parish registers during the commonwealth period when baptisms were often not recorded although when they were helpfully it was the birth date and not the baptism date. Missing marriages in this era were in front of a Justice of the Peace although deaths and burials are usually correct. Wills on film can be helpful but with no parish register to back up the family tree it’s easy to lose track of a generation.
John gave us interesting accounts he came across whilst researching his own family, where they lived and worked and incidents when he had been 'barking up the wrong tree' himself. In his search through various documents he told us the story of a relation who was born in a lighthouse in 1891 when researched carefully the story turned out not to be true!
In the time when many of our ancestors had limited or no literacy they could not fill in their own census forms correctly if at all. Another person would have to complete it often a child of the family who might not be in possession of all the facts.
An enlightening talk which was well attended.
Next Meeting
Friday 14th September 2018
The Broken Branch by Ian Waller