Share your trickiest genealogy detective work
Posted: December 21st, 2016, 10:56 am
I thought I'd start a topic for Lemonfools to share your best detective work. What has been your trickiest genealogy mystery?
Mine relates to my wife's family. We had found the birth certificate, marriage certificate and census records for her great-grandfather - and had traced his movements from the far north of Scotland to one of the UK's major cities where he worked as a stonemason and then a spirit merchant. He then disappeared. I could not find him in the 1911 England & Wales or Scottish censuses. Neither could I find a death certificate for him anywhere in the UK or Ireland. I kept going back to search again but to no avail.
Then I happened to get a Worldwide subscription for Ancestry and looked again. Lo and behold I man of the same name (first name, middle name, surname) in a death record in Toronto. It stated he was Scottish (which matched), a steward, but his age was out by 10 years. There was absolutely no current family knowledge of him having gone to Canada. So could this be the same man? I did a search on Scotlands' People for every person born with the same first name, middle name and surname. There were only 2 matches - our man and one other. I then traced the other one and found him still living into the 1930s. Coincidentally he too went to Canada and got married there. So only 2 people christened with that name. Both went to Canada. One got married there and lived on. Therefore, the one who died in the first decade of the 20th century must be my wife's ancestor.
Would you agree?
The mystery now is - why was he in Canada? Did he work on the boats between the UK and North America (a Steward isn't too big a leap from being a spirit merchant?), was he seeking a better life for the family, or had he left the family?
What is your best detective work?
C
Mine relates to my wife's family. We had found the birth certificate, marriage certificate and census records for her great-grandfather - and had traced his movements from the far north of Scotland to one of the UK's major cities where he worked as a stonemason and then a spirit merchant. He then disappeared. I could not find him in the 1911 England & Wales or Scottish censuses. Neither could I find a death certificate for him anywhere in the UK or Ireland. I kept going back to search again but to no avail.
Then I happened to get a Worldwide subscription for Ancestry and looked again. Lo and behold I man of the same name (first name, middle name, surname) in a death record in Toronto. It stated he was Scottish (which matched), a steward, but his age was out by 10 years. There was absolutely no current family knowledge of him having gone to Canada. So could this be the same man? I did a search on Scotlands' People for every person born with the same first name, middle name and surname. There were only 2 matches - our man and one other. I then traced the other one and found him still living into the 1930s. Coincidentally he too went to Canada and got married there. So only 2 people christened with that name. Both went to Canada. One got married there and lived on. Therefore, the one who died in the first decade of the 20th century must be my wife's ancestor.
Would you agree?
The mystery now is - why was he in Canada? Did he work on the boats between the UK and North America (a Steward isn't too big a leap from being a spirit merchant?), was he seeking a better life for the family, or had he left the family?
What is your best detective work?
C