Hi all This is a message that I sent to the Clwyd list in reply to a letter of absolute frustration in research, so perhaps it is fitting to be posted to our list here as well. Might help, I hope, to keep some folk on the list keen still in research, despite many frustrations! Hang in there! At 12:58 PM 19/05/2006, Kathleen wrote: >Hello, this message came at a difficult time for me, but my bubble >(patience) has burst ! >>>snip>>> Hello Kathleen, Your situation is not unique. Most of us have gone through some crazy times and heartaches searching the records for folks who have all these great or strange stories told about them, whether to believe or not, well, who would know? Castle or Workhouse! Sometimes the difference is just a slip of the pen or a misinterpretation of writings depending upon who is looking and who is writing and then again, sometimes a deliberate attempt to change descendancy. Some truth is usually attached to these old stories, but not all. In the end the only thing you can believe in is factual records. People invent things, people tell lies, people have reasons for hiding things, family stories become distorted over time so that it is difficult to sort the truth from unreality, though sometimes clues from these stories may lead you to the result. Census takers took liberties, got things wrong, couldn't understand the accent of folks recently arrived in the district, so put down what they reckoned was right. And then, no doubt, dismissed it from their mind as they went on with their business. Often the householders were not much help either, distorting things because they wanted some of their privacy kept secret. "James really came from Llanbrynmair, but we'll put him down as coming from Llanfair because he got into trouble at Llanbrynmair. Keep that quiet, put the lid on that, eh?" "Nellie had an illegitimate child (Alice) in Llantysilio but we'll put her (Alice) down as one of mum & dad's family, so no one will ever know." Even parish priests and curates got things wrong, putting the wrong name down on the baptismal certificate, even male instead of female, and sometimes could not understand the accent of the "new people" in the parish, so that the surname was not always written down as it was pronounced. I can certainly understand your exasperation -- sometimes the research, or the attempt at research -- drives us slightly nuts. But we hang in there because we know that given time even dirty big brick walls are known to tumble. I have had great blockages in some of my genealogy research, but then after some years someone has suddenly come along who has extra information that has helped to break down that blockage, usually through having noted my family interests on the Rootsweb main search website or UK Surnames website. Some of my recent breakthroughs have been sitting unrecognized on these sites for over twelve years, and bingo, within the last six months or less, folk have responded with very gratifying results. You need to put out your interests far and wide so that you may be contacted by others, not simply within a mailing list such as this, but onto websites as the above-mentioned. Of course groups such as Ancestry.com are going to make things difficult for you -- that is the nature of research -- research is always difficult; it is not their fault as such for they can only put online what is available (though sometimes software glitches do create a problem that cannot be easily explained, and there are probably many of these that need attention!) We learn to live with this. I do feel that sometimes we become very impatient with online research, wanting it to explain all, but it cannot do that, it has limitations. Going back to the good old fashioned book research in our public libraries and microfiche/microfilm research, not only in public libraries but especially in LDS libraries seems to stabilize us, settle us down, and put us back in our places. Internet research is still in its infancy, and therefore still fraught with problems. It is of course, the arm chair or feet up, way of researching. How can it be otherwise? Plonk yourself down in front of a good "old fashioned" microfilm for four or five of hours, or several days, which sometimes extends into weeks and one tends to relax. This is an entirely different feeling from skidding almost frantically around the internet. You are transported to a different world -- you find yourself back there in the 19th century or the 18th century looking at the actual writings/scribings (actual signatures even) of curates and vicars as they went about their normal day to day work baptising, marrying and in particular, burying their flock. You are caught up with the many terrible epidemics that sometimes decimated three-quarters or more of a family within weeks. You follow the obvious haemorrhages in childbirth when the mother dies and is buried days or weeks after the birth of a child. And then you follow the husband's sadness as he tries to keep the family together, then marries again as he must, generally to a younger woman for the obvious reason that he needs someone to take care of his children while he puts food on the table. You see further children born to this new bride and you wonder perhaps, if there might have been some sibling jealousy down through the years between the two "families," or even some resentment of the new mother. You see the family sometimes leaving the district and moving to another, and you imagine the upheaval that this must have been, leaving the familiar for the unknown and the insecurity of future work and strange lodgings. You could almost "murder" some of the clergy for their wanton attempt at scrawling their writing and their oft habit of watering down their ink to make it go further, so that it has faded with time, and sometimes what appears to be the spilling of communion wine (sometimes ink) on the pages, but you smile at this and carry on. Foibles are very much, after all, human. Everyone would save a penny if they could. Then, of course, some church official in all his (had to be a male!) infinite wisdom put all these registers as they came to fulfillment, down in the parish chest and went about his business. Over ensuing years, damp, mould, etc. got into the pages and blotted out some of your ancestors! Never existed, did they? So that is the reason why you turn to the census records, and vice a versa. Each record hopefully balancing out, or taking the place, of the other. Then of course, you need to turn to records of wills/probate, taxes, etc., and search like Dr. Watson for your elusive folk. Sherlock Holmes, eat your heart out! I sympathise strongly with those who bang their heads against a wall that seemingly will not fall down. I've had many of those and they have taken years of research to crack, others of course, remain uncracked. I'm still working on them! You have to try everything -- turn everything you can find upside down until it gives you what you want, or is found to be empty. Enough said Good luck in your researching. Never give up. NEVER. NEVER. NEVER. Cherrio Graham Melbourne ==== CLWYD Mailing List ==== Welsh Biography Online (WBO) http://yba.llgc.org.uk/