Ask most Family Historians and they will gladly elaborate for many hours on their particular Brick Wall or Brick Walls. Most family member's eyes start to roll or glaze over at this point in the conversation!
BRICK WALLS! We all have them, some more than others!
For the uninitiated a Brick Wall is simply when your research of an ancestor comes to a complete halt. You may have spent many hours of research getting very excited and suddenly you hit that Brick Wall. You go down another research path(rabbit hole), and another and many hours and days, months even .....….
But to no avail.
One of my Brick Walls goes something like this.
I have evidence of my paternal great grandparents living in Tasmania, Australia in 1870 where their first child was born. I then have evidence of them settling in country New South Wales, Australia.
How they came to be in Australia is a mystery. I am fairly confident that they were’t born here and they weren’t convicts. I haven’t been able to find them on any Ship’s passenger list. Did they come to Australia in a row boat?
This Brick Wall is mainly exacerbated by the fact that I haven’t been able to find their birth records. Their death certificates give me some clues as to their parent’s names, but not enough to help with research. My great grandfather's death certificate only gives his father’s name and mother as unknown and the place of birth in Sweden is not a known town. My great grandmother’s death certificate isn’t much better as it shows the father’s name and mother’s christian name only. Also the place is not a known place either. The trouble with death certificates is that they rely on the informant knowing the correct information!
It is amazing how many people have surnames and christian name’s the same when you set out researching someone. These same names which sometimes are exactly the same, mind you, may or may not be who you are looking for!
But Brick Walls are made to be broken. Mine may or may not be broken by me. But I do like the thrill of the chase though, don't we all?
I hope someone in my family catches the Family History bug and eventually brakes down some of my Brick Walls.
One tip I would give any new/budding Family Historian is:
If you have relatives/ancestors still alive, ASK THEM ABOUT THEIR LIFE AND FAMILIES.
I know I never gave it a thought and I regret it til this day.
This week's prompt in the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge is Brick Wall, so I have a post about one of my brick walls in addition to my A-Z post. I like imagining your ancestors arriving by row boat. I think mine came by spaceship.
ReplyDeleteGood luck tracking down your spaceship. Do they have flight paths I wonder?
DeleteAnd then sometimes you knock down a brick wall in a most unexpected way. Good luck with yours!
ReplyDeletehttp://findingeliza.com/
Yes I think my next post will agree with you.
DeleteI have a “swimmer” my husband’s gt-gt-grandmother from County Clare must have arrived somewhere! Best of luck finding your “rower”
ReplyDeleteYes, there are obviously many of us knocking at Brick Walls and pondering the "how" did they get here.
ReplyDeleteI think we all regret lost opportunities to ask questions of elderly relatives....always assuming they'd have told us the stories.
ReplyDeleteMy mother was not very forthcoming with stories of her family.
ReplyDelete