A Eureka Moment

[Grandad]

Housebound today, grey and miserable outside, went for petrol, newspaper and wild bird feed stock this morning and that's it.

But now I risk boring the pants off you all. I felt sure that someone must have written a book about The Whitstable Alleyways so I Googled. Just one or two references but no book. Clicked on one of the items and this is what I found.


I have cropped out some of the lines but it is the 1881 census report for Beach Alley. I looked down the list and saw Eliza Madams, 45, Head of house, widow of Master Mariner. Bells rang! My great grandmother was Eliza Madams born in Herne (Herne Bay), looking down the list I saw Alberta Madams, daughter, 18, under cook, my grandmother. As named on my mothers birth certificate that, coincidentally, I posted earlier today.


In my searches I was never able to find that census and so had a gap in that line.

Next time I now HAVE to see if those terraced cottages still exist, I know where Beach Alley is........

Coincidence or what? Sorry to go on about all this but I just had to share this snippet.

PS: Was just busy doing something else and had a thought. If that was the 1881 census and my grandmother was 18, that would mean that she was 50 when she had my mother. Very old to be childbearing then as now? I need to check further but if that is the case, her husband, my grandfather, would have been half her age??? No wonder he found elsewhere where the grass was greener. I think I need a Sleuth

[Horus]

Keep going with it Grandad, but beware of false trails. When I was doing some research I scoured a local churchyard knowing that I had some great great grandparents in there somewhere, it should not be a problem I thought as their names were Sarah & Issac (great biblical names). When I found them complete with the correct surnames, not far away was another tombstone with the same pair of names and surnames on them! weird or what?

[Mad Dilys]

As my father's surname was pretty rare, (except strangely in the middle east) I joined Ancestry a long time ago.

So far the only people to contact me have been my Aunt's Grandson, who kindly sent me a picture of her grave and a woman who wasn't a relative, but had done some research for a cousin.

I had to point out to the second very enthusiastic lady that if she was right my Grandfather was 8 years old when my father was born. I've heard of child brides, but that is ridiculous!

Now there are some more sources and census available, I shall have to get back on the track.

If she agrees, I'm giving my eldest daughter a gene test for her birthday. My close relatives (on my Mother's side only as far as I know) all have limb girdle muscular dystrophy combined with hypermobility which though not life-threatening, thank God, does lead to a lot of problems.

Not the least of these is the bullying in school because "you're such a wimp!"

[Grandad]

Yes it is a minefield H, and so often you find similar names with similar ages and living in the same area; but I do find it all a bit of fun trying to get absolute matches.

My now quandary with the above is that that mother and daughter have the same names as a similar mother and daughter living in the same cottages about 20 years later. But this pair that has just appeared in the above extract were unknown to me until now. Plenty to keep busy through the winter.

MD, you may have read elsewhere where I have said that there is strong evidence that my grandfather fathered at least one illegitimate son and I am in contact with that mans grand daughter. Maybe we, she and I, should have DNA tests to prove or disprove the possibility. Something I would be quite happy to do. The past is the past and you can't change it.

[Grandad]

I have not done any family history stuff for several years but have a registration on Ancestry.co.uk. So I took a months subscription to give me access to their whole archive and start filling some gaps.

I was soon able to resolve my dilemma about two pairs of parents with the same names living in the same area. I was also able to find more about my grandmother whose husband was killed in action in 1914 when my mother was nearly 1 year old. Seven years after my GF's death she married again but in the years between she had another daughter (illegitimate).

My mother was 8 and I don't know what happened to her because my GM moved to another town and my mother never mentioned anything. After 7 years married my GM died aged 41 after producing one son with her new husband. I don't know why she died or what happened to my mother then 15.

Most of my relatives at that time seem to have died before reaching 50 years, just one reached 51.

So I have some answers but now more questions than answers........

[LovelyLadyLux]

@ Grandad - I've often thought about doing the relative search. Has the 1 month memebership given you access to everything and is the info fairly easy to get? Meaning is the Ancestry website relatively easy to use?

[Grandad]

There are two levels of membership LLL. A standard level that only gives very limited search options or the 'platinum' level that gives access to all databases.
These include census records from 1841 to 1911 (we can only have access when the census is 100 years old)
There is access to birth, marriage and death records from 1538 although many early ones will be sketchy.
There are military records but many of these link to the National Archive where on many occasions there is a fee to see an original document.
Passenger lists for vessels from the UK. I am not sure how far back they go.

The best way to start if to build your family tree from what info you have. The system will then search the database for any matches in other peoples trees and, if they have made them public, you can find more to add to your tree. If their trees are private you can still contact them on a particular person and they may make their tree available to you.

Stacks of information and plenty to while away some hours through the winter months............that I think started today.

[LovelyLadyLux]

@Grandad - that is interesting. I had a same age cousin email me about 2 weeks ago and she has started to research the family. I have lots of information about my father's family (and my cousin doesn't but knew I had) so she put her efforts into my father's Mother's side. Right now we're exchanging what we have but both of us have emailed saying we should join Ancestry.

I know they put out adverts periodically where if you going you can get 1 month FREE but what you described is what I was sort of wondering about - what info do you actually get. Will wait to see what my cousin sends me

AND - if this at all helps Grandad - this site is FREE. I've found some info on it relating to my family and it goes back to the mid-1770s.

http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/search/Pag ... earch.aspx

[Grandad]

If that is free it looks too good to be true. I didn't open any archive so I don't know the depth of the information but it would seem to be very useful.
The Mormons also have an extensive FREE database but I found the information too brief. ie. There were no original documents on microfiche, just transcriptions. I like to print originals for my records.
Ancestry is a bit costly but for a month I will find all I want. They do have some free introductory offer but it is limited and not the whole database, and as a member it is no longer available to me.