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Tag: genealogicalresearch

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Choosing A Professional Genealogist – Getting Bang For Your Buck

Last week we talked about why you might want to consider hiring a genealogist. This week, let’s look at some of the things you should take into account when choosing a professional genealogist to work with.

choosing a professional genealogist

Get the Right Person For You

There are several factors to take into consideration when choosing a professional genealogist.

First and foremost must be their ability to demonstrate a high standard of genealogical research skill. If you’re paying good money, you want the results to be accurate and reliable. Anyone can call themselves a professional genealogist, it is not a phrase restricted to people who have sat a special exam.

Look for some qualifications (such as a related degree or diploma) or credentials. Credentials are often specific to a particular area of the world, which means the genealogist has to be a super specialist in that area! Your genealogist should be familiar with the Genealogical Proof Standard and be willing and able to provide research that meets this standard.

Look for extensive experience, the more the better. A good proportion of that experience should be in the area/subject matter of your research question. Someone familiar with local geography, history, customs and culture will be much more efficient with their research. If your ancestors were pioneers of the early Port Philip district, it’s better to hire someone familiar with the place and the records than to hire someone in the US for example. If you come from a line of Birmingham gunmakers and you want to do an occupational history of your family, it would be great to find someone familiar with both the gunmaking trade and Birmingham to help you with your research.

Choose a professional genealogist with good reviews. Word of mouth is an excellent indicator of quality of work.

Find someone who is willing to meet with you before beginning the project to discuss your needs. No project should begin without a mutually agreed research plan based on your objectives. They should be upfront about their fees and any other potential associated costs. You should also feel comfortable with them. Sometimes they may uncover sensitive information about your family.

Prepare to share

Sharing information

The sure way to have your costs blow out is to just tell the genealogist to start from scratch. Reinventing the wheel takes time, especially with more recent generations where public records are less accessible. No matter how self-conscious you may feel about the quality or amount of work that has been done so far, share it with your genealogist. They will be able to assess it much more quickly than beginning from scratch, saving you a ton of money! The genealogist will love you for it, because there is nothing worse than slaving over hot documents and writing up copious research notes to be told, “Oh we already knew that”. And you don’t want to be charged for that scenario!

Provide the genealogist with:

Decide your budget

budget for professional genealogist

How big is your budget and how do you want to spend it? It’s important to remember that your family history is never finished. You need to have a very clear idea of what you need the professional genealogist to do for you. Otherwise, you could end up asking for a little more and a little more until you’ve way exceeded what you planned to spend. Set your budget before you begin and stick to it. Make sure your genealogist is aware of where the ceiling is. As that ceiling approaches, they should let you know what they have left to do, and ask what takes precedence if the well runs dry!

There are usually two things you pay for with genealogical research:

  • Their time, knowledge and experience
  • Costs, for example, documents and if required, travel

Remember the genealogist is a professional. Do not expect a good genealogist to work for minimum wage. Anyone can do the job badly for peanuts (just take a look at some of the family trees on Ancestry!). A good genealogist is worth paying a decent rate for quality work. They will work faster and more efficiently than you expect due to practice, knowledge of where to look, and the ability to use context to point them in the right direction.

If your genealogist charges an hourly rate, specify how many hours you want to pay for. They will let you know if this is likely to be adequate to meet your research objective. Also ask if they offer a discounted rate for pre-payment or partial pre-payment. Many genealogists will happily do so for the piece of mind of not having to chase people for payment after the job is handed over. For example, if someone prepays me, I will discount by 40% for full pre-payment, and 20% for half pre-payment (in blocks of 10 hours).

Your outcome…

professional genealogist chosen

By the end of this process:

  • you have chosen an experienced professional genealogist with relevant qualifications and/or credentials, good reviews, and who is knowledgeable about your research area
  • you’ve decided exactly what you want from them and prepare them accordingly
  • you have agreed on a research plan and how to allocate your budget together
  • they will provide you with their findings and evidence in a report, with regular progress reports/research logs provided along the way for larger projects or between payments.

May you find amazing and intriguing stories with the help of your professional genealogist that you could never have found alone!

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HELP! I’m Stuck In A Tree! When To Consider Getting Professional Help With Your Family History

Stuck? Professional genealogist
Stuck in your family tree? A professional genealogist can help you.

When might a professional genealogist be useful to you?

You’ve always wondered about where your family came from, you’ve watched every episode of ‘Who Do You Think You Are?‘ from every country that produces the show, and you’re a ‘Long Lost Family‘ junkie. You’re a potential family historian. You’ve made a start on your family tree…or you’d like to…but there are things standing in your way. Sometimes it’s worth considering involving a professional genealogist.

You have the interest, but not the time.

We all struggle to prioritise our time these days, and with all the competing demands our hobbies often fall to the bottom of the list and become neglected (or never get started).

No time? Professional genealogist.
Use someone else’s time when you have none spare yourself!

Genealogy is a time-intensive exercise, and the less experienced you are, the longer it takes to find your way to and through all the records.

It may well be worth your while to outsource the family tree, or part of it, to a professional. This not only saves you time directly, but they are practised and efficient and likely to get the information and verify it in half the time of someone with less experience!

They can save you time by:

  • getting your tree started then providing you with recommendations on ‘where to go next’ with your research
  • analysing your work so far then providing you with recommendations on ‘where to go next’ with your research
  • if budget is no issue and you don’t mind missing out on the fun of doing any of it yourself, agree how far you want the tree to go and let them do it all!
  • finding your ancestor in a particular unindexed record you don’t have hours to trawl through
  • going to your family’s original hometown taking photographs of headstones and houses, and searching through all potential sources of information there.

You’ve hit a dead end

Dead End? Professional genealogist.
Can’t go any further? Someone can help you with that.

You’ve been working on your tree, and most lines are progressing well. But there’s just one branch that is messing with your head. Yes, it’s the ‘brick wall’ line. We all have (at least!) one. You’ve tried everything suggested here, but the wall remains firmly intact. Your other lines are getting neglected as a result.

What to do? Outsource the dead-end to a professional. A fresh pair of eyes who knows of sources you may not have tried, or who can at least eliminate some of the sources you haven’t had the time or resources to get to. You can get the wall knocked down AND be freed up to work on the rest of your tree!

A branch came from somewhere far away…

…and you don’t speak the language of the records, or don’t know what sources are available or how to get to them.

Immigrants? Professional genealogist
Galician immigrants, ca. 1911

This one is definitely a good reason to look for a local professional genealogist from that country. Even we professionals do this when we are outside our research comfort zones. My son has a family line from Germany. I have used Andrea Bentschneider‘s services when I need an expert in German resources local to Hamburg. It saves so much time and ultimately money (hey, I’d love to go to Germany to research but…)

You want to verify a family legend

Ever since you were a child, you’ve heard tales of how someone in your family tree was left on the steps of the local church as a foundling, or was transported as a convict, or ran off and joined the circus…can it be proved? Often, yes.

Family legend? Professional genealogist.
Get a professional to confirm Uncle Albert’s tall tales.

Getting a professional to dig into what may be some quite specialised record sets to find the answer can unearth some incredible stories. And even if the family legend isn’t quite right, usually there’s a germ of truth there. Often the real story is just as interesting.

Your DNA results are back…

…and you don’t have a clue what to do next! Analysing and using results from DNA tests uses quite different skill sets to traditional document-based genealogy and can be quite nerve-wracking for people at first, especially if they have no science background.

DNA results? Professional genealogist.
Have someone else unravel your DNA for you.

A professional genealogist with experience in genetic genealogy can be a great help in assisting you to unravel the match lists and find what you want to find.

You want to learn how to build your family tree

You may not actually want to hand over the fun of doing the tree to anyone else. You want to do it yourself but you’re not sure how to do it properly. Utilise the services of a professional to either assist you one-on-one, or you might find someone running group classes nearby (often in local libraries).

Want to learn how? Professional genealogist.
Learn from a professional so you can do it yourself.

They can help give you the research skills (including organising your research and citing your sources), point you to common resources (both general and local), advise on where to invest your genealogy subscription money for the best bang for your particular buck, and answer specific questions to may have. Then you can launch into your new hobby well-armed to build a strong and verified tree.

So there you have it. There are so many ways a professional genealogist may be able to help you kickstart, problem-solve or add depth to your family history. Can you think of any more? Comment below!

Next week, we’ll discuss what you should consider when selecting the right professional to work with, and how to get the best bang for your buck.

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Your Ancestors’ Wills – Part 1 – Where There’s A Will, There’s Information Galore!

old wills

I had a wonderful stroke of luck this week! I broke through a longstanding brick wall on my Field line, confirmed using my ancestors’ wills. As suspected, the middle name Palmer used across several generations was a massive clue. However, the partnership that brought it about was back at the turn of the eighteenth century and in a different place. Therefore, it’s taken a while to find it.

Because the find was not where I expected it to be, I was extra-specially careful to ensure I had all my ducks lined up evidence-wise. I couldn’t claim this Edward Field as my own just because he was born at the right time and married a Palmer. These are both common names, and extremely common at the time in the parish where I found them. They were both prominent families in the area, and both had many branches. Using ancestors’ wills and wills of others in these local families allowed me to pinpoint where they fit in, and why the name Francis popped up as the eldest son’s forename for several generations too! Now I’ve untangled all the Field and Palmer lines I can sense a couple of one-name studies in the wind. I know how I’m wired…

I spent all this week burying my head in wills, so I was reminded why it would be a good topic for this week’s blog. They are sadly often under-utilised as a resource, and often so rich with detail.

Why You Should Look For Your Ancestors’ Wills

Wills are a treasure trove of information. Some of the uses you can put them to are:

  • Confirming your research
  • Untangling family branches
    • Very useful when the same names are appearing over and over in different branches. Wills will often make it clear who is who.
  • Determining not only family relationships but often their quality
    • Who did they leave out that was still alive or who did they leave an insultingly trivial amount of money? (A caveat, a child ‘cut off with only a shilling’ may have received their inheritance already. Their parent may have set them up in a business or home, and the ‘shilling’ is just to prevent them arguing that they were left out of the will as an oversight).
    • Sometimes they used very blunt and/or revealing comments to explain why certain bequests were made. (See the snippet of another of my ancestor’s wills below as an example!)
  • Discovering the married names of the daughters
    • The testator would often list their children’s names. The daughters were listed using their married surnames. Possibly the husband’s name and the names of their children would appear too.
  • Finding an unexpected place of origin
    • The testator would usually give instructions regarding their burial preferences. Many just specified the local churchyard. However, if they had moved to the vicinity during their life they may have asked to be buried in a family vault in their original village’s church for example.
  • Hearing the voice of your ancestor
    • Not literally of course! But this is one of the few common documents where you will get a feel for your ancestor’s personality. It’s a lot more freeform than certificates for example. Unless your ancestor left a journal, diary or memoir this may be as close as you get to reading their thoughts and opinions in their own voice.
old wills charles girling
A snippet of Charles Girling’s will, naming his housekeeper’s five children (plus one on the way!) as his own. He clearly showed a will to live, rather poignantly also covering any further children he may have by her in this will.

What Is Contained In Your Ancestors’ Wills?

This can vary a little, but a formal will often follows this fairly standard pattern:

  • Their name, occupation and location
  • A statement that they are of sound mind
  • Their burial request
  • Who they appoint as their executor
    • Often a spouse or adult child if widowed
    • Sometimes a brother, brother in law or close friend
  • Instructions for distribution of their property, listing their beneficiaries
  • The date the will was prepared
    • This could be very close to the death date, or years before if they were organised!
  • The signature (or ‘cross’ if they were illiterate) of the testator and the witnesses.
  • The date probate was granted
    • This could also be very close to the death date if straightforward, or years afterwards if it was complicated or contested!

What Won’t You (Usually) Find?

  • Wills of married women
    • these are rare before 1882 as up till then, women did not have their own property. Anything they brought into the marriage became the property of their husband. Therefore she had no legal right to leave anything to anyone.
    • Wills of spinsters, on the other hand, can be gold, especially if there were a lot of nieces and nephews!
    • Once a woman was widowed, she may have had a will drawn up if she did not intend to get remarried.
  • A list of every possession
    • This is called an ‘inventory’ and is a separate document to the will. If it survives, it will be located in the probate file.
    • The inventory is well worth looking for, as literally EVERYTHING got listed. It provides a fascinating snapshot into your ancestor’s life. My ancestor John Girling (father of the Charles named above) made his own inventory. This was quite unusual and slightly OCD, as he also repeatedly updated it over the years. He went into excruciating detail which was great, as it revealed his previously unknown military life, but sadly not the identity of his mother. He noted the subject, artist and value of every painting he owned except her portrait, about which he was irritatingly vague.
  • Dates of births, marriages and deaths
    • This is not the document for finding these details. You may find out from the will that marriages have happened, or children are still minors, or other family members are deceased, but the dates will not appear. However, using the date the will was signed can help narrow down a timeframe for those events and help you locate them in the appropriate sources.

Stay tuned for the next gripping episode…

Next week I will be looking at and dismantling some of the reasons why wills are so commonly ignored, as well as how to find and use them.

In the meantime, has anyone found anything in wills that they never would have known without seeing their will? For me, finding out Charles Girling’s ‘wife’ was actually his housekeeper was an eye-opener, and has saved me countless hours of continuing searches for their marriage! Leave your comments below…

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Cluster Research in Genealogy – Let’s Go FAN Clubbing!

Cluster research is a fantastic methodology to use when you’re stuck. You’ve sucked the well dry in terms of finding records for your direct ancestors. Or perhaps there are too many records for people of similar names and you can’t differentiate between which are your ancestor and which are not. Maybe a female ancestor has got ‘lost’ and you can’t find her maiden name. It’s time for some lateral thinking.

What is a FAN Club?

Cluster research in genealogy refers to utilising the FAN club (Family, Associates and Neighbours) of your direct ancestors to access information that you can’t find simply by researching them alone. The term ‘FAN club’ was coined by respected genealogist Elizabeth Shown Mills many years ago. It’s a great way to remind yourself of what other sources of potential information to look for.

Your ancestors did not live in a bubble. They lived in a community, and probably several subgroups of that larger community such as their immediate neighbourhood, extended family, church, sporting or social clubs, workplaces, and political groups. Therefore they were coming into contact with other people every day and probably left their footprints across some of those peoples’ documents and stories in one way or another. Every cluster that they were a part of provides context about their life at the very least.

FAN Club Cluster research
The FAN Club consists of Family, Associates and Neighbours.

When we research our family trees, we often stick to direct ancestors. Indeed, people can be very critical of those who go down the rabbit hole of researching collateral lines, calling them ‘name collectors’ and casting aspersions on the larger size of their family tree. Do not be put off by this. Those people don’t know what they are missing!

Family Cluster Research

Collateral lines (or ‘extended family’) can provide gold when you’ve hit a brick wall. Was your direct ancestor not registered at birth or baptised, did he have no knowledgeable informant of his death, you can’t find his marriage certificate and there was no obituary published? You could be up the proverbial creek. But wait! He had siblings! Suddenly you have several potential sources for his parents’ names via each sibling’s records. For males, military records often contained parents’ names too.

Collateral family members can also help confirm which similarly-named person in a community is yours. Is a known brother with a less common name following the same occupation as your ancestor? Is the naming pattern of their children similar?

Extended family often lived close by, especially when families migrated somewhere together, so check censuses for them. They often witnessed each other’s weddings, were sponsors at their children’s baptisms and mentioned in each other’s wills – their lives frequently intersected. They often appeared in each other’s family photos, especially of large events. If you ‘lose’ a child from your direct ancestor’s family in a census, check that they weren’t actually in the home of their grandparents or aunts and uncles for the night! It can be very helpful when this happens. Sometimes the aunt was a previously lost sister of the child’s father whose married name wasn’t known!

Associates Cluster Research

Associates include people who were part of the same school/university, church/religion, workplace, professional association/union, sporting clubs, political associations or military units. They may have been business partners, their lawyer, doctor or any other sub-unit of the community. These people’s or group’s stories can often give a broader background to, and understanding of your ancestor’s life. If you are lucky your ancestor may be directly mentioned in surviving records or newspaper reports of these groups or workplaces, or journals of an associate’s life.

Cluster research Sports club
Many young men in particular were involved in local sports clubs.

I was able to find an account of an ancestor’s funeral in the newspaper because the only photo I had of him showed some masonic-looking regalia. This regalia turned out to be of the Ancient Order of Foresters who had put a notice in the paper. There were no notices from family as he’d left the state alone after his wife died and moved 2000km west!

cluster research freemasons
The masonic regalia on this ancestor helped to find a newspaper announcement of his funeral across the other side of the continent!

Neighbours Cluster Research

Find neighbours using resources such as directories, censuses and electoral rolls. These are the people that were often interacted with most frequently outside of the immediate family. The bonds could be very tight, especially among immigrant families. You will often find in these cases that the families immigrated together, either knowing each other before the journey or meeting aboard the ship. If you are looking for a town of origin and your family records aren’t providing it, you may possibly discover it via the neighbours they came into the country with!

cluster research neighbours
Neighbours’ lives were closely intertwined.

Neighbouring families commonly intermarried. ‘Marrying the boy next door’ was not just a myth. Of course not every romance ended up as a marriage. It’s probably a good idea to check close to home for potential fathers of illegitimate ancestors. If there are bastardy bonds available check those. If there aren’t, all is not lost however…DNA is beginning to uncover these dalliances by matching descendants of both families as cousins!

Neighbours can also be useful for finding a commonly named ancestor in subsequent censuses. If they had more unusual names than your ancestor and were still living in the surrounding premises, you’ve found him! If journals, memoirs or group photos from neighbouring families survive, you may well find that your ancestors are mentioned, so keep an eye out for those!

cluster research neighbours

FANning Out…

Now you know a little about cluster research, I hope you take advantage of using some of these connections to your ancestors. You may break down a brick wall completely. You may find supporting evidence for a hypothesis or a clue for another direction to go in. At the very least you will add context to your family’s story – a little more flesh on the bones. That’s always a good thing.

Remember, family, associates and neighbours weren’t mutually exclusive – some people may fit in all three categories. If they do, I advise focussing on these ones first. They overlap your ancestor in so many aspects of their life they stand a really good chance of bearing information you can utilise!

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Using electoral rolls in your genealogy research

Electoral Rolls. Polling station

Electoral rolls are a timely discussion topic since it is election day tomorrow in Australia! They can be a very helpful resource for finding ancestors, especially those who lived during the 20th-century. Other public sources may be thin on the ground during this era, therefore they can help to knock down a brick wall or two in your more recent family history.

Electoral rolls - Parliament House
Parliament House, Canberra

What are electoral rolls?

Electoral rolls are lists of all those entitled to vote in elections, whether at federal, state or local level. It is currently a legal requirement for all Australian citizens over the age of 18 to be listed (with their current address) on the Australian electoral roll.

Who was allowed to enrol to vote and from when?

Timeline:

  • 1902 – anyone over the age of 21, who were either born in Australia or had lived there for over 6 months and were subjects (naturalised by birth or subsequently) of the King. Exceptions: people of unsound mind, traitors, people serving a 12 month or longer sentence anywhere within the British Empire, and indigenous people of Australia, Asia, Africa or the Pacific Islands (except New Zealand).
  • 1911 – enrolment became compulsory for eligible voters.
  • 1918 – 1921 – added anyone who met the above requirements except for age but who had served in the armed forces.
  • 1925 – added natives of British India.
  • 1949 – added indigenous Australians who were on state rolls or had served/were serving in the armed forces.
  • 1961 – added indigenous people of Africa and Pacific Islanders.
  • 1962 – added all indigenous Australians over the age of 21. This was voluntary, but once enrolled it was compulsory to vote.
  • 1973 – the voting age was reduced from 21 to 18.
  • 1984 – all Australian citizens over 18 plus British subjects already on the electoral roll. Enrolment of indigenous Australians now also compulsory.

What is included on the rolls?

At the very least, you will find the person’s name, address and gender, along with that of any other people of voting age living at that address such as adult children. Depending on the year and the state, you may also find:

  • occupation
  • age
  • whether their address is a residence, freehold or household (possibly with further details)
Electoral roll
Electoral roll, Maryborough, 1900 (Source: Queensland State Archives)

How are electoral rolls helpful?

Electoral rolls can be considered a form of census substitute, because of the household details (for the adult occupants) that they provide. They can be especially useful to find parents of an adult daughter because they often lived at home till they married. Find the daughter, and it is likely that the adults of the same surname listed above her at the same address are her parents. Of course, don’t accept this as gospel, as relationships are not specified in the roll. For example, she may be living with grandparents or uncles and aunts. Follow up your research using these names to verify the relationship. Perhaps take a look at newspapers as your next step.

By finding people in electoral rolls from various years, you can track their movement (or lack of it) around the country, which will help you to know what local sources to consult and from when.

You have an address, or series of addresses, for the family now. Why not put these into Google Maps and see if the house they lived in is still there and what it looks like now?

Fewer other sources for this time period are available compared to earlier centuries, so it’s an important part of 20th-century research to consider electoral rolls.

Limitations of the electoral rolls

  • Coverage is incomplete, and coverage for the 19th-century electoral rolls of the individual colonies (now states) is particularly patchy.
  • Children of the household are not listed unless they are over the voting age.
  • Relationships between voters at the same address are not specified.
  • Sections of the community were not able to enrol to vote (see timeline above). If you had an ancestor who was not a British Subject or was indigenous, they may well not have made it onto any electoral roll.

Where to find the rolls

Some are available online. If you have a subscription to Ancestry or Findmypast you can find some there (if you don’t have a subscription you may be able to access their library edition at your local library. Other useful websites containing links to electoral rolls are Coraweb and Cyndi’s List.

It is well worth visiting state libraries and archives as they generally have a broad range of electoral rolls. You will find it helpful to check their catalogue online before making the trip so you know what time periods and areas are covered.

If you are looking for a living relative, you can access the current electoral roll at any Australian Electoral Commission office. Please note, you cannot copy any image you see there electronically but may do so by hand.

Electoral rolls. Polling station 2016
Polling station, Mebourne 2016 (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

I hope you have found this topic useful and are now ready to not only do your civic duty tomorrow but also explore electoral records to help expand your family tree!

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Lyfelynes Family History – an interview podcast

I’m giving you a break this week from my written ramblings here at Lyfelynes Family History. However, you don’t get off that lightly, because I’m substituting verbal ones instead! Earlier this week I was interviewed by Adam Roach for his ‘Melbourne Northern Suburbs‘ podcast.

Recording a podcast

We chatted about all sorts of ‘things genealogical’, including:

  • Why someone might use the services of a professional genealogist
  • Research sites
  • DNA
  • Oral history
  • Verifying sources
  • Brickwalls
  • The excitement to be found both with genealogical breakthroughs and just the process itself!

I invite you to have a listen here.

Have a wonderful weekend and Happy Mother’s Day from Lyfelynes Family History to all the mums in countries that celebrate this Sunday!

Mother and child
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Taking a Wrecking Ball to Your Genealogy Brick Wall

Wrecking ball smashing brick wall

Do You Have a Brick Wall Ancestor?

Assembling your family history is not always easy, despite some of the recent major advances in accessibility to a broad range of records online. Most family historians will inevitably run into an ancestral brick wall at some point. These are ancestors who seem to have somehow dodged every way of leaving a useful documentary footprint. We know they were born, we know they had at least one child, we know they died. That may be all we know. Somehow they resist our every effort to pinpoint where they came from.

Brick wall
Beyond this, there be ancestors…

Brick Wall Smashing Ideas

Start with what you KNOW.

I don’t mean what you think you know. Especially if you’ve been working on this ancestor for a while, you may have unwittingly gathered some assumptions that you are now working from. They may be leading you down the wrong path. Start from scratch. Relook at every piece of both evidence and hearsay with a critical fresh eye. If you have been well-organised and cited all your sources, it will be an easy task to gather everything in front of you and begin again. If not, rummage through it all till you have everything.

Reassess each piece of evidence one by one.

  • Are you sure each one pertains to your ancestor? Is there any chance that one or more of them refers to another person of a similar name? Eliminate any red herrings.
  • Do you have the primary source of that evidence? If what you have is a transcription or an extract from an index, or you have found it in someone else’s tree, or just heard it on the grapevine you need to find the actual document if possible. It may well contain more information and is less likely to contain errors.
  • Are there potential clues that you overlooked first time around? For example, witnesses and informants who may be related to or close friends of the brick wall ancestor, or causes of death which may lead you to a newspaper report of an accident.

Make a timeline

Now, construct a timeline of their life using your evidence to see what’s missing. You may find you have a reasonable picture of their later life but they seem to have popped up out of nowhere as an adult.

Focus

Looking at the information you have, decide what is the most critical question you need to answer about this person to move forward and focus on that with laser intensity. A scattergun approach will not serve you well. Don’t forget to document what you’ve checked as you go to prevent you from going over the same ground multiple times.

Where are the gaps?

For example, do you have a birth record or a baptism? Probably not, or they wouldn’t be a brick wall! What sources do you have that may give a clue to their approximate year and/or place of birth? Censuses, marriage records, death or burial records, obituaries, school records, military records, passport applications, electoral rolls, immigration records? Do they appear in any newspapers of the time? Find out what sources are available for the area that your ancestor was in at the time that might contain this information, and plunder them all mercilessly. If you’re pretty sure you know where your brick wall ancestor was probably baptised but they don’t appear in indexed searches, go to the parish register images and browse through every page in case they were missed or mistranscribed.

A rose by any other name…

Try every variant of the person’s name. There are often spelling variants for both given and surnames, especially before widespread literacy became the norm. Their given and middle names may be transposed in documents (they may have been known by their middle name in later life). Check for contractions or pet forms of their names, for example, Robert may be Bob or Rob or Bobby or Robbie. Sometimes they’re not so obvious – Mary Anns often became Polly!

Think big

What was happening in the local area at that point in history? If they didn’t originally come from there, what might have brought them to the area and where from? Look for local histories, newspapers etc that will give you a better idea of the broader social history that influenced their life. Check here for a good source of local histories.

Thinking big and wide

Think wide

‘FAN’ out! FAN stands for ‘Family, Associates and Neighbours’. By researching those around your brick wall ancestor, you may uncover clues to their origins. I will be dedicating an entire blog to the importance of FAN-ning, so stay tuned for that one!

Recheck periodically

If you do all these things and still don’t break the brick wall, put it aside for a few months and carry on researching a different part of your tree. It can be good to come back with fresh eyes, because you may see a pattern you didn’t notice the last time. Also, more and more records are becoming accessible every day. Therefore, what you can’t access now may well be easy to get to the next time you try.

Have you tried DNA?

If you haven’t already had your DNA done, consider it for this purpose. I’ve had a few brick walls smashed by utilizing information gained from matching with others and working out the common ancestor between us. Ethnicity estimates may also in some cases be a signpost to where to look, but are not specific or accurate enough yet to be taken as standalone evidence.

Consider professional help

If you are despairing of finding your brick wall ancestor’s origins, try a professional genealogist who has some experience of researching the country or area where your family’s history takes place (for British or Australian brick walls, in particular, you are welcome to contact me!). They often know of more obscure sources that may contain the information you need and will be able to contextualize the information you have to come up with some new ideas of how to find the information. Make sure you have logged everything you have already done and cited sources to minimise the time you will be paying for. Sometimes a professional can bring a breakthrough in just hours on a problem that has held you up for years!

Brick wall with door
Eventually there is a way through the brick wall.
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Welcome to Lyfelynes Family History!

My name is Samantha John. I am British-born but have been living in Australia for many years. Leaving my extended family behind as a child left me with a yearning to know more, and so my passion for genealogy began at a young age.

Now, after 35 years of pursuing family history as a hobby and not only working on my own tree but on many other peoples’ trees for the love of it, I’ve gained formal qualifications in the subject and am branching out (no pun intended!) into professional genealogy.

My experience began with English genealogy, as that is where my most recent ancestors came from, mostly around the Midlands area. As a result, I have many many resources and quite a bit of local knowledge (both from research and regular visits) to help those who are looking in this area. However, as my tree went back further generations, the roots spread wider and cover most areas of the United Kingdom.

I married an Australian man whose family had mostly been in the country since the earliest days of settlement, one way or another (you will no doubt hear some stories as my blog progresses!), so for the past 30 years I’ve also been working on Australian family histories – his family and many friends and others who have needed help untangling their branches.

Other research has led me into the USA, Canada, New Zealand, Germany (I knew that high school German would come in handy one day!), colonial India, the West Indies and many other points on the globe. Genealogy has a great way of bringing places, people and history to life.

This blog is not intended as somewhere for me to just shamelessly promote myself and my research service. I hope to regularly bring you useful content for assisting with your own journey, a little bit of entertainment, and I would love to make it a conversation via the comments section below, or you can message me privately if you wish. Please subscribe and feel free to participate, I look forward to getting to know you!