Where next?

[Kathykins]

I've got an awful feeling I've gone back as far as I can go. Using the OPR records etc on Scotland's people, I've managed to get several branches of the family back to around 1770, and one back as far as 1730, but then the trail goes cold.

What else can I use to trace people? Or is it time to admit that I've done all I can?

[Russell]

Hi Kathy

You wrote

is it time to admit that I've done all I can?

Its never time to admit defeat, simply time to set aside the searches for people and dates and apply more effort to finding out the social and geographical circumstances in which they lived.
Who knows Someone may turn up some documents hidden in a corner which will expand one of your lines. Recently a distant family link discovered a batch of old records out in Australia which had very early photographs of some of my wife's relatives dating back to 1865.

My wife had hill farmers in her ancestry and we recently spent a couple of days tracking down the Place - Stroanfreggan, then actually going there to find that there was a tiny schoolhouse isolated in the middle of upland hills and moors. Her ancestors shepherd's house was now just a pile of rubble on a hillside but we could imagine what living there would be like on a bleak January morning. It's an amazing feeling to walk on the turf they would have walked on.

Russell

[joette]

Couldn't agree more Russell & also it pays to look nearer in time.
I realised that I hadn't really put in all dates,info on my more recent rellies-Great-Aunts/Uncles etc.
My rational was that most of it I knew approx & in order to pinpoint dates,places would have to find time & money to visit NRH to verify it all!
Anyway I filled in for my Granny's siblings(paternal) & found out some things I had missed or not noticed.
Then I started on Mum's Aunts.One was just within ScotlandsPeople for her marriage & I started to track down her husband's family which turned into a really interesting hunt.As the surname was unusual in Scotland-Rainham I was able to track them to England where I assumed they had originated back to Inveraray to Timothy Rainham who was born/married there in late 1700's.
Still looking for Rosanna McGraw's birth-she married into the Rainham's but beginning to think she may have been an Irish one passing herself of as Scots or lied about her parentage-funny how you can spot a "porky pie" with a bit of experience.
It is also nice to fill in the social history of the time & to go down little avenues.One of my Great-Grandfather's brother's was named John Gordon Smith McKimmie. I was intrigued as to how they named him-there were seven other sons to name.Anyway as I was checking Lewis Inkson McKimmie's whereabouts on the 1881 Census I realised he was working at the estate of Minmore & that his employer was none other than John Gordon Smith & that their Father James Mckimmie was also employed by him as a coachman.So he had called his youngest son after his employer. Just little details which sent me off looking at John Gordon Smith.
I get distracted too at the Mitchell & have even waded through Poor Applications which are nothing to do with me just for the info & background to people's lives.
Family history is so much more than the statistics.I was aye more keen on history than Arithmetic anyway!

[StewL]

Kathykins

I agree with what the others have said too. I have got to the point where I think I may be as far back as I can get, even back to the mid 1600's with one line (hopefully [-o< ) I have now started to go sideways with those I have, and try and get as much information as I can for them. I do have the Irish line I am stuck at of course, lock that in with English born in Ireland or is that the ones born in Ireland of English parents , and one born in the Americas oh well a few , but sideways seems the sane move now

[Chris Paton]

Kathy,

You've gone back as far as you can online, but you need to ask yourself a few questions before admitting defeat!

First, do the OPRs go back further than the 1770s? You can check this at the GROS website through the following link - http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/famrec/h ... r-cov.html.

If so, could a spelling variant be why you are unable to find your family further back? I recently found a marriage between a Playfair and a Pennycook listed under Plafeire and Pincuik!

Could the family be in another parish?

Have you checked for monumental inscriptions? The GROS has a great selection of MI books pre-1855, as has the Mitchell Library and many other libraries.

Could they have belonged to a dissenting church? A check of the Statistical Accounts for your area in the 1790s and the 1830s at http://edina.ac.uk/stat-acc-scot/ would be a useful source to learn if other non-Church of Scotland churches existed in your parish at this point. If so, do records for these other churches still exist? Try Diane Baptie's "Registers of the Secession Churches" for a starter, or the NAS catalogue.

Where were your family based? Are there sources available in the local archive? For example, Perth is an area I do a lot of work in, and I have recently completed a study of the weavers of Perth for 1770 to 1844 at university. Sources found in the Perth & Kinross Archive include the Militia Act census of 1802; the 1767 and 1773 censuses; indenture papers; burial registers from 1793, and more.

Did they leave wills? Try the free index at Scotland's People website for these, or try the CD index of Retours and Services of Heirs, the originals held at the NAS.

Was land passed between the earlier generations? Try the sasine records at NAS. Did they pay hearth tax, window tax etc at various points. Again, many archives will tell you what they have.

Have you explored the lines of siblings? Only recently I found a sister to a 4 x great grandfather of mine, after eight years of working on his family!

There are probably many lines open to you still, so don't despair! Why not post what you have on here, or if you wish privately, and I and others can see what might be a good option for you to pursue still?

Good luck!

Chris Paton

[djcrtoye]

I've got most of my names in the family tree. Me and my wife took a trip to the North of Fife to visit her family, area around St. Andrews and found grave of her ggran family's grave in Kingbarns and we visisted Carnbee and Dunino so all in all it was a great day out with out the kids.

[Chris Paton]

I do have the Irish line I am stuck at of course, lock that in with English born in Ireland or is that the ones born in Ireland of English parents , and one born in the Americas oh well a few , but sideways seems the sane move now

Hi Stewie,

The good news is that there is a tendering process underway just now by GRONI in Belfast to have their records digitised. The rumour just now is that both Scotland's People and the National Archives of Ireland are pitching for it, and In know that the GRONI lot were recently in GRO Edinburgh to see how Scotland's People was organised as a venture. Also the fact that the Canadians are currently digitising the Irish censuses means the future is getting brighter for those like you and me with a lot of Irish blood in them! lol If you have Northern Irish blood you might also want to try the Emerald Ancestors site at http://www.emeraldancestors.com/ . A bit pricey for the look up service, but the indices are excellent and give you quite a bit of genealogical info fo a relatively small payment if you go for the month option.
Chris

[StewL]

Thanks Chris

I have had a bit of a look at Emerald, and it would be nice if there was a similar site for Ireland like GROS/SP. Perhaps down the track I might look at a short membership to see what is there if anything.

[claudette]

Hi Kathy

I couldn't agree more with everyone about researching the local area where your ancestors lived and also the social history of the times. Doing that has helped to bring some of my ancestors to life, rather than them being just names and dates.

I've had lots of fun searching the internet for ancestors, places where they lived, their jobs etc.

I've found lots of photos of different areas where they've lived and I've even managed to find a photo of where one them lived, even though the house was demolished many years ago.

I also found out that my great-great-aunt was a very active Suffragette and a local story has it that she took stones from the local beach to throw at the shop windows when in London for a demonstration at the House of Commons! Wonder what the family thought of that!

So don't give up - just change the emphasis of your research. I find it just as rewarding and it really opens your eyes as to how hard some of their lives were.

Best wishes
Claudette

[rainham]

I was interested to read joette's post about Rosanna McGraw and and the Rainhams. My family of Rainhams were also in Scotland and I have also had difficulty in tracing Roseanna McGraw. I have found her in the 1851 census at 145 Castle Street, Barony, Glasgow, Lanarkshire as Rosa/Rosan McGraw Head Wife Mar 21 Where Born Strane, Lanark. I have also seen her name written as McCrae, though whether this is a misprint or not I can't say.