need help.....

thomsos · Post by **thomsos** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 4:26 pm

Please can someone tell me if there is any way to know when I have the correct parents when I get down to the OPR records, and don’t have any death or marriage cert, now I have reached 1750’s I am really finding it quite difficult.

Post by **joette** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 4:52 pm

Don't know if this helps but what I do is try to look at adjacent parishes as I think our forebears were less mobile than we were in the main.
I do this by looking at the films at my FHC an option which is not open to everyone.I then look at the more likely Parishes ie where i know some were married,born.I match up names-e.g boys called Humphy McGubligin & all born within months of each other are likely to be cousins.
I look for likely marriages,births-especially if witnesses are named & there are occasionly little gems like parents names mentioned on marriages,occupations& place names(hamlets,crofts,farms etc) which crop up again & again.My McKimmies in Bortrphinie have three generations marrying,christening with the same croft/farm mentioned.
I then try to see if there are any MI around which match up & with any info which can help clarify-I have only found one which helped.
You get a feel for a Parish who was around when births were not recorded/haven't survived.You know where families are living,marrying & if you are lucky dying too.
There may be Wills,Inventories again I have only found one which helped.
I then try to match up on Census(I have one who was born 1776 & survived until the 1861 Census)& Stat Reg.
That's how I do it although I am less certain if they are the right people but some I have only got back to 1815 despite years of searching.

Post by **emanday** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 5:07 pm

I'm afraid I have the same problem with some of my OPR births. Others I have managed to confirm (I think

) by doing a parent search on IGI to see if any other children followed a recognisable naming pattern, or I knew the names of some siblings.

I've had better results this way with less common surnames, but my more common ones are a lot less cooperative!

I'm going to give joette's suggestions a go though.

thomsos · Post by **thomsos** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 7:38 pm

Thank you for your replies, these are more or less what I have been doing, although I have yet to come up with any extra info on the OPR records, all the ones I have viewed have given me nothing extra, guess I've just got to keep plodding on

Post by **joette** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 1:31 pm

Yes it is a pain but I have to confess that I just enjoy reading the OPRs.Some Parishes are fascinating-my fav is still St.Quivock which didn't give me my GGGreat-Grandfather Greer's birth but was a very interesting read nevertheless with many Deaths/stillbirths listed on it.