 Well, I just had my first genealogy brick wall ever for a place name; usually if I have any brick walls, they are for people!
I was working on a report for a client this past week, and her grandmother and three of her grandmother’s siblings birth records I had found, showed they were born in a townland called Sylane, Parish of Church Friar, Galway, Ireland; and one of her other siblings was born in Lakeview, Tuam, Galway, Ireland. The places of these births were in the Superintendent Registrar’s District of Tuam, the Dispensary Registration District/ Registrar’s District of Tuam #2, and in the Poor Law Union of Tuam. I have heard of the newer Sylane, in Tuam, but never a Sylane in Church friar, let alone the place Church Friar. I have also never heard of Lakeview in Tuam. I was so confused! There were no such places on the District or Poor Law Union Maps or Lists on SWilson’s site or John Grenham’s site. After much researching, I had arrived at the conclusion that the Parish of Churchfriar was in what now is the Parish of Belclare, after discovering some sites that had references to Sacred Heart Church of Belclare, replacing an old chuch in a place called Churchfriar, about 200 yards away. As far as Lakeview goes, I am still stuck on exactly where it is. There is a Lakeview in Galway, but not in Tuam District. Because the entry specifically said he was born in Lakeview, Tuam, I had to chalk it up to it being a place that is no longer there or was referred to a house or road, for now; still suck on that one. 😉 Follow more brick wall cases under the Genealogy Brick Wall Cases category. Learn more about about Irish research below and in Genealogy Resources: Irish Genealogy Resource: IrishGenealogy.ie Irish Genealogy Research Resources P.S... My older site theme does not support the "Leave a Reply" field labels; if you'd like to leave a comment on a blog, the fields are: Name, Email, Site (if you'd like), and Comment, the standard fields 😉 ←Back to Genealogy Research Tips Page
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  Continued from Part 2…
That was a lot of surprises and secrets I had found so far! My next step was to search the names of his parents, or for his birth in Wiesbaden, Germany, where he was from. I could not find any such records for any of them. By just googling his parents' names online together with descendants of in front, with the specific area of where they were from, I had found a tree; it was not on ancestry.com or another popular site, but on Geneanet, and in Swedish. This person had a tree with a woman with the same first and last name as my great grandfather’s mother that was married to someone with the same first name as my great grandfather’s father, from the same exact place in Germany, and married about the time that his parents may have married. The last name of her spouse did not match up though, and she had no children listed for them. This was the ONLY lead I had found at the time for his parents. I had tried contacting the owner of the tree, but she had not been on there in at least 10 years. My next step was to then build a tree with that couple and try to find all their children. I remember my father saying that his grandmother had told him that my great grandfather had multiple middle names and had remembered a few of them. I had found they had a son born to them that had six names, and a couple of those names matched up with what my great grandmother had remembered. That particular son of theirs was born the same year and on the same day as my great grandfather, but off by one month. My great grandfather was born in July, as told and recorded on his documents here in the United States, and the baptismal record for this strongly suspected person showed he was born in June. His first name did not match up either, but one of his middle names was the German form of Frank, which was the name of my great grandfather. My father didn't think I had the right person, and he had insisted that my great grandfather’s last name was Schmidt, the German form of Smith. I went by my hunch that I had indeed found the right person, not to mention that the last name of the person I had found was given to my great uncle as his middle name. It had also been told that my grandmother and her siblings had been named after her father’s siblings, in which this person had siblings with the same names. This newly found last name had now been the official search criteria, along with his name here in the states. Stayed tuned for part 4, as there are quite a few more secrets to unveil! 😉 Follow my other posts on Genealogy Brick Wall: The Case of an Ancestor's Hidden Identity below, and read about more brick wall cases in Genealogy Brick Wall Cases: Genealogy Brick Wall the Case of an Ancestors Hidden Identity- Part 1: Here Genealogy Brick Wall the Case of an Ancestors Hidden Identity- Part 2: Here Genealogy Brick Wall the Case of an Ancestors Hidden Identity- Part 4: Here P.S... My older site theme does not support the "Leave a Reply" field labels; if you'd like to leave a comment on a blog, the fields are : Name, Email, Site (if you'd like), and Comment, the standard fields 😉  Continued from Part 1...
My father had on the hand drawn family tree he had given me that my great grandfather, Frank Smith, and my great grandmother were married in Texas. He told me that they had met in Texas, with an entire, elaborate STORY that was told to him by my great grandmother on how they met. It was also told that they married in El Paso, Texas; this made sense, as my grandmother and her older sister were born there. My next steps were to find my grandmother’s and great aunt’s birth records, as I knew the exact dates and places they were born, and my great grandparent’s marriage record; I could find none. At the time, not all the Texas birth records were online. I had found a birth index for my grandmother, and had requested the record from the El Paso County Clerk; I was disappointed when I had given them the certificate number from the Index, along with the name and date of birth, and they said they couldn’t locate it. What??!! Instead, they sent me a “certified” birth certificate with the name, date and place I had given them, written out in paragraph form, for my $50!!! I was back to square one. I then looked for my great aunt’s birth record, and I could not find one for her either; at the time I had searched, her record should have been online for her birth year. I was so confused. I then searched taking out some identifying info such as her name and gender, and then put in her EXACT birth. I had a hit! I found a birth record for her with her exact birth, her first name, correct mother’s name, and correct mother’s place of birth; although, this Maria had a different last name, different father, and a clerical error of “male” as the gender. When I told my father and uncle, they were surprised! When my great aunt’s daughter was shown the certificate, she did not believe it was her mom’s, of course, because of the different last name and different father, not to mention the incorrect gender; it was in fact hers. Family Secret #1! I then searched for and could not find their marriage record, so I requested a search through the El Paso County Clerk for the date given, along with a few years before and after; they got back to me and said they could not locate one. What, but we had the date??!! It took me quite a while to find their marriage record, because my great grandparents were not married at the time nor in the place that my great grandmother had told my father and uncle in her stories. I decided later to go down to the county clerk’s office to look up marriage records in the county and state where they last lived, after I had exhausted all my other resources. I could not find anything within a couple of years before to a couple of years after the date that was given by my grandmother, and before my great aunt and grandmother were born. When I widened the search years of the marriage date told, I found their marriage record; it was in a totally different state than where they had said they got married, and a date after their first three children had already been born! Family Secret #2! The names of my great grandfather’s parents on his marriage certificate matched the names given by my great grandmother. I was back to square one again! These were the first family secrets of hidden identity and more for this family; stay tuned for part 3, as there are quite a few more! 😉 Follow my other posts on Genealogy Brick Wall: The Case of an Ancestor's Hidden Identity below, and read about more brick wall cases in Genealogy Brick Wall Cases: Genealogy Brick Wall the Case of an Ancestors Hidden Identity- Part 1: Here Genealogy Brick Wall the Case of an Ancestors Hidden Identity- Part 3: Here Genealogy Brick Wall the Case of an Ancestors Hidden Identity- Part 4: Here P.S... My older site theme does not support the "Leave a Reply" field labels; if you'd like to leave a comment on a blog, the fields are : Name, Email, Site (if you'd like), and Comment, the standard fields 😉  Are you having a hard time searching for an ancestor, and have hit a brick wall? Have you ever considered your ancestor having a hidden identity? Follow my journey on a brick wall case I had in my family tree, years ago, for some research tips and methods I used!
Years ago, the first year I started my genealogy research, I was given a hand drawn family tree chart by my father; that's what got me started on the genealogy craze!😉In the hand drawn family tree chart, my grandmother's father was listed with the name Frank Smith. How common is that name!? I didn't know where to start with him. Because I knew where they lived at the time, I was able to find my first record. The first record I had found was the 1930 Census, in which the entire family was shown; after finding that record, the rest was like finding a needle in a haystack with that name! When I told my father that I was interested in finding out more about Frank Smith, he gave me a few records he and my uncle had gathered when they were interested teenagers. These were now the only records I had to go by; a copy of Frank Smith’s death certificate, some miscellaneous letters to the government, and now the 1930 Census. Each of these documents showed his name as Frank Smith. I was able to locate his 1900 Census, which was just him at the time, stationed in the Philippines during his military service. The only reason why I was able to ascertain that it was the correct census, with such a common name, was because it showed where he was born, his month and year of birth, not to mention it was where he was stationed during his time in the service. There were also MANY Frank Smiths stationed in the Philippines at that time, which is why I also searched specifically for a Frank Smith born in Wiesbaden (he was extremely proud of that fact, so it was an IMPORTANT search clue), and used the keyword “Carpenter” in my search, as that was his occupation (this was another fact that he was also very proud of, so it was also an IMPORTANT search clue). Other than the 1900 census, the 1930 census, the copies of the death record and the few governmental letters that were given to me, I could not find any other information on him. I hit a major brick wall! Stay tuned for part 2, you won’t want to miss it; this gets crazy! 😉 Follow my other posts on Genealogy Brick Wall: The Case of an Ancestor's Hidden Identity below, and find more brick wall research tips under the Genealogy Brick Wall Cases category : Genealogy Brick Wall the Case of an Ancestors Hidden Identity- Part 2: Here Genealogy Brick Wall the Case of an Ancestors Hidden Identity- Part 3: Here Genealogy Brick Wall the Case of an Ancestors Hidden Identity- Part 4: Here P.S... My older site theme does not support the "Leave a Reply" field labels; if you'd like to leave a comment on a blog, the fields are : Name, Email, Site (if you'd like), and Comment, the standard fields 😉 This post is a participant in the 6th Annual Genealogy Blog Party! ←Back to Genealogy Research Tips Page  My father, who had been researching for over 40 years, had never been able to locate one of my great grandfathers’ death record, and asked me to search for it. This was at the beginning of my genealogy research days, and I also had trouble finding it. My father knew the approximate year his grandfather died, and said he had passed away in Oklahoma. I could not find a death record or burial for him. As a matter of fact, I couldn’t find anything on him at all after a certain point, the point when he had separated from my great grandmother.
I searched for his known “second” wife, and found a headstone that had a first name and last name on it that matched; although, her name was all that was known by family. This person shared a headstone with someone with a different first and middle name than that of my great grandfather, but had the same last name and approximate death year as my great grandfather, and shared the headstone with a women that had the same first name as his last known wife. I then researched with that name, and found his death certificate. He had died in Missouri, not Oklahoma as thought; although, he was buried there. I knew I had the right record, due to the fact that his birth date and parents’ names matched. An unknown of daughter was the informant. I ran a search for the daughter, and found a census with my great grandfather having yet another name. I then ran a search for anyone with his last name (omitting a first name, as I do quite frequently), age and previous locations, and had then found that he had changed his first name and middle name multiple times throughout his life. Not only did I find his death record as my father had wanted, but I was also able to find a second wife (the known "second" wife was actually a third wife) who was unknown of to the family, and a daughter he had with that second wife (a new aunt for my father, whom he never knew about), not to mention the fact that he went by several names throughout his life. I’m still trying to solve the secret of why he kept changing his name. Was he hiding from something? I may never know. 😉 Find more brick wall research tips under the Genealogy Brick Wall Cases category. P.S... My older site theme does not support the "Leave a Reply" field labels; if you'd like to leave a comment on a blog, the fields are: Name, Email, Site (if you'd like), and Comment, the standard fields 😉 ←Back to Genealogy Research Tips Page  Do you have any ancestors that seemed to just fall off the face of the earth after a certain point in time?
A while back, I worked on a case for a client that had hit a brick wall 23 years ago, and had not been able to break through it. She never knew what had happened to her great grandfather, as did his own daughter, her grandmother. She gave me an excessive amount of information, and had also invited me to her family tree. I explained to her that I NEVER use anyone else’s research, and build my own tree with just the name, age, and known areas for the closest known direct relative to that ancestor. I will look at personal documents, if I need them, after I get to that point and find that it matches my research. My client also let me collaborate on her DNA, which was invaluable. I built my FRESH tree for the line with the brick wall, and had gotten to the point where she had hit her brick wall. Her great grandfather was nowhere to be found after he had divorced his wife, her great grandmother, in 1893. I had found a person that I suspected was a match; although, he had a different middle initial and last name, his birthdate, place of birth, and occupation matched. This person had seemed to not exist before 1896, and was in a totally different area with an entirely different family, but was strongly suspected as being the same person. My next step was to build a separate tree for the strongly suspected match. I then grouped her DNA matches, and gathered as many known matches to the person being sought, and the strongly suspected match; the descendants of each matched perfectly in a DNA mapped tree, according to their centimorgans and place in the new, combined tree. Her great grandfather and the strongly suspected match were one in the same. Her great grandfather had changed his name, moved to a totally different area, and had a whole new family. It is unknown why he left one family behind, and “hid” his past from his new family, but my client had some suspicions as to why. Through this case, not only was I able to help my client solve her 23 year mystery, but I was also able to help some descendants of the second family of her great grandfather, who had also hit a brick wall, that of his life before 1896. Have you ever thought about a name change when you’ve hit a brick wall? It’s more common than you think. 😉 Find more brick wall research tips under the Genealogy Brick Wall Cases category. P.S... My older site theme does not support the "Leave a Reply" field labels; if you'd like to leave a comment on a blog, the fields are: Name, Email, Site (if you'd like), and Comment, the standard fields 😉 This post is a participant in the 6th Annual Genealogy Blog Party! ←Back to Genealogy Research Tips Page |
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