COMPLETED--When you just dont know!

[Fatman]

So I have some parish records, and im trying to group families from the data.

I organised the data to show the childs name, year of birth and father names, planning to group them by fathers name, spotting obvious pattern and cross checking against marriage records.

Data example:

Sar 1681 Henry
Eliz 1684 Henry
An 1686 Henry
Ruth 1689 Henry
Sar 1706 Henry
Jane 1708 Henry
Job 1712 Henry
My 1715 Henry
Phobe 1718 Henry
Hen 1721 Henry
An 1724 Henry

Its unlikely that all these Henrys are the same man, so I just dont know how to work out which ones belong to the same father?

Am i making sense or am I just talking rubbish after hours of drawing graphs and timelines to try and spot some pattern?

[Northern Lass]

You need to look at the actual PR entry to see abode and occup on those from about 1813

before then you won't get that info only name of parents no maiden name for mother
and day month year...


So for eg at St Thomas Dudley
there could be a Benjamin Round and Elizabeth having loads of kids

but ...they may for diff Benjamins and Elizabeths

you need the mothers name in a sweep too

not just father

[Northern Lass]

do you know how to use the IGI to find all the kids from a benjamin Round and an Elizabeth
from date a -b

if not you need to know how to get that info

shout if you dont know

[Fatman]

Yeah I know how to do that on IGI - it appears that this records up to 1760 only list father names....

[linell]

What Parish is this Fatman? I sent you a list of Non Conformist Registers think it was Chatteris a month or so ago, some of your missing people could be on there. Linell.

[Antie Em]

What Parish is this Fatman? I sent you a list of Non Conformist Registers think it was Chatteris a month or so ago, some of your missing people could be on there. Linell.

If these are in a parish that's not near to you - I have found the LDS church really helpful. I go to the one in Harborne and they will order the films in for you and keep them on their premises for three months, longer if you need to. It costs just £3.50 and you can go and look at the films on modern electric readers. The people there are lovely and can't do enough to help. I have trawled parish records from all over the country, a lot of which aren't even on the IGI list.

[gardener]

It is difficult to sort out when only the father's name is given. You may never be certain, to be honest.

You could try looking for marriages for Henry in the area. If you find one to fit with the birth of the first Sarah then you may find another to fit in later - perhaps in time for the birth of the second Sarah?

You could also try looking for a burial for either Henry or his wife? It all depends on how common the name, how many possible parishes there are and how determined you are!

I once worked with a small group who were trying to sort out one particular surname in a bit of Derbyshire. It involved going through each parish and listing all the entries for the surname. Very time consuming! As Lin says you can often order the fim from a Family History centre, or see it at a local archives.

It is also worth looking for wills just in case Henry died and named his children in his will. Or if his Greataunt Mary left her best dress to "Sarah, the daughter of my dear nephew Henry".

But if you have poor family from the Black Country then you will be lucky to find any thing!

[Fatman]

Its the all saints parish of west bromwich - will invetsogate further!

Thanks for your help!

[linell]

Hi Fatman, you also need to find out what Churches there were in and around West Bromwich in the 1600's, there wouldn't have been many, but the family may have used ones in Harborne, Kings Norton or Birmingham, as Gardener, says you can never be sure. Linell.

[Fatman]

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