Forum: Success stories.

Since 1985 I must have gone through Cheadle St. Mary's PRs at Manchester LIbrary, and the BTs at Chester more than 100 times. So many of my lines keep ending up back in the area. I've sworn that when Manchester Library opens again I shall just go once a week and start transcribing the darn things...

Has anyone found anyone or anything !TRULY EXCITING! in their genealogical searches - ie someone who was famous/infamous?! Or just something wildly unexpected?! Probably a bit of New Year gloom, but I've just felt strangely glum about my ancestry (other than a couple of naughty grandfathers -...

Good morning all, Just thought I'd share what I think is a pretty neat success story. Each day I do little bit of 'Google' searching for some of the many family names I am researching - unfortunately most days I don't have too much success. Yesterday I thought I'd 'google' the name of my great...

My mum had a brother who died when he was three months old and a sister who died two days before her second birthday. They both died before she was born, and she didn't know where they were buried. Only that the vicar of the local parish church had refused to bury her sister 'because she hadn't...

My dad told me that he was in the army. He said he lied about his age to get in towards the end of WWI went to France, then Northerm Ireland and finally India. I had been unable to track down his army service record and so was unable to establish which or when or where he served. Then I found a...

Read about the fairly new website for British Newspapers Archives and decided to have a look and purchase some credits. Here is what I found in a just a couple of hours (some of these are sad stories): One of my ancestors, Mary Kenyon Proctor Saul Baines (I descend from a Saul son) left a...

for years I have been searching for my Great Grandfather prior to his marriage and had exhausted all my ideas. Even my "silly searches" had failed to find him, then whilst looking at his marriage certificate this evening, I noticed that they had mistakenly entered his name as George HARRINSON, not...

My gt. grandmother, Mary Ann Couzens (surname can be spelt in many different ways) born 1868 in Haverfordwest, had an older sister Hannah born about 1864. In the 1871 census she was living with her parents, and in the 1881 she was a dairymaid on a farm. After that she vanished. I could not...

In fact, so bloomin' good I don't believe I've gone back to my 6X Gt-Grandfather - Thomas Dowden - who married Ann Shuring on June 20, 1753 in St. Mary Hanwell, Middlesex. It has taken me less than a month, census records, parish records and bmd's after 1837 seem to support, but it just seems to...

found a photo on the net fora william emerson in Victoria Australia. in the archives.. they said he came out in 1842 now all i have to do is "prove this" and i will have a photo of him. WOW cant believe my luck. Chelle

Hello All I was at my parents house today and was idly looking at some photos on display in the lounge room. When my eyes saw a small frame tucked away, hidden, I squinted and all senses went on high alert. There in the shadows was a black and white photo of an elderly couple (no, not my parents...

Just want to share my news. Earlier this year I was contacted by a unknown distant cousin who saw my post on a forum. When I say "unknown" I mean I had no idea that branch existed to the extent it did. We emailed back and forth, sent each other information about our branch of the family (my...

I have finally (and quite a few certificates later) sorted out the relationship of William Hollins (my ggggrandfather) his first wife Mary Davenport and his second "wife" Hannah Tunicliff. Mary died on 25th January 1848 of consumption (phstisis) and then on the 1851 census William is living with...

Thank you notanotherminer,with your help i received our fathers death cert today ,and it is our father richard gibson. on the cert it stated he was born in belfast n ireland,now i can send for his R.A.F. record.

After 10 years I have finally found some positive proof that he existed! I cannot find my original posts, but he was a seaman/fisherman out of Grimsby 100+ years ago. I took a gamble and applied to Fleet Air Arm for WW1 records that I thought may be his (after a lot of research) and it is...

I dipped a toe into the new newspaper archives site a couple of days ago, and found three articles about my g g grandfather John Nash. I knew from censuses that he was a mail cart driver, and had imagined he pottered around doing local deliveries from the station at Liphook Hants. The best of the...

I daren't reckon up how much I've spent over the years on family history (my only vice, as I don't smoke or drink, and hate shopping!) but tonight the cost became immaterial. FMP have just loaded Merchant Navy Seaman's records, and as usual I typed in 'my' surname, idly scrolled down the alpha...

Thank you to all on this forum, and especially Peter Goodey and Kerrywood. Due to Peter, I decided to look for a will for one of my Hale ancestors on the National Archives website and found a will for Henry Hale (my direct ancestor) in 1655. Kerrywood helped me figure out the name of a piece of...

Thank you to this wonderful forum, I recently received a message from one of your members and we have discovered that she is my Dads first cousin. We have corresponded often over the past couple of weeks and this morning I received a parcel with photos and a disc in it. In amongst the photos was...

I would just like to say a tremendous thank you to who ever organised this site I went on yesterday after much access trouble, and trying to find my way around, but determination won me an answer to finding relatives I'd given up trying for, in 24 hours they have been in touch with me....