Frustrated! Disheartened! Overwhelmed!

[BNewsham]

Regrettably, due to a lack of progress, I am finding it increasingly difficult to engage with my research - I find that I have very little motivation, and that my enthusiasm is lacking!

However, I spend hours on researching individuals with little, or no success. . . Therefore, I am hoping that more experienced individuals will be able to offer me some advice?!

[lauraathawes]

Hi,

I had this problem for sometime, it was around the time when my Grandfather passed away and researching just became slightly pointless, I would look at my tree from time to time, but with out any direction or where to start again. It is starting to come back to me now.

Looking back I needed time out!! I had researched into over kill!! It wasn't until a friend asked me to look at their tree for them that the bug came back and I am know busying away around my tree like I did before.

Perhaps try and have a break or just leave that individual/line alone and come back to it and another time. Records are always being updated and you never know when you go back you maybe able to find what you are looking for.

Hope this helps,

Laura

[Lesley Robertson]

Match one of your brick walls with a suitable forum, tell us about it, and let our experts have a go!
Remember the WWW of genealogy - Who, When, Where when last heard of.

When I got stuck, I started a 1place study of a small village which has grown and grown.

[christanel]

Frustrated! Disheartened! Overwhelmed! I am sure that a lot of us have suffered the same feelings at some point and taking a break is a good thing to do. The best thing to do is pick the problems you want to tackle , post the details on the most suitable forums and let our sleuths see if they can take your research that step further.

It is also better for the frustration level to sometimes just let a problem be dormant for a while. New records are coming online frequently and can give you the break you need but of course there are some brick walls that will never be overcome and those we have to learn to let go.

Try us out, see if we can help and don't forget that what you post today can trigger an answer years in the future so if you ever change your email address then change it on Brit-Gen.

Christina

[Pam Downes]

Only the very luckiest of us will have smooth sailing in the search for our direct ancestors back as far as 1700-1750 (some get stuck about 1880!) so I think we can all sympathise with

However, I spend hours on researching individuals with little, or no success

However, you've had help from the forum before so I would suggest that you re-visit your old threads in turn.
See what details you had, check that the details you now have tally (i.e. nobody dying before they were born ).
Then revive those threads, one at a time. Do not make a new thread about the same people. Duplicate threads are not allowed and will be deleted.

Take for instance https://www.british-genealogy.com/thr...ecame-of-Lily-!
Go through the whole of the thread. Write down all the details about every single person mentioned. Cross out any details which were subsequently found to be incorrect.
There might still be some unsolved details about Lily, so you can ask about them in that thread.

If a question arises about someone else mentioned in that thread who doesn't yet have a thread of their own, then start a new thread but it would be useful to say 'Fred Bloggs was born xyz, his parents were blah blah. These details were obtained from' - and then post the URL of the Lily thread. You can then ask any questions you want about Fred.

As you read through the threads take a note of where people found the information they've given you. Often they will say FreeBMD/GRO Index, Ancestry London marriages, or a Family History Society database. Try and replicate those searches yourself.

Most of my knowledge in the early days came from reading every reply on the mailing lists I belonged to (this was before BG existed! ) and all those little snippets of how to do stuff has gradually sunk in - and has for the most part been retained.
I also have a rather large 'bookmarked' file (well, files, to be precise as they are split into lots of folders!) as I have lots of stuff I can find relatively easily. e.g. I don't have to search for the URL for FreeBMD every time - it's bookmarked.

And we all have spasms when our own research is boring so we happily do someone else's research instead. So you could try that - plenty of people on the forum are asking questions. And it wouldn't be the first time that by helping someone else you solve one of your own puzzles.

Pam

[BNewsham]

Thank you for your replies!

I did take a small hiatus recently - I ordered a number of certificates, which were of very little use, and decided to take a few weeks to focus on other interests!

However, I have managed to trace some branches back to the early 1800s - I would like to attempt to research further, but I do not know if this will be possible?!

Quite a few of my 'Brickwalls' relate to individuals who appear to have simply disappeared! For example, Hannah Newsham (b.1856)?!

[geneius]

Laura

Why not post what you know about Hannah NEWSHAM/ NEWSAM b 1856, reference for sightings etc. Not having responded to any of your other posts, i do not know which part of the world to start looking in !

[Pam Downes]

Laura

Why not post what you know about Hannah NEWSHAM/ NEWSAM b 1856, reference for sightings etc. Not having responded to any of your other posts, i do not know which part of the world to start looking in !

And I can't see that you've mentioned that Hannah in a previous thread, so you're OK to start a new one for her.

Pam

[BNewsham]

Thank you for your replies!

Hannah was mentioned in the 'What Became of Lily?!' thread - Hannah was born in Brentford, Middlesex in 1856. . . And completely disappears off the radar?! However, Hannah is not the only relative to have done so - For example, the last record of Florence Louisa/Louise Dye that I can find, is that of her marriage to a Richard Hipkin in 1902?!

[Pam Downes]

Thank you for your replies!

Hannah was mentioned in the 'What Became of Lily?!' thread - Hannah was born in Brentford, Middlesex in 1856. . . And completely disappears off the radar?! However, Hannah is not the only relative to have done so - For example, the last record of Florence Louisa/Louise Dye that I can find, is that of her marriage to a Richard Hipkin in 1902?!

Ooh, so she was! But only sort-of briefly, and she did get lost amongst all the other stuff.

You could always say in your new thread for Hannah that she was mentioned briefly in the Lily thread and post the thread URL (refer to the post # she first appears in) so that people can cross-refer if they want to.

Pam