* Our Brickwalls *

[Rove]

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b365/greenrover/Bill_1999.jpg
If I asked you " how many Brickwalls have you got listed in that special File titled BRICKWALLS "

Your likely answer could be ' a few dozen '

But seriously, it couldn't be that many ! Maybe the ones in red text could be 5 to 10. That's more like it.

I'm in that category myself and I keep updating the list so to remind me of the ' priority ' tasks that I need to concentrate on. (that is if my bulldozer has any fuel left in it)

So, have you recently ' crashed ' through any brickwalls and wiped them off the list. Out of my list of 10, I have recently wiped off two.

How about you ? Are you winning ?

[ChristineR]

Hi Rove,

an interesting question - one I have been pondering recently. I have been researching for about four years, but I can honestly say I do not consider that I have any 'brickwalls'. I have lots of lines that have come to a standstill, but I know that I will crack them one day.

But this comes down to the definition of a brickwall ! :D

I get the feeling that some people believe that they have a brickwall if they cannot find information right away on the internet. Some people create their own walls by believing family information without backing it up with documentation. One wrong forename or maiden name and you can go barking up the wrong tree.

I was lucky - the family I chose to research first was a very steep learning curve, and I was quickly educated into not believing what was given on death certificates as gospel (Frances claimed to be a wife and mother to the deceased John and his children, only the youngest child their child, baptised as Gillespie and as a child of the man's real marriage, but now was called Oscar) Now this was a real brickwall - but only for Oscar's descendants - because all they had to go on was the false information given on the death certificate. Luckily the only thing that was right were the names of John's parents and his father's occupation - usually the least reliable info. One of my joys was being able to pass the information that I had found on to descendants. I had splashed the info around the internet in the hope that it would be found by them one day - and I was unexpectedly rewarded with a beautiful family photograph of Oscar and his large family.

Ask me again in ten years time - then I will know which ones are brickwalls! :D

Christine
Australia

[John]

Does a hunt extending over some thirty years count as a brick wall or just a minor hold up:)

John

[Rove]

John

I would call it '' my Berlin Wall ''

Alive on one side ~~~ dead on the other side.

[John]

I like that more than brickwall.

[caroletodd2]

Let's try this again :o)
Hi Everyone,
I am new to Brit-Gen but not to genealogy. I have been searching for my ancestors for 35 years, and one in particular is STILL evading me.
Her name is Harriet Lunn and she was born between 1813 and 1821 somewhere in London/Middlesex. Her parents were John Lunn and Charlotte Mansfield. Their first child was Charles, born 1812 in St. Clements Dane. No more chr were found there.I'm slowly working my way through the parishes, which is quite a chore in London. Harriet married Frederick Thompson 1 July 1841. I found them both in Stepney, on Caroline Street, just before they were married. After that, no sighn of them. On the 1851-1891 census there are Harriet Thompson's and Frederick Thompson's but not together as husband and wife. My grandfather was born in 1861 but his birth wasn't registered, and so far haven't found a chr. for him. I found him on the 1871 census for Plaistow in a school for pauper boys, which says his place of birth is unknown. That is consistant in all other census records.
I don't know if Harriet and Frederick stayed together or not. I found no death registration between 1841 - 1861 for Frederick.
On the 1901 census there was an Harriet Thompson aged 80, which would fit for an 1821 year of birth, and it stated her place of birth was Stoke Newington. The LDS only have chr records for there up until 1812, so that doesn't help. Where else am I likely to find this information? Please keep in mind that I live in the States, so I can't do a hop, skip and jump to the LMA. :o)
Sorry if this is too long. It just took some explaining.
Thanks
Regards
CT

[Ed Bradford]

Carole, you'd be better off posting your inquiry in the Middlesex forum. You won't get the exposure in this thread.
............Ed

[busyglen]

I had two major brickwalls for some time and thought that I would never be able to even chip them down. However, a very resourceful Forum member spotted something (that I had knowledge of but had forgotten) which led to me being able to take a pick-axe to one of them.

The second one, I doubt that I will be able to breakdown.....with a name like Jones, and originally coming from Wales.....the bricks are slowly climbing higher. I have spent hours chasing all sorts of leads, but far short of looking at the PRs for all of Denbighshire, I doubt that I shall ever be able to move back further. Defeatest I know, but I still cling on to a thread of hope.

Glenys

[BeeE586]

Does a hunt extending over some thirty years count as a brick wall or just a minor hold up:)

John

I have two or three of these. When does one say 'Oh to hell with it' and stop looking ?

Although ........... In my direct paternal line I had a Richard Fenton baptizing children in NTT Sturton le Steeple in the early 1700's. I searched dozens of parishes both sides of the Trent and into Yorkshire for his marriage, IGI, indexes - the lot. No joy !

Some years later I was ploughing through the Marriage register for Chesterfield and found in 1710/11

Richard Fenton of Sturton to Elizabeth Pearson of Staveley. Why did they marry in Chesterfield - who knows ?

Perhaps one should never stop looking; perhaps I will even find a baptism for Obadiah Millthorpe one day - Great Wall of China that one.

Eileen

[Patrisia]

Sometimes of course brickwalls have distinctly shaky foundations, as they can be based on family stories.
For example, my maternal grandmother was supposedly born in North Wales, except it was Derbyshire.
Her mother, according to a census which I eventually traced her in, was born in North Wales but it was west Wales.

But my biggest & oldest brickwall is my grandfather's birth; old BG hands will recognise this. :(

The family story that is that Henry Edward HARRIS was a Yorkshire man, born 5 Nov 1876; his Army Service record confirms his birth as 1876 but gives the birthplace as West Hartlepool, though with Pontefract crossed through. I have searched the UK for a baptism/birth registration for him, or his parent's marriage, without finding even slight possibilities.

His parents are even more of a nightmare!
These are the possible census sightings -

1871 census - recorded as ATKIN at Paradise Place, Hull (Holy Trinity);
Henry, 30, boarder, born Hull,YKS.; Emma, age 32, boarder, born Boston, Lincs.

1881 census - family recorded as ATKIN at 12 Bishop Square, Eccleshall Bierlow; Henry, 39, born Leicester, Leics; Emma, 41, wife, born Boston, Lincs; Henry, 4, son, born W. Hartlepool, Durham.

1891 census - family recorded as HARRIS at 141 Masborough Street, Rotherham; Henry A, 48, born Leicester, Leics; Emma, 50, wife, born Boston, Lincs; Henry E, 14, son, born W Hartlepool, Durham.

This last is the right family; it matches his address when joining the Army in 1894.

If Emma Atkin is his mother, I have found a probable birth registration, and family, for her; but without grandfather Harris' birth, or his parents marriage, I shall never be able to prove any of this.

This doesn't even fit Guy's 'probability' criteria but it is all I have! ;)

[caroletodd2]

Hi Ed
Ok, I will give it a try.
Thanks
CT

[v.wells]

I consider my brickwalls as simply inopportune roadblocks longing for a detour sign. And some of the detours get me travelling in a completely different direction! Most of the time I just park it, have a rest and get back on track again. BG forum has helped tremendously of course. I can always figure out other ways to go, often when its staring out at me!