Wild goose chasing

[Wiganexile]

Every now and then I have another poke at my James Davenport Mary Crossley brickwall.

Yesterday, from Mary Crossley baptised 1801, I found a Crossley Kershaw marriage: witness Amos Ogden, and back a generation to a Crossley Ogden marriage.

Slight snag - wrong dob.

Oh, well - but if only my ancestors had asked a relative to be witness ...

[Megan Roberts]

Or better still if they had left a family bible which passed down the generations to you! I read recently about one family bible that goes back to the 1600s and immediately turned a vivid shade of green.

[janbooth]

Oh wouldn't that be a wonderful asset for all those ancestors who seem to disappear off the face of the earth once they have been baptised!

Can we help to try to find your Mary CROSSLEY, Wiganexile? Are they the James DAVENPORT & Mary CROSSLEY who married in 1817 at Prestwich? Or do I have the wrong couple, because from census records this Mary CROSSLEY was born c1792 and there is a baptism on Ancestry for a Mary CROSSLEY at Prestwich in November 1791.

Janet

[Wiganexile]

That's the right couple, Janet. I've travelled the Mary Crossley dau of John and Sarah (Fox) road, and they are a good fit but it's all speculative, and the same with James: he may be the son of Thomas with another couple of possible generations, but no supporting evidence.

Speaking seriouly, I think I've garnered all the ancestors I can be sure about, and now I'm playing.

Megan, I know what you mean. My Smiths started a family register with the first birth recorded in 1828. They weren't sure how to use it, though, as the first PARENTS NAMES and GENEALOGY were recorded as John Smith born 1828 and Rachael Smith born 1829.

[benny1982]

I never give up, I often go back to brick walls to see if I can knock them down, but I think the brick walls we come across can be a blessing in disguise in that it gives you a challenge and you can throw a party when you do find that elusive ancestor. It is like my ancestors brother Allen Taylor born 1837 in Wimbish, Essex, last seen in 1861 in Bourn, Cambs.

I also have the Smith family line and my James Smith died in 1849 aged 59 and was not born in Oxfordshire according to 1841. He lived in Oxford and was a tin plate worker.

[Wiganexile]

Thanks, Benny. It isn't that I'm giving up, these days I'm relying on luck: for instance, I went to DerbyshireRO years ago looking for a Carrington ancestor but the transcription there omitted his first name - which I found by chance on archive.org.

I know you had your fingers crossed, but the only known James Smith in my family was born in Tyldesley, Lancashire in 1855.