We’ve been genealogists for a long time, so over the years we’ve had a number of really interesting cases. Details of some of them are below, but if you think you have a query worthy of making it onto this page, get in touch with us!
- There was a story that a gentleman had been important in the border counties. By using Herefordshire Record Office, Gwent Record Office and the National Library of Wales I was able to trace and locate previously-unknown family. I found a number of newspaper articles from the 1870s which detailed the gentleman’s activities in the Hereford area, including his ownership of property there, and then his family’s move into Monmouthshire. I found his obituary, and his will. This involved Parish Registers and Non-conformist records as well as other archives.
- A family had split in the 1930s and the whereabouts of the Father after that were unknown. By using Electoral Registers, GRO records, and clues from family stories I was able to track his movements in an inner city area and locate his eventual death. This was a great source of relief to the surviving family, who were able to have some closure for a very difficult period in their lives.
- A man with a reasonably unusual surname couldn’t be found in the part of Birmingham he was expected in. By careful use of indexes I investigated a record of a man with a variant name. This didn’t look very promising as he was described by the family as a “son in law”, a year before my man was recorded as getting married!
However, after more investigation it turned out to be the correct person. Looks like the girl’s mother was too embarrassed to call him a lodger when the enumerator came round!
- I followed a number of families in rural Wales that appeared to not be where they should be. I was able to track them through a number of farms, finding them in various censuses, and by using various registers managed to add branches to the family tree. I even found that one branch was originally English! Fortunately the Welsh family could get over the shock of that without too much trouble.
5. I was asked to prove a family story of descent from a particular gentleman. I used published Family Histories, Parish Registers, Occupational Directories, Bishops Transcripts in diocesan record offices,and old maps to track the family backwards to a point where I and my client were both convinced that, unfortunately, the family story was untrue.
Ichthus Family History 