Hi. So how'd you get on with searching the parish registers. I hope you made some progress. But if you did run into any problems then this is the lecture for you. We're going to have a look at some of the brick walls that you can come across during your searches particularly once you've got beyond the census records where you don't have so much information to go on, such as place of birth. This can get quite tricky.

So I'm going to give you some of my clicks are breaking through some of the most common brick walls. Now one of the most common problems when searching any type of record is when you get too many results for the same name. Here are my tips for this. Firstly, try to eliminate some of these now Do this by searching burial records to see if any of them died young, or marriage records can also help to eliminate some of these. If they were likely to be still alive in the census, you could also try searching for each person's entry in the census. So, obviously, if your known ancestor was in the census, then if one of the other people was also in the census, then you can obviously eliminate that person.

If your ancestor was alive during the census, check through all their sense centuries, but any family members such as siblings, or elderly parents, or other relatives that may be staying with them was quite common when a parent was widowed, that they would come and stay with their children. So this can be very useful when you're searching for say a baptism so you can match that widowed parents name With the baptism records. Now, don't forget, always look at the witnesses on your ancestors marriage record, could they be family members, remember that female witnesses even if they have a different name, they could that could be a married name. So you could always try checking a marriage record for that person to see if their maiden name was the same as your ancestors. So then you can check these against the results that have come up. Another thing you can do is try and establish some naming patterns in your ancestors family from the fences or any other records and see if any of the families in the results use the same names for say their other children.

And out this is not an absolute it's not 100% type of evidence, but it can certainly help to establish the more likely families in the results that have come up. You can try searching all of the different families in the results to see what occupations they had, whether they were the same or similar to your ancestors. Now, obviously this can be quite a difficult and a lengthy process. If you've gone way back beyond the senses, it may not always be possible. Now, lastly, use other documents such as wills, apprenticeship records or land documents to try and establish which family your ancestor belong to. These searches are not covered in this beginner's course, but it was it is well worth learning about these documents and carrying out searches for them.

Now, the complete opposite of the former problem is where you get no results at all for the name you are searching. Firstly, Try using my research tips from my lecture where I showed you the searches I carried out for my grandfather, using wildcard searches and searches using for name or surname only. This can help with any extreme transcription errors. In the original parish registers are available online. Try browsing the registers, as I've shown you in my lecture on this subject. If they're not online, you could visit the relevant record office to view them or ask a local researcher to do so.

If you are using a place of birth that has been given in the senses, try widening the search around that area. Sometimes people gave the place where they grew up as their place of birth, not knowing that they were born and baptized elsewhere, to remember that in the past details of a person's birth were not always known to them, which can be difficult for us to understand in our world. Form filling. If you know other family members for example from the senses, try searching for those people to try and lead you to where your ancestor came from. And don't forget to use other websites too. Sometimes a website such as find my past will have better coverage for for one county than ancestry and vice versa.

And if you can't find them on these sites, don't forget to try the agi@familysearch.org. If you still cannot find anything conclusive, you may need to look for other documents such as wills, and settlements, etc. Now, absent fathers, if you have found a birth or baptism where only the mother's name is given, then this is more than likely to be an illegitimate birth. If the marriage of your ancestor is after 1837, very often the Father's name will be blank here too. However, sometimes the name will be given in the marriage certificate even if the birth appears to be illegitimate in the baptism or birth record. Now, unfortunately, this does not mean that the father named in the marriage is right.

Illegitimacy was a huge stigma, especially in the 19th century. And people would often make up the name of a father to give themselves respectability. So, if the birth is after 1837, make sure that you get both the birth certificate and the baptism. Occasionally, a father's name might be given in one but not the other. For example, a baptism might say the alleged son of However, this is rare, but certainly worth looking at up until 1835 For you might be lucky enough to find the best t boned record. This was where a woman applied to the courts to force the father to pay for the maintenance of the child.

You can search for these national archives, or the relevant county record office Paul records. Most county record offices do have an online catalog that you can search. Now, if you do find anything here, you should be able to apply to the record office for a copy of this document. Unfortunately, unless you are lucky, very often it will be impossible to find out who the father was in cases of illegitimacy. After all, we do not know the circumstances. And it is always possible that the mother did not even know the name of the Father herself.

Very occasionally, the name of the child can provide clues to the Father's name, especially if there's a middle name that could reflect a surname. You could Then searching for that name is not always that easy and it's still very difficult to prove. Now, having no place of birth to go on is a very common problem for ancestors who died before the 1851 sentences where it usually gives a specific place of birth. This can cause problems if their baptism does not turn up in the parish where they lived. Now, although people were often more mobile than we tend to think, they often move around within a fairly small area. So the first thing to do is to extend your searches to cover an area around the original parish.

It's very useful to use Google Maps for this when you're searching so you can see exactly how close each parish is that comes up in your search results. You can also use parish maps that are obtainable to purchase from local county. Record officers. Again, if you know the names of any siblings, for example, from the 1841 census or witnesses on marriage records, they can be of help your count for any who were alive for the 1851 census and check their place of birth, as this is very likely to be the same for your ancestor. If you have a marriage record for your ancestor, and it's different to where they were living later, then try searching for a baptism there too. And again, other documents such as wills, apprenticeship records, settlement records can be of help here.

Lastly, uncertainties. This is where very often you will find a person who might be your ancestor but you cannot be too short. Perhaps because although there is maybe only One result there, maybe a little out of the area you are expecting or the date is very wide of the year of birth given later on, or perhaps something just doesn't feel quite right. Firstly, try eliminating this person by searching for a burial or marriage record for them, or see if they are still in the same parish later on in the census. Try looking at this person's siblings and carry out census searches for them to see if they were living near your proven ancestor. This might show evidence that the family moved from one place to another if the family was poor search for settlements under the poor law records to see if the family moved from one parish to another and applied for parish relief.

On the other hand, if the family were fairly wealthy, or ran a business or trade, search for any wills of all possible family members, which can help establish family relationships, Sometimes you will not be able to find enough evidence to be 100% sure that a person is your correct ancestor, you will then have to make a decision whether to continue searching that line or not. If you do, make sure you note for posterity that there is uncertainty over this line. Remember that your future family may be reading your notes. So it's very important that if there is any doubt over a particular line that this is stated with reasons for that doubt. This ensures that you are carrying out your search in a professional manner. Well, I hope that has been of some use.

You will come across these problems during your searches and I am afraid you won't always be able to solve them which can be extremely frustrating. You can find a great deal of time searching for an elusive ancestor or trying to establish whether you have to right person or not. Sometimes these brick walls will remain stubbornly unbreakable. Occasionally, other documents and sources can become available online that bring new evidence and clues. But in the meantime, if you really are stuck, it's a very good idea to leave that line for a while and go back and work on another line. Sometimes when you come back to search at line at another time, with fresh eyes, you can see something you didn't spot before.

And when that happens, it can be extremely satisfying. However, do expect to be frustrated at times. This is all part of the genealogical experience. The thrill of the chase is always 10 years with the occasional setback. That's it for now. See you in the next video.