Have you broken down any walls lately?

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Have you broken down any walls lately?

1dara85
Mar 5, 2007, 9:11 pm

Mensagem removida pelo autor.

2myshelves
Mar 5, 2007, 11:56 pm

Well . . . I just finally, by coincidence, learned the identity of the "niece" who was living with my GG-GM in 1891. Turns out it was her brother's wife's sister's daughter, by her second husband. :-) No wonder the surname meant nothing to me.

3Sheyen
Mar 6, 2007, 1:23 pm

Wow! talk about perfect timing! I was just coming in here to see if I could give myself a pat on the back, heh! Today I bit the bullet and called the county clerks office in Greenville, NH where my husbands great grandfather was born, I knew I wouldnt be able to afford the bc right at the moment, but if they could just give me a little hint as to his fathers name, I would love that, she did the search and an hour later called me back, yaya!! I was right, since hubbys greatgrandfathers name is Gilbert Newton Wiggins, I had a feeling the name Newton would be somewhere in his fathers name. It is G Newton Wiggins, now I just have to figure out what the G stands for!! And before anyway says *DUH GILBERT!* Gilbert was named for his maternal grandfather Gilbert Kniveton, heh. So anyway, I felt like braggin about that a little bit, yay!.

4Seajack
Mar 6, 2007, 2:19 pm

Congrats, Sheyen!

I had a probate clerk in Maine offer to read me a one-page will over the phone while I took notes, rather than force me to send off for a copy.

5myshelves
Mar 6, 2007, 2:52 pm

Sheyen,
Is that your photo of Gilbert on ancestorville.com?

6MrsLee
Mar 6, 2007, 4:41 pm

#3 - I just wanted to tell you that I named my son after his paternal and maternal grandfathers, who happen to share the same name...so it could be Gilbert, maybe. :)

7Sheyen
Mar 7, 2007, 8:54 am

Well, I had considered that perhaps they might have the same name, (Seajack listen to this one, heh) I have always kind of felt *psychic* about somethings, and I have always said if I had a son, I would name him Gilbert. Hmmmm, could possibly be they both had the name, so yes I am looking into that. I would LOVE to go to NH and get into that office, because I am sure they have birth/death AND marriage records. Oh well, one of these days.

8Sheyen
Mar 7, 2007, 9:24 am

Myshelves I could KISS YOU!! I went and checked that pic out at ancestorville.com (as I had never even heard of the site!) and that is the people I am talking about, Gilbert is my husbands great grandfather! THANK YOU!

9myshelves
Mar 7, 2007, 12:14 pm

Sheyen,

That's great. I'd never heard of the site either. I have my family photos on AncientFaces.com.

This demonstrates once again one of the most powerful tools for genealogy: plain old Google. :-) I found that by googling Gilbert's full name (in quotation marks.)

10Joanfkaysen
Mar 7, 2007, 5:14 pm

At the risk of sounding like a strange one, I think our ancestors talk to us. My cousin named his son Jonathan Riley and he is 17 years old. It was only about 5 years ago we learned that one of our great great grandfathers was Jonathan Riley. Now the Riley name is a family surname from Yorkshire, and our great grandpa was Riley and so the Riley was a natural pick, but the Jonathan was a chance choice.

I was in Ware, MA a couple of years back looking for my great grand uncle James Buchanan's final resting place. The cemetery office was open so I took to walking while my daughter followed in the car. I searched one section and got back in the car and we drove around and then I said stop. I got out and walked around this little incline and said, "Now James I need your help to find your grave." After about 25 more steps, I turned around and there all by itself was the family grave. Oh my do I believe they talk to us, but sometimes we have to ask.

11Joanfkaysen
Mar 7, 2007, 5:19 pm

I live on the west coast and go east often. While in VT early on in my family search, I pulled up to a cemetery in Colchester, VT and asked a lady standing there if there were AUSTINS in this cemetery. She said at the top of her voice "AUSTINS" and said she would go get her brother. Turns out she and her two brothers were descendants of the THOMPSON family who had bought my family homestead in 1910 which had been built in 1830. They gave me copies of the family quit claims and took us to see the AUSTIN home. How exciting that was!

12Seajack
Mar 7, 2007, 5:53 pm

The book "Psychic Roots" is chock full of examples that stretch the term "coincidence" to the breaking point!
My folks and I were looking for my great-grandparents in a huge cemetery in Dayton, OH. Just as I realized that we had the location (by phone earlier), but not a map, my mom called out "Up there!" and so they were. The timing was nearly in unison, and they were pretty far off the roadway.

13Sheyen
Mar 8, 2007, 4:43 pm

Okay, ANOTHER update!! heh. I was doing google books, someone happened to mention that one on the site forum, and so I checked it out. I found out that Gilbert graduated from Colby College in New London, New Hampshire, in 1917! And this is the same college his mother worked for. I got in touch with the college a few months ago, and they sent me a picture of her, now I need to get back in touch with the school and see if they can perhaps send me his grad pic, or something.

14myshelves
Mar 8, 2007, 5:05 pm

Sheyen,

If Gilbert's mother worked for the college, perhaps his father also had a connection to it? Did you try just "Newton Wiggins"
or "Wiggins" in that book on Google Books?

I'm the Google books fan. :-)

15Sheyen
Mar 9, 2007, 9:44 am

Yeah, I just tried Wiggins, and all it came up with was Gilbert, to be honest, I was just simply expecting a small snippet or something on Emily (mother). This family is driving me nuts (arrrrgh). I found Emilys family no problem, but this family......G Newton Wiggins, came from outer spaces in the 1890's married, had two kids, and went back into outer space, I swear he did!!

16myshelves
Mar 9, 2007, 11:01 am

Sheyen,

According to the 1910 census, he came from the outer spaces of Canada. There's a Newton Wiggins, age 13, son of Gilbert Wiggins, on the 1881 census in New Brunswick.

17Sheyen
Mar 12, 2007, 8:48 am

Myshelves
My Newton Wiggins was dead by 1900 census, and on the 1910 census, Gilbert Wiggins, on both the 1900 and 1910 census it says he was born in New Hampshire. I wish it where him tho.

18myshelves
Editado: Mar 12, 2007, 12:23 pm

Sheyen,

No, the 1910 says Gilbert's father was born in Canada. (And his mother in England.) Have you looked at it?

19Sheyen
Mar 14, 2007, 1:53 pm

YOu know for some reason, I complete missed that! But last year at the time, when I found the census, I was following the Kniveton line, because it was right in front of my face and much easier to follow lol! Now that I have that side found (back WAY FAR), I am working on the Wiggins, and completely missed that he was from Canada. I will look up that Newton Wiggins from New Brusnwick, did you notice the names? Wow, too many names the same.
Thanks Myshelves!

20Seajack
Mar 18, 2007, 10:13 pm

Fingers crossed I think I just might've stumbled across a gg g'father's line laid out for me in a book I never knew exited until today: Genealogy of Elisha Piper of Parsonsfield, Me., and his descendants, including portions of other related families ... from 1630 to 1889. My library has a copy that I'll sure be checking into ASAP!

21myshelves
Mar 18, 2007, 10:20 pm

#20
Good show! Let us know what you find.

22rodneyvc
Mar 29, 2007, 1:25 am

Over the past few years I have had three brick walls broken down from the other side - of the brick wall, rather than the "other side"!

Descendants of of my brick walls have found my web site and contacted me suspecting that they were related somehow.

The WWW is a wonderful thing, and Google is my friend!

23Seajack
Mar 29, 2007, 2:28 am

Just to update - my GGG gfather was in the book above, so there's that line back to Tudor England.

24myshelves
Mar 29, 2007, 12:21 pm

#23

Huzzah!

Where in Tudor England, and do you know any details about the ancestors back then?

I have a line that goes there (and a lot beyond, in a pedigree), but for the direct line I have nothing but names. The brothers of my Tudor-era ancestress led
interesting lives, but all one knows of her is that she married and had issue. (Sigh)

25varielle
Jul 9, 2007, 10:36 am

I just came from a family reunion with new leads on a cold trail. One of my cousins visited an 89 year old man who was the grand-nephew of my grandfather. He was able to clear up a lot of confusion and straighten out some lines. Wow. Got to get back to work on it.

26Vic33
Ago 30, 2012, 11:46 am

I have been searching for the parents of my wife's 2nd great grandfather for a long time. A friend at the Delaware Genealogical Society pointed me to a possible death certificate for this gentleman on the extremely hard to navigate Maryland Archives website. I found the index then ordered up a copy and it was my guy. The certificate listed his father's name but not his mother's name. That was enough for me to find the 3rd great grandfather and family in several census records. I did the happy dance (when no one was looking).

27pinkozcat
Ago 30, 2012, 10:17 pm

I have one family branch which I can not get a grasp of at all. One of my great great grandfathers was a mariner who seems to have appeared out of nowhere to marry my great great grandmother. He has a common name and could have arrived in Australia from just about anywhere in the world where English names are found.

This is one wall which I don't expect to break down any time soon.

28thornton37814
Set 3, 2012, 4:33 pm

Congrats on your find, Vic33!

Pinkozcat, keep persevering. I attended a lecture by Warren Bittner at the FGS Conference last week in which he told what a "reasonably exhaustive search" to discover the identity of his ancestor entailed. A lot of people would have given up, but he persevered and found his ancestor.

29pinkozcat
Set 3, 2012, 8:01 pm

Thornton, I have been through a couple of those really exhaustive searches so I know what they involve but Australian census and shipping records are far from complete which makes things difficult sometimes.

However, I have not given up and am hopeful that as more and more information is made available, I will eventually track down John Sexton.

BTW - Thornton is one of my family names. :)

30rodneyvc
Set 3, 2012, 11:28 pm

#27 Have you tried the newspaper archives on Trove? There is a Captain Sexton reference at http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13338494

31pinkozcat
Set 4, 2012, 12:24 am

I'll check it out; thank you. But I think that my John Sexton was probably just a common sailor.

And yes, I spend a lot of time at Trove. I am gradually discovering all the family secrets, divorces and criminal convictions, in fact all the things which no-one ever talked about. Although I knew that my great-great uncle Charles Tucker was considered to be the black sheep of the family I never found out why until Trove came online. :)

32pinkozcat
Editado: Set 4, 2012, 12:49 am

The Captain Sexton mentioned in the Trove article was captain of a ship from London to Sydney. I think that my John Sexton worked on a coastal ship, probably based in Adelaide because my G G Grandmother moved from Sydney to Adelaide to marry him and settled in Adelaide. John Sexton died in Adelaide in 1875.

From the very brusque death notice I suspect that the marriage was not a happy one.

33pinkozcat
Jan 1, 2013, 2:21 am

I had a bright idea last night regarding my great great grandfather, john Sexton.

Things which have been puzzling me: Why did my G G Grandmother sail to Sydney in 1841 and live there quietly for about seven years and then sail to Adelaide and marry four weeks later?

I have stated to wonder if perhaps John Sexton was transported to Australia sometime around 1840 and on his release the couple both went to Adelaide. South Australia was never a penal colony so an ex-convict could probably hide his past better there.

I haven't located him yet but have started trolling through the convict records to see if I can get a line on him there.

34TLCrawford
Dez 11, 2014, 11:24 am

Today, thanks in large part to work done by a 1st cousin, I have all 16 of my Great-Great Grandparents names and 8 of them, all on our mothers side, are immigrants from the German States.

35Cecrow
Dez 11, 2014, 1:17 pm

>34 TLCrawford: Nicely done! I'm stuck at 15/16. One of my great-great-grandmothers was made pregnant by a Finnish landowner she worked for who denied the child was his. I think I can pin it down to a city but no idea what estate, no one alive now who could begin to guess, of course no official record to identify him, no written letters or memoir or diary or Bible entry ... that grandmother wanted to erase his name from memory, and made a good job of ensuring nobody could undo it. I think it'll be an eternal mystery.

36Vic33
Jan 28, 2015, 2:18 pm

That's great TLCrawford. I am only at 12/16. Sort of stuck on 4 Italian g-g grandparents. I have the men's full names but only the first names of the wives. I need to get back to those folks. I believe familysearch has recently added many Italian records. All 8 of my great grandparents were born in various European countries so lots of "across the pond" research.

37mnleona
Jul 9, 2020, 7:41 am

I have been working to find my biological father's side and in the past few days, I have now found my 4th great grandfather.