Dec

19

Genealogy – Sometimes You Just Get lucky

Posted by cameron

December 19, 2006 |

I have said before that you really need to spend time on the more recent ancestors to make your data as solid as possible before moving on. Do not take anything for granted, not even your name. I was on various databases searching for my grandfather. I couldn’t find any trace of him other than what my father had told me. In the end I decided to call government offices in Edinburgh, Scotland. This was the greatest experience. First, I had to leave my phone number because I went straight into their messaging system. “We will call you back,” the message said. I live in the USA so I’m thinking “yeah right”. Sure enough the phone rang about 30 minutes later. The Scottish records office had called me back. I was impressed. This was a Saturday morning and what followed was 30 minutes that would save me so much time, effort and frustration. Between us we were able to deduce that my great grandparents spelled their last name slightly different from the way I do. My grandfather, who somehow forgot the spelling of his own name, transposed two letters, which made him impossible to find by simple database interrogation. One of his two wives had corrected his marriage certificates and death certificate so that his name was aligned with his parents, but not to his children or me. The upside of all this is that in a 30-minute phone call I had unraveled the mystery of names and, for the first time, truly known which Scottish Clan I belonged to. That was a great moment. I often talk about hitting a brick wall with ancestors. This is a perfect example. If I hadn’t spent the time and the money I wouldn’t have even understood my own close ancestors, let alone be able to determine ancestors further back


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