Case Studies
Anne's Story
The brief
Our client, Anne asked us to trace her family history on her mother’s side. She wanted a special present for her mother’s birthday. Jane had limited knowledge of her ancestors, partly because there was some confusion over her grandmother’s maiden name.
The research
Census records and birth certificates got us so far, but the puzzle was solved using a combination of school records, local maps, memorial inscriptions and newspaper reports.
The results
The story had extremely sad beginnings, heroism in the middle and thankfully a happy ending. We identified that Anne’s grandmother, Ida, was informally adopted. Tragically, Ida’s father was declared bankrupt when his business failed, and he faced increasing medical bills. His wife and all five of his children were sick. Within months, his wife and two of the children had died. Shortly after, the father died too, leaving three orphaned children. Three different couples came to the rescue. Ida and her two siblings were separated but had homes to go to. Ida’s sister died a few years later, aged 15. Her brother was killed in WW1 in a submarine attack on his ship. So by the age of 12, Ida had lost her parents and all her siblings.
Happily, Ida not only survived but thrived. We traced her through school, work and her marriage to a local boy. Anne’s family stories also included medal winning WW1 heroes and also those who won international sporting honours for rugby and baseball.
Once we had discovered Ida’s birth surname, we were able to trace her ancestral line back to the early 1700’s.
Feedback
“We were blown away …. The wonderful book you provided has is being passed around the whole family and everyone is amazed at what you were able to discover.”
The brief
Our client had hit a brickwall with her research in to her family tree. She had found her great-grandfather via Ancestry.com in the 1901 Wales census along with 7 of his siblings. She wanted to know what happened his six sisters. The challenge was that the surname Davies is extremely common in Wales. To compound this, their forenames were also commonly used, such as Ann, Mary etc, and most were of marrying age. This meant that they probably married and changed their name between the 1901 and 1911 censuses. But to what? Ancestry threw up loads of hints but which were for her family?
The research
This was quite a challenge and might take many hours of research. From experience, we knew that it would be easy to follow the wrong Davies line. To make things more difficult, Ancestry’s records are great but full of transcription errors, especially for Welsh place names. To control the cost, we broke the research into phases, so the client could stop at any time. In the first phase we confirmed the client’s research and explored the accessible online records beyond Ancestry and Findmypast. We used a range of search strategies looking for any quick wins the client might have missed. We used our findings to prepare a suggested research plan for each of the five sisters, prioritising which was most likely to be successful.
The results
Yay! In phase 1 we found two of the five sisters. Elsie had moved to England and become a nun and remained so for the rest of her life. Another sister, Hannah, had moved to Canada. She was difficult to find after 1901 because she used a nickname on official records. However, we found her death record in Vancouver, BC, that gave her full name and parent’s details. We found no clear match for the remaining 3 sisters.
In Phase 2, we dug in a bit deeper. We communicated regularly with the client and were able to give her details to order Hannah’s will and to make contact with Elsie’s convent.
Feedback
“Well, I don’t know what to say apart from WOW! Absolutely fab… I can’t thank you enough … I am going to have glass of wine, and look through all information you sent me …”
Newhouse Farm
The brief
Dianne had traced her family back to a farmhouse in Monmouthshire called Newhouse Farm. She wanted to know more about the people who had lived there and whether they had owned the farmland or were tenant farmers. Had the house always been in the family and why did they move away? What happened to the children of the family? Great questions and right up our street!
The research
Researching a house meant following the families as well as researching the development of the farm itself. We undertook property research through deeds, wills, maps and manorial records. In parallel we researched the families to determine the pattern of inheritance for both owners and occupiers. We also used newspapers, directories and electoral rolls to tie the details of the families and property together. Phew!
The results
We soon established that Dianne’s family were tenant farmers and the land was owned by wealthy families who had also owned most of the land in the parish and surrounding parishes. Through maps and census records we were to show Dianne how the farm had grown from the smallest to the biggest in the parish. However, during our research we uncovered a tragic story. At the height of the Agricultural Depression in the late 1870’s, the man of the house abandoned his wife and young children and disappeared. The cattle, machinery and contents of the farm were all sold off by auction only weeks later. The wife died shortly after leaving 4 young orphans. The farm was then occupied by a cousin of the same surname, and the farm remained in the family for another 75 years. We were able to tell Dianne every person who had lived in Newhouse right up to the present day. She naturally wanted to know what happened to all the orphaned children, one of whom was her great-grandmother. And that’s another family story which had both happy and sad endings ….
Feedback
“Thank you for your report and excellent research. I did not expect such powerful stories when I asked you to research a farmhouse! Obviously, I need to know what happened next to those poor children …”