Family Tree Successes!

Well, I have been busy again on the family tree. Still no luck with the army papers I was after (Grandfather's brother) and I am not hopeful now.  However, I have had one or two breakthroughs I am very happy about.

When I first started collecting information, some twelve years ago now, one of the first things I started with was the army papers of my Grandfather.  Now, he had listed his next-of-kin as "Sister Mary" and an address.  I had no idea whether this sister Mary was a nun or a genuine sister.  Nobody in the family knew anything about Grandfather having a sister.  So I made many efforts to find any sort of a sister with no luck.

Several years later I managed through many twists and turns to track down where my great-grandfather had settled after he discharged from the army.  There were few records online at the time but those I searched turned up with nothing.  So, I wrote to the Hampshire records office asking if they had any burial records for a J.F. and stating a space of fifteen years.  I was stunned to receive a telephone call two days later from the Records Office telling me that they had found his burial and were able to give me full details including the date of his death (as a bonus they also told me that my great-grandmother was buried in the same plot two years later).  This lead me to applying for his death certificate and there, present at death, was daughter Mary!

To cut the story down a little, all attempts to find a birth for her failed (although I did trace her marriage) and I assumed that the birth records had been lost like those of her brothers.  I had always searched in Hampshire where the family settled.  Well, more and more records have come online and I was recently able to access the 1871 census.  Lo and behold, I traced the family and found Mary aged 10 and she was listed as being born in Dublin. Census records can be very innacurate but I took the chance and applied for the certificate stipulating it was only to be issued if Mary's father was indeed, J.F.  I received the certificate a couple of days ago and yes, it was her!  I love it when things come together.

My second success brought me even more pleasure because there is one line of my family that I have never been able to trace.  Due to problems caused by my Grandmother the family split apart and one of her daughters completely cut herself off from the rest of her brothers and sister.  I only knew the date of her birth and that she was baptized in Bermuda.  All attemps to find anything about her husband failed.

I have told people many times never to give up on their family trees because amazing things can happen.  You see, her husband was always known in the family as Rollie or Roly.  He was never known as anything else. My parents knew him as this as did my brothers and all my cousins who are much older than me.  So all my searching had been for a Roland, Rowland or Rowley.  Absolutely nothing.  I had searched for a marriage in Hampshire - nothing.  Year after year I kept trying and getting nowhere.

Then just ten days ago I was talking to a relative who just happened to drop into the conversation that Rollie was, at one time, a Page to the Archbishop of York, Cosmo Lang.  This immediately made me consider York as a possible place to look.

Back onto the web and searching for a marriage of a B.F. (my aunt) to an R.R in York.  I knew that they had to have been married either during or immediately after WW1.  Well, I only found one marriage of a B.F. but her husband, although he had the surname of R. had the initial H.J.  This made no sense to me.  Surely, he must have been called Roland or something similar.

I mulled it all over in my mind.  Was it worth spending out good money for a certificate?  I decided that after coming this far and after all these years, I might as well go for it.

The certificate arrived this morning and hey presto - it was the marriage of my aunt.  Her husband's proper name was Harold James and not Roland or a similar name!  There is absolutely no doubt as her address is given as the family home mentioned on other certificates, my grandfather is given as the bride's father along with his occupation (military). Not only that but the marriage certificate was signed by...........Cosmo Lang, the Archbishop of York. 

 So, after twelve years and looking in all the wrong places, the truth is found at last.

Today I was able to tracethe Father of the groom and I am now hoping to find the birth of their two sons.

So, I repeat never give up, never ignore conversations with other people, never assume relatives had to be in a certain area,  take into account possible nicknames or that the person used their second Christian name rather than their first,  take up the smallest clue.  It might well reap rich rewards!!!!!