When I “won” the draw for ‘Who Do We Think You Are’ on the 9th April 2009, I was really excited. Every week I’d make sure I was online on Thursday evening to see if I was drawn from the hat, so when I got a PM to say I had been chosen I was ready for the off!
I had actually sorted the main reason I had entered the draw, a tricky little mystery involving Smiths, but the paternal side of my tree was one huge brick wall. Even more so as it involved Scottish records, something which I had not really used before as all my maternal lines are based firmly in England and Wales.
I knew pitifully little about my grandfather, George Francis Taylor, all I had to go on was his parent’s marriage certificate from February 1917, Samuel George Taylor to Mabel May Robinson. This gave me the names of Samuel’s parents Samuel George Taylor Snr and a Jessie Taylor, maiden name Milne. I had looked in vain for ages Taylor/Milne marriage and couldn’t find one that had the right Christian name. The only possibility had a bride whose name was Isabella and I was looking for a Jessie.
Margaretmarch however wasn’t put off by the Christian name difference and very kindly used credits to check the image for me and it was the correct couple!
I would never have thought to check that for myself, so would never have found the marriage. Having now found out that Jessie was actually Isabella, I was then able to find Isabella with her parents in 1871 and 1881. I then went on to find Isabella’s birth and her parents’ marriage, so this branch grew very rapidly in a couple of days.
The next line of investigation for me was also suggested on the thread; to go and look at the Custom Officers’ records to see where Samuel George Snr had worked to help narrow down the births for Samuel George Jnr as he was proving to be rather elusive. Unfortunately I’ve not been able to do that yet but will hopefully get to Kew soon.
During the course of the week, thanks to Elaine..Spain, I also found out that my missing Aaron Riddiford seems to have died in Canada in 1897 and not before the 1881 census as his “widow” claimed. I’ve since discovered that an Arron Riddiford defrauded Birmingham City Council of £500 in 1876 during his employment as a rate collector and then absconded, which could perhaps explain him moving to Canada.
Finally my missing Mapstone family were discovered in Somerset in 1841 and the births for both children were also located for me, in Somerset not in Swansea as they had always claimed on the Census.
I was completely thrilled with all the information that came to light from all the members’ hard work for me during my week and the best bit for me was that it was Easter weekend, so I had plenty of time to appreciate it all. A big thank you to everyone for their efforts!
claretaylor22
© claretaylor22 2009