Hints & tips

Ancestry's Roots Web site is a fantastic genealogical resource that,I have to admit, I probably don't use as much as I could.

I've found the mailing lists to be useful, I subscribe to the Nottingham, Oxfordshire, Leicestershire and North Yorkshire ones.  You can email a query and your fellow subscribers will try & help you with it.  I've never emailed a query in, but I find just reading through the ones that crop up can give me an idea of what other resources are available & where they can be found.

A recent post on the Nottingham list by the well known genealogist Roy Stockdill has given me further links to follow with my Oldknow-Oldham family.

He shares a tip on searching within FreeBMD  a site I have already found invaluable in finding BMD (Birth, Marriage & Death) indexes;

This little trick I discovered can be very useful indeed if you have an unusual surname and
especially for those doing one-name studies. Here it is.....
When researching at FreeBMD, try this.....
1) Leave the surname field blank.
2) Enter into the first name field your surname of interest with either a plus sign or an asterisk
in front of it - this is vital and either the plus symbol or an asterisk both work.
3) Select All Types and press the Search button.
What you will get is a list of events (births, marriages and deaths) in which your surname of
interest appears as a MIDDLE forename. 

In my case I searched for +Oldknow & narrowed the search to Nottinghamshire, which gave the following results:


Births
Mar 1854 Oldham Thomas Oldknow Radford 7b 166
Mar 1854 Palethorp Thomas Oldknow Basford 7b 141
Deaths
Jun 1854 Palethorpe Sarah Oldknow Radford 7b 112
Jun 1854 Palethorpe Thomas Oldknow Basford 7b 95
Births
Jun 1856 OLDHAM Thomas Oldknow Radford 7b 168
Marriages
Dec 1856 Brandrith George Oldknow Radford 7b 313
Births
Mar 1857 Jones Henry Oldknow Shardlow 7b 356
Mar 1857 Palethorp David Oldknow Basford 7b 157
Births
Jun 1858 Oldham John Oldknow Nottingham 7b 200
Jun 1858 Oldknow John Oldknow Nottingham 7b 200
Births
Mar 1859 PALETHORPE Joseph Oldknow Basford 7b 149
Mar 1861 Palethorp Samuel Oldknow Basford 7b 741
Deaths
Sep 1861 Palethorp Samuel Oldknow Basford 7b 82
Births
Dec 1862 PALETHORP Hannah Oldknow Basford 7b 149
Marriages
Dec 1864 Oldham Thomas Oldknow Nottingham 7b 380
Births
Dec 1867 Harrison John Oldknow Shardlow 7b 355
Marriages
Dec 1873 Oldham William Oldknow Nottingham 7b 490
Births
Mar 1875 Wright Frank Oldknow Nottingham 7b 250
Mar 1875 WRIGHT Frank Oldknow Nottingham 7b 260
Births
Dec 1875 Clarke Frederick Oldknow Basford 7b 107
Deaths
Dec 1875 WRIGHT Frank Oldknow Nottingham 7b 159
Births
Sep 1876 Wright William Oldknow Nottingham 7b 272
Marriages
Dec 1877 Oldham John Oldknow Nottingham 7b 559
Births
Dec 1878 WRIGHT Frank Oldknow Nottingham 7b 268
Births
Dec 1880 OLDHAM Wilfred Oldknow Nottingham 7b 264
Births
Mar 1881 Oldham Edith Oldknow Nottingham 7b 287
Marriages
Sep 1882 Palethorpe Joseph Oldknow Basford 7b 188
Births
Mar 1883 Palethorpe Annie Oldknow Basford 7b 241
Marriages
Jun 1883 Palethorpe Thomas Oldknow Basford 7b 191
Births
Sep 1884 Oldham Gertrude Oldknow Nottingham 7b 301
Births
Mar 1885 Swann Louisa Oldknow Basford 7b 118
Marriages
Jun 1885 PALETHORPE David Oldknow Nottingham 7b 410
Births
Mar 1886 PALETHORPE Joseph Oldknow Basford 7b 217
Mar 1886 PALETHORPE Mary Oldknow Basford 7b 256
Deaths
Sep 1886 Oldham William Oldknow Nottingham 7b 138
Births
Mar 1887 Oldham Alice Oldknow Nottingham 7b 255
Births
Dec 1887 Palethorpe David Oldknow Basford 7b 228
Births
Mar 1888 Palethorpe Helen Oldknow Basford 7b 233
Deaths
Jun 1889 Oldham Thomas Oldknow Nottingham 7b 148
Marriages
Dec 1891 Oldham Annie Oldknow Nottingham 7b 680
Births
Mar 1892 Burrows William Oldknow Shardlow 7b 444
Deaths
Sep 1896 Oldham Edith Oldknow Nottingham 7b 177
Marriages
Dec 1897 CLARK Frederick Oldknow Mansfield 7b 165
Dec 1897 Clarke Frederick Oldknow Mansfield 7b 165
Births
Sep 1898 Clarke Leslie Oldknow Mansfield 7b 101
Marriages
Dec 1898 OLDHAM Harriet Oldknow Nottingham 7b 758
Births
Jun 1901 PALETHORPE William Oldknow Basford 7b 260
Marriages
Jun 1903 Oldham Frederick Oldknow Nottingham 7b 753
Births
Jun 1904 Palethorpe Thomas Oldknow Basford 7b 290
Deaths
Dec 1904 OLDHAM Thomas Oldknow Nottingham 32 7b 273
Dec 1904 Palethorpe Thomas Oldknow Nottingham 7b 229
Marriages
Sep 1905 PALETHORPE Mary Oldknow Nottingham 7b 575
Marriages
Dec 1906 OLDHAM Gertrude Oldknow Nottingham 7b 905
Marriages
Jun 1908 Oldham Wilfred Oldknow Nottingham 7b 871
Marriages
Mar 1909 OLDHAM Alice Oldknow Nottingham 7b 510

Quite a list, with a few surnames such as Palethorpe, Swann, Clarke and Burrows that I hadn't come across before.  It's possible to check these people in the census returns and see if they can shed any more light on this branch of my family.

Time Consuming Research

We're now three episodes into the ninth series of 'Who Do You Think You Are' on BBC1.  They've all been good so far; I particularly liked Gregg Wallace's episode and how the research uncovered a much deeper story than the one passed down through his family.

But the programme does tend to give a distorted view of how difficult and slow genealogical research can be.  The celebs turn up at various archives to meet a researcher who has all the answers ready for them, but they don't mention the hours of previous research that has been done to arrive at that point.

I've recently spent a full two and a half days in Nottingham Archives looking through their Methodist birth & marriage records for the family members I've failed to find in the C of E records.  The later Non-Conformist records haven't been micro-filmed yet, so it feels like a treat to be looking through the original registers.

Anyway, after all those hours of searching I have still only managed to find more distant relatives in them, Gervase Oldham's daughters' marriages are the closest ones. I also spotted some Bucknalls, who I've been looking for on behalf of my Great-Aunt.  I still have several more Methodist records to check and then there's the Baptist ones to start!

I don't see this as a waste of time, the registers are fascinating in themselves, and if you can't find your family members in the obvious ones, you have no choice but to be thorough and work your way through the lot!  But WDYTYA gives the impression that the answers are immediately available, which they very often aren't. I wonder how many people are put off researching their trees further when they realise it won't all be handed to them on a plate?