Tag Archive: Genealogy

Sometimes you have to let go

I have a brick wall in my genealogy – my great grandparents marriage. I’ve tried everything I can to find evidence of their marriage, including asking a researcher in Aberystwyth to try to track it down for me. She had no luck either. So I have to let it go for now. I’m not good at doing that.

I finished a couple of genealogy courses in April, and I was pleased with the marks. I need to take a break for a few weeks, while we get ready to move. I’ll have more space to spread my genealogy out, which pleases me to no end. The move does mean that I can’t go to Aberystwyth in September, which I was really looking forward to. Mum and I were planning a research trip there. I’m crossing my fingers that we can go early next year instead.

Occasionally in my job, someone will refer a genealogy question to me. Sometimes they can’t be answered quickly, and so I’ve been helping a senior track down some family history on my own time. I’m hoping the information we found will help her get a copy of the will she wanted. It was good experience working on someone elses family tree.

Genealogy is infectious – because of a brief review I did at a staff meeting of a genealogy resource recently, a couple of co-workers have begun researching their ancestors!

Archifdy Ceredigion/Ceredigion Archives

Those of us with ancestors from Cardiganshire are very lucky to have the Ceredigion Archives as a resource. On two occasions I’ve contacted them with a query and both times the researchers have answered my questions and more, and are very helpful indeed.

The url for the website is http://archifdy-ceredigion.org.uk/ I do find the website a little cumbersome to work with, but when I searched for the ships I was interested in I did find them fairly easily.

Of particular help to me on my second query were the shipping records available for Aberystwyth. These records opened up a whole new family branch of Clayton mariners. It also put me in touch with a distant cousin, which was a lovely bonus. The archives has a wealth of information, so do contact them if you have queries in the area.

Happy hunting!

Search Surprises

I discovered a little gem, through a family member. One of our  family names showed up in a book called Victorian Memorial Brasses by David Meara. My 3x great grandmother’s memorial plaque is in it. I did an amazon search and bingo found a copy available for just $9.00. The book arrived yesterday! Lovely, because it shows the inscription, her husband’s name, date of death, age, and where the plaque is located.