One of the reasons that I love doing this work is because it is like detective work and I love detective books.
Sometimes you can get stuck with a genealogical line for several years until you suddenly find a hidden clue which can then help you trace that line back several generations. This was the case with my Strickland line.
In the past genealogical research usually entailed that you travel to the place were your ancestors came from and if you wanted to find them on one of the census returns then you needed to have an address as the censuses weren’t indexed. So armed with the newly ordered birth certificate of my great grandfather John Robert Strickland, I travelled to Doncaster, South Yorkshire and payed a visit to the Record Office where I could view the census returns for Mexborough, the place where his parents were living when he was born in 1861. Scrolling through the microfilm roll of the 1861 census of Mexborough I was eventually able to find the street in which they lived and found the census record of John’s family. The nice thing about census returns is that they record how old everyone is and also their place of birth, so this can then help you to get a step backwards in your tree. The place of birth of John’s mother was very clear to read - Norwell in Nottinghamshire which is a small village close to Newark where I knew that the family had lived. I was eventually able to trace her family - the Templemans back several generations as they had always resided in this village.
John’s father Robert Strickland was a different problem as his place of birth was unclear on the census and for the county was a question mark. I remember asking someone at the time what he thought the place was and he said he thought it looked like Hayle which is located in Cornwall. I dismissed this as Cornwall was so far away and I had always been told that Strickland was a Northern name.
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| 1861 census of Mexborough |
During the course of the years I researched several possible places were Stricklands had lived and which looked similar to the place name on the census, such as Hale in Westmoreland, which is close to Sizergh Castle which I knew to be the ancient home of the Strickland family. This place seemed to make sense, but the Robert Strickland I found didn't connect to my family in Newark. I also tried Hawes in Yorkshire, but all avenues led to a brickwall.
It wasn't until several years later that the 1881 census return was indexed that I was able to find my great grandfather's family and on this census the place of his father's birth was clearly written and it was indeed Hayle in Cornwall!
This opened up a whole new avenue of research and I discovered a whole community of Stricklands or rather Sticklands (a different spelling) living in the Hayle area. I was eventually able to trace this family back to the early 1600's and found a wealth of information and documents, so much so that I was eventually able to write a book about my Cornish ancestors.
That is why genealogical work is like detective work, eventually a clue will turn up which will shed new light on your family or will point you in a different direction.
Nowadays research is a lot easier, so many records have been indexed and digitalised that you can do your research whilst sitting comfortably in your own home.
Also DNA tests can help us to link up with distant family members and allow us to share our research with each other.
In my next blog I will share a story about how my DNA test helped me to discover the father of my illegitimate great great grandmother Emma Young.
