scrappington
Pearl Clutcher
in Canada
Posts: 3,139 
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Post by scrappington on Nov 20, 2014 15:57:47 GMT
I recently started back up in my research and have come face to face with my nemesis issues.
I have a WW1 Solider and I can't find out where he is on a monument in Canada. He enlisted in a area, but was from another area, and he died in battle. He is on the war memorial in Belgium, but he should be on a monument in Ontario too. I know there is a possibility he is not but I am trying to find him. this issue is now moving up my listed of priority.
I have another ww1 solider that died after he got back. And there is no death record for him. I have it narrowed down to a year because of his service record. Family lore is he committed suicide. He was my 2nd great grandfather.
These are my top listed issues right now.
Anyone else frustrated in their research and gets it. |
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wellway
Prolific Pea
Posts: 8,766
Jun 25, 2014 20:50:09 GMT
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Post by wellway on Nov 20, 2014 16:01:29 GMT
try this site Welcome to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website!
We commemorate the 1,700,000 men and women of the Commonwealth forces who died in the two world wars.
Our cemeteries, burial plots and memorials are a lasting tribute to those who died in some 153 countries across the world.
Our Register records details of Commonwealth war dead so that graves or names on memorials can be located. www.cwgc.org/ |
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Deleted
Posts: 0
May 13, 2024 0:26:01 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Nov 20, 2014 16:17:33 GMT
I have not done any research but one of my aunts have been. She was telling my mom and I how she ran into an issue with her great-grandmother and the sudden name changes. Apparently, she took on another family's name as her own with no marriage or adoption record. It's confusing because she shows up as one person in one record and another in a different record within the same year. The theory is that she went to live with this family and was assumed by others she's a family member and somehow that name has stuck. She went on to marry and shows up with yet the third name. My aunt was getting frustrated because she was having a hard time tracking her and since these records are turn of the century, it's even harder.
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Post by Darcy Collins on Nov 20, 2014 17:21:22 GMT
I have one great grandfather that is lost looking for gold in California. He drives me crazy. I have most of my branches back to first immigrant ancestor - some going back 9+ generations (thank you Catholic church for meticulous records!) And here's a man who lived in the late 18th century, and I can't find his death record or any clues to his parents. There are a few possibilities based on census records, but with a pretty common name, I'm not sure I'll ever be able to definitively prove anything.
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rodeomom
Pearl Clutcher
Refupee # 380 "I don't have to run fast, I just have to run faster than you."
Posts: 3,661
Location: Chickasaw Nation, Oklahoma
Jun 25, 2014 23:34:38 GMT
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Post by rodeomom on Nov 20, 2014 17:53:38 GMT
I have two different lines with the surname of SMITH ! Both end in brick walls. John Thomas Smith and James Smith.
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Post by genealopea on Nov 20, 2014 18:01:50 GMT
My brick wall is a Lura Knight Bonestell. I'm having a hard time proving who her parents are. I know she was born in CT, and then was married in upstate NY. The man I suspect is her father moved from CT to the same place in NY around the time of her marriage, and stayed there. Lura's husband, Jacob, and her possible father were involved in many land transactions together. I can't seem to locate the father's will. Any published lists of his children do not include Lura. Grrrrr... It's been driving me crazy for years!
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Deleted
Posts: 0
May 13, 2024 0:26:01 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Nov 20, 2014 18:09:45 GMT
That one person did research using one person and that person is not related.
Another used my crazy aunt's stories. Urg.
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scrappington
Pearl Clutcher
in Canada
Posts: 3,139
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Post by scrappington on Nov 20, 2014 18:15:41 GMT
I have two different lines with the surname of SMITH ! Both end in brick walls. John Thomas Smith and James Smith. Smith..oh my. I want to give you my condolences on that one.
I have a murphy I know your pain.
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scrappington
Pearl Clutcher
in Canada
Posts: 3,139
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Post by scrappington on Nov 20, 2014 18:16:25 GMT
try this site Welcome to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website!
We commemorate the 1,700,000 men and women of the Commonwealth forces who died in the two world wars.
Our cemeteries, burial plots and memorials are a lasting tribute to those who died in some 153 countries across the world.
Our Register records details of Commonwealth war dead so that graves or names on memorials can be located. www.cwgc.org/Thank you for the research tips
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Post by joylynaroundthebnd on Nov 20, 2014 18:23:15 GMT
So many issues!
My grandparents and DH's grandparents claimed their mothers were full-blood Native American. Only records we have they identified as white, which I realize that was normal for people to do way back when. So, DH and DB submitted their DNA to Ancestry. Both families are a white European as they come. In pictures our great grandmothers do appear to be Native American.
Now, I am trying to prove ancestry so that my mom and mil can join DAR.
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Post by kellybelly77 on Nov 20, 2014 18:26:16 GMT
I think my most frustrating case is my 3rd great grandmother. We have found a little about her and have heard stories but can't track down her parents, or the father of her children. Ever! We have spent years trying to find them. My mom started this back in the 90's and we drove to Louisiana to look in archives and still couldn't find anything.
My mom thinks it's because she was born out of wedlock and back then that was very secretive and wasn't talked about. We are also unable to find out anything on her son's father. She had multiple children with multiple men and my 2nd great grandfather was the oldest or 2nd oldest we are pretty sure. But Palmire (my 3rd great grand) never told anyone who his father was. He grew up with just his mom and siblings. Palmire was "mulatto" (in the late 1800's in Louisiana) so my mom also thinks that also hinders the records that were kept!
I keep looking but we have kind of resigned ourselves to never getting past this branch in our tree. I think they should film the show Who Do You Think You Are for regular people so we can find out that way!!
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Post by Minty118 on Nov 20, 2014 18:30:58 GMT
I am having issues with my great great grandfather. He completely disappeared shortly after my great grandmother was born. My great great grandmother remarried five years later with her marriage certificate stating her husband died, but I can't find a death certificate or an obituary.
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scrappington
Pearl Clutcher
in Canada
Posts: 3,139
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Post by scrappington on Nov 20, 2014 18:32:42 GMT
I keep looking but we have kind of resigned ourselves to never getting past this branch in our tree. I think they should film the show Who Do You Think You Are for regular people so we can find out that way!! I would love to be able to go on that show.
I can't get the DNA kit from ancestry in Canada. My mom was adopted and apparently her bio dad was Syrian. NOW my mother and I are pale as pale can be and blonde. But I am told a lot of northern Syria is blonde.
Also there is folk lore that my grandparents know her bio parents. as in its my great aunts sister in law.
My mom's bio mother was suppose to be 14 years old and in 1954 that is young. Its young now too. But as we know more shameful then. My grandpa is alive but I no one wants to directly ask him hey do you know mom's real bio parents.
I'd really like to find out the middle eastern thing though. Am I or am I not. Or we just plain ole European. I am on my fathers side.
Also I would have liked to get my grandpa's dna done as well. There are rumours his grandmother liked the neighbor who was of native decent..and then his mother was really the neighbors child not the man my grandpa was named after her husband.
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Post by lbp on Nov 20, 2014 20:23:26 GMT
Our brick wall is our great-great grandmother on my fathers side. She had two children, my great-grandfather and his sister but never bothered to get married or name their fathers on their birth certificates. Under father they say "unknown". I wondered if perhaps she had been a prostitute but according to family legend she just didn't feel the need to have a man in her life except for procreation reasons! She also spent a couple nights in jail protesting for women's rights! I Love my great-great grandmother!
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scrappington
Pearl Clutcher
in Canada
Posts: 3,139
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Post by scrappington on Nov 20, 2014 20:44:37 GMT
Our brick wall is our great-great grandmother on my fathers side. She had two children, my great-grandfather and his sister but never bothered to get married or name their fathers on their birth certificates. Under father they say "unknown". I wondered if perhaps she had been a prostitute but according to family legend she just didn't feel the need to have a man in her life except for procreation reasons! She also spent a couple nights in jail protesting for women's rights! I Love my great-great grandmother! that's a great story.
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Post by casswithsass on Nov 20, 2014 22:52:08 GMT
I have my Grandfather's original birth certificate from Czechoslovakia. It lists his parents and their parents. I have plugged the names into Ancestry, Family Search, and a couple others. Nothing came up--not even the maybe matches. I have found the little Church where more records might be, but I have no plans to go to Czechoslovakia.
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Post by myboysnme on Nov 20, 2014 23:19:55 GMT
Like so many others, I am stuck in several areas. One is my grandfather's grandfather. He has an usual name so almost everytime I find record of him his name is butchered, but after he came to the US at age 1, there is no other record of him until he got married.
Then my husband's great grandparents. There are 2 documents; a marriage record for their son and the death certificate of the grandmother, and the first names are completely different! It would lead me to believe that one record doesn't belong, but it does. So which document is correct?
Lastly, the last name of DH's great grandmother - it is obviously butchered spelling on the 2 documents I've found, and neither of them lead to any other record. Is it so darn hard to know someone's parents' names for legal documents when they were filled out?
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Post by Karene on Nov 21, 2014 1:06:55 GMT
Scrappington, have you ordered the papers from the National Archives for the WWI soldiers you are researching? If you haven't, look up their names under the Expeditionary Forces and write away for their info. I was able to get thick files on 5 of my grandfather's uncles. Two of them had their death information. One deserted twice! It was interesting info.
My frustration right now is finding my grandmother's grandparents and uncles in the 1920s. They immigrated to Montreal from Latvia in 1921. I found them on a ship's list and I also found their immigration papers which list the address of one of the uncles who was going to take in the grandparents. But although I can find my grandmother and her immediate family on the 1921 census, I cannot find the uncles or the grandparents who arrived at the same time. I also cannot find her uncles even though they show up in the Montreal city directories from that time.
Karen
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Post by scrapbookwriter on Nov 21, 2014 1:08:34 GMT
I had a great-great-grandfather named Orin Berkey. He moved to California as an adult. I know a lot about him once he got to California. On census records he lists his birthplace as Pennsylvania in 1827, but I can't find anything about his birth or his parents or his origins. I have tried the Berkey Book, but nothing there matched up at all.
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scrappington
Pearl Clutcher
in Canada
Posts: 3,139
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Post by scrappington on Nov 21, 2014 12:22:14 GMT
Scrappington, have you ordered the papers from the National Archives for the WWI soldiers you are researching? If you haven't, look up their names under the Expeditionary Forces and write away for their info. I was able to get thick files on 5 of my grandfather's uncles. Two of them had their death information. One deserted twice! It was interesting info. I have his service records. I have a photo of him. I know where his memorial is in Belgium. I know where he died..etc. I know everything about the battle he was in. I have medals, I have war diaries. Oh I have it all. I don't know what cenotaph he is on in Ontario. He may not be on one. I just need to write or make some calls to the hastings area. Now there is even a book about hastings and their cenotaphs and he isn't in it. I'm thinking he just wasn't put on one here. I really wanted to be able to go to one in 1917 on Remembrance Day it would be the 100th anniversary of his death.
I also have ww11 records for family members that have served as well.
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scrappington
Pearl Clutcher
in Canada
Posts: 3,139
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Post by scrappington on Nov 21, 2014 17:23:27 GMT
I have two different lines with the surname of SMITH ! Both end in brick walls. John Thomas Smith and James Smith. Funny ancestry has a recently video or info session about finding your smith's
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breetheflea
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,905
Location: PNW
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Post by breetheflea on Nov 21, 2014 18:03:03 GMT
I have several issues...
My grandpa's family immigrated to RURAL Alabama in 1912. There is no one to even contact (historical society, library, church) to get information (or they have ignored my letters and emails) and no one on that side still lives there or is still alive to ask. I have a death certificate with the cemetery my great grandpa is buried in, first the handwriting is awful, second no cemeteries match anything close to what it looks like it says on there. I'm pretty much stuck on that side and going back farther I'm jumping the ocean to Slovenia...
My grandpa's military service record was burned in that fire at the can't think of the name, where all the military services records are stored, in Kansas City? So from about 1920-1944 (when he married my Grandma) I don't have any photos or idea where he was living. He was in Spokane Washington in the 1930 census and California in the 1940 census, but otherwise? My mom says he was in Hawaii during his Army days, and supposedly the family owned a gas station in Texas in the 1930s? I have no proof of any of this, and no photos.
I also haven't been able to find my Grandma and Grandpa's marriage license. They were married in Reno, NV in 1944. I've sent away for a copy and they were not able to find a record...
Oh and my Grandma (who married the Grandpa above) is not on the 1940 census. She was 15, how was she not living with her own parents??? I'm guessing they had so many kids that they somehow skipped her when naming off all the kids names to the census person?
Those are just a few problems I've had recently...
One thing I did find out, my aunt did the ancestry DNA test, is that the rumors we have Native American blood are not true. 99% European on that side.
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Post by birukitty on Nov 21, 2014 18:17:51 GMT
I would love to have a chance to be on "Who do you think you are". I know nothing about my grandfather on my mother's side other than he was a stage actor in Germany in the Spring of 1939, and his stage name. We have one photo. That's it. My mother was born out of wedlock, and since he used a stage name I haven't even begun to try to search or do any genealogical research (not to mention it being in Europe). My mother was born in December of 1939. I know nothing about that side of my family.
It is a sad and empty feeling. It would be so fascinating to know at least something. I did find a genealogist on Angie's List with very high ratings that I've thought about contacting just to see what she could find.I just haven't done anything about it yet.
Debbie in MD.
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Post by melanell on Nov 21, 2014 19:00:42 GMT
My FIL's father's family is my source of frustration.
He knew so, so little about his family, even his own parents, and he lost touch with all of his siblings (and there were a dozen of them), so i don't know any of them.
He told me that 2 people with the same surname in the area were cousins, but after researching theirs lines back I find no proof of that, but instead proof against them being first cousins, or even first cousins, once removed.
Supposedly his father came to the US with 3 brothers, but he had only one name/destination to give me. I did find someone with that name in the right town, but his parents were not the same as my FIL's grandparents, so he wasn't a sibling to FIL's father after all.
My own theory is that his father came here with cousins, which would explain why no parents match my FIL's grandparents. i would need to match the great-grandparents and I can't find them for anyone.
I truly think I need to speak to a known relative, which would be a living sibling, and so far I have had no luck at all with that.
Add to the mess I don't have a town name where his father came from, and even the country is messy because different records say different things...Poland/Russia/Prussia/etc.
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Post by Jen in NCal on Nov 21, 2014 19:20:38 GMT
My maternal great-greats disappear. Four of the eight stop there. Part of the problem is they came from Prussia. So the records are lost. I'm having fun with my dad's side. Actually he is my step-dad. I found out last night that his great-great grandad was a POW from Vicksburg.
I don't spend a lot of time on it. That's probably my biggest hurdle.
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