Finding Jewish ancestry in my family

Hello,

I have been recently trying to find more information about my maternal grandfather’s side of the family, in particular about his mother. Background information can be found in this post and is this post. I have a small path that I think is right but not 100% positive at this point.  Here some quick background information:

Sarah Barnett is my 1st Great Grandmother

Her mother was a Ellen Coleman.  I find out her maiden name from ordering Sarah’s birth certificate and I know that she died from tuberculosis according to one of her son military records. I got a hint on Ancestry and decided to take a further look into this family to see. I also knew from censuses that she was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England.

This family that I think is correct is the following:

(abt means about)

Parents

Moses Coleman  born abt 1830 in Middlesex,London, England

Frances(Fanny)Coster born  abt 1831 in Birmingham,Warwickshire,England

Siblings

Maria Coleman born abt 1848 in Birmingham or London, England

Benjamin Coleman born abt 1852 in Birmingham, England

Jane Coleman born abt 1858 in Birmingham, England

Jacob(John) Coleman born abt 1860 in Birmingham, England

I have Ellen living  with the family in 1861 and next census she is an orphanage for Jewish children with her sister Jane in the Whitechapel area of London.  In 1881 she appear working as a servant in the Whitechapel area.

It was never known that my great-grandmother was maybe part Jewish, certain things make me believe this the right path. One it was believed that Sarah was in an orphanage at some point, I haven’t come across any records etc of this. I believe this mention may have been about her mother.

I am continuing to work on this family and hoping to eventually get a confirmed birth or marriage information for Ellen. I have no evidence at this time to believe that John her husband was Jewish as well.

As Always, Thanks for reading

Ancestrychick

Fustration,Fustration,Fustration…with the Scots and Ancestry

I have recently been frustrated with Ancestry and searching my Scottish ancestry. In particular with the censuses. I have noticed that transcribing for these censuses is lacking somewhat in the correct or close correct surnames. I know that it’s usually volunteers doing this work which I really do appreciate but sometimes the names are just way out of whack.

Ones such example is Medougert for McDougall. This is almost no way there with wildcard searching etc that I would come across this name. I happened to find this by using a different site.  On the plus side this lead to me to the following site which is quite useful for early Scottish censuses.  This site is Scottish Indexes and I honestly can’t remember how I stumble across this site but I did. It is run by couple who have a genealogy company called Maxwell Ancestry.  Its focus is mainly south Scotland but they do have records from all over Scotland.

I have used their site for searching their census indexes. You can either do a basic or advanced search. I will say those in my searching wild cards are a good option as for example when searching McDougall if the spelling was McDougal the result didn’t come up. The information that they give for census is more detailed than ancestry and some additional information is provided sometimes. One such example is for one ancestor they actually had provided who the ancestor had married. They also seem to be more accurate with the surnames then ancestry.

If you’re having trouble or you want search Scottish censuses for free, give the site a try.

As Always, Thanks for reading

Ancestrychick

ScotlandsPeople Review

Hello,

I finally decided to give ScotlandPeople website a try.  For those who don’t the site is a genealogy record site  for Scottish records. It is run by the Scottish Government as well as the people who fun FindMyPast. This site is strictly a pay for record site, meaning you pay to view the search results as well as the record. This of course has pluses and minuses.

Pluses

You aren’t paying a monthly or yearly etc access fee.

It is more cost-effective that you are only paying for select records.

It give more details and information to records then Ancestry.

It is good to use to get more information then some other sites provide.

Minuses

You can end up paying money for incorrect records.

You have to use credits to view the search results and then a credits to see the actual record.

I don’t find it a good site to use it stand alone, it is better to use in with another site.

Overall I found the site easy to navigate, there is different search options. They do also provide  help for searching. I do recommend looking this over first as will help with searching and also explains what is in the various collections. They do also offer searching for military collections for free. Overall, the help section is quite extensive and worth taking the time to read though to help with navigating the site.

Option 1

Basic Search- this a free surname search that can be done on the site by searching for name and select years. It give you a list of the possible matches in each collection on the site. This is really only good if you want to see if there is a possible chance your ancestor is on the site but again you do have to pay to actual see the results.

Option 2

Searching a specific collection-This does require you to have account to search. It does vary slightly from collection to collection. The basics are you search by names, dates, sex, dates. You also have the option to narrow down by county or major cities and then by districts in those areas. I do recommend narrowing the results if you just clarifying information. If you are trying to find new, then I would recommend not narrowing too much to give you the chance of getting the best result.

Overall, I would recommend using the site in conjunction with another site such as Ancestry personally. I used to clarify or expand on information from Ancestry. I found stand alone it wouldn’t be as useful as the access is more limited to specific records. I will say however that it provides more information for birth, marriage and censuses then Ancestry which is providing the basic information.

As Always, Thanks for reading

Ancestychick

 

 

2016 and Breaking down James Alexander Smith’s brick wall

I have been for ages working on finding out were my great grandfather James Alexander Smith come from. I was able to quickly trace his life after his moved from Ontario to Manitoba in the late 1870s and his life in Manitoba till he died. Little to nothing was known about his life prior to his move to Manitoba.

I knew that he was born in Port Elgin Ontario according to one of his daughters birth certificate and from 1921 census he stated that his father was born in Scotland and his mother in England. It also stated on his obit that two siblings a brother named John and a unmarried sister named Mary were still living and in Southampton, Ontario.

I was recently contacted by someone on ancestry who thought that James’s was a brother of his ancestors and that he had a picture of him. Upon providing my picture of James as well it turned out to be a matching picture.

I myself decided to see what information I could glean from James’s sister Mary as I knew she was still alive in 1949 at time of his death and was unmarried, therefore no name changes to deal with it. I was able to trace her down to a voters list and her brother as well. From there it kept coming and coming with more information and people and I now have fairly comprehensive idea of James Alexander’s Smith life before his move to Manitoba.

I soon will be doing a further post on this family soon

As always, thanks for reading

Ancestrychick

Scottish Probate records on Ancestry

I am trying to get as many confirmed death information in my family tree as I can, Scotland was one of the countries were it was proving hard. I know that one can find information on the Scotland Peoples website, but I don’t like to join sites were its a pay for credit system as I find it can cost you money then for the wrong records.

When doing some searching on Ancestry, I stumbled upon the Scottish Probate records-full name of the collection  here- Scotland, National Probate Index (Calendar of Confirmations and Inventories), 1876-1936.

This collection is found on Ancestry under the wills, probates, land, tax & criminal as opposed to the British version which is under deaths. I am surprised that Ancestry didn’t do the same with this one as it seems that is were more people would be looking.

The information that this collection holds is very similar to the British one. You will at least get the following:

Death date, who the estate went to, value of estate

Previously to this, the options for finding Scottish death records on Ancestry were limited. You could find some in the British records as well as some grave or index records but generally not alot of options.

I know that the options may still be limited with this new collection added but I am hopeful to find at least some ancestors and maybe more records will be coming soon.

As always,thanks for reading

Ancestrychick

 

 

 

 

 

New Ancestry Review

Ancestry has recently switched over to a new version, I have found pluses and minuses which I am going to talk about here.

The homepage is pretty much the same, no changes as far as I can tell.  The tree itself has stayed pretty much the same, minus some color changes.

Now when you view a ancestor in your tree that’s were the changes have occurred. Now ancestors have what is called a life story, which is a more descriptive timeline then there was before.  The changes include a short bio about your ancestor at the top, then a family connection chart, a map and then the actual timeline starts.

I do like the plotting on the map of were your ancestor lived, events happened etc.

The timeline is now more detailed as then before, so as from before, you had the basics such as the life events of your ancestors and now is included births and deaths of family members and historical insights. You can decide to hide the birth/deaths of family and the historical insights. I think the historical insights are useful if you are looking to understand the world that your ancestors was living in but may not be for those who don’t have that interest. The family member birth and deaths,I could honestly take it or leave it, not something I find particular adding any value.

Hints have stay the same except for the adding of undecided option. This option is allowing one to place a hint there they can review again to see if it correct. I do think that is a value added option, instead of  one disregarding a hint or ignoring it. You could always go back and review your ignored hints but undecided is much more of reminder or way of not losing a possible lead.

Overall I wasn’t sure at first if I like the new Ancestry, I think that is a case dealing with the change over and having to figuring things out again.  It did take me some getting use to  the new Ancestry at first. Besides the above changes  and some small changes, I would say that Ancestry has done a good job with the new update.

One option I would like to see added in future updates, is the ability to add a grandchild whose parents are unknown, I have come across this multiple times in my family tree and find it frustrating when you can’t add the child to the family without knowing the parents.

As always, thanks for reading

Ancestrychick

 

Sweeping out the dust and crumbs on the Family Tree, my organization and cleaning methods

Every some often I like to go though my family tree and clean.  Basically this involves going though my tree and checking information for citations or checking that it’s correct. I usually do my cleaning etc when I going though a period of finding no leads.

I find doing this often lead to more information.  I will find censuses I have missed a family member on or information that has no citing attached to it. I like to make sure my information has citing attached to it as I have often found without, you can end up going down the wrong path.

Another thing I like do when cleaning is checking my information against what others have.  I have found this has help me find sources I have missed.  I do find that you have to watch when using information from others as it cannot always be correct. I am often surprised at the number of people who don’t seem to take care with their family trees. I do think that there are those who treat it as a passing hobby and those with a passion for it.  Those with a passion I find tend to be more detailed oriented and information is more reliable.

I tend work along these lines, If the information is sourced and names, dates etc match up then I used it. For unsourced information, I will usually try to find a source myself and if I can’t then I don’t use the information.

I also like to make sure that my information is all is the same format. I am constantly working on this as it is very not keep things consistent when you get caught up in finding information.

For example:

James Jones  Birthdate 18 Feb 2005                 not                 Feb 18 2005

Death  29 Feb 2010

Spouse last name are another area I look at when cleaning the family tree. I often will end up with knowing a spouse first name but not last name. Every once in a while I look at those in my family tree with no surnames and try to find the surnames. My rule of thumb generally with spouses is I take all information from the marriage and date of birth info but I don’t trace spouse’s families or keep that information in my family tree. This is for spouses of those not in the direct descent line. This is of course exceptions but that is only for those double related. I will talk about those in another post.

As always thanks for reading.

Ancestrychick

Mary who stayed in Scotland, Information on Mary Yuill and Family

Most of my genealogy research luck seem to run to my Yuill family, there is were I seem to be able to find the most information. I have made some more inroads in particular to one of James Yuill’s daughter Mary. James Yuill is Mary’s father(see my Yuill Introduction). Mary was one of 2 children who stayed behind in Scotland.

Mary married James Burns(some have it as Burris) Brown in Glasglow on 21 Oct 1821.  They had  7 children

Barbara born in 1822 in Renfrew and Barbara is the child that I know the most about. She married a Daniel McCallum and had 9 children. I will post more about this family in another post.

Robert born 1824 in Renfrew and I believed died between birth and 1835 when the 2nd Robert was born.

Martha born 1826 in Renfrew and have her up to 1851 were she is still living with her mother but unmarried.

Walter born 1828 in Renfrew and only have birth information for him.

Elizabeth born 1830 in Glasgow and have her up to 1851 were she is still living with her mother but unmarried.

James born 1832 in Barony and have him up to 1851 were he is till living with his mother but umarried

Another Robert born 1835 in Barony and have him up 10 1871 and still living with mother and unmarried.

I have not as of yet be able to locate the family on the 1841 census, I have recently found a possible match for Mary and 5 of her children but I am not sure if this is right. I am trying to get an death date for her husband James and her two children Robert and Walter to confirmed that they died before this census.

As Always, Thanks for reading

Ancestrychick

 

 

Research update on James Yuill Family

I have been doing some more research into James Yuill’s parents and siblings.  The information I have so far is:

Parents

John Yuill(will be found spelt various ways) and Agnes Eadie(also spelt different ways) who were married in Hamilton, Lanarkshire, Scotland on July 23 1769.

They had 6 children

John Yuill born in Hamilton, Lanarkshire, Scotland on June 5 1770. I recently came across John as a child of John and Agnes as  I was trying to find so more about Agnes’s birth and parents name. I came across him while searching on family search for more information on Agnes’s background.

Margaret Yuill bon in Rutherglen, Lanarkshire, Scotland on 11 June 1772.

James Yuill born in Rutherglen, Lanarkshire, Scotland on Dec 4 1774. More information is available on James and his family under the Yuill Family category.

William Yuill born in Rutherglen,Lanarkshire, Scotland on 18 March 1777.

Gavin Yuill born in Rutherglen, Lanarkshire, Scotland on Feb 28 1779.   I have been able to find some more information on him. He served in the  British military in Canada. I also was able to locate him on a 1841 Census in Rutherglen living with a wife named Mary and 3 children(not sure if related or not, the children have different last names and no information on the census lists if related or not.) I also have located Mary on the 1851 census but not Gavin, so I’ve estimated that Gavin died sometime between 18141 and 1851.

Thomas Yuill born in Rutherglen , Lanarkshire , Scotland on Feb 13 1781.  I have found some more information on Thomas. I have located him on a register of UK, Register of Duties paid for apprentices indentures 1710-1811 as being a weaver apprentice in Rutherglen in 1795. I also believed I located him on a 1861 census living in Glasgow with a wife named Janet.

Now for the  parents, I have not been able  to find any more information on Agnes. I have found a possible birth for John Yuill. The date of birth in April 1747 and the father’s name is John Yuill, the location is Cambuslang, Lanark, Scotland. Upon doing some further checking,  this would have made him 22 at time of marriage which makes sense.  The name of the father makes sense as he was most likely therefore named after his father and he therefore named his son after him. The location I am not quite sure about but  I did check and Cambuslang is very close to Rutherglen so it is very possible.

 

I have also found some more information about one of James’s  Yuill children, his daughter Jessie. It was known that Jessie married a Witherspoon and ended up in New York City.  The first name of the Witherspoon wasn’t known but the name of her children were. I was able to trace the life of her daughter Clementine Witherspoon and upon finding Clementine’s death record I was able to find the first name of her father which was William. I am hoping this will help find out some more on Jessie and her family.

As always, thanks for reading,

Ancestrychick

Where do the mystery children come from…..

I have come across a lot of people in my family tree whose origins are  what I like to call questionable. By questionable I mean people who I’ve  found who I am not quite sure of their relationship to the family I researching.  I come across this frequently with children.  There is always though who are nieces, nephews etc who origins are easy to find.

Once such example of this is of a little girl who was on one census living with one of my great great grandfather’s family and she is listed as his adopted daughter but has the same last name as him.  This therefore let me to some theories

1. She was a relative’s child

2.  She was of no relation, prehaps a neighbour or family friend’s child whose parents had died or were unable to care for her.  This would lead me to believe that the census-taker simply didn’t ask for clarification of the child’s last name which is mostly likely.

3.  Child born out-of-wedlock

The child only appears on one census, so I that of course adds to the mystery who her parents are.  One  idea I have is perhaps the parents need to go away and the child was living with the family temporarily. I have tried searching for a child with that first name is the birth records around the dates she is born but no such luck.

Another example I have is  of a child who  si consider a granddaughter of one my great great grandparents but it is unclear which of the great grand uncles and aunts child it is. The same child on a later census is considered a daughter of the same great great grandparents. The curious thing is though the child’s last name is the same is the Great Great Grandparents this would conclude to one that the child is from one of the sons mostly likely.  The issue is though I have found which is think is the child’s birth record( I plan to order the record soon to see if I can put an end to the mystery.)  The other issue is one of the daughters is listed married on the 1st census the child shows up on, so I am fairly certain this is the child’s mother but I am not sure why she has the mother’s last name and not the father’s. I have a feeling that her birth record is the clue is this case.

I think this information gives an insight into an ancestor character, it shows how strong family ties were or how close they may have been to neighbours or friends.