Researching side shoots

[Olde Crone]

I know lots of people don't do this, they only research direct relations...but how much they must miss.

I've just gone so far sideways with my research that I've met myself round the other side coming back. However, I have solved several puzzles, noted several complicated family intertwinings (never marry a random stranger, is the Holden motto) and seen a possible fraud. I've also seen a canny solicitor mopping up various properties to his own advantage and it turns out everyone trusted him because he was a rich relation!

I honestly don't know how people have the discipline to stick to a straight line. I always want to see round the next corner in my research.

OC

[Mary from Italy]

I agree, I always go off at tangents, and it often pays dividends.

[marquette]

I went off on a tangent yesterday, investigating the cousin of my husbands 1st cousin three times removed. No relation to either of us really.

He was a well-known career criminal, had several stints in gaol, was involved in a long court case regarding his first wife's will and eventually murdered his second wife and child before shooting himself !

As I read the newspaper reports I wondered how his parents and two sisters coped. The wife and child were shot at her parents house, so there are some reports including her mother and father, and some funeral notices from them, but nothing from his family.

His first cousin was one of the first women to graduate as a doctor, and was well-known in Sydney - luckily they did not have the same surname, but you wonder how a man from this reasonably successful family ended up a career criminal. The only thing I can think of is that he was the eldest child, only son of woman who lost her parents early in her life - did she give him his own way too much ? So that he thought he could just take whatever he wanted ?

It was fascinating and I ended up reading all afternoon.

[tenterfieldjulie]

I've just been doing research for a friend whose half sister turns 90 this year. The Ivey family was fascinating back in Somerset. I didn't get to bed until 2.30 am the other morning.
Then one of the uncles married a lady with the surname of Peisley. (so easy to mistranscibe). Married at Normanton in Qld Gulf country in 1937, when the priest flew in with the wedding cake and boquets.
Finding who Avis Peisley's father was is another story. As she was born after 1914, there is no birth record available. Reading all the stories on Trove was fascinating. The family in hotels, her mother had the name of Mary Elizabeth Rubina Peisley .. finally found marriage at Cobar in 1913 - William Henry Peisley to Mary Elizabeth Rubina Smith!!!! .. I then thought that William Peisley is going to be easy to find .... however I have given up .. no trace of him in Qld .. MER is on Electoral Rolls from 1930 to 1980 ..
In NSW there are squillions of William Peisley in court cases of fraud etc etc ... I have decided I do have to leave the Peisley's in peace and get some sleep.. It really isn't relevant to the Ivey family .. but it was fascinating reading reports of who flew into these places, the droughts, advances, declines in certain areas .. MER gave witness that a man charged with drink driving wasn't showing abnormal signs of intoxication .. he had only 9 small beers .. sounds a bit far fetched, but then in the Gulf it would be going out as fast as it went in ..

[Merry]

I agree OC - If you don't research sideshoots you will miss all those intricate connections where a distant cousin marries the brother-in-law of the sister's husband's uncle.

And before 1837 if you try for a direct line only you will probably come unstuck when there are several people born around the same time in the same place. Which one to choose? *tosses coin* :p

[JBee]

I tried to cut back on my shoots - so just put the parents of the married in's in my tree but now realise sometimes adding the siblings might be useful too.

However I've also found that godparents at a baptism and witnesses at weddings can give useful leads.

[Jill]

There are an awful lot of "visitors" on census nights who turn out to be distant relations of the household, I have had quite a few "ah ha!" moments like that.

[Mary from Italy]

Yes, I always have a good look a lodgers and boarders too, because they often turn out to be relatives.

[maggie_4_7]

I am always going sideways - it is surprising what you find out by doing that. I love it.

Of course sometimes I think where am I when I end up in Australia or the USA following a shoot but I am never disappointed with the information I glean.

[ElizabethHerts]

I love sideways research too.

I'm wading through six Sussex wills from between 1550 and 1646. A couple haven't been what I had expected but one of those was great because the testator named all his cousins - the people I had been looking for in the first place.

I don't think I would have got so far without going sideways.

[KiwiChris]

I often find when I am stuck in my clergy research, that going sideways for a while can turn up some clues that I may have otherwise missed. You can find some interesting people as well!

[Phoenix]

I have an elaborate, sprawling Ancestry tree (with, alas, some inevitable errors) called Hamworthy people simply because that community seemed to move with a herd instinct and all the familiar names in Dorset in the early 1800s had moved on to Portsmouth (or further) by the end of the century.

Migration fascinates me, and it is often at the instigation of a family member that people move. Or because of a neighbour, or close friend, or fellow worker....

[marquette]

When I was looking for a baptism for my 4th great grandmother, I discovered a whole web of intermarriages between cousins and in-laws which stretched from Sparsholt to Dorchester to Reading. Going sideways kept leading me back to the same places !

I cannot imagine being able to restrict myself to my direct ancestors - I am already at a standstill with most of THEM, so I look for clues by going sideways.

[Olde Crone]

Even more in my Scottish research am I amazed at how long country memories were. A girl from a remote Scottish farm marries a boy from another remote Scottish farm 250 miles away. How on earth did they ever meet?

Well, it turns out they were third cousins or something even more complicated and I sit and marvel at how they managed to communicate down the years when they couldn't read and write and there was no postal service.

I've also learned that in Scotland that nearly every lodger, boarder, servant, visitor is a relative and worth investigating.

OC

[Mary from Italy]

I'm still trying to work out why one of my families from Bradford, Yorkshire, has connections in Penge, Surrey. My great-great-grandfather George Inman was born and bred in Bradford, then married a woman from Kent in Penge (in 1856) but moved straight back to Bradford with her; his brother John and family emigrated to the USA via Penge, where two children were born (1857/8); and their uncle David and his family moved there from Bradford (by 1861) and stayed there all their lives.

[tenterfieldjulie]

If you find John Jaffrey he's mine ....
My plurry ancestor told more about her parents than most ... but there is no birth, death or marriage proved, only found her on the 1841 with a 30 yr old mother and a 90 yr old John ... but what exactly is his relationship to my Elizabeth/Betsy ... I dunna kin ..