Losing the plot?!! - Genealogists' Forum

Merry · #1 16-11-12, 11:28

I looked in the online papers for a possible death notice for my relative. Didn't find anything but did spot an entry some 40 years later which I thought might be when his son of the same name died, so took a look at that instead.

Turned out to be a coroners report about the son, telling in graphic detail of his death when he fell on the fire in his home, receiving burns from which he died a couple of days later. Read the report (quite long) to OH and when he got fidgety because the fifth and sixth witnesses repeated what all the others had said already, I commented that I was sorry but I hadn't read it before, so didn't know what I was going to quote before I got to it!

Anyway, then I went to my tree to see what info I already had about this poor man. Guess what???? I think you know already......I already had all this info but don't remember a single thing about it!!

Langley Vale Sue · #2 16-11-12, 12:36

Oh Merry.

My excuse is my age when I do things like that. You can't even cite age as the cause!

You're much too young for CRAFT (Can't Remember A Flipping Thing) moments.

Merry · #3 16-11-12, 13:24

lol Sue! I'd not come across CRAFT before, but I expect I'll have it soon if not already!

I wouldn't have minded if I'd remembered the newspaper clipping as I read it, but I had no recollection of it at all. I just had a look to see how long ago it was since I first saved it and that was May 2009. Perhaps I have amnesia?!!

Olde Crone · #4 16-11-12, 20:35

You certainly aren't the only one losing the plot.

Yesterday you gave me the names of some tree owners on ancestry. I quoted these to the friend concerned and she suddenly said "Ah! that's what I did with all the papers you sent me, I sent them to G, my cousin. Oh, no wonder I can't find them."

And just now, on the never ending trawl of James Holden marriages, I find a postem on Freebmd and open it all excitedly.

It's MY postem.

OC

Merry · #5 16-11-12, 21:28

lol OC!

I hope J or M, or whatever her name is, can get the papers back from G - that will save someone some work!!

Nell · #6 17-11-12, 08:10

Merry

Losing the plot is part of being a family historian. But I'm a little surprised you forgot all about this as its so dramatic and tragic. I often find I've already got details of a marriage or that the witnesses are people in my tree already but I hadn't clocked it.

Now I've found the right gt gt grandmother for my ex, I'm appalled at how I was led up the wrong branch of the tree on the basis of her brother's entry in 1881 census. In fact it wasn't her brother, it just said lodger, as KiteRunner pointed out. I'd assumed because his surname was the same as her maiden name, and they'd both been born in Long Acre, that they were siblings.

Merry · #7 17-11-12, 09:00

Perhaps it's easier to remember information when it came on the back of a long complex search? It's likely I found that newspaper article by chance the first time as well as the second time and it took no effort to find!

I've just resolved a similar situation re census entries to the one you mentioned. One of my relatives is a single male lodger in a house and there is a child there with the same surname described as grandchild to the head. I decided the grandchild would be a niece of the lodger as clearly a daughter of the householder had married one of the lodger's brothers. It took me for ever to work out who the child's parents were, only to find the father apparently had no connection whatsoever to the lodger!

I must record this lack of success somewhere as otherwise I'll be doing it all again in a couple of years!! (makes me wonder if I've done it before and don't remember!!)

JessBow · #8 18-11-12, 07:13

When eventually I had my ''look at your file' meeting with my adoption worker about 15 years ago, she told me that my birth mother named me Anne.

I remember going back to Mum and Dad and saying that I was suprised she given me a name at all. ( I wasn't as clued up then!)

Mum replied ''You have always known she called you Anne''

Really? I didn't know, at least I dont think I'd even been told, and if I had, I think I'd have asked the question that I then asked the adoption lady long before. ( I asked her if it was spelled with or without an E on the end)

If I really had been told, how come I'd forgotten?

#9 18-11-12, 08:16

Jess it is what is called being human.
We aren't computers we cannot possibly retain all we hear and see.
I think since the advent of computers, we are all suffering from information overload. Our brains are smarted than we realise and delete stuff from our brains, especially if there is trauma around it. Maybe at the time it wasn't something that your subconscious wanted to hear. Now you are older and more mature, if you want to, you will remember.