Hi I am from Australia and am looking for Jacobus (James), Thomas and Johannes (John) Henderson, all brothers. Their parents are thought to be Thomas Henderson and Mary (Maria) Hendrick. I have found several other members of this family or the St Nicholas churchrecords site and have found the marriages for Thomas and Jacobus and the christenings for their children there. There is also another sister christened at St Mary in 1834 so there is a possibilty that these brothers may have been christened there before that time. There is a 10 year gap between Mary christened 1838 and Elizabeth christened in 1848 but as the first child that I have found for the three boys were 1854 and 1855 I feel that they wouldn't fit in that gap. Maybe there are still more siblings that I haven't found. Those that I have found from tge churchrecords site are Mary Ann christened 1834 St Mary, Richard christened 1837 St Nicholas, Mary christened 1838 St Nicholas and Elizabeth christened 1848 St Nicholas. I have no information on their parents Thomas and Maria at all. I feel that the boys may have been christened in the late 1820's to 1834.
Maxeine
Thursday 21st Mar 2013, 11:58PM
Message Board Replies
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In this example I was looking for a Minnie and Catherine Wiley sisters parents unknown.
How I did it was to use the pay to view site
I did firstly a national search for Minnie which threw up a couple both in Antrim. I then switched to County Antrim.
By playing about with the date range I was able to narrow down the baptism to a specific year. I still have not used the pay to view option yet nor used up any of my limited number of free previews. Once I had a Minnie I had to find her parents first names. I started with father first name a - this would bring up any firstnames starting with "a". Working through the alphabet got me to H when I got a hit adding further letters and worked out father was Hugh. Search then for Wiley children no firstname father Hugh within ten years of Minnie. Got 6 hits and using same technique was able to work out the 6 names - but no Catherine. Minnie is a common nickname so reverted to Catherine. Broad search found two which narrowed down to one in 1868 and one in 1872. Was able to work out 1868 was daughter of John and Mary. Broad search found no other children to this couple. 1872 Catherine was daughter of John and Jane and a broad search threw up 9 children. Plodding through the alphabet got me Alexander, Eliza, Catherine, Eleanor, Francis, John, James, Samuel, Wilhemina, which was more complicated since it is usually spelled WilheLmina. Catherine I knew was 1872, and bit of playing about with date range got me 1881 for Wilhemina. Age gap fits the two sisters although the ages are well out - no surprises there!
You can play about with the dates until you match up the other 7 children. You can refine it a bit more by choosing one child then working your way through the drop down menu of the various parishes until you get a hit. Then you can see if all the other children were also in the same parish. Bearing in mind couples did move about as well as changing churches. It is quite possible that these 9 children were born to more than one couple named John and Jane. Getting one transcript should give mothers maiden name and doing a broad search for baptisms to John and Jane with new surname hopefully should confirm 9 children. However many older records do not list mother's maiden name. Using this technique you can gain a lot of data without using up your limited number of free searches or having to buy any transcripts.
Bob Graham (County Fermanagh XO)
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This website does have many records but it is by no means complete. It also has some idiosyncrasies all of it?s own. There does not seem to be any consistency in it?s recording of not listed data. In some instances if data was not recorded ?not recorded? is shown in others ?none? in others ?unknown? and in many cases the field is left blank. If you want to search for a child?s birth that had been recorded without a name you have a problem.If you leave the field blank you get everything. You can obviously get those where ?none?, ?not recorded? or ?unknown? was listed but there is no way to get one search that lists all those instances where the chosen field was not recorded.
Searching for couples also has problems. You can find John m. to Mary but no matter what is entered in the bride surname field you get no matches found. I have found one case where I can find the bride married to groom first name and surname, but when I reverse it the groom married to bride first name surname gets no match. Sources of data also can be a mystery. I have seen data of baptisms/births which occurred pre 1864 and should therefore be a church baptism, but the record they produce gives a Registration District, which did not exist at the time of the birth.
It is a transcription based site and as such you must expect the odd error. It is also hit and miss as to how much data they have. Fermanagh is very poorly represented, and in fact most of what is there is available for free elsewhere.
It is ulitmately a tool to use in your search and is best to check anything important with the original source, and should not be relied on as a fact until you get confirmation. It is useful to narrow down your search to a specific parish or church, but it would always be advisable to back it up with confirmation.
Bob Graham (County Fermanagh XO)