Back to Basics
If you have been researching for a very long time and have made good progress, then this research tip is not for you.
This week, I thought I would go back to basics to look at one of the building blocks of family research, the census. For many, the starting point may be our grandparents’ names and approx. year of birth. We can usually work from memory that Grand dad died in such and such and a year, when I was x years old and deduce he must have been born in such and such a year.
Let us imagine the search is for grandfather Daniel, born in Dublin in 1893. The key place to begin would be the nearest census. In an Irish and UK context that would be the 1901 Census. In a US context that would be the 1900 Federal Census.
In this example, we should expect to find Daniel in Dublin as a young child. The very great hope would be to find Daniel living with his parents and perhaps brothers and sisters. In this example, Daniel could be identified with his parents, and there, straight away, you will now have identified your great grandparents as John and Sarah. Not only that, but you will have learnt when and where John and Sarah were born. It may be a cause of dismay to discover, as in this case, that one’s Dublin roots only date to the 1890s. But you will have learnt that Dubliners are hybrids made up of people from every county. You will have learnt that your great grandparents were internal migrants within the island, part of that great wave of hope that the city’s streets could offer opportunities to all. From that time on, the family threw in their lot with the city, and identified themselves as Dubliners. But the fun of family history is then to take the next step back , this time in to civil records to look for the marriage of Daniel’s parents….. bringing you to another record set, the records of the General Records Office.
By Expert Researcher,
Carmel Gilbride
By Laura Carroll
Comments
The trouble with "back to basics" is the possibility of basic errors - which you then build on! If grandfather Daniel is believed to have come from Dublin and to have been born in 1893, the problem is that belief might be wrong or at best inaccurate or "embroidered" for some reason. The date might be out by a few years and "Dublin" may have meant not the city but the county. "Came from Dublin" might even mean he came to England through Dublin port - in which case he may have come from anywhere in the Midlands or even West of Ireland! So finding a "Daniel" in the 1901 Census (the first place to look - and conveniently on-line as well - thank-you NAI!) may be finding "Grandfather Daniel", but it may be finding someone completely different and if you assume that the parents in that census record are your great-grandparents you are then off on a course of errors! The essential key, is some level of corroboration. "The very great hope would be to find Daniel living with his parents and perhaps brothers and sisters." You may not know his parents - after all that is why you are searching! But do you already know of Great Uncle Jack or Great Aunt Mary? If the Daniel found in the census is living with siblings Jack (or possibly John) and Mary (or possibly Marie) you can begin to feel more certain. Perhaps the father's occupation rings a bell - it might be the same as Daniels? Perhaps even your future Grandmother Elsie lives just down the road? However if you don't find any level of corroboration you need to widen the search: - in terms of geography (look in census records beyond the city boundary) or - in terms of time (in this case - for instance - try and find Daniel and any known relatives in the 1911 census as well) - in terms of other records (might street directories help - or in Ulster might the Ulster Covenant/Declaration help?) You might find another possibility for Grandfather Daniel - in which case you need to run with both possibilities until you are certain of one! If however a wider search does not find any other possibles, proceed with caution with the one "possibility" that you have until corroboration turns the possible into a probable or even a near-cert! Sometimes it's a jig-saw puzzle - but that is part of the fun and source of satisfaction.
Yes, but we have to start research from somewhere, and everyone usually starts from what they know. Here's another research tip, 'keep it simple, and focused.'