Friday, June 17, 2011

Genealogy Lessons Learned the Hard Way

Genealogy lesson number 1: NEVER assume anything! I know, you're probably thinking, "well, duh".  I guess I've just been spending too much time on trying to bust down this brick wall surrounding Alderman Pickett. I think my brain is getting scrambled, and I know my eyes are bulging from looking through several images on Ancestry.com!

You know how when you just know you are on the verge of solving  something and you can't stop cause you are waiting for that 'Aha' moment?  Well, that's me. That's where I am at.  I bet I have virtually been to every church in London this week. I have even been dreaming about the Lord Mayor.  I woke myself up the other night when I heard my own voice say "Alderman!"

You're probably wondering, "what's the point to all of this?" So I will tell you. I ran so many searches for Alderman Pickett's children with no success.  So I decided to check Familysearch. Sweet success! I found his son William's baptism record which also listed his birthday.  When I noticed that the baptism date was 30 years after his birth, I assumed it was an error.  So naturally I wanted to find the original image.  For some reason I was not able to find any information about the original document through the batch no.  After a lot of googleing I discovered that the London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 were now available on Ancestry. So here I am looking through all the images for the ST MARTIN LUDGATE, LONDON, LONDON, ENGLAND baptisms. I couldn't find the entry that Familysearch indexed at all!


So I went to the Familysearch Forum and pleaded for help. Thank goodness there was a kind soul there who went to Ancestry.co.uk. and found the entry right off the bat! My folly - I never imagined that he would have been baptized as an adult and therefor never checked under the date that I thought was an error (besides that, he was indexed wrong).


So now I have the proof of his baptism, but now I have to face the possibility that since he was not baptized as an infant, the Alderman's other children weren't either; or am I assuming again?

Genealogy Lesson number 2: Read the fine print on the bottom of your Visa gift card before you try to buy something online from The National Archives!

VALID ONLY IN THE UNITED STATES




3 comments:

  1. OMG! That image you used is soooooo me! LOL

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah, I know about that "never assume" one. And yet I keep on doing it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post and I also happen to be assuming a lot these days! So many brick walls in my own research, but it's a learning curve I suppose! So happy for you, that you were able to obtain the document that you were seeking. I just hope some good luck comes my way too!

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