researching individual people

[scott7saunders]

Hey,

I think I am a missing something here and perhaps the experts on this forum can offer me some advise.

All this time I have been looking for the connection between people as well as their key bits of information such as birth, marriage and death.

Should I be researching individuals in more details or is there some system that should be used when trying to piece together details about the individuals.

It just seems like I am not finding anything out expect the link through time.

Thanks

 

[ptjw7]

Not to sure what you are expecting to find!
It all depends on what they did in life as to whether they made the papers or not, even then it can be difficult to actually say it is the same person or not.


Peter

 

[davelambert271]

I'm also a little confused about what you are trying to find. can you give us an example?

dave

 

[DaveHam9]

I think the answer depends very much on the time and place. For example if searching in say Ireland before 1850 it would be difficult to find much at all about the life of an individual. You might get baptism record if you are lucky. You might get some details from newspapers depending on position in society. You might get details such as height and colour of eyes and hair if they were convicted and transported.

In other places and times it would be easier to fill in a person's life story. There is no set system. You usually don't know what sort of information might be found. You would hope for the important details such as a baptism record but you won't always find it. I'm missing one for my 3xg grandfather from around 1795 in England.

You can be lucky with some if you find an obituary in a newspaper. For others the only source is the oral history passed down the generations. For many there is just the baptism, marriage, electoral roll, and death and burial records and not much more. It connects individuals to form the tree but does not give you much about what the actual person was like.

Dave