Sometimes elusive ancestors are under your nose all the time...

[benny1982]

As I found out with William Taylor, Sarah Cheek and Sarah Bradford elusive ancestors can be under your nose all the time. Thomas Musgrave wasn't though as he emigrated and it took me a while to find out and I found out because of my curiosity and I looked on the 1900 US census and he was there. But for about 5 years I tried to find out about Sarah Bradford and all I had to do was look at St Mary, Marylebone banns registers for 1834 and find that a Sarah Coombs had her banns to James Bradford read. And I tried for abut 3 years to find the death of William Taylor. I know it has been more than 2 1/2 years as in July 2007 I received his sons marriage cert for 1887 in the hope it would shed some more light but it just said William Taylor, labourer under fathers name. William vanished after 1871 when his wife died. He is not on the 1881 census nor could I find him on the 1891 census but only recently I decided to do more digging and found a William Taylor death in 1898 aged 81 in Rochford district. The NBI has a burial of a William Taylor aged 81 in May 1898 at Canewdon, which was William's last residence in 1871. I checked the 1891 census and found him in Rochford Workhouse aged 74 and his age and place of birth was slightly different to the one he gave in previous censuses. He was under my nose all the time the bleeder.

 

[juliejtp]

Hi Ben,

We are so intent on finding our relies that we get blinkered if we cant find them. One of mine I had gone over and over the same info, went back to the 1841 census for the umpteenth time, turned out the surname had been mistranscribed the 'l' had been missed out.

 

[leefer]

On a slightly different angle when a young lad between the age of 12-15 my temporary foster parents who lived in the New Forest would take me on days out to Salisbury....i loved these days and the only downside was trawling around the shops....Marks and Sparks was a favourite of theres and i must have went in there at least a hunderd times.
Years later when i found my mother and father....father in Southampton it came to light that my mother worked in Marks and Sparks Salisbury and i must have been within yards of her at various times,....its something i still cant get my head around.

 

[benny1982]

All I want to do is find Thomas Musgrave's death now and where Sarah Bradford was born as she died in feb 1851 and she said she was not born in county in the 1841 census.