I shouldn't even post this about my pathetic genealogical troubles, but since I almost had to write it out anyway to help clarify my mind, here it is. I realize very few will have any interest whatsoever, but I know that some of you do have some experience and may have thoughts.
I have recently posted that I can trace Scottish ancestry back quite a way, and I have more recently unearthed some Cornish ancestry which also goes back quite a way. However, I have had trouble getting past my GG Grandfather, William Robinson. This is the Irish side of my genealogy or at least one of the Irish lines.
We know that my great grandfather was Israel Robinson, and it seems certain that his father was William. It was there that I drew a blank on the Ancestry website. Perhaps I require a higher level of membership, but I decided to try familysearch.com of the Latter Day Saints denomination (Reorganized Church of?).
Here's what I think I know for sure about the this branch of the family from the Ancestry site.
- According to the 1851 census, my G Grandfather, Israel, was 14 and was living with a William Robinson, age 66. The census lists William as bring born in Ireland, and it follows that would have been ~1785.
- There was also a Mary Robinson, age 51, who was born in Canada. Presumably and later confirmed, this would be William's wife and Israel's mother..
- The next census, 1861, shows William as 74 (not 76?) and Israel as 24. It doesn't list a wife named Mary although she, apparently from later data, lived until 1881.
- I also have a record of marriage between, Israel Robinson, and Elizabeth Drew on December 31 1872. William Robinson and Mary Brown were listed as parents. Therefore, I am as certain as can be that William is my GG Grandfather and that he was born in Ireland ~1785.
- I think that I can also be sure Mary Brown was William's wife and the mother of my grandfather, Israel.
- There was a William Robinson born in Ireland ~1785, and he married a Margaret McDonald (perhaps McDonough) in Ireland. They had three children from 1811 to 1819.
- Although it would seem that he could have been any William Robinson, FamilySearch records do have this William Robinson as also being a person who died in Stormont, Ontario, Canada in 1876. This fits my GG Grandfather just about perfectly..
- If this was, indeed, my William Robinson, his parents were James Robinson and Mary Mead (back on the Irish side of the ocean again).
22 comments:
I wonder how many wives left behind with the promise of being brought to the new land by many a man & yet never heard of again. I think there is a novel in all the questions of how many wives!
You and David share a similar racial background. He is Irish and Scottish on his father's side and English on his mother's side.
Just going from my experience along these lines, wives often died in or after childbirth due to the times and non-existent healthcare. Men remarried and continued siring children. I probably couldn't count the number of ancestors I have had using all my fingers and toes, where this was the case. Often, remarrying was a necessity as there were lots of kids to take care of and no such thing as daycare.
Although not asked, I have seen the country of birth being wrong so many times to accept it as gospel. Especially in cases where a parent dies young, as so many did, the kids often really don't know where they were born. I had one ancestor that listed his place of birth as two different states and two different countries across four census records. It really made tracking down his parents challenging.
Another thing, when determining wives and whose child belonged to whom, the best way to sort that out is to look for marriage records for the children, i.e. Israel and all his brothers and sisters. I'm guessing most marriage records list the parents and just doing a cursory search for Israel's marriage to Elizabeth Drew, it lists his parents as William Robinson and Mary Brown.
Similar experiences. And I also might point out that most census data is collected mid or late in the year, so some folks will have already had their birthdays that year...which leaves us with their ages at the time of census perhaps a year early or late. Multiple wives seems a good question...and I'd list them both for now. I wonder if the actual census data says wife, or perhaps there could have been a sister in the household...however, usually the wife is listed right after the head of household, and aunts, sisters, mothers etc will be later after the children. I agree with Ed that often the country of origin isn't accurate, even on death certificates. You may be able to find more marriage documents eventually, to help clarify which woman was your great grandmother.
You never know what interesting things you’ll uncover when you go digging into your family history.
One wife in Canada and another back home makes for a good, though sad, story.
An interesting read .... I like using Familysearch.org as well.
I truly admire your efforts toward this. Your grandchildren willve thankful.
My friends have had issues with Irish records, and the names (although unusual to us) were very common. It's easy to get a hold of the wrong person. Do you have DNA matches that track back so that you can verify the correct person?
You pique my interest in getting back into genealogy research. I was working on my husband's ancestry but got so aggravated with Ancestry because of the excessive hints to wade through and links to others' research that didn't always jive with what I knew.
That is provoking.
Yeah...my family had a habit of simply getting up and walking out of relationships and getting married w/o having done anything about the inconvenient previous marriage. It gets confusing.
One has to check every bit of information very carefully which you are doing here. There are some interesting stories that are found.
I have never really gotten involved with genealogy other than remembering my parent’s and grandparent’s stories about our relatives. It seems too daunting to investigate, and I have no real insight on how to conduct a genealogical study.
PipeTobacco
Over here I have one Charles Gunthorp with five or six wives. Oh, Lots of kids too.
This is why I left my sister to try to get into the family history. She got burnt out, I believe, and quit years ago--LOL! ;)
Here's the one that stumped our family: My grandfather's older brother died as an infant. My grandfather arrived two years later. He was given the very same name as his dead brother. Since birth and death certificates were iffy back about 1875, it was my daughter who finally unravelled that mystery of the fluid birth date.
What Ed said about the multiple wives. I also use both the search facilities you list, and find that there is an uncertainty about the Mary/Margaret name - often interchanged. And reading dates off documents is often a matter of some guesswork. If you can afford to download the original document, you can make your own try.
I have three generations on my mother's father's side with the same damn name. Identical. And their wives are sometimes listed with birth name and sometimes not. Again, download the original if you can, magnify and give it your best guess.
Is there anyone else in your family doing similar research. That often helps. My father had a cousin who went to original sources in England as a retirement avocation and he got some invaluable material from church registers. Again, though, the handwriting can be open to interpretation.
Um, sorry, this is too long.
I really admire how you and Ed are able to figure all this genealogy out.
Genealogy is my passion. My Irish line drives me mad! I'm thankful to be 95% Scottish as a result!
It is an interesting hobby. I've had complaints about the length of my posts, but I like to reflect. I like to write things out, as well. It helps one process it all. People are perfectly able to skim, should they desire, like you glancing at my videos!
I've had a few bad days. It's been such a time. Good to see Sue's pretty face!
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