Every family has its mysteries. No matter who you are, someone of importance or run of the mill genealogist, like me. As we research and delve deeper into our ancestors, we discover anomalies. These anomalies will vary with each discovery.
Anomalies.
Part of this process requires a lot of patience and detective work. What are these anomalies? You may find a name change. You may find a child born out of wedlock. There may be underage births and/or marriages. You may find that information found or given doesn’t match. These all-form part of the mysteries hidden within a tree. If you are persistent, like me, digging deeper and looking outside of the box helps.
The meaning of anomaly: “1. Something different, abnormal, peculiar, or not easily classified, 2. Deviating from the common rule, 3. The angular distance of a planet from its perihelion as seen from the sun”.1.
Identify.
Within my research, I have found what people commonly referred to as a road block. Please remember, not every road is passable. I have come across a number of anomalies. I found a number of births occurring way inside the expected nine months after a marriage. Also, a number of births outside of wedlock. Births by an unmarried daughter where the child is taken in by the daughter’s mother as part of the family as a son or a daughter. There had been many cases of children born to a mother, where the father has not been identified. How many of these instances have you come across?
DNA.
With some of these instances no matter which road you take in an attempt to discover the answer, it remains unresolved. With developments in DNA, there may be a possibility of making some progress. It may be a long shot but if we don’t try, we never know. A word of warning: going down rabbit holes can be very time consuming. There are endless roads you may travel without any answers. It’s the unknown that becomes a mystery and you may never find an answer.
Plan.
Use strategic thinking when chasing any mystery and have a plan. Start with having a research question, as you would with any quest. Within the plan, have a time limit. Within this time limit, the number of hours is probably not practical, spanning several months is better. This is not a process of instant gratification. Setting aside a few hours each session to begin with, can be built into your plan. Keep a research journal to keep track of the records you have reviewed. Make sure you record contacts with people. Cross-reference all records found.
Things to note: contacting people may take some time to obtain a response. Realise, some may never respond. Build all of this into your plan. Remember without a plan you can spend years chasing shadows and still miss real clues.
Jigsaw.
Within mysteries, there are the secrets, the tears and the hidden truths. These mysteries can span across generations. I am unable to provide full examples due to confidentiality of those within my tree. It doesn’t take a degree to work out some of these when looking at a tree.
It all comes down to how you treat each piece of your jigsaw puzzle and what to reveal. The hidden truths can and are usually found. Information you find may be different to the family stories you have heard. It’s gathering the evidence to back up the findings. The tears come if and when you ask questions. You may wonder why and dismiss it thinking, “Oh, they are just sensitive.” Have you questioned yourself, maybe the person is hiding something and they don’t want the truth to be found. It’s just a thought but… Usually, if there is a secret, it will be found with all the detective work you do.
Investigate.
The examples I have been referring to here, are about female ancestors. This is not surprising as they seem to always be on the receiving end. Even when you delve back hundreds of years, the “blame” falls on the female, whilst the male gets away with whatever. Now, comes a question relating to males listed in your tree. It is more to do with the male siblings. How many males have you come across in your tree who were “a bachelor”, “never married”, “a confirmed bachelor” or even “a victim of changing circumstance.” These last three terms are interesting for you to investigate.
Development.
Another interesting exercise is to look at UK census records and follow a “bachelor”. What do you find? One of my ancestors’ male siblings shows an interesting, shall we say, development. Newspapers, of the day, are also a good avenue to check out.
Hidden.
Finally, remember world events and the effects that they may have had on your ancestors. Examples could be World War I, World War II, any Civil War, the Middle East conflicts and the list of wars goes on and on. Plagues, epidemics and pandemics should be checked and again, it goes on and on. What is hidden in these events?
Explore and Discover.
Acknowledgements:
1. Anomaly meaning: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anomaly
All images have been created in AI via ComfyUI.
PLEASE NOTE: The images are AI’s version of the written text and do not represent actual events or facts. These are part of the mysteries.
Ancestor Family 