Want Any Ancestors Found?

[neneithel]

As most of you know, I'm obsessed with family history. In fact, I am almost as interested in other people's ancestors as in my own. So I had an idea (one had to come along eventually!) If there is anyone who would like me to have a go at tracing their ancestors a bit, I'm willing to have a go

Comments

[neneithel]

I'm getting more baffled by the minute on this one. I can't find records online anywhere for Westcliff-on-Sea and, as it is mentioned as a suburb of Southend I tried looking for that and found nothing for that either. Whole chunks of Essex have vanished into the mist. I even tried looking under Kent to see if somebody had got confused with the other Westcliffe.

I would tend to assume what she said about Essex was true. I am very wary of accepting birthplaces given in the census. One of my ancestors changed birthplace with every census. Dad's grandfather proved difficult too. He lied about his age when he married (he wasn't underage, he just didn't want people to know he was about 8 years younger than his wife) and said he was born in Romford. There are Woods all over Romford and I was chasing them all. Finally, thanks to his adoption of a daughter called Edith and his wife being called Minnie, I found him in the census along with his real age and the fact that he was born in South Weald. Presumably he always said Romford because it was the biggest town in the area. I'm now looking for his equally elusive grandfather, James Wood.

Ironically, the one family I never thought I'd get anywhere with, the Smiths, I have traced much further back. They had the decency to choose an unusual recurring name, Philadelphia.