Norman kindly stepped in at the last moment
due to illness of the proposed speaker.
"Always kill off your ancestors" was
how Norman started his talk. He pointed out that
after years building your family tree it was
unfortunate to find that great grandfather died
age 2 years.
If you have facts that do not seem to fit
there may not be anything wrong - but then
again maybe there is. It’s
always best to check thoroughly, using all
avenues available.
Although he had been researching his family
for many years he found that he ended up a ‘wrong
branch’ of his tree. He went on to explain
just how he found out his tree was wrong, and how
he corrected it.
Norman also told of his Grandmother, who
always celebrated her birthday in February but
when she died they found that she was in fact
born in January. The reason for this being
that when the parents went to register the birth
they were outside the six week period that the
birth should have been registered, and would
therefore have to pay 2s 6d, so they changed the
date to February in order to avoid payment.
He also said to watch ‘age’ on both
marriage certificates and the census because
sometimes the young tended to "take years
off", whilst as the elderly reached 70 years
or so they tended to "add them on". So
a wrong age on the census for instance may not
mean that you have the wrong person – but
do - check it out thoroughly.
