Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.
I’ve learned a lot of lessons just in the first few years of
researching my family tree. Boy, do I
wish I could zero in on all my mistakes I made….if only I knew exactly what
they were.
Recently, due to one of my new favorite websites I briefly
wrote about here, British Newspaper Archive, a couple of days ago, I found a big mistake.
My 2nd great-grandfather had an eldest daughter
name Selina. I thought it was an
interesting and unique name for a young girl in 1860-70’s Suffolk England. Unique enough that if someone had built her
life up around her subsequent marriage to a Thomas Steele, in those early days
of research, who was I to question? So I
went ahead and added it all to my tree. Selina, her husband and all 8 of their
children. I have received hints in the
last couple of years as to her continued life and those of her children. Luckily, I was too busy looking for more
direct line information to go down that rabbit hole.
Selina shows up in the 1861 census[1] in
Walberswick, Suffolk with her mother Rachel (Howard) Cross and then again with her
father Benjamin Cross and mother in the 1871 census[2].
When I copied her information into my tree after the assumed marriage, I never looked closely at the census records that followed.
A couple of nights ago, while throwing search parameters at
Britishnewspaperarchives.com, I got a hit on Benjamin Cross and a reference to
his daughter dying. It stated, that
Selina, daughter of Benjamin Cross, from Walberwick, had died suddenly at the
age of 15.[3] All the facts fit. How could that be?
 |
| Death Announcement of Selina Cross 1858-1872 |
Once I went back and looked at the life Selina Steele developed with
her husband Thomas, I saw in census after census, it was stated she was from
Bradford Suffolk, not Walberswick.
Most probably not the same Selina in my tree. Cross may not have even been her maiden name.
Based off of this latest bit of evidence, I
removed Thomas Steele and his 8 children from my profile of Selina. It is sad that she died at such a young age,
but we also do not honor her by attaching a life she probably only
hoped she would live.
[3] “Cross,” Deaths, citing death announcement of
Selina Cross, The Ipswich Journal, 14 December 1872, p. 8, col. 2, image copy,
britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk, (http://britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk; accessed
10 Oct 2015)
What a wonderful, though tough, lesson. At least you only lost a handful of people! And, you are honoring her by giving back her own life.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the British newspaper site, too. I only have one, small British family at this time, but haven't looked for newspaper records. I'll check it out!
Thanks Dana. This website, Britishnewspaperarchives.co.uk continues to cough up new gems daily. I need to stop searching and start sourcing so I can get everything into my tree.
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