Paul Cripwell
Started my family tree project(s) as a retirement project, which is great because it will never be done. One tree is for the grandchildren with all four main branches to be developed.
Location Living in Canada, but my family history is in England, while my wife's is in Quebec.
Activity
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Thanks Agnes that helps immensely. It really tells me that the results are totally inaccurate and are best ignored!
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I would like to know from Chris about how much she spent on her research. Not counting subscriptions how much for the various certificates and DNA tests. Don't need to know exact amount but was it less than £100, less than £200, less than £500, or more?
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When it comes to assigning ethnicity or locality from your DNA, how exactly is this accomplished? I know that results can change as more people submit their DNA. This suggests that there is some inherent information about ethnicity or locality with every given DNA sample.
For example if I submit DNA and say I was born in Essex, does that piece of... -
Paul Cripwell made a comment
Well worth the effort!
A lot of what was covered in the course were techniques that I already used, but this put it nicely into perspective.
Like many others I have to go back through all my tree information and do the proper citations and reprove to the GPS! Who knows what I will find.
Among other useful tips I have learned at the extended search...
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Paul Cripwell made a comment
When I was nine my mother took my sister and I back to England for the summer. We toured the country visiting relatives. I was too young to realize what that opportunity meant.
I do remember visiting the house where my father was born, which has since been torn down and is now a block of flats. I remember the enormous backyard of the house and the creek...
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Paul Cripwell made a comment
As others have said, not everyone in a family gets bitten by the genealogy bug!
As the self-proclaimed family historians it is up to us to turn our research into a meaningful and interesting story. I am sure every family has at least one story that could excite others to continue.
There will always be a few that refuse to get bitten. All I can say is...
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Paul Cripwell made a comment
I have general ideas for two books, eventually. This article has let me know how daunting (and expensive) a full book might be.
I think the book plans will remain in play but will take longer than I thought. As others have mentioned it would be best to have the research "complete" before attempting to make anything final.
I have done the first draft of...
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Paul Cripwell made a comment
Have not had a failure, yet! Some backups in place, but need to create an off-site mechanism as well. Hurrah for thumb-drives!
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Paul Cripwell made a comment
For me one of the key dilemmas is how to structure the storage of information outside an application. For example FTM stores all media and generates references where necessary. While this does allow me to see the references when I need to, I also wanted to store things where I understood the structure.
To accomplish this I have created a folder structure...
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Paul Cripwell made a comment
I started with Ancestry on-line and have recently switched to Family Tree Maker. The main reason being that the "original" is under my direct control and the copies and backups are in the cloud.
Regarding other genealogy apps I will stick with FTM. My experience is that new features from a competitor will be quickly duplicated in the one you have chosen, so... -
Paul Cripwell made a comment
One reference type Tahitia did not include was yourself. After all when you are adding family information that you know, you should have a way of recording this so future people know that the source is 100% accurate.
I have been using the phrase: "Known to the researcher", but would welcome other suggestions.
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Paul Cripwell made a comment
Am going to try using One Note. Seems like the right package, just have to figure out how to adapt it to my research process. I am generally terrible at keeping notes, but this video shows the value of the process.
Like others I will be going back through my completed work and doing things better. -
Paul Cripwell made a comment
Was always interested in adding colour to my research. This week has provided many resources (too many?) that need to be followed.
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I belong to the Nottinghamshire Family History Society, which has proved to be a wonderful resource. While BMD information is prominent, they also run monthly meetings, now on Zoom, that feature a single topic. While none have been specific to my research, there is a lot of colour to be had! The online meetings have proved to be a benefit from the pandemic,...
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Paul Cripwell made a comment
Three new bookmarks! I think I will have to live to 150 to get through all of this!
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For me the colour and context are important. The bare facts from genealogy provide the structure but the people aren't "alive" until you can recount their life or lifestyle. This will be true for my main tree that is dedicated to the grandchildren.
Another major tree is tracing the descendants from a single ancestor. This one will probably have less... -
I was able to contact my father's schools and they were able to provide letters and pictures from his record. A real treasure trove!
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Paul Cripwell replied to Jackie Owen
Wonderful family colour!
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Paul Cripwell replied to Dawn Williams
If you don't understand it, stay away from it.
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Paul Cripwell replied to Janet Callender
I think your last point is a valid concern! Not only health insurance but potentially health advice and prescription drugs based on disease affinities found in your DNA.
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Paul Cripwell replied to Anne Guthrie
Interesting that you are putting birth certificates on Ancestry. I had decided not to put any certificates that I purchase in a place where others can see them. After all I paid for them, why should others see them for free! Maybe I'm just being cheap.
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Paul Cripwell made a comment
I have learned that Autosomal DNA tests will not help in my quest for Cripwell's around the world. I have discovered that all (well maybe!) other Cripwell's are seventh cousins and beyond, so this test won't help.
But, then that is good information to have. -
Thanks, I did watch Debbie's presentation and while it answers the question, I would like to see one of those chromosomal graphics with someone's DNA and their parents. Would all the chromosomes be covered?
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Paul Cripwell made a comment
Last comment, I promise!
Level of effort;
Listening to all the videos about DNA tells me I don't know nearly enough about this topic to apply it properly. So much to learn in so many different areas, I just found out there were three different DNA tests, I never knew!
So if I really want to make proper use of this technique, I am really going to have to... -
Paul Cripwell made a comment
Sorry, getting long winded, but hope this provokes thoughts.
Privacy; This is a BIG one.
While each submission is tagged with the fact it is to be kept private, the rules in the age of the internet are unclear, at best, and difficult to impossible to enforce.
Privacy rules are usually legislated and enforced within a country. What happens with your DNA... -
Paul Cripwell made a comment
Biogeographical or ethnicity; my question here is related to the source of information about either geographical location or ethnicity. While your DNA might come back with a link to the geographical area of Devon, what are the elements in the database that lead to this conclusion. Since these relationships change, as the base changes, there must be...
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Paul Cripwell made a comment
Statistical; The DNA molecule is composed of only four different amino acids; Adenine (A), Thymine (T), Cytosine (C) and Guanine (G). Combinations of these molecule pairings make up genes along each chromosome. Statistically speaking these are just strings of letters arranged in a seemingly random pattern. Remember A can only pair with T and C with G, so...
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Paul Cripwell made a comment
Completeness; Here is a question that I hope there is an answer to.
IF I had my DNA test, my parents DNA tests, my grandparents DNA test, would I find the following.
ALL of my DNA would be identifiable as coming from one of my parents, and would ALL of my DNA be identifiable as coming from one of my grandparents. Would this hypothesis be true through all... -
Paul Cripwell made a comment
These talks are fascinating and add much to my knowledge of DNA and genealogy, however a number of new lines of questioning have come up for me, before I would consider doing any testing, or asking for others to do tests. In this discussion thread I will have five different topics that I am hoping the course providers will be able to supply some answers. The...
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Are these the whole books? Or just the first two pages for instructional purposes. I would have expected more pages with stamps and pages missing for goods used. Such pages would add to the authenticity as well as provide insights into the nutrition and life-style at the time. For example how many stamps were used over what time period in each book.
Also... -
The lessons in this course have forced me to go back through my tree. This has served to both extend the branches, based on new research methods, and corroborate existing information. I have found a number of facts that have no attached source or citation. These have probably come from other trees and need to be verified. In many cases I have decided to...
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Paul Cripwell made a comment
Early in my family tree research I made a major mistake, based on accepting hints from Ancestry! Since then I have made use of my scientific and engineering background to always test my hypothesis surrounding a given ancestor. Turns out I was following the Genealogy Proof Standard and didn't know it!
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Paul Cripwell made a comment
One thing I realized and probably others have figured this out as well, is that while you may find references in multiple databases, they are all the SAME record. Just because you find something three or more times, doesn't make it more accurate. It could have been mis-transcribed multiple times.
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Paul Cripwell made a comment
An interesting surprise from electoral records for my grandfather and his brothers is that they were listed in two sets of records, one where they resided and one where they worked. Having an office in London, while residing in locales farther away, such as Sutton Coldfield, was the reason for this duplication.
Were they able to vote twice in an election? -
Paul Cripwell made a comment
The lessons from this week have taught me more about the background of the various databases. This information is crucial to using the best search techniques and interpreting the results that come back.
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Paul Cripwell made a comment
Having a rare surname allowed me to investigate the entire list of Cripwell's in the UK censuses from 1841 to 1911. In 1841 there were only 10 households, and by 1911 there were 48. So I endeavored to find out if they were all related. Of the 10 in 1841, I suspect 2 are spelling mistakes, but 2 are households that I had not yet incorporated into my...
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I started with Ancestry and have become very comfortable with its search engine and capabilities (and failings). Since I bought FTM 2019, I have expanded to FamilySearch which is a site that I am going to have to explore more to get the full advantage.
I am also a believer in local Family History Societies. These are great local resources. For... -
Paul Cripwell made a comment
As a data analyst, before retiring, I am very familiar with handling databases. Understanding how the data is collected and handled are critical to the analysis that can be done, and the accuracy of any results. Genealogical databases are considerably more complex than I originally imagined, but my experience with databases is paying off now. The video has...
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Paul Cripwell made a comment
So many sites to look at! Even if there is no existing information that an ancestor could be on one of those specialty sites (criminals for example) it will be worth checking out. I did a quick search on the main surnames of my ancestors on the prison site and got no hits. Were we all that law-abiding?
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Paul Cripwell replied to Margie Morrissey
Did you try wild cards?
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Paul Cripwell made a comment
Don't know if I found the right one, but a Dorothy Marie Anderson was born December 31, 1899.
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Paul Cripwell made a comment
There was a family story that my great-grandfather ran away to join the railway. Turns out it was largely true, based on employment records I found for the railway. I don't think he actually "ran away", but rather he and his father parted ways many years before. Somewhat of a sad story since his mother died when he was an infant, and his father later...
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Following up on occupation related sites can be very revealing, especially for social aspects of the time. Many of my relatives lived in Ruddington, Notts, and were framework knitters, something I knew nothing about. Finding the local museum was extremely helpful.
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Paul Cripwell made a comment
I have used professional directories in the past, but find them only somewhat useful. Frequently there is no enough information to tie specifically to an individual. I usually have to tie to census or some other source to verify the name with the location and occupation.
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Paul Cripwell made a comment
The local county history society can be a great source of both general social information as well as detailed records. They are frequently a collection place for information spread around the county. The Notts FHS has a Viewer application that is very good for transcribed parish records. They have monthly meetings with a presentation on a specific topic. ...
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Paul Cripwell made a comment
In one case I used the census records to corroborated a multi-marriage situation. In one census there were three different surnames in the same household, nicely tying together the various spouses.
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Paul Cripwell made a comment
I have learned to no depend on a single source like Ancestry. While they do have a lot, there is a LOT more in other locations. Finding and using these other sources will be a challenge along with the problem of keeping my research under control and targeted to an individual. Getting sidetracked is too EASY!
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My question for the live stream is about reverse misspellings. That is are there any proven techniques to deal with the situation where an entry has been misspelled to your target name. Thereby creating additional work to verify that the record should be excluded.
Are there techniques to have such a record flagged or discounted from future searches? -
https://www.hertsfhs.org.uk/
This is the link to the Hertfordshire Family History Society. They can probably help. I am a member of a similar society for Nottinghamshire and find it very useful. -
Personally I am not trying for 100% accuracy, because I don't think that is possible. Rather I am trying to satisfy myself that the information and connections I have made all "hang together".
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I have been painstakingly saving each such record to my computer. This is a long and arduous process, but I think well worth the effort. I have noticed on my computer in the Documents folder a series of folders that seem to have been created by Ancestry and contain a lot of images. I don't fully know what is in there.
Now that I have switched to Family... -
Paul Cripwell replied to Chris Rushton
@ChrisRushton after much experience with dates and spreadsheets, especially with respect to genealogy, I highly recommend using a field for each of year, month and day. One major advantage is that you only have to enter what you know, say year or year-month. The missing information doesn't get misinterpreted by Excel!
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Paul Cripwell replied to April Chavez
Me three!
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Paul Cripwell made a comment
One thing I notice now that is not covered here is the reverse issue of name misspellings. That is when a record has been misspelled from another name to your target name. One has to "prove" (to at least yourself) that the record does not apply to your search.
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Paul Cripwell made a comment
Another major branch of my tree is May. Fortunately this seems to survive unscathed in most records. We have yet to research my wife's Quebec roots where a whole different set of misspellings are expected. Her last name is Sawyer, which is a rare French surname, originally Sauer from Germany. For those who know French, they will recognize that the "w" is a...
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Ultimately the best research log for you is the one that you create. By all means take the ideas of others, but don't feel obliged to follow exactly. After this course I have to completely rethink my research approach including a new filing system. So far I have a folder for each "family", in there is a family group sheet and individual folders for each...
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Paul Cripwell replied to Paul E
In some cases you can use a ? to finish a name so John? could be Johnson, or Johnston. Careful because character conventions vary from site to site.
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Paul Cripwell replied to Kate Hollows
I can see why one would like to take the course first and then put what one learns into practice. Personally I am not like that, but would rather dive in, fiddle about and make lots of mistakes. Then when I take a course like this, I have much more context to work with.
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As we went through this exercise and everyone was commenting on different things they saw or different aspects of the situation. It reminds me that one of the reasons I am taking this course is to find a way to keep my research under control. Here was an example of one simple census record that led us in all kinds of different directions! How do I keep this...
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Paul Cripwell made a comment
At the beginning of each census book there is usually a description of the path the enumerator took to do their route. Before accepting final locations I would refer to this. The street name of Crown St. could not be found in modern day Google Earth in either Redlingfield or Bedingfield.
I also looked at FreeReg but could not find the appropriate parish to... -
Paul Cripwell made a comment
Just discovered that the Parliamentary Burough should by Eye not Eyre. Google Earth (yeah!)
Another thought is the first name could be Trissel. Occasionally one sees a double 's' as a 'f'. Quick search shows that both Trifel and Trissel are possible family names from this time period in the UK. So this is potentially his mother's maiden name. -
Good job checking other sources! Something that we have to keep in mind all the time.
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I use the computer to blow up the image. There are frequently little marks that need to be deciphered.
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Paul Cripwell replied to Paul Cripwell
I can only suggest taking your time and being painstakingly meticulous before you make any decisions about who is who.
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Paul Cripwell made a comment
Well Week 1 is done and I may not have learned anything new. Importantly I have learned that I haven't done anything radically wrong in my first years of working without this kind of guidance.
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Paul Cripwell made a comment
For me the big takeaway from the first week is: People lie!
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Paul Cripwell made a comment
I have a rare and unusual surname, so I naively treated it as an almost guarantee of uniqueness in my searches. When I started building my tree I had a Richard, who had a son Richard who had a son James. I naively thought that this was unique. As I gained experience I paid more attention to the locations and discovered they were in different towns about 10...
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Paul Cripwell replied to Don Way
What country are you dealing with?
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Paul Cripwell replied to Janet McKay
Hi Janet; my first concern is that Wisconsin and Markham are a long way apart. Yes William McKay is a common name, the odds of two born to the same named parents in the same year are possible. If you could find the passenger list for the 1837 trip that would be something to check. Maybe there were two William McKay's on board.
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In the same vein, the lists of people who have become naturalized citizens of countries.
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Air travel passenger lists would be wonderful, but there are many privacy issues I think. Also the sheer volume of this data could be overwhelming. Most of these are probably already electronic.
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Check out the FreeReg project. Lots of work going on there and more help is needed.
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Phone books would be good, but unfortunately only list one householde member.
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I have heard good things about Fold3, but have never used it.
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@TraceyMullis I agree about the 1939 Registry. My mother passed in 1998 and her record is still locked. The fact that she died in Canada and there is no one "back home" to inform the registry is probably part of the problem. My aunt passed in 1996 in the UK and her record is open. When I checked about opening these records the process seemed daunting and...
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The short answer I believe is yes. The long answer is how to find them. Hopefully some will be provided as course resources, but others may have to be found the hard way.
I am a firm believer in serendipity! -
Always read the help section for each index as wild card conventions vary from site to site.
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Remember also that the 1841 census was very poor for adult ages, which were recorded to the nearest 5 years. With lots of discretion and interpretation by individual enumerators!
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Paul Cripwell made a comment
My family emigrated to Canada in 1953, but I could find no record on passenger lists. I greatly expanded the search criteria and finally found the records. We had been listed by our first initial, all three of us were "J". To me this is an example of a primary record with respect to passage dates, but secondary for names and ages. When I examined the...
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After the 1837 registry began in the UK, especially the early years for a family to not record a second child under certain circumstances. When the first child died in infancy and a second child was given the same name, the cost of registering the second birth was too much and the first one was re-used.
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Most government docs don't like people being called by their middle name, I know from first hand experience!
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Paul Cripwell made a comment
I use census data from the UK a lot, especially from 1841 to 1901. During this period most census data was taken by enumerators that went door-to-door recording the information about the people (not just family) staying overnight at that address. Logistically it is impossible to visit every house in the country on the same night. Therefore it is quite easy...
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Paul Cripwell made a comment
Hi all. I am in Ottawa, Canada and retired three years ago, taking up genealogy to keep my mind going and to provide a family history for my grandchildren. I have one main tree with the four branches, two in the UK and two in Canada. My second tree is a descendancy tree and is attempting to answer the question; are all the Cripwell's in the world related? ...
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Paul Cripwell made a comment
Hi all. I am in Ottawa, Canada and retired three years ago, taking up genealogy to keep my mind going and to provide a family history for my grandchildren. I have one main tree with the four branches, two in the UK and two in Canada. My second tree is a descendancy tree and is attempting to answer the question; are all the Cripwell's in the world related? ...
