WikiTree Collaboration and Solving a Years-Long Brickwall

Question

Hello all,

As some of you may know (and the majority of you who may not), the Utting surname is not a very common one. Despite the existence of several branches on WikiTree (which mostly seem to join into three), my own family line has proven hard to track down, and immensely frustrating.

Robert Utting, until last weekend, was a brick wall in my family tree which has lasted since I started researching genealogy in 2016. Though I've dabbled over time, my lack of success meant that I ended up giving up, for all intents and purposes, on ever solving the riddle.

I'm now absolutely thrilled to say that I've finally broken down this brick wall in my tree, with a sledgehammer at that. With the help of Nic Donnelly, Robert's family suddenly fell into place, and I couldn't be more pleased! A few days ago, I worked on writing his biography, complete with research notes discussing how the conclusions were reached, and I felt proud enough of the achievement of WikiTree's famous collaboration and community spirit that I wanted to share it.

It's often been frustrating (and a little upsetting) that I've been able to get as far back as the mid-1500s in some ancestral lines, and yet I couldn't fight my way out of the 19th century with my own surname. I'm greatly appreciative for Nic's help, and I'm looking forward to continuing with my search for my ancestors.

Comments

It is always wonderful to break a brick wall .. and an even better feeling the longer that wall has been a problem!

---

Thanks for sharing your success, Amy.  That encourages me to enlist others to help with my own long-standing brick wall.

---

Congratulations Amy. Wonderful news.

Answer 1

Wahoo! Way to go!

Answer 2

That's great news! 

I found a little mistake in the biography. Just at the beginning of Children and Career, you wrote 

Their first son, Robert, named for his father, was born on 11 October 1010 

The birth year 1010 is likely a typo.

Answer 3

Thank you for highlighting the power of collaboration Amy.

Congratulations on finding that link. You never know where you will find that snippet of information that allows you to move forward.

I heard about people from Bury in Lancashire being buried in my welsh village when their day out on a ship ended in disaster. Would someone expect to find their family buried in a village without any previous connection to them.