What's your most frustrating region to have family from?

Question

I'm just venting a bit and at the same time, putting out a question for people.

What is your most frustrating region to have family from, in terms of brick walls and or lack of records.

Mine is Pennsylvania.  Every single family I trace into Pennsylvania, simply vanishes without a trace.  For me, it's the black hole of genealogy.

I cringe every time I see Pennsylvania as birthplace, because it means it's an automatic brick wall.

Seriously? Did anyone out side of Philadelphia, ever keep a single record of birth, death or marriage prior to 1900?  Sometimes I wonder.

Regions effected by War, Poland, Russia, or even parts of Virginia, I can understand as records were destroyed.   But this I cannot.

Sorry about the rant and perhaps I'm generalizing a bit, but, I was just feeling a bit frustrated today.

But if anyone else would like to vent their frustrations about a different area, please do.

What's the area that makes you most want to pull your hair out????

Thank you.

craig

Comments

Great question! (And wonderful answers...seems as if there are quite a few opportunities for helping one another here). I thought my regions were Ulster (County Tyrone) and SE Poland (Ukraine), but I have since reconsidered. I have ancestor brick walls in two names, Boyer and Palmer. They are both SO numerous and names so often repeated, that I believe I will never untangle them! It hurts worse because there ARE so many records!

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Ireland.  I'm leaving that for the next generation.  There are too many O'Connors and Shanes and not enough information from the previous generation.  

Italy is also a brick wall.  My Italian grandfather is sure to have changed his name to Rand because I haven't found any in Italy.  But what did he change it from?  Again, I don't have enough information from those who have gone before me and it looks like I am not going to get any either.

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Frances Doyle, where did your Italian grandfather settle in the U.S.? The reason I ask is because my husband's family all settled in the same town. They came from one town and seemed to emigrate, en masse to a U.S. town. Those people have long memories and could probably tell you how the name was changed. Have you found him in a census? One of the censuses that listed the dates of immigration and/or the date of naturalization? Sometimes the parents' names were listed on the documents. If you can find the year, know the area of Italy, you can search boat lists for someone of that age, with that name. Might work!

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Ciao Alexandra,

He was born around 1840 and arrived here in 1854 according to the 1900 census.  His name was Jasper Dominic Rand on the census.  That is all I have on his origins.  I am the oldest generation now and the only genealogist in the family so no one has any info.  I did make contact with a granddaughter from his third marriage but she didn't know anything either.

My mother told me that he jumped ship so, if true, he didn't come here legally.  But on the other hand by the time my mother told me that the story had probably changed several times.  But I am sure the he had a more Italian sounding name when he left Italy.  I'll check Palermo to see if there are any names starting with Rand.

He worked had a fruit stand in New Orleans before moving to Pensacola, FL.

Thanks for helping.

Francesca

Answer 1

I also agree that Pennsylvania is a challenge. Hard to find women's maiden names, parents' names.

Ironically though, I've also noticed similar issues with another Germanic part of the US: Shenandoah region of Virginia. It's also known as heavily settled by many German families.

One of the good things that they both have in common is that it seems many of the German families rarely moved. If you find your family was in one particular county in Pennsylvania, their descendants (or ascendants) more than likely stayed there. One research strategy that seems to help in these Germanic areas is to look for family in the same cemeteries, or nearby cemeteries in the same county.

On a completely separate note, I would also throw in a vote on Tennessee, as someone else mentioned. I've had difficulties with records there too. Not sure if that's due to losses in the Civil War, or what.

Comments

Looking  in Pennsylvania remember that some of the counties where much bigger back then so look in census records of the surrounding counties you may found your family there.

Answer 2

I've found something similar with Tennessee, but maybe I'm just not looking in the right places.

Answer 3

My worst is an unspecified Germany. Prior to the 20th century there was no such country and there were so many duchies and power struggles and wars shifting the borders.  In some areas lots of church records were destroyed.  Even where they survive, only a very few survive.  If you are lucky enough to find available records, often they are available only for a very short period of time not long enough to trace parentage. Then there is the script and language barriers. Its a very slow process with lots of brick walls unless you get lucky.

Answer 4

Dominica, one side is Kalinago and I'm not sure what kind of records they have or if they even kept records, the other side records were lost to fires so I'm fresh out of luck especially since my grandparents never spoke about their family.

Answer 5

For me, the genealogical black hole / brick-wall nexus is Newfoundland, Canada. For most of my other family branches (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and New England, for the most part) getting back to the 1700s is the norm and into the 1600s fairly common. But in Newfoundland, I can't trace a single line past about 1820. It's maddening!

Comments

Sean, Hi, and why not try to find a public office where attracting people to live and work there is a priority? If they in that office confide in you, that may lead you to fertile fields and valleys. The folks you know are there can't always hide. --And let us know how this works, Okay?????!

Answer 6

Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Nova Scotia, Ireland. I've gotten really spoiled with doing eastern Massachusetts colonial profiles. Newly settled areas (where people haven't decided they need to keep records yet) or people who migrated (eg to a different country or state) are almost always problems. .

Answer 7

I agree about Pennsylvania. If a search takes me there, I just return to a different line..don't even go there. My next black hole would be New Hampshire. Too many Tandys there and not a single connection to my third g-grandfather's birth records or parents. He indicates on N.Y. censuses that he was born in New Hampshire in 1805 (this year varies from 1804-06) in three censuses), but no sign of a William Tandy born during those years anywhere. And the surname doesn't turn up in autosomal or Y-DNA matches.

Answer 8

Maine or NH. The records don't go into as much detail as Massachusetts records. Mass is like "Here ya go. Want some records? Sure!" NH and Maine? Not so much. That takes more work to figure out.

Answer 9

Ireland!  My aunt put together a genealogy of our Irish ancestors in 2002.  She had the names of the fathers of my two ancestors who married in Ireland and immigrated to the U.S.  Not only have I not found any additional ancestors there, I haven't found a single new fact or source.  The whole country is a complete brick wall to me.

Comments

Ireland for me, the few records I have after they immigrated all have different spellings of their surname Bourke, Bourk, Burke,  The public records office of Ireland ,held Irish census records, wills dating back to the 16th century, and more than 1,000 parish registers with records of baptisms, marriages and burials. Records were for the entire island of Ireland up to 1922. this was blown up on 30th June in 1922.

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I third Ireland :/

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I agree, Ireland 100%. And, of course, United States records indicate most, if not all my fraternal ancestors were from Ireland.

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Ireland for me as well, especially Church of Ireland records (or lack thereof).  My direct line Irish ancestors came to Canada mostly between 1818 and 1830 and records prior to them leaving Ireland are almost non-existent.  I say almost.

Answer 10

ENGLAND, it is difficult to get a straight answer, before 1837 pray there is a record in a parish register and you have some idea where a christening or marriage occurred. If after 1837  you find a name then you may get 4 other names for possible spouses.... Rant over, thanks.

Comments

Hi Rionne, I don't know if you're familiar with the GRO online index. For England, you can search birth or death records and most entries will have the mother's maiden name. Once you have that, you can find the parents' marriage record. Also, England's censuses from 1841 to 1921 are online and free to search on FamilySearch.

https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/indexes_search.asp

Answer 11

German-settled areas of Russia. For me it's been a brick wall, as high, as wide, as tall, and as thick as they come. Maybe DNA will elucidate the mystery...

Answer 12

South Carolina counties that had records burned by the Union Army during the Civil War.  I have two family brick walls that I think I will never be able to overcome due to all the court records being destroyed before 1865.

Comments

So many burned Southern counties... why God, why.

(As an aside, I'd like to thank some of my ancestors for having messy personal lives. If it were not for their divorce records and squabbling over inheritances, I'd have much less information about my ancestors.)

Answer 13

I fortunatly have not had a problem with Pennsylvania. My problem spot is the state to the south, Maryland. I have my maternal grandmothers side from there and am not sure if I even have her grandparents correct. I cannot find anything to go on after them.

Answer 14

Czechoslovakia. I had to go through research of Pennsylvania to carry me  to Czechoslvakia

Comments

Is "research of PA" meant to be the name of a .org? or business name?

Answer 15

The Glengarry area of the Eastern Townships of Ontario Canada.  Everyone has the same name as each other, but not even the same name as themselves!   Mc could be Mac.  M*cDonell could be M*cDonald.  Elizabeth could be Eliza or Isobel (all spellings) or Bella.  Janet could be Jeannette to Jeanie.  Ellen could be Eleanor or Helen and any of them could be Nellie.  Daniel could be Donald.  (As well as normal stuff like Ann/Nancy and Alexander/Sandy)

Apparently even their neighbours had trouble knowing who they were talking about, so we have Jeanette Anne 'Curly Jeanie' McRae and Alexander Roy "Sandy Roy the Banker" McDonell and Nancy "Big Duncan's" MacDonald.

To be on the safe side i guess, some of the official documents including church registers include the identifying number of the farm - township, range, concession etc. You mean i have to get a map that shows that???  

So that is why this area is my most frustrating!