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How to Research Using Precision Genealogical Tools

These are personal examples, but they should show the methods involved. Note that the Links show the current state of the information received.

If you have a Birth Certificate of someone in your family tree, then enter the details of that person into PGT. My grandmother - Alice Louisa Webster - click link for certificate details. As you can see, she was born in 1896 in Northfleet, Kent. Her mother was Lydia Jane Webster (late Coffee, formerly Wakefield), and father George Webster.

The approach I decided to take to expand the information I have about these three people was to use the 1901 Census to look for a Head (George Webster), Wife (Lydia Jane Webster) and 4 year old daughter (Alice L. Webster). A family with these three people existed in Gravesend. The Census entry also shows the other children in the household: Lydia J J Coffee, Elizab, Daisy. The odd thing about this Census entry is that George Webster's Age is shown as "-". Presumably the transcriber was unable to decipher it accurately enough. This information was entered into PGT. A Link was then established connecting Alice L Webster's Census entry with her Birth. PGT has a means to double-check that the details are consistent with each other: the Year of Birth is close enough to the Age at the Census to allow the Link to be made.

It is possible that this is another family, so one has to be careful here, but the facts fit. It is interesting that one of the residents has the Coffee surname described as Daughter. Daughter to the Head of the Household? Unlikely. More likely the Daughter of the Wife. With PGT the information is entered as it is appears in the records, interpretation is added later.

From the information collected there are several possible avenues.

(1) We have the ages Lydia J J Coffee, Elizab and Daisy, so a search could be made for these Birth Certificates.
(2) We have the age of of Lydia Jane Webster (late Coffee, formerly Wakefield). This description indicates she was born Lydia Jane Wakefield, presumably married someone by the name Coffee, then later married George Webster. So a search could be made for Lydia Jane Wakefield's birth certificate.
(3) We could search back in time to find a marriage between George Webster and Lydia Jane Coffee

To go about these tasks, PGT has methods to help you.

(1) After entering the Daughters into the Census Person register, click on each daughter in turn, then click the Linkage button. There are no likely candidates for any of these children (other than Alice L). There is however a button marked Create Birth Record. What this enables us to do is to create, rough Birth Certificate for Lydia J J Coffee, Elizabeth Webster and Daisy Webster. Note that we don't know the exact year they were born, but PGT makes allowance for this by showing the possibilities in the Minyear and Maxyear fields (the default set up in the program is plus 3 years, minus 3 years, but this can be changed). Now if Lydia J J Coffee's Individual Diary is printed out, it can be taken down to the Family Records Centre. The records are checked for all periods between MinYear and Maxyear. The range that would be checked in this case is 1885-1891. I would start off in the middle of the range (1888) and spread out from there. The Individual Event Diary has columns to tick off against the quarterly periods which is how the books are organised at the FRC. Ditto for Elizabeth Webster and Daisy Webster.

(2) Create a Birth Record for Lydia Jane late Coffee formerly Wakefield . Note that the program leaves the Maiden name as it is (late Coffee, formerly Wakefield). This will help in reminding you that there is a slight uncertainty as to what you will find at the FRC. Printout out Lydia Jane late Coffee formerly Wakefield Individual Event Diary.

(3) The Individual Event Diary we have printed out for Lydia Jane late Coffee formerly Wakefield can also be used to help find the Marriage with George Webster.

These three actions were taken, and the various certificates entered into PGT. New information uncovered is as follows:-

(1) Lydia Jane Jubilee Coffee's father was Samuel Coffee.
(2) Lydia Jane Wakefield's birth was found within the accepted range. Her father was Thomas Wakefield.
(3) George Webster and Lydia Jane Coffee married in 1891. Lydia Jane's Condition is shown as Widow, which means that she was married to a man with the surname Coffee, who subsequently died. George Webster was aged 26 in 1891. Lydia's age is shown as 33 - which adds further confirmation that the correct information is being found here. Lydia's father is shown as Thomas Wakefield.

There is no contradictory information in any of the above findings. To be continued...

Page Last Modified: 30 October, 2005 0:23