Over the years some of my ancestors have given me grief because of the varied spellings of their surnames in records.
One such chap is my 2xGreat Grandfather, James Magick (born Westbrook). When looking for my Magick ancestors I have found them recorded as Madgwick, Magic, Maquirk, Maguirk, Madgick, Mogick and other variations. Although I have been able to find evidence of James' death in a cemetery record and in a Coroner's report I hadn't found a death registration for him. When I was researching him nearly thirty years ago I put this down to the fact that his death occurred out in the bush and that no one bothered to record it.
Yesterday as I was trying to sort out my FTDNA matches I went over to Ancestry to see if one of my matches had a tree there.... and he did. And what did I find? This person had a reference to a death entry for James under the surname Majick. How had I not thought of this spelling????
Off to the NSW BDM Online Indexes I went and found:
I probably would have found it if I was starting my research now as I would have done a wildcard surname search for James in the NSW Online BDM index but back in the days of microfiche this was not available.
I think I need to search again more creatively for all those other ancestors for whom I couldn't find BDM records years ago.
As the entry for James indicated that a copy of his registration was Readily Available I ordered it and opted for email delivery. And Guess what? While I have been typing up this post I got these messages:
How's that for efficiency from a government department? Majick?
After 30 odd years I have the official record of James' death in my hands. How can anyone ever say "I've done my family history"?
One such chap is my 2xGreat Grandfather, James Magick (born Westbrook). When looking for my Magick ancestors I have found them recorded as Madgwick, Magic, Maquirk, Maguirk, Madgick, Mogick and other variations. Although I have been able to find evidence of James' death in a cemetery record and in a Coroner's report I hadn't found a death registration for him. When I was researching him nearly thirty years ago I put this down to the fact that his death occurred out in the bush and that no one bothered to record it.
Yesterday as I was trying to sort out my FTDNA matches I went over to Ancestry to see if one of my matches had a tree there.... and he did. And what did I find? This person had a reference to a death entry for James under the surname Majick. How had I not thought of this spelling????
Off to the NSW BDM Online Indexes I went and found:
I probably would have found it if I was starting my research now as I would have done a wildcard surname search for James in the NSW Online BDM index but back in the days of microfiche this was not available.
I think I need to search again more creatively for all those other ancestors for whom I couldn't find BDM records years ago.
As the entry for James indicated that a copy of his registration was Readily Available I ordered it and opted for email delivery. And Guess what? While I have been typing up this post I got these messages:
How's that for efficiency from a government department? Majick?
After 30 odd years I have the official record of James' death in my hands. How can anyone ever say "I've done my family history"?
Great discovery! Never finished is it?
ReplyDeleteBut so many people think they have...finished. Unbelievable.
ReplyDeleteYou renew my hope that one day I WILL find John Goopy snr!
ReplyDeleteGreat find..
There is " magic " after all in finding our folks ! Congrats (-:
ReplyDeleteMagda