where is Gt Blinsley

[Cluzo]

Can anyone help ?   please

I am delving into my family tree and have just noticed in the 1871 census that my grandmothers place of birth is GT BLINSLEY.  All her brother and sisters come from Islington London and that is where they all lived .

I have googled without success .

I know this does not appear at first glance  to be french orientated - But - We are booked to return to France on Tuesday for a few months and until I can find this out I cant relax and do any packing and stuff

 Please help me

Thanks .

[krusty]

There is a BLINDLEY in Surrey , could you have misread it ?

[Hereford]

According to the New Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales dated from the 1860's there is no such place as Blinsley, Great or otherwise. This gazetteer lists every locality in E & W no matter how small even if only 10 inhabitants.

The problem with old census records seems to be that enumerators just put down what they were told so they could easily mishear or misspell a name.

As an example my paternal grandmother who as far as I know had no connection whatsoever with Herefordshire is described in the 1901 census as having been born in Bromyard, Wiltshire! Bromyard is in  Herefordshire but I think my grandmother was born in Bromham in Wiltshire.

The gazetteer lists a village called Brinsley (not great) in Nottinghamshire.  You would be able to find this in Google - it is about 8 miles from Nottingham on the Derbyshire border.  So if you have connections in that part of the world this may be the place.

H.

[Hoddy]

I wondered about Brinsley because somehow Blinsley doesn't sound right. If it is Brinsley you may end up related to D. H. Lawrence !

Edit: I forgot to say that I have checked the Ordnance Survey website and there is no Blinsley.

Hoddy

[Russethouse]

Could you attack it from another direction ? Depending on the info you have, put her details into http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/or even http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp and see if that clarifies things a little

Bon Chance

PS A couple of wekends ago I used google maps to mark all the birth places of my family tree folk - quite interesting - I'm sure it could be adapted for all sorts of family history uses

[brianagain]

Just a small observation - are you looking at a transcript of the census or a copy of the original census form? I recently found a confusing spelling error on one of my ancestors details in a census transcription. (Carrick island - which is in Antrim - had become Carnish island - in Cork)

Brian (again)

[Cluzo]

thanks all for looking at your gazettears  , Hereford yours sounds amazing   especially as the ref comes from the 1871 census.

thanks for the links RH  - I better not start looking now as we have been out all day visiting Son etc and I am sooooooooooo behind with packing and stuff but I have put in favorites!!!!

Its very strange - the entry has been transcribed - but it is so clear- and \I cant think what else it could be-   I cant find so far any other entry for her until 40 years later in the 1911 one which is a copy of the householders original handwritten  form and guess what ???   Place of birth is now London Holborn !!!!!!!

I could never have believed how enthralling searching is . But silly me - I waited until every last  one was dead before I started and most people lasted until their 90's or 100's .

Thanks again folks for your help.

K

 

[Russethouse]

  May be you could find her parents on an earlier census, that may help - just think of me - I have a chap surname Smith, birthplace Birmingham !! To make it worse it seems he didn't marry his partner, although they have four children, so far I have found 8 possibles - if I order all those Birth Certs it could be an expensive quest.....

[Cluzo]

Guess what RH  !!! I have just found her maiden name - Smith    Maybe we are related !!!    somehow I dont think I am going to get far on this one .

[cooperlola]

Keep plugging away.  I've found Genes Reunited quite useful.  I too have a pretty common surname, but recently found a relative (a second cousin removed a few times),simply because we had traced the family back to the same census and we popped up as "hot matches" for one another.  Thus we've been able to pool our common knowledge about the family.  It's great because my father was an only child and has few relatives living so, like you Cluzo, much of the information died with him.  My mother's family on the other hand, goes back to the 11th century.  Quite a mixture!

[Russethouse]

Coops is right - the places and other family members can really point the way - if my two had got married it may have been OK......one of  the Smith daughters was born in Birmingham rather than Reading, so I could try to find a clue that way , but again there are eight or nine with that name in the same location so it may be costly........

I also use a terrific family history forum www.rootschat.com  I have got lots of help there, esp with a section of the family who had lived in India.

[Cluzo]

I must try genes reunited coops- Ive bookedmarked your suggestion RH  it looks just what we wanted -we havent come accoss a forum before

We are such novices -we have only been doing it for a few weeks but are completly hooked- you both seem to have gone back a long way so must have been doing it for ages.

We have been to Kew a couple of times - what a place!!!!!!!  Took a flask and sandwiches - free to park - free entrance !

[Hoddy]

I've been stuck in the 1750s on my mother's side for some years now and have almost resigned myself to getting no further. Even so, thanks to the internet, I've met some distant cousins and one of them had a letter written by my great grandfather in the Crimea in 1855. It didn't get me any further back but it was a great thrill.

Hoddy

[Russethouse]

 I enjoy it and it can be interesting, I was lucky with part of my husbands family as  someone on Genes had done a lot of research over many years and was generous enough to pass it on, in addition one line was of Huguenot descent and I got lots of help from Tony F on this board who specializes in that.

When I started I had just had some stories handed down, like we had German (true) and Indian (not true, they lived in India but weren't Indian) ancestry, and on my husbands side that there was a connection with Harriet Beecher Stow..........(probable, but not yet proved)

After several years I was actually contacted by a first cousin a couple of weeks ago, I haven't seen them for about 40 years so that was interesting, also relatives of my grandmothers first husband got in touch and they knew nothing about his children or grandchildren (he was killed in WW1, a conscientious objector he was used as a stretcher bearer at Ypres) There had been a family rift, but I was able to put them in touch with my cousin who is a direct link and I believe they have now met up.

One thing is that many people find they have immigrants in their past, it kind of gives you a different perspective..................