Family Historian User Group

Apologies if this is not the correct place for my query.

I have found a family I am researching on Ancestry with a place for a birth as follows: 1659462, Cornwall, England.

Can somebody please help/explain how to find the place that this birth refers to? I have looked on Google but all I have found is links to peoples online trees, but no explanation of what this reference refers to. Is there a book/guide that I should be using to work out what these numbers mean?

Brian

So far as I know, there is no reference guide because what it means is that Ancestry is fouled up, it's an error, it's an ex-place-name that's shuffled off its mortal coil. Oh hang on - bit too much Monty Python there.

The only thing I can think of, because I've seen it several times in the context of trees, is that at some point somebody entered a place-name, it got translated into an internal reference number (as I think most / all place names are), but then at some point Ancestry revamped its place names losing that one. I doubt there's any point trying to ask Ancestry what it means as such codes are assigned automatically (this is standard IT practice) and the very fact that it now shows just a number means that the translation is lost.

Your only chance of working out such a code is to repeat the original research. Or that's my belief.

Incidentally, I think that this is the reason for an oddity people found with using Ireland as a search criteria. Use it as keyword and you got one answer. Use it as a place name and you got another. And no, the difference was not with names like Ms Ireland. I reckon that there are (or were) two locations with a name of Ireland. But this was some time ago.

Brian,

On the Ancestry Site, the full source details are always available when you review individual Hints for all of the official Ancestry databases.

Might this entry come from an individual Public Member Tree, from a piece of information attached by an individual to a Public Tree, or from data that Ancestry has 'scrapped' from an external website such as FamilySearch? All of the commercial data providers do that, but they do still provide original source details for the data.

If you could provide more information on how to find the individual Ancestry source record we might be able to help solve the mystery for you.

Mervyn

A Google search for "1659462, Cornwall, England" including the string quotes, finds many hits mostly in http://www.wikitree.com/genealogy/ but I have not found any explanation in that website. Perhaps it has migrated out from there, as there are other hits in several other websites.

I wonder if 1659462 is a Familysearch microfilm number? They normally have 7 digits. As Ancestry gets some of its information from LDS (Familysearch) that could explain why it crops up in Ancestry. I don't know if it's possible to find out what parishes were covered by a particular film number.

According to their site this is what is on that microfilm/microfiche.

Items 1-4: Registres de l'état civil, 1793-1892
Author: Les Faisses (Jura). Officier de l'état civil

Item 5: Registres de l'état civil, 1793-1811
Author: Bonnet (Froidefontaine, Jura). Officier de l'état civil

Items 6-9: Registres de l'état civil, 1792-1892
Author: Bornay (Jura). Officier de l'état civil

Thanks Bill. Unfortunately that doesn't look Cornish does it?! Ah well, it was worth a try.

tatewise wrote:A Google search for "1659462, Cornwall, England" including the string quotes, finds many hits mostly in http://www.wikitree.com/genealogy/ but I have not found any explanation in that website. Perhaps it has migrated out from there, as there are other hits in several other websites.

Looking at names from the Google Search and doing a baptism search for them then that nnumber seems to relate to St Just in Penwith, but what the number actually mean I don't know.

Adrian, Mervyn, Mike, Lorna, Bill & Tim.

Thank you for all your replies which have been very helpful.

I think that the Cornwall connection is the right place, I have just used www.freebmd.org.uk looking for Mary Jane Shakerley born c1857 without selecting any district or county and only two people were found under Penzance Vol. 5c Pages 327 & 331 Jane Shakerley could be the person I am looking for. Clicking on the District Penzance opened a new page listing all the civil parishes covered in the Penzance Registration District which includes St Just as noted by Tim. Until I find the 1861 & later census's for Mary Jane I think it best to record the registration district of Penzance, and then after finding her the census returns amend this to the place recorded in the census's.

Brian

She's listed on the Ancestry Site:

1871 Census: as Mary J SHAKERLEY, daughter of John & Jane, born St. Just, Cornwall
1861 Census: as Mary Jane SHARKERLEY

GRO Birth and Marriage Entries listed, plus a link to her Baptism record (from FamilySearch) in St. Just
, in 1858

Other Links to: GRO Death Index and Probate (1938) Records as Mary Jane REDDING

There is also a 'Public Tree': THOMAS/MUDGE FAMILY TREE

Mervyn

Cornwall OPC Site http://www.cornwall-opc-database.org/home/ shows a Mary Jane SHAKERLY bap 12 Sep 1858 to John & Jane in St Just in Penwith. Lots of other SHAKERLY's bap there going back to 1691.

Mervyn.

Thanks for your information about Mary Jane Shakerley, I have not had chance to look at the census returns, GRO information and the Ancestry public tree you found for me, but will be checking them out in the next few days and updating my information about her and her family.

Tim.

Thanks for the link to Cornwall OPC Site and Mary Jane's baptism and who her parents were, I will be looking at Cornwall OPC Site in the next few days and anticipate that other Shakerley baptisms will be found.

Once again many thanks for your help and the information you both have given me.

Brian