Priority of Sources

[JohnS]

Originally Posted by Olde Crone

Most unreliable sources of all are family memories, at least in MY family, the family that "forgot" that a great uncle married and produced twins before dying and "forgot" that a grandmother was actually a step grandmother.

Yeah. A great example. When my dad died in 1974 and we were sorting things out we asked our mum if he had any other names apart from John. She told us that she thought his middle name was Clifford as he often mentioned it. We duly registered the death as John Clifford and, to this day, his headstone also reads John Clifford - only to find out later that he had no middle name! This was done before I got in to researching, otherwise I would have known!
Even stranger, several years later we were talking to his younger brother about this and he replied 'No, my middle name is Clifford' and sure enough we later found out that he had no middle name either!!!

[HarrysMum]

Originally Posted by JohnS

Yeah. A great example. When my dad died in 1974 and we were sorting things out we asked our mum if he had any other names apart from John. She told us that she thought his middle name was Clifford as he often mentioned it. We duly registered the death as John Clifford and, to this day, his headstone also reads John Clifford - only to find out later that he had no middle name! This was done before I got in to researching, otherwise I would have known!
Even stranger, several years later we were talking to his younger brother about this and he replied 'No, my middle name is Clifford' and sure enough we later found out that he had no middle name either!!!

What is it with Clifford??????????
I spent ages trying to find my son in law's grandfather in (strangely) Warrington area.
We went through every comgination of names that contained Clifford...first as his first name, then second, etc. Never actually found him and still to this day not sure if Clifford was any part of his name....lol

[anne fraser]

Avoid Clifford. I have an ancestor Rebecca Clifford and so am part of the Clifford family tree which is being extensively researched. I think our branch has a couple of thousand names now. It can be completely mindnumbing.

I try to find contemporary sources where possible old newspapers or local records such as settlement agreements or tennancy agreements. I think wills are usually pretty accurate where they exist.