30 October 2012

Rosemary Morgan discovers her criminal ancestor

If you haven't discovered the lawbreaker in your family tree there's a good chance you haven't looked hard enough. Many of our ancestors had brushes with the law, if only for something as serious as my Church of England minister ancestor's transgression, keeping a dog without a licence.

London genealogist Rosemary Morgan has posted on her blog the story of finding her transgressor and learning the lesson "it always pays to send off for death certificates, even if you think you know the date of death from other records. There is often more to learn."

I can think of an occurrence when having resisted I eventually sent for the death certificate and didn't learn anything significant. It's probably an exception, the chances of that happening being as great as those of not finding a lawbreaker in your family tree.

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