Over the last few months I have completed a two-generation study of my family from England. That means I have researched a single family: parents and children for one generation from birth to death and everything in between. Then I did the same thing for the family of one of the parents from the first generation; that was the second generation. The objective was to find out as much as could be found about the entire family.
The objective was to find out as much as could be found about the entire family.
I researched the birth, baptism, marriage, death, and burial of the parents and their children from both generations. I looked for and found many and various record types. Many record types that I searched for did not turn up pertinent results. I was able to build a solid picture of who they were, what they did, and sometimes even why they did it.
Charles Hall Shearn had outlived three wives and two of his children when he died at the age of 91.
The first generation was my 3rd great uncle Charles Hall Shearn, born 1830. He outlived three wives and two of his children. He died at the age of 91 years in 1921. The second generation was his father, my 3rd great grandfather, Mark Hall Shearn. He lived at least two lives and seems to have inspired his sons to do the same. He left his wife and five children for a much younger gal. They went to the United States and made a family of their own raising a girl and three boys under the surname Hall. Mark dropped his father’s name but kept his middle name, which was his mother’s maiden name. The Shearns were from the county of Somerset in the western part of England. Mark was a yeoman, a free farmer, in his life in England. Charles lived most of his life as a service professional and as a boarding house owner / manager.
Sources and Tools
A vast array of sources and tools was used to accomplish the research and production of reports, logs, charts, and more. The record types included parish records including baptisms and marriages; civil registration records such as birth, marriage, and death indexes and certificates; non-conformist records; newspapers; censuses; emigration records; ship manifests; probate records and wills; and more. Tools included software programs such as RootsMagic, MacFamilyTree, Family Tree Maker; websites including ancestry.com, familysearch.org, findmypast.co.uk, thegenealogist.co.uk, workhouses.org, swheritage.org.uk, sdfhs.org, and so many others; and DNA matching with AncestryDNA, 23&Me, gedmatch, and others. We will highlight these resources, processes, and methodologies as we examine the two generation study.
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