New Year’s Resolution number 361: when you’re in the moment, racing excitedly though records and suddenly, something doesn’t add up, panic not. Take a breath, count to 10 and try to work out what else might be going on before you consign the day’s research to the filing cabinet in the corner, ie the bin.
I got myself into a right flap last issue when I found the burial in 1800 of an Agnes Walkden, just minutes after I thought I’d found the 1788 baptism of my 4x great-grandmother Agnes Wrigley, née Walkden. I convinced myself they must be the same person, and that if this Agnes had died as a young woman, then she couldn’t possibly be my ancestor Agnes on the censuses in Manchester.