As a professional genealogist, Emma explores archives, churchyards, and online to compile histories, charts, tours, and books for clients. When collecting material for clients or engaging experts in discussions on her podcast, Journeys into Genealogy, and substack of the same name.
As we explore family history, we generally expect to research our ancestors based on their names and what we’ve learned about the dates and locations of important moments in their lives. Sometimes, however, it’s not so straightforward.
An Ongoing Mystery and a Brick Wall
As Emma describes in this episode, one of her ancestors changed her given name, family, and married names several times during her lifetime. Emma shared her own journey as she followed Caroline Rumpf through her baptism, marriages, and homes as captured in census and church records.
You can explore and download her slides here:
Emma’s discussion of Caroline’s changing name triggered an interesting discussion of how immigration records and other clerical errors also changed names in former British colonies in the Americas and Australia. It also revealed how records might be hiding behind institutional name changes. In the discussion that followed, Emma mentioned the British Newspaper Archive, Australian Trove, and her recent interview for her podcast with Ruth Graham of the Society of Australian Genealogists:
The lessons and tools Emma shared with us can be applied to your family research, too. Learn more about Emma at:
Our next program in the series will be on August 15; you can register for that event or any in the series here:
Emma Explores, like all programs from Projectkin are accessible to all members and the family history community for free. To learn more about coming events, please visit:
To get these recordings directly in your mailbox each month, plus articles, resources, recipes, and more, join us as a member.
Share this post