One piece of advice professional genies all give us amateurs is to make sure we "kill off" our ancestors. Often, finding a death record adds little information and can be the most difficult BMD record to obtain. My wife's 2xgreat grandfather William Sharp proved to be just such a case.
As is often the case, my first sight of him was on the birth certificate of one of his children - Kate's great grandmother Ellen Omiah Sharp. (Hooray for unusual names - they make ancestor hunting so much easier!). So there he was, a corporal in the Royal Engineers and married to Honor Nicholls. That made matching a simple job - 21 April 1866 at the register office in Stoke Damerel. An unusually precise age was given - nearly 331/2 - so a likely birth year of 1832. Father - William Sharp, deceased, a master shoemaker at Edinburgh. Great to have that extra information!
So, now to see if we can hatch him, probably in Edinburgh. Onto the Scotland's People web site and a search for a William Sharp with a father also named William baptised in Edinburgh, say, between 1831 and 1835. Hmmm. Two possibilities show up, one in the city of Edinburgh and the other in St Cuthberts. Well, I guess one takes a punt and invests 6 credits to look at the first record. Damn - a son born to William formerly a mason and now a spirit dealer - doesn't sound like the right William.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained - invest another 6 credits in the second possibility. Much better - "William Sharp, Shoemaker, No 72 Hooper Park End and Agnes Leishman his spouse had a son born on the 26th day of October last" - and baptised on 6th December 1832. Not definitive but looks very likely.
Can he be found in the censuses? 1841 in St Cuthberts with Agnes and several siblings looks good. 1851 in St Cuthberts, a lodger working as a type founder looks a possibility. Can't find him anywhere in 1861 - annoying. 1871 - no problem - with the family in Gillingham, a corporal in the Royal Engineers. 1881 - still in Gillingham with the family, now a draughtsman.
1891 - can't find him again, using a fairly narrow birth date range. Try looking for his youngest child. Aha! He's shaved 5 or so years off his age, and married again 'cos Honor has died. He's still in Gillingham so I could have used that as a search tool, possibly. On to 1901 - can't find him again. Try using "draughtsman" as a keyword. Oh, there's a widower retired draughtsman call William Sharp living in the household of Annie Beal in Fulwood, Lancashire. Now one of his daughters was Anne - and, yes, she married a Joseph Beal. I think we have our man, again.
How about 1911? No sign again, not even with cunning keywording. Where's Annie? Now in Pewsey. Perhaps William went south again with the family and has since died. Yup, there's a William Sharp, an army pensioner, recorded as dying in Pewsey in 1907 at the age of 74. I think we've despatched him. Annoying about that 1861 census, tho'.
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