Breaking a Brick Wall: The Alice Nash Story

I remember exactly when the brick wall that had been holding up my research FINALLY crumbled. It was the discovery of the birth of Alice Nash, my great-grandmother. She lived and died in Taunton, Somerset, England. Her grandchildren still speak today of her as a caricature of an old woman, compete with an ‘unusual’ voice and a glass eye to match. Her origins were unknown. No knowledge of her father/mother or any siblings had made its way through the generations. So who was she?

A trawl through the census of 1911 gave a startling clue. By now married with one son, her place of birth was listed rather cryptically as ‘Germany’.

This revelation posed many, many more questions than it answered, which, as we know, is customary in genealogy. Where in Germany was she born? How had she ended up in Taunton married to Arthur the Postman? Were her own family German?

Searches upon searches ended in blank returns. ‘No results found’ repeated on my screen for months. I gave myself plenty of brain breaks between searches to give me a chance to think through the lines of enquiry I could try next. And then, a birth record appeared through Ancestry which changed everything. Alice Nash, born: Hamburg 1880.

I had found her.

My high school German came in very useful (as did help from a German colleague at work!) and the translation gave me heaps of the answers was looking for. By coincidence, Alice and I also share a birthday! Alice Nash, born to William and Sarah, who hail from…

(you guessed it)…

a sleepy village in Somerset. There goes the exotic, continental family history I had imagined. And my West Country roots are now firmly established.

Now why William took up a factory job in Hamburg I am still unsure. In earlier records he is listed as a Soldier, so travel must be a common theme in his life. If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions of why they might have been in Hamburg, I am so so eager to hear them!

The sense of achievement, feeling of relief and exhilaration after finding this record was immense, anyone who has broken down a brick wall will know the emotions of joy you get!

Alice’s profile on Ancestry.com is now filled, when there used to be ‘????’

The moral of the story? Perseverance, brain breaks (and Ancestry.com!).

It’s an ongoing puzzle to work out how and why Alice’s life started in Hamburg, but a very exciting one that I can’t wait to solve!