Any ideas how to confirm who this person is?

[Saker]

My ancestor was Scottish but moved to Wales and married in Wales. He has a fairly common Scottish name, William Knox, but it is rare in Wales at that time. I can find him on all the censuses in Wales, but it only ever says he comes from Scotland without any specific place named. And in Scotland there are lots of William Knoxes. I can also find from his marriage certificate that his father's name is William, and he is an agricultural labourer, which narrows it down a bit but unfortunately he was born before registration so the records could be patchy too.

So I had the idea of looking for any other people by the name of Knox in South Wales, as in my experience, often brothers or family members migrate together. I can find a George Knox, also with a father, William, in agriculture, who comes from Edinburgh or Edinburgh area. There a lot fewer George Knoxes than there are Williams so I am reasonably confident I can find George in the Scottish records and he does have a brother called William of the right age.

However I have nothing to link the two Knoxes together in Wales. They are both in South Wales, but not the same area. It could just be coincidence that they are both there at the same time and that they are not related at all.

Does anyone have any suggestions of anything else I can look for to either tie them together or find the date of birth of William in Wales or any other means of proving who he is?

Thank you if you got to the end of this!

See if you can find any record of a will for either of them. It could be that you can link the beneficiaries somehow.

I have a similar problem. An ancestor who was in Monmouthshire from at least the 1810s and in the 1851 census had been born in "Scotland".

Rather than finding him specifically, I'm looking at it the other way round to see who I can rule out.

So, in your example, I am looking at all the William Knox's son of William Knox in Scotland who were born at around the correct time. I am currently going through them to see who I can find at a later date still in Scotland or who died etc.

If they're still in Scotland, or somewhere else that I can locate or they're dead etc then they're obviously not the William Knox I'm looking for so I can rule them out.

Once I've gone through all the names, hopefully, there will only be one or two left or maybe a few and then I will have only a couple of William Knox's to concentrate on.

Forgot to say, you can find Welsh wills pre-1858 at the National Library of Wales:

https://www.library.wales/catalogues-searching/catalogues/specialist-catalogues/wills

Thank I will check for wills - but I suspect that he would have been too poor to have one. I couldn't find any probate.

I did have a go at this, but there were a lot of problems - firstly pre-registration there is no guarantee that there is a birth record for all the William Knoxes anyway - I found that there were a lot more in the censuses than in the parish baptisms. So I tried to go through the censuses but it is really confusing because many are in the same area and move house frequently and leave their families to become servants by the age of 15, so there's no-one to link them to. However I have looked for my "William Knox", the brother of my "George Knox" and I don't seem to find him anywhere once he would have left Scotland. But it's very hard to be sure. It might work out better for your ancestor if he has a less common name!

Also should say I looked for references in newspapers but couldn't find anything, it's very frustrating.

"It might work out better for your ancestor if he has a less common name!"

Yes, the name is Grainger, but it's still not so easy.

Sorry, I can't help any further.

EDIT

The only other possible solution is (if you haven't already done this) is to do a DNA test and that can help to identify relatives and see if you are related through a particular Knox.

This has helped me to identify which of a number of people with the same name and similar date of birth and location of birth were the common ancestor between us.

No thanks for the suggestion - I might just to accept I can't prove it! Do you know why your ancestor moved from Scotland to Wales? It doesn't seem to be that common. Though it seems even less common to go the other way.

The only other possible solution is (if you haven't already done this) is to do a DNA test and that can help to identify relatives and see if you are related through a particular Knox.

This has helped me to identify which of a number of people with the same name and similar date of birth and location of birth was the common ancestor between us. Edited

I haven't done this and I'm quite tempted but I've been a bit hesitant about putting my DNA on a database.

Actually the other thing I tried was to look at the family trees of other people on Findmypast but couldn't find any more information than I already knew. However I think Ancestry is often a lot better for this, but I don't have an Ancestry subscription anymore. If anyone who has an Ancestry subscription wouldn't mind looking for me on the family trees of other users to see if any of them have any information on William Knox place of birth or parents - I would really appreciate it - William Knox b. 1834 Scotland married Mary Owen(s) in Begelly / Narberth 1865. Father is William Knox.

I have a similar problem with an ancestor who married a lady called 'Mary' from Cavan, Ireland. No record of any marriage that I can find for him to try and identify her though.
I've got a subscription to the British newspaper archive,so if you'd like to pm me some of the details of where and when he was in Wales,I can see if I can find any mention of him that might narrow things down. I've found it incredibly useful and discovered a great great aunt that I never knew existed because of a newspaper article.

Thanks that's really kind, but I have access via Findmypast and actually there is a brilliant Welsh newspaper archive for free available, but I haven't been able to find any mention of him.

I has a quick peep on ancestry but I'm on my phone so it probably isn't the guy BUT was your William in St Issels?

A good piece of advice I once had fairly early on in my family tree research was that you need to kill them off!

So look for death records. You might find that there is highly pertinent information on the death cert (such as the informant), or you could possibly discover that they are not the right person after all, and you have been looking at the wrong 'John Smith' for several years.

Another option might be Genes Reunited. Someone else may be researching the same people you are.

Just had a quick look on Ancestry. Very little information about William, likely no more than you have already from FindMyPast.

A couple of people link him (along with a younger brother by the name of George) to a family in Newcastle in the 1851 census. The parents were Peter and Allan (yes, the mother's name was Allan).

I think it is very unlikely that this is them though as this William stayed in Newcastle and was working as a cordwainer in 1861. This is an example of why you should be very wary indeed about relying on other people's trees.

There is more history for his wife Ann Owens (how accurate it is I don't know) but I guess you already have her ancestors?

It looks like other people have also hit the same dead end that you've come across.

You can tick various options to specifically exclude them sharing your DNA with anyone else. Although do be aware that Ancestry won't let you upload tests done by other companies - you have to get an Ancestry test. Whereas other sites, like MyHeritage, are quite happy for you to upload an Ancestry DNA test instead of doing their own one.

If you do decide to do this, what I found made a huge difference was getting my parents to also do this (or, if you're young enough, your grandparents).

Being a generation older than me there are a lot more DNA matches and the matches go back a lot further. By researching the family trees and combining it with the DNA tests we've confirmed common ancestors dating back to people born in the early 1700s or late 1600s.

This is great as there is both a paper trail and also a genetic link.

Yes that's him 😀

Thank you so much for looking. Yes I don't think this can be the right person as the brother George is older if it's the one I think, also the wife Mary Owens. I know, I don't like relying on other people's trees so it is usually my last resort because if they do have some information it at least it gives you a starting point to investigate and see if you can prove or disprove.

I could order his death record as I can find that. I tend to be a bit stingy with this as you can spend a fortune and it's very likely his wife would have been the one to report his death. Once he's in Wales, I'm pretty sure I have the right person as he seems to stay in one place and there really aren't any other William Knoxes around. I will look at Genes Reunited.

I'll have a think about it. I was a bit scared by that programme on Radio 4. I think there is another thread about that. Also I'm quite old and only have one parent and no grandparents alive.

Saker, I Will message you tomorrow when I have had a chance to.look properly. As Another2cats said though, it may be mistaken attributions of records.

I can only find two William Knoxes with parent also called William Knox in Scotland c1834:

William and Margaret Knox in Aberdeen also had a son called George born in 1836 - could this be them?

Oh I see your George Knox was from Edinburgh - back to the drawing board! And you're looking to link William and George in Wales, not Scotland. Ignore me 😂