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hi there,
I'm looking for my grandad, his name is Peter Thomas John Potter and was born 4th Dec 1929 in Ormskirk liverpool, he married a Norma Bray b1931 they had three children and peter was in the merchant navy till sometime in the 60's.

Hi mother was called Dorothy and his father was called Horace. They had two children Peter (my grandad) and Joan Potter b1936????


we think he maybe living in dublin but unsure, can anyone help me with any information please
all help appreciated
thanks
emma

Oh, Emma ... you did what, delete both existing threads?

Maybe you saw my suggestion about the Dublin telephone directory.

deleted them all by accident, sorry had you added something?
i'm so sorry, i'm new to this sorry. i only seen messgaes to delete prior but computer froze and i deted them both

His wife's surname is Bray, not Bary?

Do we assume that none of his children / his wife knows where he is? When was the last time his whereabouts were known, and where was he at the time?

Did they divorce, i.e. might he have remarried?

www.eircomphonebook.ie

There are about 20 Potters in Dublin (you have to search by location, unfortunately) but no Peter.

My query about remarriage, and where, was to know whether it was likely he was in Dublin at a young enough age to marry/have children, so that some of the Potters there might be relations and it could then be worth contacting them.

sorry it is bray. thanks for spotting my mistake again! think i need some sleep.
none of his children have any idea where he is, my mum was 8 when he left.
peter and norma never divorced,

He came to see my mum on her 8th birthday 8th April 1966 in the Waterloo area in Liverpool and hasnt been seen since.

Sadly norma died in 1994 but even she had no idea where he was

i'm pretty sure that peter had just had a baby boy with this other lady but no name mentioned, he showed a picture to my mum and said thats your baby brother.
thank you so much i really appreciate it. i'll try ringing around them tomorrow.

Given that he will be 80ish if alive, the possibility that he is deceased is quite real.

He married as Peter J Potter, although is birth is registered as Peter T J Potter.

Do you have his exact date of birth? The England/Wales post-1984 death index at Ancestry can be searched by date of birth.

The closest death in the English records is a Peter John Potter born 28 Dec 1930 who died in 1999 in Sussex. However, there are two possible matches for that person (registered in Jan-Feb-Mar 1931) in the births index, so that is likely one of them.

It's a ruling-out process that generally needs to be done, you see.

Just a caution -- you may want to take some time before starting cold calls. These things can be quite sensitive. A few weeks ago I grubbed away at the birth, marriage and death records and found, for a member here, that her mother, who had disappeared when the member was a young child, had unfortunately died, but after leaving her family had formed another household and had a child. I found the child's marriage, and then located the couple on the electoral roll, and got an address and phone number and passed it on -- the GR member's much younger half sister she had never known of.

I don't like to advise about these things since I have no personal experience. But I didn't expect her to pick up the phone and call. She did -- and was met with flat denial and hang-up. Now, there is absolutely no question of the relationship, so this left her very hurt.

Just to say - think carefully about how to make any approach, and I'm sure if anyone here with experience has advice, they'll offer it. Maybe just wait a bit ...

i really don't know.
on records it shows he was born 4th December 1929
which is confirmed by navy records other than that we have no idea!

true!
i dont think this other lady even knew about his other family, he could have married her had more children and never thought about us anymore, but my mum has asked me to look for him or of his known whereabouts, this is somethings she wants to do before she dies, i want to help her as much as i can.

Is this a sister?

Births Jun 1931
Potter Joan M Brown Ormskirk 8b 1390

Any chance she would know anything?

Rose

i have no idea Rose, no-one knows Joan or if she's even still alive.
I thought Joan was quite a few years older than Peter but brown was peters mothers maiden name and she would have been born/registered at ormskirk, so this could be her record. thank you

I'd taken a stab before at finding a marriage for that Joan ... but urgh, dozens to choose from.

Again here, Emma, if you got her birth certificate and had her exact date of birth, a search of the deaths index could be done, even without having her married surname. It won't find her if she's alive, but it could find her name if she is deceased, and with that it might be possible to find her children.

This is all kind of grasping at straws, but possibly Peter kept in touch with his sister's familiy and they might know something.

I think his sister Joan potter married someone with the surname McKenzie but thats not 100% confirmed. We have reason to believe she lived or may still live in the maghull area in liverpool.
As Rose has just found Joan may have been born in june 1931 and by looking at it i think this maybe her.

No McKenzie marriage, but a similar name. Will PM you details.

Emma, I looked back at the info I sent you by PM.

I gave you a possible marriage for Joan Potter, and how to contact the children of that marriage.

For the price of 7 pounds, would it not make sense to see whether that is your Joan Potter? The marriage certificate will state the father's name.

You had the name McKenzie, vaguely, and the husband's surname in the marriage I sent you is the closest there is to that, in the possible marriages.

i now have reason to believe that my grandad peter potter legally seperated Norma Pooter (bray) after 1966 can anyone help me find a divorce record?
Thanks
Emma

Nope, no divorce records accessible.

The National Archives have some from earlier periods, but virtually nothing from that time.

If you go there

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

and put

peter potter divorce

in the search box in the upper right corner, you get ... zip.

Unfortunately!

can anyone tell me the date in june that joan was born i've had an email back saying the date is wrong i only had june 1931 unsure of the date in june!