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thanks,im on stop at the moment until i get a certificate, maybe then i will be able to find out when my grandfathers siblings past and more info on my gr grandparents, its really frustrating cos you think you can just type something in and all the answers will magically appear but as ive discovered its not that easy lol, thank you both again for your help much appreciated x

I'll PM you the details of the three births.

I know what that blank postem means.

FreeBMD must be adding postems when someone submits a correction.

You clicked on the "Info" button beside the birth registration. Except that isn't for information about the particular birth, it's for information about the *transcription*. So you must have clicked on "If you have a correction to this entry, please click here." and then submitted some sort of blank correction. ;)

Just keep playing with it, it will become second nature.

im not sure what i did to be honest something about correction did come up, i was just confused because only 2 sons came up and was pretty sure there were 3 sons

FreeBMD just hasn't caught up yet -- you hit the wall with that one. The births are 45, 48 and 50, and FreeBMD is a bit hit and miss for that period in the transcribing, still.

Did you notice the envelope beside the 1950 one? Normally that means a note has been attached by someone -- you click on the envelope to read the "postem".

In this case it makes no sense; it says:

03/10/2010 The following correction has been suggested: . The source given for this is:

and that's it. But it's dated yesterday. Was this you? ;)

i managed to find william thanks for all the information again, another thing puzzling me is when i type in clements and mccarthy births it comes up as they had 2 sons but i thought they had 3, is this informathion correct or should i be looking another way,sorry to be a pain

Suzanne, just to be absolutely clear for you -- you can't find details like parents' names on line. Only their surnames, and only after 1911, in the births index.

When you are at FreeBMD, you have to read the headings to see what each of these things means:

Surname - First name(s) - Mother/Spouse/Age - District - Vol - Page
Births Mar 1917
Clements - John F - Martin - Swansea - 11a - 1902

This is how the same thing looks at the Ancestry site, which spells it all out:

Name: John F Clements
Mother's Maiden Surname: Martin
Date of Registration: Jan Feb Mar 1917
Registration district: Swansea
(Registration county: Wales)
Volume Number: 11a
Page Number: 1902

That is the information you need for ordering the birth certificate.


When searching at FreeBMD do not put *too much* information in.

For example, to find the marriage we think is his parents, just search as I have said:

marriage
surname Clements
mother's surname Martin

When you get the results, it's easy to pick out the one in Swansea between a male Clements and a female Martin.

It's something you'll need to be able to do eventually if you're going to research your own tree, so may as well get the hair-tearing over with now! ;)

If you are then sure that William and Elizabeth are John Fs parents , you could get their marriage certificate which Janey mentioned, which will give you their father's names and occupations

Marriages Jun 1906 (>99%)


Clements William Swansea 11a 1647

Martin Elizabeth Ann Swansea 11a 1647

What you need to do to confirm John F Clements parents is to get his birth certificate from the GRO you can order online at http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content
using the details given in my previous post...

the details Janey posted for 1911 census of William and Elizabeth do look likely,( they are also the names listed on the tree on Ancestry) but you can only be 100% sure with the certificate

( quotation marks added late, sorry Janey !)

"CLEMENTS WILLIAM 1881 30 Swansea Glamorganshire
CLEMENTS ELIZABETH ANN 1885 26

and then searching for any Clements living in Swansea with Elizabeth , William Clements:

CLEMENTS BEATRICE 1910 1 "

Suzanne is this what you are seeing?

Births Mar 1917
Clements John F Martin Swansea 11a 1902

i must be doing something wrong, im typing in my grandfathers name and yr of birth and district, the only thing it is showing me is his name, when i press info nothing different comes up, id be happy if i could just find my gr grandparents names but cant even find them x

It will come with practise Suzanne :)

What are you stuck on?

im totally bamboozled im obviously doing something wrong cos i cant find anything lol, i really should do a computer course or something

Have a good sleep Suzanne , it's very tempting to keep going till your head spins once you start :)

Come back if you need help :)

well ladies im a complete computer illiterate, ive spent most of the evening on bmd and just keep hitting a brick wall, the only thing i have managed to find is a list of my grandfather and his siblings, im still none the wiser of my gr grandfathers name or gr grandmothers name except her surname, im am sure there are a few skeletons in this part of the family which just intensifies my curiosity all the more as you can imagine, but for now my eyes are burning from staring at the screen for so long lol, hopefully i can sleep on it and push forward tomorrow, fingers crossed for me x

aha! There is a tree with John Ferguson Clements on Ancestry, complete with photo.

I always forget that -- yes, I did the same thing many years ago too! I use Adblock in Firefox now to block out the stupid thing (except it won't delete the search boxes) so I never think of it myself now.

It won't be confusing as soon as you do it once, Suzanne.

Just follow my easy instructions to search for

births
surname Clements
mother's surname Martin

-- the same as your grandfather in the record Rose gave -- and pick out the births in Swansea. Or, before you search, select Swansea from the list of districts on the right side.

And search for

marriages
surname Clements
spouse's surname Martin

selecting Swansea for district. To see the name of the other spouse, you click on the page number beside the Clements name you find.

You may want to subscribe to Ancestry at some point, but you can start with the info here and the info you can get at FreeBMD.

Unfortunately, nobody here at GR seems to have any of the Clements-Martin children in their family tree.

yes rr thats exactly what i did, i found the right page now but its all still confusing lol, thanks both x

Janey,, re what Suzanne has said below about charges and picture...I bet she has inadvertently clicked on the Ancestry advert at the top of the Freebmd site ? ( I did that when I was starting out ) and filled the search in there.

Suzanne if that's what you did , go back on to Freebmd, ignore the ad' at the top, and scroll further down to thesearch boxes :)

Hi Suzanne, sorry, but you've lost me there!

FreeBMD doesn't have pictures, and doesn't charge payments. ;)

That must have been another website, but I can't think what it would have been.

Anyhow, I'll give you a boost with the 1911 census.

Searching for William Clements living in Swansea with Elizabeth Clements, to match the 1906 marriage, and then for Elizabeth Clements living in Swansea with William Clements:

CLEMENTS WILLIAM 1881 30 Swansea Glamorganshire
CLEMENTS ELIZABETH ANN 1885 26

and then searching for any Clements living in Swansea with Elizabeth William Clements:

CLEMENTS BEATRICE 1910 1


So, in addition to the births you will find at FreeBMD if you search for all Clements births in Swansea with mother Martin, there was a child born before 1911.

Births Mar 1910
CLEMENTS Beatrice Margaret Swansea 11a 1157

I don't see a definite marriage for her after 1925ish, i.e. there isn't one in that particular area.

So that's an example of how to trace people like your grandfather's siblings forward -- at least how to find *possible* marriages etc. for them.

Since you don't have access to Ancestry without paying, I've looked for the brothers' deaths too (their surnames would have remained the same).

Name: Joseph Robert Clements
Birth Date: 25 Apr 1914
Death Registration Month/Year: Jan 1993
Age at death (estimated): 78
Registration district: Swansea
Inferred County: Glamorgan
Register number: A101
District and Subdistrict: 8971A
Entry number: 146

Albert you may know about; the other brother's name is too common to pinpoint a death. And there is another sister.

You still need to do the search to find all your grandfather's brothers' and sisters' births and names, at FreeBMD. ;)

http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/cgi/search.pl

thanks janey thats great help, i just had a look on freebmd and his picture came up as soon as i typed in his name, just wondering if i commit to the payments they ask for and want to cancel can i do that at any time, thanks again for your help you have put me onto the right track now x