Find Ancestors

Hello. I am trying to trace my parents' families, but I do not know much about my parents, and nothing about their parents, so even a bit of help getting me started would be much appreciated. I've searched the births records for my mum under tina williams, unsure of the year but the date of birth was 15th March, and place of birth was Torbay, Devon. She married my father in 1984. My father is michael john anderson, his date of birth is 11th November (1955 i think but not 100% possitive) He was born in fareham, hampshire, but a birth I found regestered under this name was in gosport, hampshire and his mothers maiden name was Ward in this year, and there were no other close matches 10years either way. he was married previously but do not know who to. He decided not to have contact with his family from when I was about 2 years old, somewhere around 1987. I know he had siblings, but unsure about my mother. My mother has a half brother, unsure about a middle name etc all I know is he is Nigel Hobbs, married to Patricia. I am really stuck, and any help would be really grateful, as I cannot seem to find any close matches to my mother's birth to even give me her mothers maiden name etc.

Is this the marriage? Name: Tina Williams Spouse Surname: Anderson Date of Registration: Mar 1984 Registration district: South East Hampshire Registration county (inferred): Hampshire Volume Number: 20 Page Number: 1125 Michael J Anderson The cert will tell you how old they were, and the names of their fathers. Bear in mind that registration districts usually include several towns and villages.....to check details, look at genuki website. Reg

Please be careful about posting info on here which relates to living people.........GR require that you have permission to use the names of living people. Reg

Reg has a good point about the registration districts. For example, my Grandfather died in Ascot, Berkshire, but it was recorded under Windsor and Maidenhead, as this is the district it falls under, so it is possible that this birth is your father. The marriage cert looks promising and will give you some more clues.

oh ok thankyou. How would I go about obtaining the wedding certificate, and how much would it cost? That was the exact information I found but that's about it.

Im sorry, I don't know, ive never had to order an English cert, all my relatives came from scotland. I know they cost £7.00 and take about a week to come through. I don't know if you order them from the registry office of the place where they married? Maybe someone else on here can tell you?

You order from the GRO site. you need that gro ref that Reg got for you. make sure you tick the box on the first page that asks if you have the GRO ref., you will pay £7 . Pay no more and use the GRO site only as there are some sites that will charge you more and take longer cos they are getting from GRO then passing it on to you at a higher price. Shirley google General Register Offfice and the webpage will come up. For info on how to read the GRo ref its Mar 1984 South East Hampshire,Vol 20 page 1125. you wont need to fill in all the ifo asked for as you have that ref plus her name of course

You can order the cert online at www.gro.gov.uk Reg

Once you have the info from the marriage cert, it will help you narrow down the birth records. When you have both father's surname and mother's maiden name, you'll then be able to trawl through the original images for births to discover if they had any siblings.

thankyou for all your help. One step closer now, I will get there eventually! Thankyou again.