Find Ancestors

thanks jan

VAL: Sorry I still can't help you. First of all, I've used up all my spare credits, and secondly its not until quite recently that the spouse's surname is listed. Earlier records are just in alphabetical order, so its impossible to tell who married whom. The only way would be to get the reference numbers and send for the certificate. Jan.

Jan I haven't used this web site but saw the comments you made to Lisa about taking ages to find details. I was thinking of logging on to try and trace info but if I don't know the year of birth, from what you said, it could cost a fortune - am I right or did I read it wrong. I'd appreciate your feedback on what the site is like and if you think there are better sites to try. Do you know if there is a site with all census detail on? regards Trish

Thanks for that, which one could it be tho, did the mother have a first name?

Thanks Jan - I might look at that one Lauretta

JULIE: I copied all the information as it appeared on the sheet. TRISH: The 1837 site is a copy of all the original records of births, marriages and deaths registered since 1837. For each quarter and each event, the names are listed in alphabetical order. One side of my family is FOSTER, so I had to type in FOS, and its then a case of searching through the pages to find the right one for my particular name. I would find, for instance, for each quarter: FOR-FOS 1 page. FOS-FOS 18 pages. FOS-FOU 1 page. Its then a case of trying to calculate first where FOSTER would appear, and then where WILLIAM (or JOHN, or FREDERICK) would come. So for each name in each quarter, its quite easy to use up three or four credits = 12-16 credits per year. The site is an excellent one, though it can work out quite expensive. The first place to try is FreeBMD, but that is only a partial transcription of the 1837, and as a transcriber myself I know that its often very difficult to read the writing, especially the final, most important figures, so even if you do find a record on FreeBMD its well worth double checking on 1837 before ordering a certificate. If you don't know the year in which the event occurred, then you can use all of your £5 very quickly. But if you can't find a record of the birth, marriage or death anywhere else, you either give up, or bite the bullet and pay to search this site. What I try to do is to find several events on FreeBMD and then double check them all at once on the 1837, then use any credits I have over to do more sweeping searches. I didn't know exactly which year my gt grandparents married, but eventually found the record. I think I had to search through about 12 quarters, sometimes looking at three or four sheets per quarter before I found the right alphabetical place in the lists. So 55 credits are soon used up. But if you find the record, its worth it, and if you don't, make sure to make a note of which years you've searched, so next time you search different ones. One tip, which I'm hoping has found me the record of the death of my elusive great grandmother, is that I first searched on FreeBMD between 1874 (when my grandfather was born) and 1891 (when my gt grandfather was shown as Widower). No results were found, so I looked on the same site to see the percentage of deaths transcribed for each year. I found that in one year in that period only about 2% had been transcribed, and in two others only about 10%. So I searched first of all the 2% year, but didn't find her. I then searched the other two years, and found a record of the right name and right area, so I've sent for the certificate in the hope that this is the right one. Sorry this has been such a long message, but I do hope its explained a bit better the workings of the 1837 - an excellent search tool, though can be expensive. Jan.

Thanks anyway Jan . You are all so helpful on this message board Val from Kent