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i am trying to find maria prokain for my dad that is his biological mother he was adopted in cirencester england to evelyn &joe crawford if anyone has any info please let me know thank you

Hi Paul -- that's a very unusual surname, so you might be able to find something.

The only deaths in the death index for 1984-2005 with that name are:


Dorothy Joan Prokain
born 5 Mar 1920
Sep 1999
age 79
South Warwickshire
Warwickshire

Vojtech Tibor Prokain
born: 11 Jun 1915
Dec 2000
age 85
Mid Warwickshire
Warwickshire


It looks like a good chance they might be Maria's parents -- you didn't give any ages or dates, but with Dorothy born 1920, Maria could have been born 1940, your dad 1960 ... ?

There'd have to be some family connection, anyhow, one would think!

You should probably try to find the obituaries for those two people in a local newspaper. Reference librarians at public libraries are made for these jobs! The obituary would likely give info about the deceased's child(ren), and you might learn Maria's married surname, for instance, and maybe the names of any children she has.

Good luck!

I see from info posted elswhere on the net that you are probably in the US.

I'm in Canada, and I've never been able to figure out whether just anybody can order recent death certificates.

If you can get the certificates, you'll have an exact date and place of death, and then you might be able to find a kind person who would check newspaper archives at the local library for you.

I shouldn't have been quite so stark when I posted that info -- there's a good chance that those people are your dad's grandparents, and your great-grandparents. The information might be a little startling.

You can try just ordering the certificates online directly, and see whether you have to provide any info to show that you're entitled to them. Go here:

http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/

You will need this more detailed info:

Name: Dorothy Joan Prokain
Birth Date: 5 Mar 1920
Death Registration Month/Year: Sep 1999
Age at death (estimated): 79
Registration district: South Warwickshire
Inferred County: Warwickshire
Register number: 21C
Entry Number: 133

Name: Vojtech Tibor Prokain
Birth Date: 11 Jun 1915
Death Registration Month/Year: Dec 2000
Age at death (estimated): 85
Registration district: Mid Warwickshire
Inferred County: Warwickshire
Register number: C6B
Entry Number: 72


You'll need a credit card, and I think the cost will be about $15 US for each certificate.

Just post in this thread again if you have any questions about the process, and I or someone else will try to help.

For reference....

Cirencester is in Gloucestershire

I'm looking for Maria's birth registration, and have not found it yet, but did find this birth in 1945:

name: Susan E Prokain
mother's surname: Jeffs
district: Hammersmith
vol 1a
page 264


So this is probably the birth of Dorothy Joan Prokain née Jeffs:

Births Mar 1920
name: Dorothy J Jeffs
mother's surname: Smith
district: Stratford
vol: 6d
page: 2089


-- I forgot to copy down which quarter of 1945 Susan Prokain was born in, and when I went to open the page back up, my Firefox crashed, and now the Ancestry site is giving me grief. I'm pretty sure it was the first quarter, i.e. Jan-Mar 1945. That makes it seem unlikely -- if Maria Prokain was a child of that Prokain couple -- that she was born in 1945.

It's possible that Maria was not a child of theirs, and may have been born outside England.

For anyone reading -- I've found quite a bit more info that is probably about Maria, on the net, and PMed it to Paul's daughter.

If the person here at GR who does have these Prokains in her tree would contact Paul -- a search of trees for surname Prokain will turn him up -- he would appreciate it.

And anyone reading this can now see the results in the "successes" list -- the info I found worked, and Paul has found his birth mother and her family. Yay!