Genealogy Chat

Hi Wendy,

if your father was a proffessional footballer have you tried doing a google search? Maybe the club he played for has some info about him. It's worth a try.

Good luck,
Caz

Where are you looking? Free bmd and Ancestry won't help with a birth after about 1920 unless you search each quarter of each possible year.

Different names is quite common. On official documents he may have used his birth name but in life used one he preferred.
I found my grandfather (who I never knew) was Charles on his marriage and my mother was convinced that was his name but eventually I found he was christened Henry !!!
Also sometimes Henry and Harry are changed.
Might just be worth a look for the surname in the index and area?

Thanks everyone - my father was a professional footballer on my birth certificate and his father was a publican on the marriage cert. Never thought about a different name at birth - I thought you had to use your proper name on documents I have a lot to learn

Maybe he was born abroad and on different index?
What was fathers occupation on marriage cert?

Perhaps your father was given a different christian name at birth than the one he used in life?

Where did you look? You won't find his birth on FreeBMD if it was after about 1920. You need to search the COMPLETE index on Ancestry, which is slow process.

does the cert name a father for him you could try looking for that marriage unless its a very common name then it might be too big a look up

I found my parent's marriage certificate and using my father's age tried to find record of his birth but had no luck - I worked five years either side - can anyone tell me how else I can find him ?
Thanks