Genealogy Chat

I am trying to find any descendents of Herbert Beard and Sarah A Howson, married in 1937 in West Yorkshire. According to birth indexes, they had 2 daughters: Ann Beard in 1938 and Patricia Beard in 1944. I think Sarah A died in 1964 in Darlington and Herbert in 1997 in East Staffordshire district.

I'm now very keen to trace Ann and Patricia and their families but have hit a brick wall. I have 35 possible marriages across the UK for Patricia, and 22 possible marriages for Ann over appropriate date ranges. Each one of these married names brings up many possible phonebook entries. There are also more than 40 Ann Beards and Patricia Beards turning up on 192.com as living alone (unmarried?).

I know from 2 old letters that the family was living in Darlington in 1964-1965, but have contacted the new owners of the house and they know nothing about the Beard family. I'm now totally stuck. I really need to find Ann and Patricia as soon as possible.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to go about this? All ideas very gratefully received!

Charlotte

If you get the death certs for Herbert and Sarah that will tell you exactly when and where they died. You could then search the local papers in those areas to see if there were death notices - if so, these may mention any descendants, and could even give their married names. Also, once you have the death dates you could enquire at local cemeteries to try and find the burial records. These should tell you the name and address of the person who organised the burials. Probably best to start with Herbert as his death was the most recent.

Thanks for the suggestion! I have ordered the certs already but hadn't realised that I could search cemetery burial records, so I will definitely try that.

Do you know if there's any way to check local papers other than going to the place and looking in the library?

Many thanks.

Have you tried writing to the letters page of a local newspaper in the last known area they lived in? I've done that five times and in four cases I was lucky enough to get a reply from people who, although not related to the people I was after, did recognise the names and remembered bits of information about my relations.

Especially since you're looking for people born in relatively recent times you may just get replies from either them or people who knew them and may know whether or not they are still in the local area.

The death certificate of Herbert may well show that a relative was the informant, ...one of the daughters perhaps?
The address of that person will also be shown and might make your search easier.

Gwyn