Genealogy Chat

I've been on these Boards on behalf of mainly Derbyshire folk quite a long time.
One thing that has been a little niggle at the back of my mind is the large number of requests to find living relatives.....

Since a lot of folk choose to keep living relatives hidden, and, for instance census have a 100 year rule....should we really be doing this?? I'm sure that most are genuine enquiries, but what if a) those relatives don't wnat to be found?? or b) it offends Dta Protection regulations for deliberately nefarious purposes??

Any thoughts??? or just tell me to shut up!!

The only reason that a census is closed for 100 years is that a promise was made at the time.
BMD's
Electoral roles
Phone books
Street directories
Plus many more are all available
Birth certs over 50 years can be bought without a date of birth and more recent ones with a date of birth.
Etc. Etc.

Often I’ve wondered why people are asking for help to find living relatives, but have assumed that it was for a personal reason – adoption, orphaned or such like.

If that were not the case, I do feel that it could be construed as an invasion of privacy; however, questioning the reason behind the ‘look up’ request is in itself an invasion of privacy! All the more reason not to post details of living rellies on an open board when avoidable.

Hi Derek,

I do understand your concern for look ups on living relatives, I can only say that when I try and help someone I often find out the reason etc via pm, before I help.

There are many reasons why people lose touch, families move around a lot more nowadays and people lose addresses, family arguments where other family have since lost touch,sometimes parents separating.
Not all reasons are bad, and the assistance this site provides can cause a lot of joy :O)

Hi Derek

I've often wondered the same thing ............... and out of principle, I will not help people search for living relatives.


Just as a matter of interest .... it is very difficult to search for living relatives, or recently dead ones here in Canada. First of all, every province keeps its own records, the is no central registry of bmds ..... but also most (if not all) provinces have 50/75/100 year rules for releasing information on bmds.

We have reason to believe that a relative of OH died in Manitoba in 1929, and was then buried in Saskatchewan ............... we have an obituary card that tells us this. But I cannot yet access her death registration.



syvia

Could you tell me Sylvia if you have any idea of the rule for Ontario? I am tyring to contact descendants of an aunt who went to Canada in the 1920s and her daughter was born in Ontario in the 1930s. Others have tried to help me find her but they quoted the 50 year rule.
thanks,
Jill

Hi Jill

I'm the immigrant here, so I don't have any expertise in Canadian records because I don't need to find anyone ......... ...... except for this relation of OH's

BUT as far as I know, your other sources are quite correct about Ontario.


You could try googling for Ontario bmds (or Ontario Vital Statistics, which is what they are usually called here), and see for yourself what you can find.




sylvia

Hi Derek

AS you know, records for people born 1925+ are hard to prove (no censuses etc). I don't refuse to help people looking for such relatives but it does make you wonder why they are needing to look. My dad was born 1925 and I know who he was. I don't need to search for him. Maybe other researches are a lot younger, and that era is their grandparent, and their information is more scant. Many of them are still living, so I don't post my findings on the board but send a pm instead.

Margaret

Hi Margaret, Derek and everyone
Both my OH and his sister would dearly like to find descendents of their aunt who went to Canada in 1928 and lost touch in the 1940s. That's why I'm trying to find living relatives in that family line. We know she had two granddaughters, but that's it!
I discovered MY Canadian connection because a great aunt over there couldn't deal with my questions and passed my letter on to a cousin who was interested and who I had no knowledge of. We have now visited each other and keep in regular contact and are great friends. Our grandmothers were sisters.
love
Jill

Can't speak for Canada,

However, the transcribed BMD records on Ancestry have made it so much more easy to search for living relatives here in England and Wales.

Obviously you need to use a certain amount of discretion, but there is nothing illegal in searching public records.

The other misconception is the Data Protection Act. It is unlikely that a prosecution will be made against a private individual, and in any event there is the defense that the information is being used for research purposes only, which is outside the scope of the act.

Most of the success stories on here are from people who have found living relatives. There are many reasons why families have not kept in touch with each other. A fall out between siblings can result in cousins never knowing each other etc.

As long as direct contact information is not put on the boards but PM'd then I don't see the problem. I would love to be found by cousins I didn't know I had!

Hi Derek,

I do understand your fears, but I think the shame is nowadays people have become almost paranoid about access to information.

Margaret,

Lots of people look for family for innocent reasons, My Father fell out with his sister years ago, but when he had cancer wanted to make amend things like ancestry FMP and the elec rolls make this poss, and this is only 1 example :O)

My son in law phoned me a few weeks ago.
His mother was wondering if he could trace her only brother.
He had had a falling out with their mother,about twenty years ago and never had contact again.
We worked together but sadly he had died in 1995 and no one knew.
We have now reunited his widow and children with the rest of the family.
So all the records are there,on the net,to find people,if you know where to look.

A general Canadian portal is:
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy/index-e.html

For Ontario BMDs:
https://www.orgforms.gov.on.ca/eForms/start.do

There is no 50 year rule for ON deaths - anyone can apply for a death cert.
However, there is no available index for deaths post 1938, so to apply for a more recent death cert, you pretty much have to already know what's on the d.cert.