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New and slightly confused

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Patricia

Patricia Report 4 Sep 2010 01:08

Hey,

My Auntie has already found out about my mothers side of the family using this site, but I know little about my fathers side. My father is an only child and we no longer speak so I'm finding it hard to work out how to find out more about his side of the family. I've used his birth record to find my grandmothers maiden name, and I know my grandfathers name. But now all I've got is the maiden name of both my grandfathers mother, and my grandmothers mother. Since I do not know the first names, or the year they were born - I'm lost. Does anyone know where I could go from here?

Many thanks in advance!

MargaretM

MargaretM Report 4 Sep 2010 01:53

Can you find the marriages on FreeBMD here?:

http://www.freebmd.org.uk/

Researching:
Great grandmother Dorothy Bean nee Abbott (1858-1908)

mgnv

mgnv Report 4 Sep 2010 02:37

I assume you've looked up your dad in the GRO index at FreeBMD or elsewhere, and gotten some info like:

Surname First name(s) Mother District Vol Page
Births Jun 1944
SMITH George N Jones Stockport 8a 13

He might have naamed his dad on an m.cert, but evenso, you're still stuck for your gran's full name.
What you should do now is order your dad's b.cert from the GRO at:
http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/

It'll cost 9.25 GBP, and have his mum's full name - whether it'll have his dad's full name depends on whether or not they were married, and if not, whether he accompanied his mum to the rego office to acknowledge paternity by signing your dad's b.rego. You might need to buy their m.cert, which would name both fathers, assuming they didn't lie to hide illegitimacy. A lot depends on how identifiable the names are: e.g., a John Smith would definitely need it, but probably not a Francis Xavier Smith. An m.cert would also give their ages, which again help pin down their birth. You keep at it like this until you get back to the 1911 census, when you can start using the census records back to 1841 to help out.

If your aunt's still around, chat to her about it.

Kucinta

Kucinta Report 4 Sep 2010 15:47

Have you looked for a marriage of your grandparents, since you seem to know their names?

If you got the marriage cert it would usually given the name and occupation of the fathers both the bride and groom, and often the age of the bride and groom.

Depending on how old you are, that might be enough to get you back into census territory, which you can cross check with the FreeBMD, buying certs as needed.

You can look at the index for free at :

http://www.freebmd.org.uk/

which is good for 1837-c1940s

Researching:
Eayres (Northants/London) Walker (Surrey) Loveday (Northants) Moore (Tipperary)