Genealogy Chat

Hi folks, I need a bit of help finding out how to do this.

I have a grandfather and I want to know if he had any brothers and sisters. I have his perants details.

How do I go about finding if he had any siblings? I think he had a sister and a few brothers all older but my mother and I want to find out for sure.

Any points to the right direction where to start will be great, thank you.

Em

Sort of depends on when and where all this took place. The place to start for England/Wales births, marriages and deaths 1837-1945ish is Freebmd:

www.freebmd.org.uk/

After 1911 the mother's maiden name is shown on the record, so if you have this it's a very good starting point.

Otherwise you would have to find the family on census reports.

Jan

That's brillient, Donald was born in 1932, so should be able to find something :-)

Good luck Emma. Exciting isn't it!
Any difficulties just come back here.
Jan

Emma, forget about the exact area. Just search for your grandfather first in the correct county.
I think you need "Tonbridge" by the way.

Tip:

google "registration district Tunbridge wells"

This link shows up:

www.ukbmd.org.uk/genuki/reg/districts/tonbridge.html

Freebmd again!

Jan

Just to add, as registration districts moved around a lot in the 20th century if in doubt I always google "registration district ...." and look for the Freebmd link (which starts "www.ukbmd.org.uk"). You learn a lot this way - the Birmingham area is very troublesome and caused me no end of problems till I discovered this!.

Jan

I do not understand that link you have given me, it just showing me a list with no way to search names.

I'm finding this freebmd very troublsome to navigate. I try to put names in and it's telling I can't search that way.

All I want to find out is if these two names show up on any other birth certificates other than donald's. Surely there is a search function for that???

You don't have to put in the registration district, if you are not sure.

Do you know his mother's maiden name? If not then search for Donald's birth, full name and a couple of years either side of when you think he was born, should do the trick.

Once you have mother's maiden name, then search for the parents marriage using their two surnames. Again put in a suitable date range if you are getting too many records.

Once you know when they married then search forward from this date, again entering just the father's surname and mother's maiden name. This will give you a list of possible siblings for Donald.

Right - do this:

Go to the Freebmd site I gace you on first reply.

Click on "search"

The next page gives you options to look for births etc. I assume you have this?

Tick "births" box

put grandfather's name and his mother's maiden name into the relavant boxes
Sit back and wait!

If you have no joy, put his details onto here and I'll have a look.

Jan

They married when donald was 15 years old. From the way people speak he was the youngest of the children.

I think this is why I having so much difficulty in finding them, conventional logic of kids after marriage aren't at play here...! LOL

Emma, just put Donald's surname and we can help you. Once you have conquered the Freebmd site it's really easy to use and an absolute godsend.
Have you looked for him under mother's maiden name?
Jan

HI Jan, the results have come up, they are all up in Lewisham and one in Woolwich. I've not had any evdience to say they ever went to London. All the records so far have been tightly bound in a very localised area (Rusthall for Harold's family and Cranbrook for Donald).

His birth records do put him down as Donald Albert Saunders. My mother obtained the records from the Tunbridge Wells Registry office so there is no dispute about Ivy putting him down as a Godfrey at any time.

Oh, this is a complete headache with this side of the family... :-(

Just to confirm what you have told us so far, checking against Free BMD:-

1) Donald was registered as Donald Albert Saunders, March qtr 1932, Cranbrook 2a 1518 Presumably you / your mother have a copy of the cert?

2) His parents were Harold A Saunders, and Ivy, Late Edwards, Formerly Godfrey, who married Sept qtr 1947, Tonbridge 5b 2339

3) Ivy had previously married George H Edwards, Spt qtr 1924, Cardiff 11a 953

It's propbably my computer playing up as it's now throwing up errors on this site as well!

New PC time for me.... :-/

Yep that's him.

1) Yes my mum has the certificates for him. We used to deliver the newspapers to the house he was born in, an uncanny discovery.

and yes to 2 and 3. Ivy was originally from Wales.