Genealogy Chat

WHAT AGE WAS YOUR GRANDAD WHEN HE MARRIED?

FreeBMD is essentially complete for deaths thru 1973q2, but there are no complete quarters for deaths after this. If he died after 1969q1, then the index will give his d.o.b. (if the informant knew it). I've found the b'day is nearly always correct, but the year can be a wee bit off.

Abt a quarter of the 1960s quarters for Bs & Ds are not complete.
The earlier incomplete quarters are:
Births Sep 1940 (73%) **************
Births Dec 1943 (88%) **************
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Marriages Dec 1952 (93%) ***
[The %-age figure is the %-age transcribed and online]

Pre-1899, non-conformists (exc jews & quakers) weren't authorized to keep official marr registers, so the registrar would have to attend such marrs with his register for the couple to sign. After 1898, non-conformists could apply to be authorized to keep official marr rego's, but the RCs chose not to until 1980-ish.
A rego office marr was a non-denominational civil ceremony. RCs got wed the rego office, or their local RC church, which would have been an approved, registered building. In either case, the m.rego would have been done by a registrar. In 1913, abt 60% of English and Welsh marrs took place in the established church, and 21% in the rego office, but there was condiderable variation - in Wales, the figures were 31% and 38%, in the 4 N counties of England, they were 52% and 26% - in London, they were 58% and 28%.

Hi Susan
Are you still looking for the census with your grandmother on ? If not I think I have found them and her birth. She is aged 6 and 16 respectively on the census with father Charles and mother born Ireland.
Katherine Helen Mcgregor
Ap may June 1895
stepney
London 1c
423

Hi! Can anyone tell me what the pay per view credits are please? Also, I added parish records to my subs but cannot see where to access them. Can anyone advise please?

I wouldn't take everything written on a marriage certificate as gospel. People often lied - especially about ages.

My grandfather's age is 3 years out and my grandmother's age is 5 years out - making what was actually a 19 year age gap appear to be only 11 years.

As well as that a "deceased" father named on a marriage certificate was often to cover up the fact that the person in question was actually illegitimate and trying to save face in front of the "in-laws".

Kath. x

Update: The marriage certificate has arrived for my paternal grandparents John Davis and Katherine McGregor. Married 25th December 1913. Grandad was a general labourer as was his father, another John Davis who was deceased by the time of the marriage. Katherine's father was also a general labourer called Charles McGregor.
Through the census, I thought I had found Katherine's birth as 18/03/1895 and her death as March 1968, (although spelled Catherine) showing her father as Charles. However, the marriage certificate says she was 20 years old! I cannot find another Catherine or Katherine born in 1893! I did find a census for Charles that showed a spouse from Ireland and I know my grandma's mum was Irish, ( but I've lost my notes on this!) I'm therefore sure that I had the right Catherine. Also, I cannot find a birth, census or death entry for John Davis, the elder! Totally stumped on how to proceed already! Any advice please? T.I.A.

KenSE, yes, I've been using the one on here. Will try elsewhere then. thank you! Ok, just followed the link and it says it's a free 14 day trial but you have to fill in bank details . Do I really need to subscribe to another site, too? This is getting expensive!

I should add that you need to check the coverage charts on that site, to see whether the years you are interested in have been covered.

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

Susan, are you using the Genes search ?
If you don't get a result then try the search on
http://www.freebmd.org.uk/
In fact most members probably use that site as a first choice.

Thank you. I have seen this census so think it probably is my grandma.Can't wait for the marriage cert to arrive to confirm ! As for nan's death, I've looked everywhere and couldn't find it! Can you please tell me how you found it Lynn from up North? I must be doing something wrong somewhere. I put Catherine Davis Death 1968 give or take 1 yr in search boxes and selected deaths from left hand box. I got 73 matches but not the info you have found!?
One question for all you experts out there:- Is it best to follow one person back at a time? ie should I concentrate on the Davis's first for instance? As soon as spouses are involved it starts to get mind boggling. Just wondered how everyone else handles the information.Thank you x

This is the possible birth of Catherine:


Births Sep 1889 (>99%)
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McGregor Catherine Poplar 1c 618


and this is possibly the death registration:


Deaths Sep 1968 (>99%)
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DAVIS CATHERINE 80 SURREY S.E. 5G 320


EDIT: I found the death registration on Ancestry!

1901 Census - for reference:


Name:Catherine McGregor
Age:11
Estimated birth year: abt 1890
Relation to Head:Daughter
Gender:Female
Father:Thomas McGregor
Mother:Catherine McGregor
Birth Place:Cubett Town, London, England
Civil Parish:West Ham
Ecclesiastical parish:St Andrew
County/Island:Essex
Country:England
Street address:
Occupation:
Condition as to marriage:
Education:
Employment status:
View image
Registration district:West Ham
Sub-registration district:Plaistow
ED, institution, or vessel:42
Neighbors: View others on page
Piece:1574
Folio:114
Page Number:9
Household schedule number:62
Household Members:
Name Age
Thomas McGregor 49
Catherine McGregor 44
James McGregor 22
John McGregor 20
Margaret McGregor 17
Thomas McGregor 13
Catherine McGregor 11

This would tie in with the 1911 Census i.e. Margaret & Catherine sisters

Ok! Watch this space folks! I've ordered Nan and Grandad's marriage certificate. Thank you so much for all the tips.

Kathleen Bell, I just found a Catherine McGregor on the 1901 census born 1890 and she had a sister named Margaret! I think this must be the same family. It would appear there were several siblings and her mum was called Catherine also. Can't be sure it's my nan though.

Ooh, thank you everyone. My grandma definitely died in 1968. She was a Catholic and I believe my grandad converted to catholicism to marry her. I keep finding discrepencies with the spelling of Catherine and katherine as well as the Mc Gregor/ macGregor which doesn't help! I will definitely order the marriage certificate and look into nan's sister, (who i didn't know about)! This is so addictive, I just need to get the hang of it! Wish work didn't get in the way! Haha

A slight pointer to indicate that KathleenBell has the right person is that Margaret's marriage was also a non-CofE wedding. In those days about 2 in 3 weddings were in a parish church.

Both Catherine's and Margaret's marriages were in the last 11% of page numbers for that period which implies a register office. If they were Roman Catholic then they would also have married in a church.

Could she have died in 1962 rather than 1968

Back to results

England & Wales deaths 1837-2007 Transcription
Print transcription View image Attach to tree
First name(s) CATHERINE
Last name DAVIS
Gender Female
Birth day -
Birth month -
Birth year 1891
Age 71
Death quarter 1
Death year 1962
District STEPNEY
County London
Volume 5D
Page 764

As already said, your next step really should be to get the marriage certificate of your grandparents to get their ages, fathers' names and their addresses at the time.

However, that said, this looks like it could be a likely candidate for your grandmother in the 1911 census (given the address and also the year they married):-

1911 England, Wales & Scotland Census Transcription
266 Barking Road East Ham E, East Ham, Essex, England

First name(s) Last name Relationship to household head Marital condition Gender Age Birth year Birth place Occupation

Margaret Webb Wife Married Female 27 1884 Cubitt Town Poplar E Middlesex House Duties
Catherine McGregor Sister Single Female 21 1890 Cubitt Town Poplar E Middlesex Postal Telegraph Clerk<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
John Camerson Uncle Single Male 53 1858 Crieff Pertshire Scotland None
Donald Fraser McDongall Boarder Single Male 25 1886 Appin Aryldshire Scotland Marine Engineer

------------

If this turns out to be the correct person then this is her sister's marriage:-

First name(s) MARGARET
Last name MCGREGOR
Marriage quarter 1
Marriage year 1911
Registration month -
MarriageFinder™ MARGARET MCGREGOR married one of these people

WILLIAM H MILNE, ****THOMAS H WEBB****

Spouse's last name -
District WEST HAM
District number -
County Essex
Country England
Volume 4A
Page 374

Kath. x

No death recorded for Katherine Davis in 1968, however 4 showing for Catherine Davis: These could be narrowed down if you know the month in which your gradma died as they are all registered in different quarters.
The death Index gives an estimated year of birth, which are all different, Also two of those in the index have middle initials, so if a middle name know would also narrow your Catherine / Katherine to a year of birth!

where were they living when grandma died in 1968

Hi Susan,

Unfortunately you will not be able to find details online of the child that was stillborn as they were registered in a seperate register.

As previously mentioned, the best thing to do is to order the marriage certificate for your grandparetns, that should tell you who their fathers were and what age they were when they marrried as well as other information.

You only want to order any certificates from the following site:

They cost £9.25p each from the GRO in Southport.

http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/default.asp