Genealogy Chat

You can use this to search for births, marriages and deaths between 1837 and about 1970.
http://www.freebmd.org.uk/

Select Search and fill in as little information as possible to give the fewest results.
For the marriage above you could select type=Marriage
District= West Ham
Date range put 1913 in both boxes
and Surname= Davis

You can see in the results the Davis McGegor match. Clicking on the page number shows the full names.

There is a program called Marriage Locator http://www.marriage-locator.co.uk/
That can sometimes tell you the parish church that they were married in. In this case it seems to be in a register office or a nonconformist church as the page number is too high for a CofE marrriage.

Thank you! This looks a little different to the one I found as it has more info on it. Where/how did you find this please?I don't have the certificates unfortunately. I know my grandmother died in 1968 and grandad early 1970s, not sure of their dates of birth.Grandad lived in London but was staying with us over Xmas in Chingford when he was taken ill. I assume he died at Whipps x hospital in Leytonstone E11. Presumably then, I need to purchase the marriage certificate to get any further?

MArriage for reference - note spelling here of Katherine
England & Wales marriages 1837-2008 Transcription

First name(s) KATHERINE
Last name MCGREGOR
Marriage quarter 4
Marriage year 1913
Registration month -
MarriageFinder™ KATHERINE MCGREGOR married
JOHN DAVIS
Spouse's last name DAVIS
District WEST HAM
District number -
County Essex
Country England
Volume 4A
Page 772

If you have the marriage certificate can you give all the details from it please i.e. names, ages, address, occupations of bride and groom and names and occupations of their Fathers.

If you don't have the actual certificate, which sounds like the case, then you will need it for those details which will help pinpoint the correct families.

Do you know when and where your grandparents died, their ages at death might also help.

Thank you everyone for the replies. My father's name was John Charles Davis, DOB 15/03/1925 and died 10/08/1998. He was the 6th child in a line of 13. I have found the birth years of all his siblings from 1915 to 1940 except the 14th who was still born They are all from the Bethnal Green/ Shoreditch area of London. My grandparents were John Davis and Catherine McGregor, ( although it has been spelled MacGregor on several of my aunts and uncles birth listings)! They were married in 1913 in West Ham. I am now stuck as I do not know their parents names.To complicate matters, my grandfather's mother married twice. We are unsure if my grandad took the surname of the first or second husband but know that he put himself into Barnardos childrens home when he was young as he did not get on with one of the fathers!
What info is shown on Parish records please? I cannot afford to keep paying extra subscriptions if it is not going to be useful. Thank you in advance!

Susan, try using freebmd.org.uk If you have found some births ( before 1911 mother's maiden names aren't indexed) then it is worth looking a few years prior to that to see if you can spot an obvious marriage, that is easier if it is not a common name.

For eg, if i found this birth

Births Dec 1884 (>99%)
Fishlock Florence Ann Brentford 3a 90

I could then look for a 'Fishlock' marriage in the years prior to that in the same area. It's not certain but it can be useful.

Certain Parish records are online which may help, London records can be viewed on Ancestry ( just ask on here if you don't have a sub) , Liverpool, Lancs' etc , and you could also look at https://www.familysearch.org/

if no mmn is showing on the GRO record then they will be for births pre Sept qtr of 1911.

It may be better to try and find them on the 1911 census

If you want some help then let us know the names you are looking for and an area and approx birth years would help too

Hi Susan,

If you have the names of your grandparents and are willing to share them, with any approx date of birth and an area where born, lived, died etc, then the kind people on GR may be able to help you.

If you are searching in England, to see full birth certificates etc you would have to purchase them. Depending on the area and timescale, there are some free sites you may find more info. Some sites like Ancestry have marriage registrations online.

If you would like to give some more details, names, places and approximate years more specific guidance may be offered.

Welcome to the boards Susan.

I'm afraid you can't view certificates online. They cost £9.25p each from the GRO in Southport. You can order online from here:-

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

If you would like to give your grandparents' names and a rough idea of year of birth and area of birth someone will try to help you. You can sometimes find the family in the 1911 census if you are back that far.

Kath. x

Hi! I am trying to trace my late father's family history but know very little beyond my grandparents' names.I have found some birth records but the mothers' maiden names are blank so I have got stuck already! Can we view actual birth and death certificates somehow as opposed to just the basic entries? Or is that another £80?? Sorry to be a pain. Hope someone can help me?