Genealogy Chat

New to this, and very keen to build my family tree as far back as possible, and was hoping for some advise. Especially when it comes to searching for older family members. Really having trouble with the searching, using lots of credit, with so far not a lot of results. Greatful for any advice. Samantha

Samantha, it's not always easy to give good advice as everybody's family is different. Why not give us some info to look for.. then if we find it, we can tell you how and where, so that you can learn as you go along. So how about some names/dates that you already know? Jim

Thanks Jim, I have been able to find my great-grandmother Esther Patey (nee Barker) date of birth 26/03/1906 in Reading. Any information of the parents of Esther would be great, also, any brothers or sisters. Many Thanks.

OK. 1906 is a problem since the births then do not show the mother's maiden name. And the 1911 census is not yet available showing the family togethr (parents and child). I would start by looking for a wedding in the area. One site for this is FREEBMD which as the name says is FREE. It does not have complete info transcribed yet - only to about 1912, so good enough for this. I am adding the wedding involving a PATEY in Reading between 1891 and 1912. I guess you need one where the groom is Patey, unless the mother was unmarried. Do you have any idea of names of parents? Marriages Dec 1892 (>99%) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patey Mary Ann Reading 2c 872 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marriages Sep 1893 (>99%) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patey Robert Reading 2c 714 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marriages Dec 1893 (>99%) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patey Matthew Reading 2c 839 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marriages Dec 1894 (>99%) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patey William George S Reading 2c 848 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marriages Sep 1896 (>99%) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PATEY Lottie Reading 2c 714 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marriages Mar 1897 (>99%) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patey William Reading 2c 564 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marriages Jun 1901 (>99%) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PATEY Marion Jane Reading 2c 820 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marriages Sep 1905 (>99%) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PATEY Annie Elizabeth S Reading 2c 820 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marriages Sep 1906 (>99%) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PATEY Blanche Annie Reading 2c 853 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marriages Jun 1907 (>99%) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PATEY Cornelius Reading 2c 821 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marriages Dec 1908 (>99%) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PATEY Job Reading 2c 931 PATEY Walter George Reading 2c 928 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marriages Jun 1909 (>99%) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PATEY Lydia Reading 2c 850 Surname First name(s) District Vol Page -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marriages Dec 1911 (>99%) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patey Herbert Reading 2c 943 Jim

Any hint of a musician in the family? There was a famous singer called Patey in Victorian times. Jim

Hi Samantha If you've found her birth, I'd try and get the certificate before anything else, especially as she's born after 1901 and therefore you won't find her on any of the censuses that are accessible at the moment. That will give you her parent's names, and you'll be able to search for their marriage, and for them on the 1901 census and so on. Ancestry is well worth the subscription. I spent a fortune on various sites when I started, tis a good idea to get an all inc membership. You can then access all the BMDs, Census returns and more. I tend to use GR for finding people who have common names in their tree, contacts etc, and Ancestry/FreeBMD etc for my general research. Hope this helps. Good luck! Once you find a bit more, feel free to post up, I'm sure people will be willing to search for you if you can't subscribe to Ancestry just yet, or if you have limited internet access etc. There are plenty of kind and helpful people here - just ask (and give as much info as you possibly can!) Laura

Hang on, if she's born 1906, did you say Esther Patey nee Barker? So Patey is her married name, so her birth index is Esther Barker? Is that right?

Samantha, If Esther was nee Barker and her married name was Patey presumably you must know her husbands first name? I can't find Esther Barker born 1906 on FreeBMD. Patey is a nice unusual name which should make things a bit easier. When you start you really need to use as many clues as possible. Starting with someone born in 1906 is probably the hardest way to go as you can't use 1901 Census. I use Ancestry for Census, FreeBMD for BMD's after 1837 and FamilySearch (IGI) for anything pre 1837. You may be lucky when you get back further to have people in a county that has had its parish records transcried (like Dorset). Have a look on http://www.bmdshare.com before ordering BMD certs, you may be lucky! Today I have managed to find a a couple of generations of a family just from the info on one birth certificate (£7 well spent). dizzy

Hello everyone that has posted. Thank you so much for your help. As I'm new to this all this information has completely swamped me so I'm going to have to sit down and digest it a bit. I'll probably come back then with a few more queries or answers to people who have posted queries to help me find out information. I'm so grateful and as a newbie am amazed at how helpful and generous everyone has been with their help and advice. Thank you Samantha