Genealogy Chat

Thank You Reggie your blood is worth bottling. Went to the web address from your earlier post and I am fairly sure I have found myself a cousin born in 1946 with right parents names and exactly right area so I've ordered the certificate from GRO.........I've got goosebumps. Elanor I'm off to try your web address now to see if he is still alive.....really hard to type with crossed fingers. Kerry (with goosebumps) from Oz

Hi If you think your aunt is still alive try www.192.com which has current electoral roles and telephone directories (telephonbe numbers can also be traced through BT.com). Alternatively try tracing her death certificate on ancestry and at least you may have a name for who reported the death. Hope that helps. Good luck.

Thanks so very much to Bernice Flowers who helped me search and found my aunt's marriage in 1941and a possible child born 1943. At last the certificates have turned up in Oz and yes it is definately my aunt's marriage certificate. Unfortunately the other was not a child of hers though the surnames where the same. I have joined Ancestory and have not had many problems searching backwards but again the searching forward thing appears to have got the better of me. How do I search BMD's if I don't know the first names of any children? UPDATE: I have just reread Reggie's first post and gone of to try the address. Kerry from Oz

The only thing you can do is to look for children whose surname is that of the father, with an MMN which matches that of the mother........if they stayed in one location, the task will be slightly easier, as the registration district will be constant. Reg

The biggest investment is time, finding her marriage certificate will tell you who she married and then (because you know her married surname, maiden name and a likely area) it will be easier to find the births for her children. They will be listed under her married surname but also have her maiden name recorded in the index. The later stuff on the IGI site is a bit thin on the ground so ancestry is the site you will find most useful. Glen

I am glad to know that I hadn't suddenly become extra thick. Thankyou to all who have posted information and suggestions or contacted me personally. I am not going to give up but realise that it may take a lot more time and money to find the answers I am seeking.

The birth will not be among the transcribed records ( it is too recent); you have to register with Ancestry and search the full records, which are not transcribed. Use the following web address (minus brackets) to access birth records. Once you have registered, you can access marriages and deaths also.......(put it in your favourites, so you can find it easily) http://content.ancestry(.)co.uk/iexec/?htx=List&dbid=8964&offerid=0%3a7858%3a0 Start by looking for an event you are sure of....it will give you the idea of how the site works......... Reg

You are not thick! Searching forwards is incredibly difficult. You need to search the GRO indexes of marriages and deaths for every quarter of every year. Even if you find a name that matches there is not certainty without buying the certificate that the marriage is the right woman. Never mind the possibility that she moved within the UK, gone to Scotland, or emigrated. If you know which part of the UK is likely, you may find that there are local indexes available online. Coverage is patchy, and the years covered far from complete. Try: http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/ Needles and haystacks spring to mind. Good luck Pete

Thanks for the tips everyone. I will keep searching but haven't had any luck with finding my aunt or grandmother on ancestry of IGI so far. I'm beginning to think I must be a bit thick.

Hi Kerry - it can be a bit confusing at first (at least it was for me!) There are two sets of BMD on Ancestry, one is the Free one which is incomplete, but allows searching by name. The other you need to specify a year and look through the names yourself. Very long process if you don't have any idea of the timescale. I'm doing just that myself to find the death of my G Grandfather.

You'll have to trawl the BMD images at ancestry - the records from around 1910 to 1984 are not yet indexed for searching.

Hi Kerry try Ancestry .co.uk search good luck

I have tried searching on the FreeBMD site and Ancestry but cannot even find my aunts birth let alone her marriage.

Hi Kerry you could try finding her marriage,on Ancestry.co.uk they have the complete records for births deaths and marriages(which are free) but you have to manually go through them which can take a lot of time,but its worth it if you get the info you nee :) xx

As a newbie from Oz I am still wondering how I can search forward to find my aunt (my fathers half sister) or hopefully her children in the UK. I have the birth record for her from 1922 and photo from 1938 (aged 16) and not much else to go on. Currently waiting for her parents marriage record cert to arrive but feel that the marriage cert will only help me work backwards not forward to find my relatives. Are there ways to search forward?