Genealogy Chat

He may very well have been born in Ireland - 1916 was not a good year to admit that you were Irish, so I would keep an open mind about his birth place being 'England'. OC

Thanks Shirley!

Heres the marriage rf to get cert William Fitzgerald to Fagan Dec 1949 Southwark 5d 1136 Shirley

You really should get his marriage cert as well as his birth cert. The marriage cert should tell you his father's name (and occupation) which needs to match with the father on the birth cert, to be certain you have the correct birth cert. There are less ways of verifying family data until you get back to before 1901 and you don't want to spend a lot of time and money searching out the wrong family............. Merry

thanks - i did think it might be inaccurate - my mother registered the death (as far as I know) and she thought that he was born in 1912 until we got the army papers - i think i am going to go with the 1916 date - in the records there looks like a william fitzgerald born in august 1916 so may order that birth certificate. the other problem is until we found the army papers we though he was born in Ireland (that is what he told the family) but the army papers state place of birth as england - this is the first relative i'm researching and i already feel like ive hit a brick wall! The information i have so far is: born 1st august either 1912 or 1916 said born in Ireland (but army papers say england) married norah fagan in southwark 1st October 1949 had five children Mary (1950), Richard, William, margaret(1954) and Stephen and moved to essex

I would consider the 1916 army record carefully, as generally if someone lied to the army it would be to make themselves seem older, not younger, so on the face of it this 1916 seems more believable. Had the death cert got a place of birth too? Do you want to give his name???!! **crossed fingers it isn't John Smith from London** Do you know who he married and/or when? Merry

you can look for free on Ancestry BMD to find his birth cert could he have lied on his army papers for some reason? on the index it will also give his mothers maiden name Jeanette http://www.ancestry(.)co.uk/search/rectype/vital/freebmd/bmd.aspx Remove brackets

The information on a DC is only as accurate as the person giving the details........does that make sense ? If the informant was his wife or a child then you would expect the details to be more accutrate than if the details were supplied by a friend. I think you have to use the details from a DC as guide and nothing more. I would look for his BC between 1912 - 1916 and if no luck work outwards a year at a time....At least the 1st August is the same so this might might be right :) ** Would the details from his army papers be more accurate ?...I only ask as I was thinking that he would have supplied them so should know when he was born !** What are his details ? ....I could have a look on the BMD index and see if I can see him....if that would help...

Hi, I'm really new at this and i'm stuck already - I am trying to find my grandad and only have his death certificates. Essentially what I would like to know is how accurate his death certificate is. It has his date of birth as the 1st august 1912 - but would this just have been the date that the family gave when registering the death or would some kind of documentation have been shown to verify the information? I am only querying this as his army papers (recently found) state his D.O.B as being 1 august 1916. Any thoughts/suggestions would be gratefully recieved - Thanks Katie