Genealogy Chat

I think I found Simon's death, under Bolam, so I've order his certificate and see what that throws up. From being a tips board novice the other night I'm certainly getting the hang of this!

Oh, Im still learning aswell! I remember when I first came on here going loopy about not being able to find my GGF birth cert and decided hed never been registered and Id never be able to verify his parents. Then (and how daft was I) some kind soul said but has he got any siblings - see if they were registered and YES, his youngest sister was the only one they had registered so I bought her cert which took me backwards and it was brill, just the man Id wanted to find to link me to the family in Norfolk. Im often amazed how I can still sit here and not see the wood for the trees. I dont know how I would have ever managed without GR's people.

Thanks for that site Heather, I will look at it. It seems so obvious now, but I never thought to look for a re-marriage. Maybe I should try and think more logically in future.

Oh thats wonderful. I was a bit worried I had misled you with the second marriage but now you have verified it thats great. Isnt it a lovely feeling when it all comes together. And so, have you now traced his dads death? You have a nice little time span there. If you ever have bmd in the 1866-1920 period that dont show up, do go to familyrelatives.org as you can do a name search on there (and area/timespan) Its pay to view but if you are going loopy looking through images, its well worth the money.

Sorry, had to go out and just got in. I did look for his sister and she was registered as Mary Ann Bolam. Simon does appear in the 1881 and 91 census under the name of Grant and then reverts back to Boland for his marriage in 1894 and the 1901 census, My mother did not know about this and was really surprised when I told her.

Thats nice - did you go on to find the possible sister and did you follow through to see if Simon showed up in the Grant household in later census. When you know a dad has died when the kids are young (like in your Simons case) and then you have probs finding the family in the next census after his death, always consider the mum has remarried. They very often did, it was a necessity really to have money to support the kids. Quite often the kids may show up with the original dads surname but very often they are just absorbed into the family and take the family name but use their original surname when they marry or join the army or whatever.

Just want to say thank you to all of the people who helped track down my gg grandfather Simon Boland last night. I was over whelmed with the response. Discovering his wife had re-married after his death means that I now have a new branch of the family who I knew nothing about.