Genealogy Chat

I have been given the deaths of two ladies born 29 march 1905. Is there any way apart from buying the death certs, to find out their maiden names? I am trying to find out about my mother's sister, Gertrude May Wood b.29th March 1905 in Hertford. The names I have been given are: Gertrude Couplan d.March 2001 in Leeds aged 95. Gertrude Dutton d. September 1993 in Forest of Dean aged 88. There is a possibility she may have lived in France at some time. Couplan is a French name. I would welcome any help, thanks.

I'm not sure that you'd get their maiden names on a death cert? I'd suggest your only feasible route is a slog/trawl through the GRO marriage index images starting from a likely date. I'd start looking for a COUPLAN marriage with spouse-surname WOOD: you already reckon she might have a French surname, and the surname is rarer here. The risk is that she married in France, so not finding a result doesn't mean that that isn't the right surname - you still have to do the harder slog through WOOD/DUTTON to eliminate that pairing. The alternative is to look for Gertrude WOOD marriages with spouse-surname DUTTON/COUPLAN - again hoping she did marry in England/Wales. I've copied this from a post I put in another thread, so some may not be relevant to you - but it might be useful to someone looking in... If you need to look up cert refs, there are two likely ways... Local Register Office (many have online sites - some with searchable databases - see www.ukbmd.org.uk - these sites can be really good. I don't think that Herts has a searchable database online.) GRO ref (the central index, compiled quarterly from the local indexes - this has its own site, as mentioned above) Local and central refs are not the same - but fees are. If you're trying to get the central copy, it's £7 with the ref, or £11.50 without it, so it's worth having a look first. FreeBMD has a searchable database. It's a volunteer transcription site. They've achieved a huge amount, but there are a few gaps, still, and there's very little yet after about 1910. The last year will be 1983. The results sometimes link to the GRO index image for you to check for yourself. Ancestry has a copy of the FreeBMD database (with a much faster search) but, being a copy, it may not always be the latest. Searchable free. The results usually link to the GRO index image for you to check for yourself. Ancestry also has the full GRO image-set searchable by first & last name on the page. There are some glitches and, at the moment, it's free - while it's in beta (i.e. test) mode. Presumably, once it's sorted, it'll not be free any more. They also have the GRO info (searchable) after 1983. Christine

Hi I have looked through the marriage index from 1922 til 1945 and couldn`t find a marriage between Wood and Couplan or Wood and Dutton but I did find the the following > > > > Gertrude M Wood m. Leslie W France. 2nd qtr 1922 in York Reg 9d 101 Gertrude Wood m. Fred Simmonite. 1st qtr 1927 in Bradford. Reg 9b 124. Gertrude Wood m. James French 2nd qtr 1942 in Coventry Reg 6d 2089 The reason I thought these might be useful is because she might have married a France and not actually lived there,and the other name sounds French. I know this is a long shot but you never know. Eileen

Well done, Eileen! A real effort. And certainly plausible arguments - the way family stories acquire a Chinese Whispers element, those could easily tie in. Christine

Hi Chinese Whispers are exactly what I had in mind. I know from my own experience that they can really put you off the right track. Eileen

Thanks to you all for your help. Wasn't there a Simmonite in 'Last of the Summer Wine'?