Genealogy Chat

Hey, I wondered if anyone can help me, im only just starting the uphill struggle of tracing my family tree, but i cant seem to find the information that i want. I look on the sites that GR recommend but when im on there i dont know how to find what i want to find! I just wondered if anyone could help me or point me in the right direction, please???

What are you looking for?

I am firstly looking for my granparents parents and then their parents. My granparents names Maller, burris, Goulding and Gorgan. Maller and Burris came from the Gloucestershire area then moved to Bradford West Yorks and Goulding and gorgan originally came from Ireland but settled in Bradford. Just getting to see birth, marriage cerficates would be a first.

Lucy You have to buy certificates, you cant just see them. Put some details on here and perhaps we can help Margaret

Lucy 1. Welcome aboard the wacky world of genealogy! 2. Scroll down the homepage until you find the "Getting Started" section and read it. 3. Write down what you know about your family already - surnames, first names, approximate dates (which decades) they lived, whereabouts. 4. Then work systematically back from what you know, using certificates etc till you reach 1901 and can use the censuses. 5. Ask on either this or the Records office board if you need further help. 6. Have fun! nell

1901 census Burris appears to be a name in the Forest of Dean (37 of them) 15 Mallers in Glos - the youngest was 17

If you put full names of grandparents and roughly their dates of birth/marriage/death, also the town/village/county, you may get more help. If you are searching after 1910 it is more difficult as there are no free search sites. You will have to go on 1837online and pay to view.

Depending on their ages, you might find them as children on a census, which would give you the parents, then look for the marriage on freebmd to get the maiden name of the mother. This, however, would only give you clues, not evidence. You would have to order certificates for that.

Lucy, I have sent you an email. Sue.................

Cheers everyone, its given me lots of help. Anyways these are the exact dates of my granparents Births, Marriages and deaths. Right: Joseph Goulding B) 06/06/14 M) Bradford 13/12/39 D) Bradford 1998 Irene Gorgan B) 16/1/19 M) Bradford 13/12/39 Still living but memories fading Leslie Charles Maller B)26/6/22 M) Bradford 25/1/47 D) Bradford 1999 Majorie Burris B)1923 M) Bradford 25/1/47 D)Bradford 1999 If anyone knows anything, please help??? Thanks x

Lucy Find out if anyone in your family has any birth, marriage or death certs - as you have lots of exact dates, hopefully you do. You won't find anything much on Freebmd (online GRO indexes to births, marriages & deaths) after 1910, so you will either have to pay on www*1837online*com - replace * with . to use, or go to a local library/records office that has the GRO indexes on microfiche. Once you have got the info from certificates, you can work back to the censuses. nell

Hi Lucy I believe Irish ancestors can be a problem, as some records were destroyed by fire in Dublin. I've looked up Leslie Charles Maller, whose death reference in October 1999 gives a birth date of 28/6/22, but I can't find him in the national index in 1837online. I've tried the years either side, and also the following quarter for each year as the birth was so near the end of June. I've also tried alternative spellings but no luck. Maybe the marriage certificate would help with his father's name. Could he have been registered with a different surname, and changed it later to Maller? Marjorie Frances Burris was easy in comparison. The death in December 1999 of Marjorie Frances Maller gives a birth date of 2 Jul 1923. This appears in the national index as expected: Burris, Marjorie F (mother's maiden name Newman) Westbury S. 6a 472. [Westbury S. is Westbury on Severn]. I hope his helps. As you identify certificate references from the indexes, you will need to buy the key ones at £7 each. I always buy birth, nmarriage and death certificates for direct ancestors. Regards Stan

Hi Lucy - Welcome to the sad mad world of us folks who spend their time playing with dead people!!! I started to do my tree when the 1901 census became available on-line. I found my grandparents on my mothers side on there as young children with their parents and went back from there. I didn't know the name of my late father's parents as they both died when he was very young, but I knew exactly when and where he was born so i bought his birth certificate. This gave the full name of both his parents so by that time I was off. Of course you may not be as ancient as me, so perhaps your grandparents weren't around in 1901. Happy hunting anyway. Regards and good luck - Angela