Genealogy Chat

Thanks all very much, given me some hope of finding something!! Up to now my Akroyd's have given me the most trouble., as they spelled their names differently within the family!! I'm sure I'll find something on him. Jacquie

Hi Jacquie, Please remember that the GRO indexes were the final destination, and what happened in between is anyone's guess. The GRO register is a copy of the register that the local registrar made up. Your ancestor's name could easily have been mistranscribed by either the local registrar or the GRO, or even by the vicar if he didn't hear the name correctly (accents being what they are) One of my names is Jeffries, but I might find an ancestor could be a Jefferies at birth, a Jeffries at baptism, a Jefferis at marriage and goodness knows what when he died and was buried! Also it's come to light that there were quite a lot marriages that went astray and never ended up on the GRO indexes, so the local register office and church etc are the only places to look. Local district offices used to refuse to look for a marriage because they had to search individual registers if you didn't know where the marriage took place, but now many have theirs on a central index and it's worth asking if they can help. Best of luck, Cazza

Just because you can't find a marriage didn't mean they didn't if you see what I mean. I and another rellie who I met years after he had started looked for one of ours. I had the fiche for the parish church, after spending a lot of time reading each one I found it. Still not been found in the indexing. Births are a bit different. 1837-1875 it was the registrar who went round recording all new births. If they had moved or were out visiting then they were missed. Irene

there's no separate civil registration for church marriages: you sign 2 registers in the vestry during the wedding service, the vicar sends a transcript to the GRO, and one of the registers goes to the local Supt Registrar when full. But a lot of people who said they were husband and wife on censuses had never had a wedding. Looks like this couple didn't, and the other certs you're missing could all be under the maiden name of the "wife", which of course you don't know. Find out when the churches opened, probably some were later, and where the burial grounds were that were in use at that time. Might not be as big a problem as you think.

I'm having a bit of trouble with a relative, because he didn't bother with civil registration for is first marriage, the birth of his first daughter, or the death of his first wife and first daughter! His name was David Walshaw, he was born in 1836 in Clifton, West Yorkshire and moved about between Brighouse and the Huddersfield area (both West Riding). He married Louisa Spink in 1867, but befre that he married a lady called Jane (kindly confimed by Donna who visits this site through the 1861 census (living in Brighouse)) they had a daughter called Ainley born about 1860 (have doubts about name, a bit weird maybe the enumerator misheard for Emily). I've bought every certificate for a David Walshaw that shows up on the GRO between 1852 and 1864, he's definately not on it and as I said before neither are the deaths. There is no trace on the IGI. My Granny used to say she thinks the first wife's maiden name was Scott, but she wasn't sure! We want to know who the family was as we have her dad's clock - it would be nice to know who owned it before us. My problem is what do I do now as I've no idea what church they married in, had funerals for his first family etc? Also they could well have wed in Huddersfield, Rastrick or Brighouse! There's more churches than you could shake a stick at round there. Can anyone with a bit more experience than myself think of what I could try next? Many thanks Jacquie