Genealogy Chat

A friend of mine wants to try and find her half brother, back in the middle 1940's her dad had an affair resulting in the birth of a little boy, needless to say the marriage broke down and so did the affair. All she has to go on is the woman's name which could be spelt 2 different ways and the christian name of the baby, he might have been registered in either the womans surname or her fathers name, she is not sure. Is there anyone out there who could point us in the right direction to search for her brother. We thought about an electoral roll search but is it possible to do a blanket search for one person with 3 possible names assuming that is that the woman did not go on to marry someone else and the baby was adopted by her husband. Any suggestions where to start. Thanks in anticipation. Gen

Hi, Can you find the birth entry in the indexes as you know the year and possible names. See if the entry has been annotated in some way which would indicate adoption. If not, then he probably kept that name. You could then look for a marriage of the woman to see if she later married, and see what name the boy might have taken on. Not sure where you go from there but there are some very helpful people on here, including some with electoral roll CDs. Good luck, Janice

Thanks for your suggestion Janice, looks like we will be booking a day in FRO, that seems to be the only way forward. Thanks again Gen

Hi Gen To save yourself a day at GRO, you could start with buying £5 worth of credits at www(.)1837online(.)com (removing brackets), as long as you have some names and years to go on. Good luck! Mandy

I made some progress with something rather similar by writing to the local newspaper of the area concerned and asking older readers if they remembered anything about the people/area concerned in the 1940's. I had an amazingly good response - one person giving me a proper name for the chap I had had only a nickname for - and I was able to trace him from that - and find his marriage and his daughter. Electoral Rolls, visits to Records Offices and 1837 Online played a large part in it all - but well worth it. Good Luck - Rosi PS. I had more than 100 replies to my letter - many of them several weeks after it had appeared in the paper - people are so willing to help if they can - and love talking about things that happened long ago. You never know - the Postmaster at the time might answer your plea - or even the District Nurse.

had the same sort of scenario, my grandfather married a woman who then gave birth to a baby that wasn't his, he left the marriage within a year. It took some time but it is possible, in the 1940s indexes both the maiden name and married name are shown of the mother , this makes it a little easier. I did get there in the end ,despite the fact that I was told this was in 1929, when it was 1923 and that the child was called Ruth, when she was called Olive . I knew the registration area which helped enormously as I could then eliminate the irrelevant areas. Two tips , save all your images on 1837online , you can then print them and check them carefully. Check at least 5 years either side of the dates relatives give you , as dates often get confused or forgotten . KIM

Thank you all for your helpful suggestions I will pass them on I must admit we were stuck for ideas but now I feel we will at last make headway in the search for my friends brother. Once again thank you, one and all I just hope I can be of help to you in the future. Best wishes Gen