Genealogy Chat

I dare say this has been covered before but ...... Working back you get the birth cert that gives you the mothers maiden name and with that info you can find the marriage BUT how do you go about getting the marriage when working forwards? IE ancestor’s siblings working forward to the present time. Cheers Ian

Ho Thomas, Males marrying before 1901 isn't too difficult. If you can find them on a census with their wife and/or children. You can then try to find the marriage on Freebmd or by ordering a child's birth cert, giving you the mothers name. Female marriages are much harder! Some just seem to find you, most go by the wayside. I have loads of unmarried females in my tree!! Though I'm sure they did. Sometimes children of the marriage are helpful here too, look for children with a middle name that matches mothers maiden name! Quite a popular practise. After 1901? Don't even bother until the nest census is released! Unless they are in counties like Durham, where the whole marriage index has been transcribed into a searchable database! then you can narrow it down considerably. Debbie

Depends how common the name is, some are easy if they don't move to far away. I have in just the last year found my husbands cousin, she was nearly sixteen the last time anyone in the family last saw her that was 40 years ago. I found her marriage and her husbands first name then looked on the Electoral 1998 is on CD, a friend helped there. In the 40 years she had married, had a family moved ot NZ and had only been back for 6 years. So don't give up Oh and after mid 1911 on the indexing they started to put the partners surname, this makes it easier to check on the partners first name. Also any children born after mid 1911 will have the mothers maiden name on the indexing. Good Luck Irene

Hi Ian From the third quarter of 1911, the surname of the spouse is included in the index, so if you know the name of one party for certain, you can find the other person's details by looking up their surname to find the same reference number, which willl then give their Christian name(s). It can be a bit tedious, as with looking through 25 pages of 'Brown', which I did recently, but it is possible. If you do it on 1837 online it will cost you, of course, but you always have the alternative of the microfiche in a library. From 1912 the mother's maiden name is shown on the birth index, so you can find children of the marriage. Clearly, if both parties have common names, it becomes difficult to be certain you have the right people, but I have identified a lot of my relatives in that way. Best wishes Stan