Genealogy Chat

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I have been researching the family tree for some time now but have left my Smith rellies until last for obvious reasons. The only information I have on the Smith's is my nan's marriage certificate and the info regarding my grandads death. Grandad was George Frederick Smith as listed on marriage certificate and was aged 26 in 1926 so was born in late 1899 or 1900. On the marriage cert his father is listed as James Smith and there is a Florence Smith as a witness who I assume is either mother or sister. I have checked the 1901 census using the decoder and can't find a family containing George, James & Florence in B'ham. Does anyone who has traced their Smith family have any tips for finding such a common surname and making sure you have the right ones. I am not that new to genealogy and have made fairly good progress on the other surnames in my tree but the Smiths are proving a problem. Any help/advise would be much appreciated. Karen

hi karen i too have had trouble looking for my smith line .my g.g.g.grandad was from uley in gloucestershire,my g.g.grandad was born there but his daughter was born in birmingham,after which they moved to high wycombe. i have been lucky in the aspect that dad knew his nans name,annie smith. i looked on familysearch and found her birth which gave her fathers name.i then in turn found his father,but now im stuck again!!!there are thousands of thomas smiths in gloucestershire. i found these for you on ancestry.i dont know how you'll work out which one is yours but if you order the cert it will give you his parents names george frederick smith 1899 dec warwick 6d 154 george frederick smith 1900 jun warwick 6d 195 george frederick smith 1900 sept 6d 60 susie

Hi Susie Thanks very much for the info. I suppose I can always state that I don't want the certificate unless the fathers name is James. Unfortunately I only have my dad who was very young when his father died and nan refused to talk about him so the only info I can go on is what I find in the records. Still I live in hope. Would not be half as much fun if it was easy. Many thanks Karen

karen i to have not even bothered on that line as my grt grandmother was emma elizabeth smith and her father was also thomas smith and the amount of those names that could be possibles i would be spending a fortune on certificates to get the right one . may be one day something will turn up :-)

Sheesh! Know how you feel!! I have Huntingdonshire & Cambridgeshire Smith's by the name of William and Jane!! :( Not going there for a while! Sonja in Oz