Genealogy Chat

Gwynneth, Joan and Lorraine, Thanks for your help and advice. Will pursue these avenues and will let you know if I get anywhere. Georgina

Hi georgina going from personal experience I have only searched the index on the 1837 site and applied to smedly hydro for certificates before that. I have on occasion been told that the person I'm looking for doesn't exist or unable to find an entry on 1837(usually a birth entry). After applying to the local register office for the area I'm interested I have had more success. On one relative the registrar was about to give up but telephoned to say he'd found her while looking up another request of mine. Her name had been spelt differently as well. Because I have had more success with the register office I think there must be a number of reasons for entries not making it to the index such as damaged records, the registry office forgetting to send their books to be included in the index etc. I also think that some smaller parishes haven't sent their books because they are still using them. Perhaps someone who goes to the public record office can tell you what they hold that maybe helpful to you. All the best happy hunting Lorraine

Have you tried fishing in freebmd....finding the place of your father's entry and looking for female births in same place within a year or so? There aren't a lot of Homewoods.... Good luck Joan

Hi Georgina, The PRO only have the fiche of the GRO index. It's better to search the GRO at the Family Records Centre where they have the original books. It would be very unusual, but not unheard of, for a marriage to be registered locally but not on the GRO index. It would almost certainly be in the local registrar's books if it was in parish records. Hope this helps, Gwynne

Lorraine, Thanks for your reply. Nice to know that I am not the only person up at this time of night. I have no idea of date of birth. My father was born in 1912 so could be before or after this date. They were Londoners and appeared to move home a lot. As his mother was buried in a public grave (I believe this is what is known as a pauper's grave) I suspect there is no will but thank you for giving my problem some thought. I am going up to London on 22nd November and trying to think of ways to make good use of my time in finding out something. If a marriage is not recorded in the Public Records Office could it still be in a parish/church record? Georgina

Just wondering Do you know the place of birth and approx year of birth. You could probably try a search under both names. If it's not on the index then maybe the local registry office could do a search for the birth of likely candidates. If it's a marriage they might want the name of the church which if you don't know might be a difficulty. Also was there a will that may have mentioned the sister. Could it perhaps have been announced in the local paper. just a few ideas All the best Lorraine

I am having trouble with my Father's Tree. His name was Robert William Homewood and his parents were Robert Leopold Homewood (born 1885) and Florence May Benjamin (born 1885). My father had a sister who I believe had an illegetimate child and went to Canada (don't know this for a fact). I want to find out about his sister but do not know her name. Robert and Florence were not married on the 1901 census. I cannot find any trace of a marriage certificate for them although I have searched PRO extensively. I have a death certificate for Florence who died in 1927. I have traced her burial to see if there was an inscription on the tomb stone but unfortunately she was buried in a public grave. Any ideas how I progress