Genealogy Chat

My Great Grandfather was adopted. His name was Alfred John Edward MASSEY and he was born in 1895.Mum said he was born either 6th or 7th may.I have looked on both FreeBMD and on 1837 online but I cant find him,I also cant find his marriage.I have searched the years from 1916 up until dec 1918(his first child was born May 1919)and mum said they were married before this. I have found his death on 1837 onlineMASSEY Alfred J.E age 71 Durham E(he died new years eve 1966). I have looked on 1901 using the decoder and the closest match i could find was a John Massey aged 6 born in Willington Durham but he seemed to be by himself,I couldnt seem to match him up with any parents. After he died a diary was found and it had the date 6 May and the name E.Doolittle,i dont know if this was his birth mother.Does anyone know what my next step would be in tracing his family(either adopted or natural) Thanks Anna

Anna Where was he born do you know? Are you sure it was 1895 there are two Albert Edwrad Massey's on freebmd but born 1894 Wolverhampton and Shepton Mallet??? Ann,Darlington

If you have found his death under Massey, this was his adopted name and not his birth name.

My mum said he was born in Easington and they took him back there to die..Other info i have on him is that he worked on the trams and he served in both World Wars.He never spoke about his family when he was alive so it makes it a lot harder to look for him,I was hoping to maybe find his marriage cert if i couldnt find his birth cert,at least i would get his fathers name and work from that.

I tried to search on County Durham Records which has Easingham records on line but nothing under his name. You could try E mailing them for help Mary www(.)durham(.)gov(.)uk/gro/search(.)nsf/search+index

Thanks Mary, I have just looked on the family records website and it says Legal Adoption was introduced in the early part of the 20th century and records of private agreements can be difficult to trace.Adoption certs are only available from 1927 so now im trying to look again for his marriage in the hope that the certificate will give me some more details as i may never know his birth name

Is it possible that he could have got married slightly before 1916, say between 1912-1916?

It could be possible, as he went away to fight in WW1 and could of married before he went to war,In 1912 his future wife would of been 18 yrs old so they could of married any time after 1910 really.I used up £5 worth of credits on 1837 trying to find a possible marriage,using both his and his wifes names and gave myself a headache in the process!!

Try the search on Durham county the address as above. This cost nothing click on certificates go to the bottom of the page for search. Try his wifes name on that. Mary

Cleobury M is Cleobury Mortimer, which is in Shropshire.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts.I love a good puzzle too but it seems i am better at helping solve other peoples than i am at my own!!I will take a look on the Durham site and then look for their marriage reference again. If i ever find this i will get at least his adoptive fathers name so will have another lead to follow.

Anna, Don't want to send you off on a wildgoose chase but assuming that his adopted name was MASSEY, I did search on FreeBMD for any Alfreds born between 1895 and 1896. This one caught my attention: DUCKER, Alfred John E. - Jun 1895, Chester Le S, 10a 599 Checked on 1901 census for this guy and couldn't find him, so he could have become a MASSEY by then. I still think your best bet for now is to plug away finding that marriage cert, but keep this info in mind for the future. Andy

thanks Andy,ill keep that safe for future reference,think this is going to be a hard one to solve somehow!! One of Alfreds sons is still alive today,He is 80 and i dont really want to bring it up with him because I dont think he knew his dad was adopted,only my gran knew but it wasnt spoke about much, Thanks for your help Anna

Anna, FreeBMD is almost complete for births for 1895 so he should be there IF is name was Massey. I also suggest checking 1918 for marriages. While the story passed down to relatives was that they were married long before the first child was conceived, this wasn't always the case. Crista

Crista, I have looked on 1837 from dec 1916 through to dec 1919 under both husbands and wifes names Alfred Massey and Anastasia Townsend and i cant find anything so either i have missed it or they got married much earlier or later that i anticipated.I am now going through the period before the First World War incase they were married before Alfred went away to fight. Anna

Anna, If you order his death certificate it usually has the date and place of birth on it. Crista

I have found his death reference no problem so i may have to send for it in the absence of a marriage reference.I think i have the correct place and date of birth as i when he died he was 71 so i worked that back to 1895 andmy nan said he was born in Easington because when they were taking him to hospital for the last time she said he wanted to be taken to a hospital in Easington as he wanted to go "home" to die At least it wont be money wasted if the death cert provides no differnet info as he was a member of my family. Anna

Hi Anna Sorry can't suggest anything more than the others have said, but I note from your reply to Teresa that you are in Dunfermline. I am in Dalgety Bay. Hazel

hello hazel I only moved up here in nov 2001.We looked at houses in Dalgety bay before deciding on Dunfermline!I have noticed everyone is really friendly up here!! I lived in london for 4 years before moving and didnt meet a single person butup here in Scotland everyone talks to me!

I have ordered Alfreds Death certificate as i cant find any ref to his marriage anywhere.Hopefully as Crista said it will tell me his Place and date of birth Now have to wait more than a week for it to come as i ordered it from the GRO online