Genealogy Chat

Don't forget to check grave headstones as they often have useful information like ages, date of birth, spouse's name, other children, place names. You might be able to get hold of the grave registration paperwork which will have more information. If you can get back to some names in 1881 then you have a good chance of finding in the 1881 Census, especially if you can get hold of the CD-ROM version as it gives more powerful searches than the online version. Similarly 1891 might be indexed for your area and of course 1901 in online. Each of these will give information like place of birth, age, names of the rest of the family. With 1881 and 1901 you then search for other people with the same name and place of birth. Not proof that they are the same family but worth following up. Look in the various message boards and mailing list archives on the WWW. You will find these for most surnames and areas of the country. Do some searches on names and places to see if anyone else is researching the same family - I have had very useful EMails from people who have found messages I posted several years ago. A general WWW search on names and places is always worth trying as there are online transcriptions of censues for some villages and towns. Martin

Thanx Jim ,Nichola and Lynn I've been trying sites for months.. Trouble is I'm looking for living people as a starting point and its verry difficult. I'm waiting for info from people finder on my mum. maybe when I find her I'll have a better chance. Thanx loads for your advice and help. Hope you all read this x Vonnie

Vonnie See, I told you people would help if they knew what you were looking for!! Just to add to the other advice, as you have the marriage cert for your parents, you should know how old they were when they married and their father's names. Using the links (as previously advised) try searching for their birth records and then when you have their birth certs you will also have their mother's maiden names. You just keeping working backwards from there and - Hey Presto!! Hope that helps, it's how I managed to get back to my GGGrandparents c1835. Lynne Sale

Good Morning Vonnie, If you have your mum's birth certificate it should give you the names of her parents. Now you need to find their marriage certificate. Try looking back from your mum's DOB. When you have the Marriage Cert you will get the names of your 2 GreatGrandads and an idea of how old your Grandparents were when they married. Good luck, Jim, Gosport.

Hi Nichola, Looking for ..Aha notice I did 'nt say trying to find! Family name Reeder an I'ts not that obscure when I look at electoral roles ect.,but theres not that many on this site. So.... Vonnie

Oh! Ok! Thankx Lynne. I dont know my mother . However have entered into a people finder thingy and I've found some details.. which I've entered on my tree.So now I've found out name of granda an stuff. I've searched this site but people don't seem to respond.. and I really don't know where to start finding info on family history. All I have is my mam and dads wedding cert. Vonnie

Vonnie If you can be more specific on what you are trying to do you will get lots of help from people, including myself if I know the answer. Post another message with details of what you are looking for. Good luck (I'll check the board again tomorrow to see if I can help you). Lynne Sale

I've typed in everything I know.. And now I'm just reading meassage boards(LOL)see I've picked that one up!(T2F!!) took me ages to work that one out.. Y'see I'm just wandering clueless..Where do I go from here.. No one knows... Please help x Vonnie