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Genes Reunited web chat, where you can get help and advice from our resident genealogist and expert family historian, Anthony Adolph.
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Thanks again to Anthony and everyone who joined in on the sessions so far.
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Questions already answered
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| SHARON MCLAUGHLIN | 21/05/2013 21:47:59 |
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Hi, yes I have looked there too, John parents were married in 1891 but John wasnt born until 1904, there were no other children as far as I know, only his parents were on the census in 1901 , and no mention of them at all in the 1911 census |
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Interesting. Perhaps the deaths are hidden away under a variant spelling, or another possibility is that they emigrated elsewhere (maybe with another child you don't know about) - to England and Wales perhaps or America - as you know the Irish disapora was considerable and there are no easy answers to tracing where specific individuals with popular names went. - if you are determined you just have start in one country and work methodically. |
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| SHARON MCLAUGHLIN | 21/05/2013 21:36:38 |
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Hi Anthony, Thanks for that, I already have a death cert for John , he died in 1969 in Glasgow, Both parents were deceased at the time. I have looked for death records for his parents in Scotland but cant find any, I will definitely apply for the military records. Thanks again. |
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Well done for thinking of that then. If they didn't die in Scotland then of course you could look for them in the Northern Irish deaths (but maybe you've tried that too). . |
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| Doreen Wilson | 21/05/2013 21:25:42 |
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Sarah Wilson nee Rider (my grandmother) born 11 Nov 1882 and married to Percy Wilson 21 MaY 1901 in Leeds Left her husband and two children ( one was my father) probably in 1910. The children were left in charge of her mother - Harriet Ann Jordan. Percy went to live with a Mary Ann Walker (according to the 1911 english census) How do I trace the whereabouts of Sarah? |
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The first step would be to look for Sarah in the 1911 census but thereafter the only realistic sources available are marriages, in case she remarried bigamously, and deaths, and given the circumstances she may appear in either as Wilson or Rider, both common names so I don't envy you this at all. One possible way around the problem would be to trace descendants of her own siblings and ask if they have any old papers - letters, diaries and so on - which refer to her. To them her fate may not be a mystery. |
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| Christine Payne | 21/05/2013 21:18:14 |
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Hello Anthony, I`ve been trying to find my grans sister, her name was Emma Day d.o.b. roughly 1870 lived in Kensington ,there were 4 girls, my gran Alice,Elizabeth,Ellen & Emma. my mum told me that when my mum was about ten, (my mum `s d.o.b. was 1905) Emma came to take my gran (Alice) to Australia she was married to one of the partners who owned the shoe chain freeman hardy & willis I`ve been looking for her for over a year but can`t find any trace of her any ideas please Many thanks Christine |
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There was a delay here because I was looking up Freeman Hardy & Willis to see what is known about the genealogy of the owners. So the emigration was supposedly about 1915, which seems slightly implausible as it was during the First World War - there are various resources in Australia which could be used to try to pick up the girls when they arrived, but let me suggest something else to you - you could look for the will of their father in England, or indeed their mother, or the wills of any of the siblings who remained behind, and hope one of them will refer to relatives in Australia, and say specifically where they were. The father's will would also hopefully mention Emma by her married name. Wills are at the Principal Registry of the Family Division (First Avenue House, 42-49 High Holborn, London, WC1V 6NP. |
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| SHARON MCLAUGHLIN | 21/05/2013 21:12:52 |
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Hi I am trying to find information on my grandfather John McLaughlin who was born in Belfast 1904, I think I found his parents John and Mary ann McLaughlin in the 1901 Ireland census, but nothing after that, until his marriage in Glasgow in 1942 , his marriage record shows he was a private in the Royal Scots/ Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, where would i look for his Military records, and also how would i find out where his parents moved to after the 1901 census |
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Welcome! The Irish censuses can be a tad tricky to use because they only give counties of birth and not exact places, and sometimes the place of birth is what you would be wanting to use to make sure you had found the right people. The 1911 census is available too - see http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/ If John (b. 1904) settled in Scotland and died there then you can obtain his death record and this will give you a further coordinate on who his parents were and whether they were alive or dead at the time. Maybe they followed him to Scotland so you could look for their death records there too. For WW2 army records you need to apply to the Army Records Centre, Ministry of Defence, Historical Disclosure, Mail Point 400, Kentigern House, 65 Brown Street, Glasgow, G2 8EX 0141 224 3030. |
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| Mark Surgeon | 16/04/2013 21:53:36 |
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Hi Anthony, Interesting attitude and given I can't see any other way to make general enquiries I'm left to use this. It WAS a serious suggestion on my part. It is a tool that I find VERY useful in do my research and talking to family on the phone that I can't travel readily to meet so we can talk and go through things on the screen together but remotely. I think commercially it would be a benefit and would increase your exposure to other prospective users that would not have otherwise been piqued. Could be something that you pass on as a suggestion at least to GenesR but your call I guess. Cheers, Mark. |
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I am merely the site's resident genealogist and am here to help people trace their family history. |
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| Cynthia - re your query. | 16/04/2013 21:49:10 |
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Hello again, It isn't a name which immediately springs to mind but I will have to plough through the 4 years of work to see if anyone has mentioned Bill Lawson before. I will put the link onto the thread and see if anyone recognises it. As for the name Diana/Dolina/Dolly, we have been through most alternatives that we could think of and taken advice from those who specialise in Scottish research. Please take a look at the thread, I am sure you will be impressed by the sheer perseverance, professionalism and expertise of the members who have been helping. Thanks. Cx |
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I'm glad I've been able to make a new suggestion. Bill runs his own family history centre in Harris and he and his wife Chris are the epitome of local experts in the families of Harris, Lewis and the smaller islands. The name Dolina McLeod is a typical local name. |
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| Nicola Major | 16/04/2013 21:40:54 |
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Hi Anthony, i really hope you can point me in the right direction with the one person in my tree who has caused me issues for about 5 years... Lilian Julia Mary Elizabeth Oakley is my great grandmother and she married Thomas Rudd in Islington in 1921. Her father is named as Howard Oakley deceased on the marriage cert, but does state that he was a galvinzer. Her death cert says her DOB was 22/09/1901. My trouble is, i cannot find a birth record for any variant of her given name, nor a death for a Howard Oakley. The family story is that her parents died and Lily was brought up in Wales in a convent but was born in Ireland. As Lily was Roman catholic i have also tried to see if there was a "blessing" in her RC Church in Islington but received no reply. As i say i've been looking for her for 5 years and i cannot find anything that seems to match her. If the family story from my nan (daughter of Lily) is true and she was brought up in a convent, is there any way i would be able to find her? I have heard that the names of girls were changed? i feel like i have exhausted all routes and will never know about her. Many Thanks for any help you can give.. |
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Convents did not change the names of girls they looked after, though of course they would have given names to foundlings. If Lilian was supposedly born in Ireland, have you tried seeking her birth and the death of her father in Irish civil registration, in Dublin? Bear in mind that dates of birth given on death certificates can be highly inaccurate (but does it tie in with the age on her marriage record?The 1911 census indexed on this site has twelve Oakleys with Howard as a forename - are none of them really relevant? |
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| Mark Surgeon | 16/04/2013 21:39:08 |
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HI Anthony, I appreciate it is a commercial enterprise but I was hoping it may be like Ancestry.com which does provide an initial 14day trial. I do already pay a subscription there so it's more a matter of having the opportunity to 'give it a run' first. Incidentally Ancestry.com allows you to share a link which you can send to invitees email address and this allows you to have other family view your tree on the website without having have a paid subscription. This is why I use this with my immediate family so they can see what I've built but they don't need to have a paid account - but all they can do is look around in my tree. They obviously can't view other trees or search records. I think GenesR would do well to be able to be able to send a link to an invitees' email address to allow them to view a tree of a member and not need them to have an account. |
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Bully for Ancestry, but this is a much better site for finding long-lost relatives. |
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| Maureen Lund | 16/04/2013 21:36:35 |
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Could You help my husband Brian McDermott find his Haif Brother John Davies from Manchester he thinks he is in is late 80s He Has a Wife Called Mary, and one Daughter called Linda she got married in Eccles John had a brother called James (Jimmy ) Isaac Davies. |
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Excellent - like Mummy Bear's bed, that is just right! Looking for the birth and marriage of a James I. Davies in Manchester (though you said Salford earlier) should not be too horrendous, but maybe the easiest way in would be looking for Linda's marriage in Eccles (you can use the marriage indexes on this site, under 'search records'. Then you could seek birth of children to that marriage and work forwards - each certificate will have a family address on it, and please see my earlier answer this evening concerning electoral registers and telephone directories. |
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| Cynthia - re your query. | 16/04/2013 21:24:31 |
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Thank you for your response Anthony. This is the link to the thread in question.... http://www.genesreunited.co.za/boards/board/ancestors/thread/1133150 If you have any advice for us, you are more than welcome to either post it on the thread or contact me by pm. Regards. |
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Thanks, but have you done what I suggested? |
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| Margaret Debney | 16/04/2013 21:21:31 |
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Margaret Bebney .hi Anthony. i am trying to find where in south Wales my father was born .his date of birth was 3/11/1896. i have look at 1901 and 1911 census.just cant find him at all .on his marriage cert his father s name was James Morgan. his job was a collier.frank did go to war in war one .all that he would tell his Childen was that he went to France. frank left south wales a few years after war one.he came to live in Brmingham. |
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I presume Frank was your father, perhaps born Frank or Francis. The indexed birth records here will give you a list you can whittle down to ones registered in the December quarter of 1896, assuming the date of birth you have for him is right, and then you could buy each one and look for a father James. Frank's World War One army service papers, if they survive, would give a place of birth. |
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| Yvonne Mclaughlin | 16/04/2013 21:20:17 |
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My grandfathers surname was Merrifield but he changed his name to Jack Osborne I dont know if his given name was jack as he was Jewish.My mother told me that my greatgrand mother came from Russia and that my greatgrand father was a professor of english and that his name was printed inside english text books, maybe he was a printer. I was told they owned alot of property and they lived either in Oxford or Plymouth. There was just my grandfather and a sister in the family, I have looked through many records but because i dont know their first names I am not having any luck finding them.My parents and my grandparents are dead so I cannot ask any questions, can you give me any advice as to how I could trace them. |
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I'm not surprised you are having difficulties as Jewish families did change their names to Gentile ones, but Merrifield was not a Jewish name either. You need to start further forward and document the more recent generations who you can find in the birth, marriage and death records, censuses, wills (as they were reputedly property owners, but beware family stories) and so on and then let the records lead you back. For people from Russia you can look for naturalisation records under 'documents online' on the National Archives website. |
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| Dorothy Blatcher | 16/04/2013 21:17:07 |
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I am tracing my maternal Grandmother's line through her father Charles Bowden Smith RN 1/8/1872, Harwich. His father was William Smith 29 Oct 1845 b. Reculver Kent, Petty Officer HM cruiser Adder, m. Mary Ann Squibb 25 Dec 1865. William's father = William Thomas Smith 25 Feb 1815 (19.12.1816?) b Deal or Wickham Kent, Master RN, m. Mary Ann Walter 26 July 1842. Wlliam's parents were William Smith, charcoal burner, Bexley, Kent and Ann. I'd like help in finding information about William and Ann and his parents. I've found many Smiths in other trees but not the right ones. |
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The first thing to do here is to sort out where the baptism of William Thomas Smith took place, as you cannot possibly prove anything further back if that is in doubt. You will need to look carefully at the parish registers of Deal (I think these will now be on-line with Findmypast) and/or 'Wickham' - is this West Wickham, East Wickham, or where? The key tools for all this are parish registers. |
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| Glenise Offord | 16/04/2013 21:17:00 |
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Hi I am seeking to trace John Orsborn He was named as father of George Orsborn who was born 1816 in Overthorpe Northamton. George Orsborn married Harriet Fortnum on 18th Oct 1841 in Banbury Oxfordshire Harriet's father on marriage certificate named as William Fortnum her mother Ann Middleton. I did find a John Orsborne who banns of marriage were in Hook Norton Oxfordshire to a Mary Fawdry but not sure if this is the right John Orsborn who I am seeking I am unable to even estimate DOB for John as do not know if there were any other siblings to George as I have been unable to trace any. It seems as though the name is also spelt Osborn in some records.Thanks in advance |
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I've never knowingly come across an 'Orsborn' family before: even if this is not just a variant of Osborne (think of those strong Oxfordshire dialects) it is likely to have been rendered 'Osborne' or 'Osborn' very often in its history. You don't to look for John straight away. Instead, you want to look for George's baptism in the Overthorpe parish registers in Northampton record office, and then the marriage of John - and only then his own origins. Slowly, slowly, catchee monkey, as they used to say in Malaysia. |
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| Mark Surgeon | 16/04/2013 21:16:25 |
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Hi Anthony, I'm new to GenesR and have uploaded a Gedcom file of my tree which has worked fine but I've only done this so that another family member on the other side of the world can view it from her GenesR account. What I have found is that I can't view her tree through a 'share' request unless I take out a paid subscription. She can view my tree but when I click the reply on her share request (for me to request access to her tree, it simply prompts me to take out a subscription. I was hoping the 'free' access may at least provide a period to trial some of the functions but it appears not to be. Or am I missing something? |
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Welcome then, but this is a commercial enterprise and so you will need to pay for a subscription in order to use the site. The benefits of using the site are enormous, even if you only use it for its original purpose of finding other relatives. Instead of one family member on the other wise of the world you'll probably end up with dozens! |
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| Maureen Lund | 16/04/2013 21:15:38 |
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Also could you Help me find my haif brothers and sister Roy Pugh, Carol Pugh, and Albert Pugh I think they live in Hereford there in there late 50s or late 60s, There father is called William I think they where born in Manchester |
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To find these people you could try working forward looking for their marriages in Hereford, births of their children, marriages of their children and any relevant deaths - all resultant certificates would give addresses and death records are useful by giving the name and address of an informant who was often a close relative. You can use the (recent) electoral registers and telephone directories on www.findmypast.com and seek current addresses too. |
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| Jillian Sherwood | 16/04/2013 21:13:05 |
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I am researching my great granddad John Walsh, on his WW1 service record his birth date is 12 September 1875, it dose'nt say where he was born, on the 1911 census he states he was born in Fulham, i cannot find any records for this date and place. I have phoned the people at B D M and they couldn't find anything either. I know his father was called John also. He and my great grandmother did'nt get married until 1957. can you help, as i don't know where else to try, regards Jill Clarke |
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I wonder, does his age in the 1911 census match that purported by the army papers? Ages can often be inaccurate by a year or two either side, as can places. You could look under Welsh, or else try for a Catholic baptism, as Walsh is an Irish name and Fulham had a strong Catholic community. |
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| Marion ^^^^^ | 16/04/2013 21:07:03 |
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Hi Anthony. I have army records for Frederick Albert Gould and in 1915 it stated that the next of kin was a brother (William Gould). They both stated same address Church Street, West Coker. How do I find out more about William Gould and is it possible to find out who else lived at that address? I have looked at the births around when his brother Frederick was born but no luck. |
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The first search I'd make here would be for the family in the 1911 census (which you can do on this site under 'search records'. Hopefully you'll find Frederick at home at West Coker, and his brother Frederick too. After the War, votes for all adult men came in and you can use the electoral registers, which are in local archives or libraries - if you ask locally you'll find them without too much trouble. |
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| Maureen Lund | 16/04/2013 21:07:02 |
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Can you help me to find my Husbands Brother John Davies From Salford he thinks |
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Now we have gone from one extreme to the other - this question is a bit too short and a bit more information would be useful. If there is uncertainty about where John was from, I suggest starting by looking for his birth record. Looking for possible marriages would be the normal next step, but with such a popular combination of names that would be problematic if he married outside Salford. The best solution (if he doesn't appear on the Member Trees here) would be to seek and ask as many living relatives of his as possible, in case one of them simply knows the answer. |
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