Genealogy Chat

Two questions...

1) Is there anywhere you can look at Marriage and/or Birth certificates without having to buy them, or is that just wishful thinking?! Lol.

2) Who could I get to look at old photo's to help work out who could be who?
ie: I have a picture of an older woman, a younger woman and three children, I'm trying to work out if it is a Mum and her 4 children or not. (I was told the older woman is my GG Nan)

Many thanks :-)

Not sure that there is anywhere you can look at any Certificates without purchasing them.

Would think that members of the family are your best source of information regarding the photographs.

Ancestry has a database containing London Marriages 1754-1921 where it is possible to view marriage certificates but otherwise I'm afraid that you have to purchase copies of BMD certificates for events that took place in England or Wales.

Just in case you do not know, copy certificates cost £9.25 each including postage if purchased from www.gro.gov.uk

Ancestry also have Warwickshire Marriages & Banns, 1754 to 1910

Also West Yorkshire 1813 to 1935.

George

You can't see English b.certs online, nor rego office marrs.
However, for 19th cent - early 20th cent CofE marrs, the original rego is usually deposited in some archive - like the county records office, and some of their regos are digitized and online, others are (maybe partially) transcribed and online.
Try the collections at:

https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1®ion=UNITED_KINGDOM_IRELAND

There are also collections at Ancestry and FMP.

Obviously, one would check FreeBMD, say, for the date and rego district, but it's not necessarily too helpful to know it was, say 1879q1 in Manchester RD without knowing which of the 100 or so churches in Manchester RD the marr took place in, unless the collection is fully indexed - not all are.

It helps to have checked http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/local_bmd as if there's a local index, it likely gives difft info than the GRO index e.g.,

Lancashire Marriage indexes for the years: 1837
Surname Forename(s) Surname Forename(s) Church / Register Office Registers At Reference
ABBOTT Charlotte CROFT Peter Manchester Collegiate Church (later Manchester Cathedral) Manchester CATH/1/471

so here the local ref says it's the 1st rego (starting from 1837q3) and entry # 471, and it identifies the church.

2)

Only someone who already has a copy of the photo, with the people identified, can possibly answer your question

2) Keep checking for links to your G grandmother's family and contact members who have them in their trees. You may find a relative who has an identical photo who can recognise and name some of the people.

I have a photograph of my great grandfather and his sons. My 2nd cousin could recognise her grandfather and I could recognise my grandfather, so you never know where help will come from. Admittedly, it will be more difficult the further back you go in the generations, but perhaps some of the people feature in other photos you have and you can work out clues?

Gwyn

It is always worth a look at Mundia.com.
I have found about 15 images of certificates.
EG
EDWARD NASH COLLINS 1857 SOUTHAMPTON

If you make contact with someone in your tree, it's possible they may be able to identify who is in the photo. This happened to me. The other GR member opened his tree for me and one of his photos seemed familiar. When I checked a very old album I have I had a photo of the same person but when they were much younger. The other GR member was thrilled as the person in the photo was from his direct line, not mine.

Chris

Thanks everyone. I was just wishful thinking wasn't I with regards to somewhere that I could view certificates for free! I will check out the sites suggested though and see if I get lucky. With regards to the photo I have been told is my GG Grandfather's Wife. I'm just not sure if it is his first Wife or second Wife - I thought I may be able to find out (approx) what year it was taken and then take it from there. Oh well I shall just have to wonder!

If there are any photographer's name or address on the edge of the photo or on the reverse, it might help to date it by checking trade records for that area.

The actual format of the photo might help with dating too. Have you checked online sites which could tell you more about this?

Gwyn

I have a family group photo from 1935 in which we could only identify with certainty, my Grandmother, Grandfather and five of their children (including my father). By comparing with other photographs we deduced correctly that the "mystery man" was Grans brother from Holland, accompanied by one daughter from his first marriage, his second wife and their three young children. All of this because Mystery Man had very pronounced sticky out ears!

I've also dated photographs approximately by guessing at the age of the children in them, then averging using their known birth dates.

Recently also had a photo marked Marie (Gran) and "Frank". I guessed the man was from Holland and eventually found a Francis Koker married to one of our Dutch aunts, whose age seems to fit with this man. Love sleuthing.

I know it's not much help at present but there is a book due for publication in February 2013 :

Family Photo Detective: Learn How to Find Genealogy Clues in Old Photos and Solve Family Photo Mysteries [Paperback]
Maureen a Taylor (Author)