General Chat

I am looking for any details of my father Frederick Clarence Clarke as I didn't know him as I was made a ward of court I only know him due to my birth certificate and looking on ancestry.co.uk I was wondering if he had any other children he was born 1927 died 1991 he was married to a betty Clarke nee Philips in 1975 they lived in Nottingham I never remember this man as I was given away at 5 years old please can anyone help me as I am trying to find any imformation on this man thank you ms Jeannine karole clarke

You could get hold of your father's birth certificate which would show you where he was born, and you might find his parents on the 1911 census which will tell you where they lived You could get hold of his marriage certificate which would tell you where he was married, who his wife's parents were and where they lived. It's surprising that once you put out a few feelers, other things fall into place. I had an illegitimacy in my family tree, and finding the father was to say the least, a challenge!!! but after one or two false trails I got there!!!
Good luck with your search!

KathleenBell has posted her grandparent's marriage on the other thread, and found the 1939 Register entry

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards/board/genealogy_chat/thread/1358887

As someone has stupidly reported Det's post.

To explain for Jeannine's benefit...it is best to post only on one board for help, as it avoids helpers duplicating searches and repeating the same advice.

That's as most be, but I only saw and answered the OP's query because I was on that particular outlet. I hardly ever look at the others as I'm not researching at the moment so certainly would have missed it. . I think the more outlets you post enquiries on the better as then more people are likely to see it and you're likely to get additional help. I know it risks duplication, but I certainly wouldn't mind if someone else had given the same advise before me, it didn't put me to any trouble at all, and I was glad to help. I just don't see that this is a problem and to arbitrarily tell people where they should or shouldn't post, to me is high handed.

Magpie, I understand what you're saying but if you personally choose not to look at any other boards or to offer help than you're not likely to understand how frustrating it is to spend ( not waste) an hour finding what you hope will help someone to find relatives only to realise that there is a thread already on another board with that same info...you COULD have possibly spent that hour finding further information which would have moved the search further along. .

Advice to post on one board is not being stroppy for the sake of it and nor is it only to save helper's time....it's as much to give the person seeking help the best chance of finding what they need to know, people helping and seeing what has already been found by others have a better chance of getting a good result than 'snippets' dotted around the boards that don't link up.

We are all working to help the searcher find family, surely it's not being "high handed" to tell someone new to the boards the best way of posting to get the result they want is it?
:-)

As my post has now been removed, it asked Jeannine to remove her duplicate post & gave the link to the original. Thank you KenSE for replacing it.
It also pointed out that suggestions had already been made on the original.
If anyone has bothered to follow the link, they will notice that I'd copied over the opening post as it contains an additional request.
The intention was to preserve it incase some one decided to RR the OP.

Those of us who regularly help have moved passed the 'wrong board', but we are aware of the frustration caused to 'helpers' when they spend time repeating research already done.
If all research/suggestions are kept to one thread, the community can read what has been found, and sometimes spot 'clues' which had been missed. One 'helper' may have different skills or resources than another.

Why am I bothering in justifying my actions? Life's too short and all that!

DET you don't have to...

Hopefully those who feel they can help will venture on to the other boards and do just that :-)

If I was planning to do serious research for someone who had posted off site, I would pm them and ask if they had posted elsewhere, if they had I'd have a look at any replys, and act accordingly. This and any recommendations can be done in private, thus not risking humiliating someone who might not be familiar with the workings of these boards.

I see you also have a posting for this on Genealogy Chat

Magpie, I don't understand what you mean by "posting off site" ? No one mentioned off site?

If I Pmd everyone I help before helping them just to check that they hadn't posted elsewhere, that is all I would be doing lol...not actually 'helping'...it's not possible to check everywhere that people 'might' have posted...that's why the people who DO help alert each other of duplicate threads, as here ...so they can actually HELP not spend time time duplicating.

No one is humiliating new posters by suggesting the best way to use this site .. but calling people who are doing their very best to help day in day out "high handed" might well be Magpie

I meant off the appropriate site!!! I don't think you have had that many of those!! I haven't asked for help on here for years as I was forever being taken to task over this and that, so I gave up and went elsewhere which was a happier experience.

Do you mean appropriate board?

Wrong word, sorry, I think you know what I mean though!!!

Since you've added to your post after I had read it magpie, "I don't think you have had that many of those!!" Not a clue what that means.

No I didn't magpie...because I do often find that people searching HAVE posted on many sites looking for the same help. That is different to posting on many 'boards' on the same 'site'.

I have recently been searching for someone, the person seeking them has posted on just about every board on every genealogy site there is, it's been counterproductive in that now when trying to find the person being sought via a google search, all the pages of searches come up before the 'good stuff' that might help locate them .

All 'we' do is try and help to the best of our ability.... the end result is the important bit, often when it's a living relative being sought, 'time is of the essence'... no one least of all the person seeking can afford to 'waste it' duplicating info already posted.

Missing reuniting a child with birth relatives by a few months is horrible .

As a quick PS, if GR fixed the advanced search facility it would be the work of an instant to spot duplicate searches, and respond accordingly. As it is, to see if someone has searched on other boards, either recently or in the past, one has to use google search :-(