Find Ancestors

Hi, im trying to find my great great grandmum (unknown) Bell who married William Crowther and gave birth to William Thomas Crowther on 7th/8th July 1915. William Crowther later married Another woman who is also unknown.
From what i have found out all 3 where born in England but cant be more specific than that.
(unknown) Bell passed away roughly 6 months later (1915 of 1916) so not much is know about her.
Any help in trying to find her 1st name and siblings would be much appreciated.

Mitch

Easy peasy to find out -- one way or another.

http://www.freebmd.org.uk

First, search for

births
surname Crowther
mother's surname Bell

The mother's surname was included in the index starting in mid-1911.

Thomas William's birth is there in 1915. There is one other birth in Gateshead registration district, and a half dozen others elsewhere. If the mother died 1915-1916, the June quarter 1916 registration is the lastest one possible; the other Gateshead registration is too late. A child could have been born before mid-1911, in which case that search would not find the birth, but you could search for Crowther births in Gateshead before that date.

However, on a search for

marriages
surname Crowther
spouse's surname Bell
1880-1920

... aha. William was not his first name. Narrow your search to 1910-1915 to save time, and you will find the marriage. Except ... what bizarre misfortune ... two Crowther men with the exact same name married two Bell women in the same quarter -- one in Gateshead and one in Auckland. You would need a child's birth certificate first to determine which Ms. Bell is yours. You might actually want to get both those marriage certificates, since that is quite a coincidence. I wonder whether there is any chance Mr. Crowther married a Ms. Bell who died suddenly, and then married her sister ... (No Crowther deaths in Gateshead or Auckland in 1913, so it seems not.)

Then, if you search for Crowther marriages in Gateshead after 1915, you will find one in 1924. You would only know whether that was your man by ordering the marriage certificate and comparing the age, marital status (it should say widower) and father's name to your William's, if known.

And now that you have met FreeBMD, you are all set for searching backwards once you know Mr. Crowther's and Ms. Bell's ages and fathers' names.

If you have any trouble, don't hesitate to call for help!

Forgive me, I forgot the obvious. You are looking specifically for Ms. Bell's name, and you know she died shortly after her son's birth.

So you search for

deaths
surname Crowther
reg dist Gateshead (as we've established now)
1915-1916

... and there is no female death. Nor is there up to 1918. This could be because deaths are being transcribed more slowly than births, and the entry has not yet appeared in the database at FreeBMD.

It seems you will first need the birth certificate for William Thomas Crowther 1915, to determine what his mother's name was, before you can find her death.

Looks like he was Thomas W not William T

if its Gateshead then Crowther/Sarah Bell marriage and could she have died later than you think
Death index 1920 Sarah age 30

Yes, Janice. That's kind of what I was saying: "... aha. William was not his first name." Thomas W. (Perhaps we cross-posted.)

I just don't assume that everybody wants their tree handed to them holus bolus, and might enjoy using a resource like FreeBMD to find their own ancestors.

I assumed Gateshead from the child's birth registration. It's only an assumption.

Evie I know what you mean and i haven't put all index refs,some searching still needed but it gets confusing not to use names (well for me it does)

Thank you so much Evie and Janice! with the information that you provided i have now confirmed that it was a Sarah Bell who married my Gt Gt Grandfather!
Thank you so much for your help!

Mitch