Genealogy Chat

Hello everyone

I am slowly but surely progressing through my family history. I have managed to track the male bloodline back to 1750 (with the help of another user of the site) but I am struggling with the female.

For example, I know my great grandparent's full names. That means I then know both father surnames.
However, I'm then struggling with the mother (maiden name).

How do you best find this information? Is it a case of trawling through th marriage records hoping to find it??

Help much appriciated.

Kind Regards, Luke

As suggested by Slartibartfast

So you have confirmed mother's maiden names back to a birth either by a birth certificate (from Sept Quarter 1837) or, lucky you!, a baptism that recorded a maiden name before then?

I'm sorry but I can't understand how you could only trace the male line back without knowing the female maiden name at a marriage.... Does that mean that you have such an unique surname and forename in a small parish that the resulting line is indisputable?

In my experience you have at least two males with the same name baptising children with similar names in the same time frame in the same/close parish with different mothers....OK related but only when I got at least two generations back.

And, at the risk of starting an 'argument'/ 'discussion' let's remember the mother is the only one who really knew (or had a 'best' idea) who was the father of the child!!!! :-) lol

Chris

Ok to answer the question about tracing male bloodline. @Slartibartfast - no, I did not use BMD certificates to trace back.

(a) I know my grandfather's name. I know when he was born. I do a census search and find him, thus getting his parents (and siblings) names.
However, if the parents are married, only married name is shown.
(b) I then use this information to look at a previous census, and again, get the parent's (and siblings) names.
(c) Rinse and repeat until the census runs out!

Also as I said I used someone else's tree to get back to 1750, I myself managed to get back to 1810 using the above process.

This is where I'm stuck:
George Mankelow and Alice were parents to my great grandfather. I know now Alice's maiden name is Alexander as I used another site that returns the marriage information back in an easy to view format.
I know that George's father is Charles Mankelow (born 1816) and his mother is Louisa born 1821 but I do not know her maiden name.
I know that Charles' mother was called Hannah, I know she was born 1782 but I do not know maiden name.

Hannah only shows as she's living at home with Charles at the age of 69 in the 1841 census.
As I say, I've managed to get most details from using census only, not BMD, which is where my question comes in....I assume now my only way forward is to start using BMD information to fill in the "gaps" such as maiden names.

Luke

Apologies needed from me then!

I thought you were happy with research back to 1750 but it appears you are still 'floundering' in early c1800s and late c1700s and wanting to confirm the earlier research you have been given.

Chris

Not yet!! but it seems that's what I'm going to have to start doing!

I suppose another question is that is GR the best site to use once you start needing earlier than mid 1700's ?

I used FreeBMD to get a couple of marriage details... thankfully validating it against other information meant I managed to get the correct maiden names, but that unfortunately doesn't work for everyone!

@SomersetGirl

Wow, thank you!

I haven't even started to look into baptism records etc yet.. that's amazingly helpful!
I'm guessing that's correct as I found that Charles was born in Southwark so makes sense if he was baptised there!

You're a star, thank you! Stupid question, where did you find the baptism information??

London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921
about Charles Mankelow
Name: Charles Mankelow
Age: Full Age
Spouse Name: Louisa Clarke
Event Date: 1 Apr 1839
County: Surrey
Borough: Southwark
Father Name: William Mankelow

Adding to SomersetGirl's posting re baptism..

From Ancestry

Address...Rede? ??? Street (Difficult to read but two words before Street)

Father's occupation...Gent

Chris

The best way of finding a female's maiden name is to buy one of her children's birth certificates. For your direct line that is much the easiest way. This hobby isn't cheap!!

Kath. x