General Chat

i am begining a family tree but when i look at my grandfathers borth certificate there is no mothers name listed,where should i go from here or am i stuck already?
many thanks

Do you mean an actual certificate, or the GRO index listing?
Mother's maiden name on the latter was added after 1911.
Who are you researching?

Gwyn

That is unusual - sometimes there is no father's name but I have not had the experience of the mother's name being missing.

How long ago was his birth? Could he / his parents be on the 1911 census?

You must have what is known as a *short certificate* small square one,,,all that will have on it is name,date and registration area.there are no parents names on those.only the childs.

to see full parentage when and where born maiden name of mother and any job of the father if one applies. you need a *full one*

i am trying to trace his history,i have found his birth place and date(born 1898,knaresborough,although my father was adamant he was born 1897) i looked on the 1901 census but could see no listing,pardon my rather niave questions,you may have guessed this is all new to me!
many thanks in advance

David, is it as Kay suggested, that you have a *short certificate*?
If so, before going any further looking at census, I would send for the full certificate. I used to have my father's *short certificate* and sent for the full one; even though I knew my grandparents (his parents) so I didn't actually need the full one but I felt that I did need it! :-)

ok,if i send for the full one(how much and from where) will this list both parents and is this the only way to check?
cheers

http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/

David, as you've said you can't see him on the 1901, it may be worthwhile giving his name to see if one of us can spot him? It may be that you are entering too much info in the search ( perhaps too exact a location) or that he is mistranscribed... depends on whether he had a very common name how easy it might be to find him.

Certificates can be ordered online from the GRO for £9.25 ( edited sorry slip of the fingers lol)

i love this site!, but should be going to bed!i will pm you some details littlemissjanuary,many many thanks

although you have found his birth indexed it maybe that he was born late Oct/Nov/Dec in 1897 or even as early as Sept ,but his registration of birth fell into the next yearly quarter returns to the General Registrar of B/D/M....and also the registration index is just that, not when the birth took place,,

ah that would explain the discrepency in what my father said and what i found.i did think similar but was not sure,i guess copies of birth certificates give birth dates and parents names?

i am still struggling with basic searches,does any one have an idea why i do not get the correct results?
when i enter my father& mothers name in marriage search,even though i know where they where married i do not get a result!

Hi David, are you using the www.FreeBMD.org.uk site to search for Births, Marriages and Deaths ??? It is the best place to find information.

yes,i have tried that,despite putting in my mothers and fathers name in and a range of dates it comes up as no matches,

If you click on to "Trying to Find" it gives you information as to how to use the board. You can read other people's request's which will show you how they ask for information.
You might then like to add your own thread about your own family, giving as much information as you can. Not of course, giving any details about living people.
The researcher's will help you build your family tree.
Good luck!

ok,many thanks i will go have a look

David,

If you are not getting results from a search, then the chances are you are putting in too much information and one or more of those details is failing to match. Most genealogical search engines work on the basis that ALL the information you enter must match.

This is rather different to web search engines such as Google which, as their default, return results where only some or any information has to match to get a result..Try entering less criteria and add some more if you get too many results.

Also make use of wildcards to try and get around misspellings.

For example I have the name Thornley in my tree but always search using thor*l*y.

This brings back spelling variations such as Thorley, Thornly, Thorneley,

Similarly, with the name Baggott, Bag*o* brings back Bagott, Baggot, and even Bagod, an even earlier variation

info on other thread,

David,

Have you sorted the marriage of your parents, try not to enter too much info go basic just with both surnames to start with anbd search a couple of years either side of what year they married.

Annx