Find Living Relatives

Hello,

I'm not really sure where to start, I've been reading some of the topics on here and I'm hoping this might be a good place, as I haven’t a clue where to really begin.

My mother unfortunately passed away on Sept 2nd this year. I have since discovered I have a half-sister we think, from a relationship my father was in. I have so little information to go on and none of my family members know a great deal about it either, we think she’s probably around two years older than I am. I have no idea what her name is, only that she was probably born in Swansea. I also have no idea what her Mothers name was.

I have my father’s forename, surname, approx. DOB and birth place and I obviously know all of my mother’s details. They weren’t married, and they split up when I were very little so I have no real memories of my father. He passed away around 1997-98 we think, as my Mother had tried to find him for me and discovered he had passed away already (I was a teenager back then, I'm now almost 36)

I'm desperate to try and find my father’s side of the family. I have no direct siblings and with my grandparents and both parents now gone, I'm searching for something that I might have left. I just don’t know where to start or even where to look.

Its a bit of a massive jigsaw really, with a lot of pieces missing. I have so little to go on.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,
Rob

Hello Rob

With so little information to go on - I would start by getting your father's death certificate to see where he lived and who registered his death. It might give you some valuable information to start searching with.

If you're happy to put your father's details on here the I'll take a look and see if I can find his death registration details for you to order the certificate.

Mary

Hi Mary,

Thanks for the reply - Yes more than happy to. I have got to start somewhere.

His name was Mark Owen and I believe from what I know and what I have searched already, born 1952 in Glamorganshire, died 1998.

Hi Rob

This seems to be the correct death registration - if you know his exact dob, then that will confirm it.

Name: Mark Owen
Death Age: 46
Birth Date: 19 Feb 1952
Registration Date: Oct 1998
Registration district: Swansea
Inferred County: Glamorgan
Register Number: C129
District and Subdistrict: 8971C
Entry Number: 81

If you have never ordered certs before then this is where to order from - cost £9.25 per cert. https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/default.asp you will need to register but quite straightforward.

Mary

This looks like it could be his birth:-

England & Wales births 1837-2006 Transcription
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First name(s) MARK
Last name OWEN
Birth year 1952
Birth quarter 1
Registration month -
Mother's last name Griffiths
District Merthyr Tydfil
County Glamorganshire
Country Wales
Volume 8B
Page 521
Record set England & Wales Births 1837-2006

Kath. x

There are a lot of Owen/Griffiths marriages but this one is the only one I can see relatively near to Mark's birth (if his parents got married in the same place as he was born):-

England & Wales marriages 1837-2005 Transcription
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First name(s) STUART A
Last name OWEN
Marriage quarter 2
Marriage year 1949
Registration month -
MarriageFinder™ STUART A OWEN married
Dorothy Griffiths
Spouse's last name Griffiths
District Merthyr Tydfil
District number -
County Glamorganshire
Country Wales
Volume 8B
Page 743
Record set England & Wales Marriages 1837-2005

Kath. x

This looks like the above Dorothy Griffiths in the 1939 Register (names were updated after this date when women got married and the maiden name is in brackets on the transcription):-

Hughes Household (3 People)
22 Victoria Street , Merthyr Tydfil C.B., Glamorganshire, Wales

FIRST NAME(S) LAST NAME(S) DOB SEX OCCUPATION MARITAL STATUS SCHEDULE SCHEDULE SUB NUMBER

Elizabeth A Hughes 31 May 1894 Female Office Cleaner Widowed 25 1
Esme Johnson (Griffiths) 15 Dec 1920 Female Student Single 25 2
Dorothy Owen (Griffiths) 08 Jul 1926 Female At School Single 25 3

Kath. x

If your father was not married to the women who he had your half sister with and you do not know the woman's name then I'm afraid you are not going to be able to find her unless you can find someone else from your father's family who might be able to tell you more information about your father's relationship with the woman.

Kath. x

Hi Kath,

A big thank you for finding the above. I had come across the Griffiths connection once already and I had a feeling there might well be a connection. The fact someone else has seen it and suggested also gives me confidence I'm on the right track.

In fact I'm sure there is a connection - Merthyr Tydfil. My Mum did say thats where he was from. I'm not sure if she meant born or grew up there, or both. However the fact that transcript states Merthyr Tydfil too is very interesting, so this could well be my grandparents from his side. I wonder if either are still alive?

I'm afraid I dont, my Mother may well have known but we sadly lost her just over a month ago and I doubt anyone else in my family would know. We know so little about his side as it is. I'm pretty certain they werent married either.

Would I potentially be looking at a private investigator type to move forward with this to try and find her?

This is something I feel I really need to do. I've spoken to a few people in my family and they all think its something I should do, otherwise i'll be left wondering the rest of my life.

Well after having a few chats tonight we think my father might well have been married before he met my mother. We suspect it would have been in the late 70's given my sister is a few years older than me.
Marriage certificates would obviously indicate the spouse name, could my sister be tracked down using that?

Get the death certificate first, to try and confirm it is the correct person.

Common name means it will be more difficult to track marriages etc unless the informant at death is useful.

There is a possible marriage in Merthyr in 1977 for him - showing on free bmd.

If that marriage is correct, there is a possible birth for the wife in 1950 in Caerleon, and she might be in trees on here.
(Or in Pontypool in 1958)

Thank you patchem, I possibly found something late last night ref the above marriage in 1977 Merthyr.
Taking the maiden name from that certificate (Powell) and cross referencing against births in Swansea and the Merthyr area from 1976 and onwards has come up with the birth of a daughter, in the same year as the marriage. With the surname of Owen and matching the maiden name of Powell.
As soon as I saw the birth name, I had a gut feeling it might be my sister, possibly because my mother at some point had told me her name. Pretty certain I'm onto something with it now.
This is of course based off the fact he did indeed marry his partner, before he met my mother.