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Hi every one, I'm looking for my father Joseph finnegan born 1957 Merseyside Liverpool and has a sister named colette, all I know it that he served in the RAF and hasn't seen me since I was 2!! If anyone can help!!

Welcome to the boards, Elizabeth.

If you go to "Search all member trees", under "Search" at the top of this page, and search for Joseph Finnegan, born 1957, you will see there are apparently several people who have him on their trees.

One of the tree owners is presumably you, but there are other tree owners - Colette (probably his sister), Michelle, Mark, and Kevin.
(Michelle also has Colette on her tree.)

Unless you already have contact with any of these people, click on "Find out more" beside their names, and send a message explaining your interest.

But be careful and tactful, if there's any risk of dredging up upsetting memories and emotions - I don't know the family history apart from what you've told us.


You may be lucky and get a reply - but there are many reasons why people may not reply . They may not receive the message, or be unable or unwilling to reply - unwell, died, no longer interested in family history, changed email address, or many other possible reasons.


Incidentally, it looks as if Joseph and Colette have five older siblings, born in Liverpool in 1945, 1947, 1950, 1953 and 1956, all with the same mother's maiden surname.
You can find their names on FreeBMD: https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl


Their parents married in Liverpool in 1944.

How can i possibly find out if they are still alive or not or if I possibly have any siblings?

Have you been able to make contact with anyone via "Search all member trees" ?
Colette, in particular, would presumably know if Joseph was alive or not.

Without making contact with someone who actually knows him, it will be pretty well impossible to find out.
Finnegan isn't an unusual name. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack for us helpers to try to find him from online records.

His birth is easy to find on FreeBMD, with the information you gave.
Looking at Electoral Rolls, there was a Joseph Finnegan at what looks like a business address in the Liverpool area in 2018 - but no way of knowing if that is him or not.
If you look at the online phone book - https://www.thephonebook.bt.com/person/
you'll see a J Finnegan in the Liverpool area - but it's not the same address, and again, there's no way (apart from phoning the number) of knowing if the J stands for Joseph, or for one of many other names beginning with J, both male and female.

You haven't said if your parents were married or not.
There was a 1973 marriage for a Joseph Finnegan in Liverpool, but I can't tell if that's him or not. Would that be your parents' marriage? But it would mean he was only 16 at the time.
Apart from that there's only a 1988 marriage in Hampshire - but I have no idea if that's your Joseph or not.

I don't see a death for a Joseph Finnegan of the right age in England or Wales - but we don't know if he remained in the UK, or if he went abroad.

If he has died or married in just the last few years, the record may not be online yet.

As to whether or not you have any siblings - that's also impossible to know without knowing his wife's surname.
If he had other children, but wasn't married , the births could be registered in the mother's surname - and we have no way of knowing what that name could be.

His brother who was born in 1950 MAY have married in the Liverpool area in 1981.
If so, he had children, and was living in Liverpool in 2016.

Well I know for sure that the 1988 marriage was to my mum

Have you followed the good advice you've been given on here about looking for info?

Well, that narrows it down slightly - but still doesn't give any clear answer, unfortunately.

The 1988 marriage was registered with two different surnames for your mum, Holt and Gilpin.

There were two Finnegan/Holt births in Manchester, in 1988 and 1990 - but there was a Finnegan/Holt marriage in Lancashire in 1980, so those children may belong to those parents.
.
I don't see any Finnegan / Gilpin births from 1888 onwards .

In fact, I don't see your birth, under any of those three surnames, in England or Wales.


And as said before, if Joseph later had children with another partner or wife, we can't find out without knowing the other mother's surname.

Elizabeth was born in Wegberg, Germany (RAF base)

I've mentioned Joseph's brother who was born in 1950.

Another brother, who was born in 1953, may also have married in 1981, in the same registration district as the 1950 brother.

You can find all this on FreeBMD.

However, I don't see him conclusively on any Electoral Roll.




Joseph's eldest sibling, born 1945, may have also died that year, as a baby, in Liverpool.
However, as the burial record (Ford Cemetery, Liverpool) doesn't give parents' names, I can't tell if that's the same child or not. The deceased baby's address was 107 Rice Lane.

ADDED:
107 Rice Lane was Walton Hospital:

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=10252.0

(and many other links if you Google it.)

A tree owner named Joe Finnegan has Joseph's family (parents and siblings) on a tree on Ancestry, and last signed in to Ancestry last month.

Well, he has the 1947 sibling on the tree, and the parents and grandparents (and previous generations) , but all the other siblings are listed privately, so I can't see any details about them.

The parents both died in the 1990s.
The 1947 child married and had children, according to the tree, and has since died.


If you have a sub to Ancestry, you can message this Joe Finnegan (who may or may not be your father - he might be some other relation with the same name, perhaps a cousin ).

If you don't have an Ancestry sub - if you like to send me your email address by a private message (click on my name at the top of this post) I can pass that on to him, and let him know that you would like to contact him.

BUT -
you should be prepared for the possibility that he might not want to make contact with you. I don't know the family situation.


LATER -
Email address received from Elizabeth, and message sent to tree owner on her behalf.