Genealogy

[pokefast]

Stupid question 204!

I've searched the marriages for my great grandmother by just putting in the year ( 1903 ) and the district ( foleshill ) and her first name ( mary ) and the quarter of the year the wedding took place ( jan-feb-mar )

This brought up two mary's,so i went back and searched my great grandad to get the page index number of his wedding ( 535 ) which matched one of the Mary's to my great grandad through marriage.

Have i done the above right?

Also now having found my great grandmother,i obviously need to find out her birth date, but here is my next problem. I know she was 31 in 1911 from the 1911 census.

So in the birth search i've put her name and birth year ( 1880 +/- 1 ) and 7 women have come up on the search with same forename and surname ( all different middle names but that doesn't help because her middle name wasn't on the census if indeed mary isn't actually her middle name in the first place!!! )


so how do i know which one is her?

[Claw75]

someone can probably correct me if I'm wrong, but i'm thinking certificates are needed now. Get hold of the marriage certificate for your great-grandad (as you're certain of him), and it should have dates of birth on.

[pokefast]

someone can probably correct me if I'm wrong, but i'm thinking certificates are needed now. Get hold of the marriage certificate for your great-grandad (as you're certain of him), and it should have dates of birth on.

Would it have his wifes D.O.B on though?

[Jon MW]

1. On free BMD you can click on the page number for a wedding and it shows everyone who got married at the same time - so you don't really need to do two searches like that.

2. You have her place of birth from the census.

3. If that's 7 all in the same location then that's - er - unlucky.  There are various browsing methods you can use to find out, but some of them will cost more money then just getting the wedding certificate and you'd probably end up having to get the wedding certificate anyway.

The wedding certificate will have her fathers name and profession - this should be enough to cross reference with the birth data and the censuses to work out which is the right one.

[Claw75]

someone can probably correct me if I'm wrong, but i'm thinking certificates are needed now. Get hold of the marriage certificate for your great-grandad (as you're certain of him), and it should have dates of birth on.

Would it have his wifes D.O.B on though?

I weas just presuming, but surely it would have bride and groom's date of birth?

[pokefast]

Sorry Jon it came up with 6 different women with birth years either 1879 or 1880 all from different places bot none matching the place of birth on the 1911 cencus!

Stumped now. But on the 1891 census i've found the same woman exact matching age and birthplace as the 1911 census so how comes i can't find her in the birth index's?

Going for a benson!

[Jon MW]

Sorry Jon it came up with 6 different women with birth years either 1879 or 1880 all from different places bot none matching the place of birth on the 1911 cencus!

Stumped now. But on the 1891 census i've found the same woman exact matching age and birthplace as the 1911 census so how comes i can't find her in the birth index's?

Going for a benson!

Look up the locations, the actual place in one and the nearest big place in another for example.

But without a clearcut result on the online indexes and censuses then it does look more and more like you need the wedding certificate.

It contains a lot of data - some of it will help, and the bits that won't can still be interesting.

[pokefast]

Pretty sure its her by the census results but can't be 100% yet.

According to the census of 1891 and 1901 her birthplace was Bedworth, Warwickshire but of the 2 in Warwickshire on the birth index's one is Warwick the other is Birmingham!

Where is the best place to get the marriage certificate from? Is there anywhere live i can view the marriage details?

Thanks again mate.

[Jon MW]

Pretty sure its her by the census results but can't be 100% yet.

According to the census of 1891 and 1901 her birthplace was Bedworth, Warwickshire but of the 2 in Warwickshire on the birth index's one is Warwick the other is Birmingham!

Where is the best place to get the marriage certificate from? Is there anywhere live i can view the marriage details?

Thanks again mate.

The birth index is where it was registered - it doesn't have to be the nearest. ie that's well within the margin of error you can get.

You get certificates from the General Registry Office - I've never bothered remembering the URL, there's a link to ordering certificates on www. findmypast.com which takes you there.

The best live place to view them is the church they married at - this has really helped me when I knew a large number of family came from the same parish as you can scroll through the church records and pick out all the birth marriages and deaths.

If you find out the relevant church then I can point you where you'd find their records (usually the county archive) - but obviously it's not always so easy to know which church they married at.

[Jon MW]

And another margin of error you might want to have in the back of your mind in general.

When it comes to age - sometimes people lie

[Claw75]

And another margin of error you might want to have in the back of your mind in general.

When it comes to age - sometimes people lie

good point - there is a lot of confusion over some great uncles and stuff in my family who lied about their age so they could fight in the wars. Must be incredibly common.

[Jon MW]

And another margin of error you might want to have in the back of your mind in general.

When it comes to age - sometimes people lie

good point - there is a lot of confusion over some great uncles and stuff in my family who lied about their age so they could fight in the wars. Must be incredibly common.

It's surprising how much stuff can get in official documents.

For example, I know someone who's great grandfather put a hyphen between his middle and last names on his wedding certificate - after that the family had a double barreled surname

But age happens a lot - as well your example people can do it to hide how young or how old they were when they got married, a lot of the time it's hard to work out the reason.

[pokefast]

Lol yeah i hadn't thought of that Jon yeah.

Another oddity i've come across whilst searching for my great grandmother is that i've found her in the census of 1881,1891 and 1901 her age and father match all 3 but she has 3 different people listed as "mother" the 1881 census i'm assuming its her real mother as she is 1 then and her mother is listed as being 31. In the 1891 census she is 11 but the woman listed as her mother is 24! and in the 1901 census she is 21 but her mother agian different woman is listed as 35! Whats going on there i wonder?

A potential gem i have found though is in the 1891 census in that household is a female listed at 75 years old and status as mother,would this be the head of the households mother?

[Jon MW]

....

A potential gem i have found though is in the 1891 census in that household is a female listed at 75 years old and status as mother,would this be the head of the households mother?

yes

[Jon MW]

....

Another oddity i've come across whilst searching for my great grandmother is that i've found her in the census of 1881,1891 and 1901 her age and father match all 3 but she has 3 different people listed as "mother" the 1881 census i'm assuming its her real mother as she is 1 then and her mother is listed as being 31. In the 1891 census she is 11 but the woman listed as her mother is 24! and in the 1901 census she is 21 but her mother agian different woman is listed as 35! Whats going on there i wonder?
....

remarriage after the first census I'd assume - I'm not sure if the term was in use generally, but "step" definitely doesn't get used on censuses