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I am looking for my father's real father. Not sure if he originated from Liverpool or somewhere in Midlands. He was living in Birmingham in 1939/40. Archie met my grandmother in Liverpool in 1938/9 and had a relationship with her that lasted until end of 1939 but i know contact was at least maintained by solicitors until 1940. They were never married. My Grandmother was born in 1898 and i believe Archie was younger than my Grandmother but i'm not sure by how much.

He worked in various jobs but nothing skilled as far as i can work out from his letters. I know he lived in lodgings in 14 then 11 Alchester Rd, Mosley.

I don't know if he died young or old, i have no idea if he has any surviving family. I've asked surviving members in my family but i keep coming up to a dead end.

I'm prepared to do the searches but i have already spent quite a bit of money looking. I just have no idea where to look!

Please i would appreciate any help. Thank you.

You probably put a surname on the "surname" line. Unfortunately, all that does is send your post to the "surname board" for that surname -- but all of us reading the general Trying to Find board have no way to know what that is. It's an amazingly stupid system, but it's what we pay for.

Assuming you know his surname -- the only way anyone could try to help is with that. Just add a post here (the purple Reply button at the top) to give it.

If you do know it, have you looked for a birth at FreeBMD?

http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/cgi/search.pl

Presumably his name would be Archibald rather than Archie?

With a surname and an idea of DOB, someone can look for a death record in the index at Ancestry, if you don't have access there, and also to see whether he married and/or may have had other children.

And of course, have you searched trees here at GR for others with him in their tree, and do you have him in yours?

Hi Janey,

Sorry i am new at this, his name is Arthur James Mills. I've been looking for someone born between 1901 and 1913 as i was just told he was a bit younger than my nan (born 1898). But i have found soooo many as his name was a popular 1!

I will try looking on the site you mentioned thank you. But i suppose i'll still be having the same problem and finding plenty of people with the same name :)

I have a picture and letters he sent to my nan but that is it and the letters are not very informative.

Again thank you for your help :)

ps i have searched other trees but i don't have him on mine. I have been searching for other family members of my grandmothers family and i don't want to offend any of our family. There are a lot of her relatives on here who do not know about my dad being illegitimate. Or know but don't talk about it openly.

Debra
What was your Grandmothers name (born 1898) as we can try to get her on the 1911 census and see if Archie is on that to establish at least a year of birth.

I am confused Arthur (Archie) I thought was the husband (?) of your grandmother so I don't think he would be on the 1911 census as your grandmother would only have been about 14 then - too young to be married.

Or have I got it wrong and Archie (Arthur) is the brother of your grandmother.

OOH Sorry!!! My mistake!!

I'm Sorry if i have confused anyone. My grandmother wasn't married to Archie. They had an affair in 1938/9 which ended in 1940. My dad was born on 1939. They met in Liverpool and Archie moved during the relationship to Birmingham. I am not sure if he was originally from there or from Liverpool as i keep getting conflicting stories.

I hope i have cleared up who Archie was :)

Again i am sorry for not being clearer.

Just to be absolutely clear --

"Archie" is actually Arthur James Mills?

And you think he was born a little later than 1898.

Yes, Arthur James Mills know as Archie. My father's name was also Arthur James but he was given my grandmother's married surname. (Her husband had died by the time she met Archie)

I know he was younger than my grandmother who was born in 1898. (From her marriage certificate to her deceased husband in 1922 she was 24 years old) No one knows for sure exactly how much younger he was but i have heard conflicting stories over the years from a few years to as much as 15. My grandmother was 41 when she had my dad in 1939 and i had been told Archie was 27 then more recently i was told he was about 5 years younger which is why i keep getting so many different results. I have put his address on 1 of my other posts and i had hoped someone could have checked an electoral roll for 1939.

That is about the closest i can think to how to find the right Archie.

I know for definite on 19th December 1939 Arthur James Mills lived at 11 Alchester Road, Mosely, Birmingham 13. And continued to live there until 3rd June 1940.

Uh oh. "One of my other posts"?

One post per subject. Site rule. A person is a subject. I for one become very annoyed when I find there are undisclosed other threads with people likely duplicating efforts. Could you provide the url / thread numbers for those posts, please?

You're sure that your dad was registered in his mother's husband's surname? The birth record shows surname and mother's surname as the same (with a slight spelling variation). Not necessarily germane, but it could help, to be sure of all the data. I saw that you had someone by that surname in your tree born in 1928, a half-sister of your dad?

I meant another post as in my first one sorry. This is the only one on here. I'm getting a bit confused trying to put as much information as i can to help. I have repeated the information in my last reply.

Yes my dad had 2 half sister's both older than him. So my grandmother named my dad in her deceased husbands name. I've not had any luck finding my dad's birth records in Mills or grandmother's married name. I know he must have 1 as he had a passport and we registered his death.

Everything i know i have put in my original post and replies. Again this is my only request for help on this site.

PMing what I had thought was your dad's birth record -- you had a surname in your own account details when you started (before you got smart and deleted it!) and I'd used that for searching.

I'd read another request for help and someone said something about not showing surname. So i changed mine. I am not being clever i am trying to be careful with giving out so much information on my family. I know its a double edged sword. I am not doing very well am i?!

I am really emotional at the moment as it has just been my dad's 2nd anniversary of his death and i am just trying to do my best. I have restored my name. I really only wanted to find my grandfather and i wasn't expecting to answer so many questions about my own father. Its a lot harder than i expected. So my apologies.

No no -- you did absolutely the right thing to delete your surname! Absolutely, I meant "got smart" very sincerely! And your discretion is also absolutely called for and well done. I just caught you earlier before it had kicked in. ;)

You don't think my name is Janey Canuck, do you? ;)

Have a look at what I sent and see whether it's right/wrong, helpful/old news ...

I shouldn't worry, Janey doesn't use her real name on here either so I am assuming that she was actually saying that it was smart to remove personal details.

I don't have a lot of time and I have promised people some lookups already, however if you need any help looking up anything in Liverpool record office, please let me know. Try and be as specific as you can if possible and I will see what I can do. Got to go now.

Good luck :)

Sorry took too long to reply on this phone lol.

Thank you all so much for helping. I have to go for now but really appreciate all the help. I'm sorry i misunderstood about being smart! As you can see i am having a very blonde day! :) No offence intended! :)

Hi, just to thank everyone for their help already :)

Is there anyway i can find out Arthur James Mills' details from his address in 1939/40? I am still stuck and can't find him. I really would like to find his DOB then i can at least see if he has any living relatives. Thank you.

Just wondered if i get my dad's marriage cert and birth cert and there is no mention of his dad (Archie) am i fighting a losing battle?

I have spoken to Birmingham heritage and as Archie was living in lodgings i have little chance of locating him.

Should i just give up?

I wouldn't give up yet.

I would get both the marriage certificate and the birth certificate (the record I sent you which I think you said is the right one - a birth in the month in question registered 6 weeks or possibly longer after the birth, putting the registration in the next quarter).

It is remotely possible that your dad's father agreed to be on the birth certificate.

The fact that he was registered in his mother's married surname doesn't necessarily mean that wasn't done. If her husband had been living, the birth would have had to be registered in his surname. There are all sorts of potential circumstances and considerations -- you won't know unless you get the certificate! Ditto for the marriage certificate: odds may seem against, but you never know.

I'd start with them, so you do know, one way or the other.