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I have now found a Birth for Coombs Watts on GR. Ena R. O/N/D 1919 in Waymouth. John

I am still Trying trawling BMD. Has he Died or is he 114 Help if he is alive Would like to find our Great Uncle Thomas. Can anyone please Help. John

I am still looking my wife and I have been trawing Records with no luck. Anyone out there any Ideas John

Got your message, John -- do just go ahead and put everything here!

FreeBMD! Right when I was recommending it, the site went down! There was a thread on General that I checked -- everybody else was having the same problem, so it was the site, not you and me. ;)

It's working now. You should just spend some time there, playing around. You will very soon get the hang of it.

Make notes of things you find that you want to follow up on -- like the names of possible brides of Thomas Coombs-s, and the dates and places of the marriages.

Then you can go back and look for children of those marriages.

I checked into one of them -- St George Hanover Square being the closest thing to "West London" I could see.


Marriages Sep 1914
Coombs Thomas H Watts St.Geo.H.Sq. 1a 1276


But there don't seem to be any Coombs-Watts births to go with, at least as so far transcribed.


Can't find your birth!? If you want to send me your full name, mother's surname, and date and place of birth, by private message, I'll take a shot. ;)

You won't likely find it on any automated sites right now, because FreeBMD is just transcribing the 1920s and 1930s at present, so you wouldn't be done yet likely.

Derek Herbert Coombs was born in 1939 and died in 2004 sorry for miss spelling of our nans name Derek was born in central london. I looked up my birth on 2 sites and they could not find me. John

John ... I'll bet Herbert didn't marry "Alexander". Alexandra?

The only Derek Coombs birth showing at FreeBMD is this one:

Births Mar 1929
Coombs Derek T H Hunt W.Ham 4a 132


West Ham is East London. That wouldn't fit?

John, are you reading any of this?

The help you seem to be looking for is for someone else to do things that you can do yourself.

Either that, or for the answers to magically drop in your lap.

Trust me. Neither of those things is likely to happen in this thread. ;)

I know Herbert married Alexander Waller in west london Had 1 child Derek Married Josephine Coombs Had 2 children 1 of which is my Wife I know all of this I am looking For Thomas Henry I hope you can help with this John

And one more check.

http://www.cwgc.org/debt_of_honour.asp?menuid=14

WWI casualties.

There is no Thomas Coombs without a non-matching middle name.

The WWI medal roll database at Ancestry has

Thomas H Coombs Liverpool Regiment, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment 86276, 28313
Thomas H Coombs Hampshire Regiment 39149
Thomas H Coombs Dorsetshire Regiment 202430
Thomas H Coombs Royal Army Medical Corps 34049
Thomas H H Coombs 21st London Regiment, 19/London Regiment 653978, 625078
Thos Coombs Cheshire Regiment, Labour Corps 46790, 37280
Thos Hry Coombs EC LC Ex TRB 299147

and a dozen plain Thomas Coombs. The likelihood is that he served in WWI, so he may well be one of them.

The British Army WWI Service Records database has several Thomas Coombs-s. That database is much less complete.

The British Army WWI Pension Records 1914-1920 database has a few. Oh, all right. I'm downloading the one Thomas Henry Coombs images.

Nope. He was 36 when he enlisted. Not yours.

Again, with an Ancestry trial sub, you could go through all these records. Might take a day, all told!

Someone at GR has a Thomas Coombs born 1895 in Surrey in her tree.

There was no Thomas Coombs born 1895 in Surrey, according to the GRO. In 1891, 1892, 1897 -- no 1895.

You never know. Close enough it might be worth contacting that tree owner?

Again, this can be easily checked at FreeBMD:

Name: Herbert Coombs + Kezia Stokes
Year of Registration: 1893
Quarter of Registration: Jul-Aug-Sep
District: Martley (To 1913)
County: Worcestershire
Volume: 6c
Page: 341


So that's your Thomas's parents, and they married in the same district as where the Thomas Henry Coombs I found was born, so it looks like that's him.

We think Thomes Henry brith date Thanks for info Thomas James seems wrong

Oh.

"Herbert lived married and died in West London"

Uh, you don't happen to know the name of the woman he married, do you?

Going on the assumption that this Thomas Henry Coombs is your man ...

There are four Thomas H Coombs marriages 1914 onwards, as so far transcribed by FreeBMD. Of course, he could have married as plain Thomas Coombs.

(Actually, FreeBMD won't load for me right now, so I'm checking at Ancestry, which could be less complete.)

The FreeBMD search is one you can easily do yourself --

http://www.freebmd.org.uk

These are the results Ancestry is showing (I include 1910, a little early but possible?) --


Thomas H Coombs 1914 Jul-Aug-Sep Watts St George Hanover Square London, Middlesex

Thomas H Coombs 1914 Oct-Nov-Dec Hailey Mutford Norfolk, Suffolk

Thomas H Coombs 1915 Jan-Feb-Mar Alexander West Ham Essex, Greater London

Thomas H Coombs 1915 Jul-Aug-Sep Cash Barnet Greater London, Hertfordshire, Middlesex

Thomas H H Coombs 1915 Apr-May-Jun Phipps West Ham Essex, Greater London

Thomas H Coombs 1910 Jul-Aug-Sep Lambeth Greater London, London, Surrey


What you can do with that info is go to FreeBMD and search for

Births
surname Coombs
mother's surname [try each one in that list, one by one]

-- no other info; you can't guess a location, and you don't need dates because mother's surname was only recorded starting in 1911, and that's the time you're looking at.

Also look up each of the marriages and get the wife's name for each (by clicking on the page number in each result).

Get a list of possible wives and children.

Go to Search Trees here at GR and search for them all! Use +/- 2 or 5 years, in case tree owners have used inexact birthdates.

If you find any of them, write to the tree owners and ask whether they know anything about their Thomas Coombs, and whether he could be yours!

Never forget -- finding people usually involves looking for them. ;)

Hi John. It really does help to give as much info as possible. For one thing, before sending people off hunting, it's good to cite a source for the info you give -- sometimes a birth date calculated from a census, e.g., isn't accurate.

In this case, a quick check at FreeBMD would provide a little more than you have here. The only Thomas Coombs born in Worcestershire c1984 is this one:

Name: Thomas Henry Coombs
Year of Registration: 1894
Quarter of Registration: Jul-Aug-Sep
District: Martley (To 1913)
County: Worcestershire
Volume: 6c
Page: 239

Is that him? If it is, we now know his middle name, which can be quite useful! And that would rule out the Thomas James Coombs death that Irene found.

Also, a December birth (Thomas James Coombs) would not have been registered in jul-aug-sept the next year -- although birth dates on death records are not always reliable, of course.

On Ancestry
Thomas James Coombs born 11.12.1893 died at Newport age 92 in 1986. Not sure of that is the chap you are looking for. Irene

father Herbert c1861 mother Keziah c1864
sister Ellen k. Chaffe (nee coombs) 1895
brother Herbert A 1898
All from Worcester.
Know about Ellen & Herbert's decendants
Looking for Thomas's
Suggested he Died WW1 but Herbert's Daughter in Law says, He was at there wedding in 1960 and may have lived in Hammersmith
can anyone help find if he married had children and when he died.
We Know Ellen Lived in Pontypridd Wales and are on the track of her decendants who may know.be able to help
and Herbert lived married and died in West London, he is our grandfather.
please help if you can thanks John
ps. I have been seaching For weeks know my Kids complain now I am doing Family tree They canot get me off Computer.
Thomas is very ellusive Can any one Help Find His Details. John We are know sure he was alive in 1960. When he was living in London, This is from Family evedance. But no Knows an I cannot find an entry for a Marriage (if any?) or his death. Can anyone help;
So we know he Was Born Worcester 1894;
Lived in Pontypridd Wales in 1920's;
and in London in 1960's.
Please Help.
We have it on family history that he did not marry or have children. Deb and John
Death O/N/D 1974 Pontypridd. Thanks for all the help. Deb and John
THE DEATH CERT GIVES US A NEW MYSTERY!!!!!!!!!!!
The death was reported by Mrs. Gladys Mabel Silk SISTER?
We have no family Knowledge of another sibling and can find
no birth can any one help. John and Deb