Genealogy Chat

Hi! I am trying to trace my late father's family history but know very little beyond my grandparents' names.I have found some birth records but the mothers' maiden names are blank so I have got stuck already! Can we view actual birth and death certificates somehow as opposed to just the basic entries? Or is that another £80?? Sorry to be a pain. Hope someone can help me?

Welcome to the boards Susan.

I'm afraid you can't view certificates online. They cost £9.25p each from the GRO in Southport. You can order online from here:-

http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/default.asp

If you would like to give your grandparents' names and a rough idea of year of birth and area of birth someone will try to help you. You can sometimes find the family in the 1911 census if you are back that far.

Kath. x

If you are searching in England, to see full birth certificates etc you would have to purchase them. Depending on the area and timescale, there are some free sites you may find more info. Some sites like Ancestry have marriage registrations online.

If you would like to give some more details, names, places and approximate years more specific guidance may be offered.

Hi Susan,

If you have the names of your grandparents and are willing to share them, with any approx date of birth and an area where born, lived, died etc, then the kind people on GR may be able to help you.

if no mmn is showing on the GRO record then they will be for births pre Sept qtr of 1911.

It may be better to try and find them on the 1911 census

If you want some help then let us know the names you are looking for and an area and approx birth years would help too

Susan, try using freebmd.org.uk If you have found some births ( before 1911 mother's maiden names aren't indexed) then it is worth looking a few years prior to that to see if you can spot an obvious marriage, that is easier if it is not a common name.

For eg, if i found this birth

Births Dec 1884 (>99%)
Fishlock Florence Ann Brentford 3a 90

I could then look for a 'Fishlock' marriage in the years prior to that in the same area. It's not certain but it can be useful.

Certain Parish records are online which may help, London records can be viewed on Ancestry ( just ask on here if you don't have a sub) , Liverpool, Lancs' etc , and you could also look at https://www.familysearch.org/

Thank you everyone for the replies. My father's name was John Charles Davis, DOB 15/03/1925 and died 10/08/1998. He was the 6th child in a line of 13. I have found the birth years of all his siblings from 1915 to 1940 except the 14th who was still born They are all from the Bethnal Green/ Shoreditch area of London. My grandparents were John Davis and Catherine McGregor, ( although it has been spelled MacGregor on several of my aunts and uncles birth listings)! They were married in 1913 in West Ham. I am now stuck as I do not know their parents names.To complicate matters, my grandfather's mother married twice. We are unsure if my grandad took the surname of the first or second husband but know that he put himself into Barnardos childrens home when he was young as he did not get on with one of the fathers!
What info is shown on Parish records please? I cannot afford to keep paying extra subscriptions if it is not going to be useful. Thank you in advance!

MArriage for reference - note spelling here of Katherine
England & Wales marriages 1837-2008 Transcription

First name(s) KATHERINE
Last name MCGREGOR
Marriage quarter 4
Marriage year 1913
Registration month -
MarriageFinder™ KATHERINE MCGREGOR married
JOHN DAVIS
Spouse's last name DAVIS
District WEST HAM
District number -
County Essex
Country England
Volume 4A
Page 772

If you have the marriage certificate can you give all the details from it please i.e. names, ages, address, occupations of bride and groom and names and occupations of their Fathers.

If you don't have the actual certificate, which sounds like the case, then you will need it for those details which will help pinpoint the correct families.

Do you know when and where your grandparents died, their ages at death might also help.

Thank you! This looks a little different to the one I found as it has more info on it. Where/how did you find this please?I don't have the certificates unfortunately. I know my grandmother died in 1968 and grandad early 1970s, not sure of their dates of birth.Grandad lived in London but was staying with us over Xmas in Chingford when he was taken ill. I assume he died at Whipps x hospital in Leytonstone E11. Presumably then, I need to purchase the marriage certificate to get any further?

You can use this to search for births, marriages and deaths between 1837 and about 1970.
http://www.freebmd.org.uk/

Select Search and fill in as little information as possible to give the fewest results.
For the marriage above you could select type=Marriage
District= West Ham
Date range put 1913 in both boxes
and Surname= Davis

You can see in the results the Davis McGegor match. Clicking on the page number shows the full names.

There is a program called Marriage Locator http://www.marriage-locator.co.uk/
That can sometimes tell you the parish church that they were married in. In this case it seems to be in a register office or a nonconformist church as the page number is too high for a CofE marrriage.

Hi Susan,

Unfortunately you will not be able to find details online of the child that was stillborn as they were registered in a seperate register.

As previously mentioned, the best thing to do is to order the marriage certificate for your grandparetns, that should tell you who their fathers were and what age they were when they marrried as well as other information.

You only want to order any certificates from the following site:

They cost £9.25p each from the GRO in Southport.

http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/default.asp

where were they living when grandma died in 1968

No death recorded for Katherine Davis in 1968, however 4 showing for Catherine Davis: These could be narrowed down if you know the month in which your gradma died as they are all registered in different quarters.
The death Index gives an estimated year of birth, which are all different, Also two of those in the index have middle initials, so if a middle name know would also narrow your Catherine / Katherine to a year of birth!

As already said, your next step really should be to get the marriage certificate of your grandparents to get their ages, fathers' names and their addresses at the time.

However, that said, this looks like it could be a likely candidate for your grandmother in the 1911 census (given the address and also the year they married):-

1911 England, Wales & Scotland Census Transcription
266 Barking Road East Ham E, East Ham, Essex, England

First name(s) Last name Relationship to household head Marital condition Gender Age Birth year Birth place Occupation

Margaret Webb Wife Married Female 27 1884 Cubitt Town Poplar E Middlesex House Duties
Catherine McGregor Sister Single Female 21 1890 Cubitt Town Poplar E Middlesex Postal Telegraph Clerk<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
John Camerson Uncle Single Male 53 1858 Crieff Pertshire Scotland None
Donald Fraser McDongall Boarder Single Male 25 1886 Appin Aryldshire Scotland Marine Engineer

------------

If this turns out to be the correct person then this is her sister's marriage:-

First name(s) MARGARET
Last name MCGREGOR
Marriage quarter 1
Marriage year 1911
Registration month -
MarriageFinder™ MARGARET MCGREGOR married one of these people

WILLIAM H MILNE, ****THOMAS H WEBB****

Spouse's last name -
District WEST HAM
District number -
County Essex
Country England
Volume 4A
Page 374

Kath. x

Could she have died in 1962 rather than 1968

Back to results

England & Wales deaths 1837-2007 Transcription
Print transcription View image Attach to tree
First name(s) CATHERINE
Last name DAVIS
Gender Female
Birth day -
Birth month -
Birth year 1891
Age 71
Death quarter 1
Death year 1962
District STEPNEY
County London
Volume 5D
Page 764

A slight pointer to indicate that KathleenBell has the right person is that Margaret's marriage was also a non-CofE wedding. In those days about 2 in 3 weddings were in a parish church.

Both Catherine's and Margaret's marriages were in the last 11% of page numbers for that period which implies a register office. If they were Roman Catholic then they would also have married in a church.

Ooh, thank you everyone. My grandma definitely died in 1968. She was a Catholic and I believe my grandad converted to catholicism to marry her. I keep finding discrepencies with the spelling of Catherine and katherine as well as the Mc Gregor/ macGregor which doesn't help! I will definitely order the marriage certificate and look into nan's sister, (who i didn't know about)! This is so addictive, I just need to get the hang of it! Wish work didn't get in the way! Haha

Kathleen Bell, I just found a Catherine McGregor on the 1901 census born 1890 and she had a sister named Margaret! I think this must be the same family. It would appear there were several siblings and her mum was called Catherine also. Can't be sure it's my nan though.

Ok! Watch this space folks! I've ordered Nan and Grandad's marriage certificate. Thank you so much for all the tips.

1901 Census - for reference:


Name:Catherine McGregor
Age:11
Estimated birth year: abt 1890
Relation to Head:Daughter
Gender:Female
Father:Thomas McGregor
Mother:Catherine McGregor
Birth Place:Cubett Town, London, England
Civil Parish:West Ham
Ecclesiastical parish:St Andrew
County/Island:Essex
Country:England
Street address:
Occupation:
Condition as to marriage:
Education:
Employment status:
View image
Registration district:West Ham
Sub-registration district:Plaistow
ED, institution, or vessel:42
Neighbors: View others on page
Piece:1574
Folio:114
Page Number:9
Household schedule number:62
Household Members:
Name Age
Thomas McGregor 49
Catherine McGregor 44
James McGregor 22
John McGregor 20
Margaret McGregor 17
Thomas McGregor 13
Catherine McGregor 11

This would tie in with the 1911 Census i.e. Margaret & Catherine sisters