Genealogy Chat

Hi,

I’m trying to find a birth record for a relative, I believe to be born on or around 1839.

I am aware that some records may not be online yet, or that they haven’t been registered at all by the parents. But i also do not appear to be able to find a parish record for him either.

I’m thinking my next option is to go to the area for local records but I want to get a bulk of information to find when I get to that point so I don’t waste my journey, I like to do lots at once.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

If you post the name and area of the person you are looking for I will see if I can find anything. Could the family have been non-conformist meaning that there will not be a parish record for them. Some areas have detailed but separate records for non-conformists. Have you found the person in any census?

Kath. x

As you are no doubt aware, there were no penalties for not registering births until 1875

As for Parish records - they tend to be mainly CofE, and by no means all of them have been transcribed.

Presumably, you got the birth year from a census

If you would like people to help, tell us all you know for certain and we'll go from there.

It may well be they weren't registered
Sometimes younger siblings were though so the mmn can be found that way

Thanks for the responses so far.

I have found him in all but 2 census records so far. One of the ones I have found him in includes the first census in 1841. The children span across before 1837 and after, of those born after 1837 do not appear to be registered at the moment, haven’t started in finding the others yet. The two census records I do not have are 1861 and 1871. Inbetween this 10 year period he was married.

I’m really after tips of where to go next research wise what next steps to take as I’m all about the process and get the buzz from finding this information. Are there any sources I should use that I haven’t so far? For example most of my research is done via this site, should I be utilising most if not all of the main ones? Are there others that are good places to use that I have not though of? Rare sites I haven’t stumbled upon?

I've done most of my research using Findmypast, or visiting County Record Offices and with help from other members of Genes.

Certain counties are more likely to have non-conformist records - for example Northumberland in the 1800's had a high proportion of non-conformists, so you could check with the particular county where your ancestor lived.

The FamilySearch site is good for early records.

It is good that you want to find the information yourself but everyone on here likes looking up records too - it's what most of us come on here for, so again, if you want to give a name and area and where they were in the census, we'd be more than happy to have a look and try to help.

Kath. x

If you could give us a name of a person or even the area you are researching we may be able to help.

There are various free sites depending on which area you are looking at

Freebmd is your best site and it's free

You can also look on the GRO site for births which will show mmn

https://bmdregisters.co.uk/ for on-line non-conformist records. Although you can get a certain amount of info from a free search, it tends not to be precise. You have to pay to view the details.
Many of the records could be on Familysearch.org

Not sure how we can help unless you give a name and location

One tip...............

Don't use this site for research - GR's usefulness comes from the members who give their time and experience to help others