Genealogy Chat

Please can someone help ...... I've been looking for the records of my grandparents all I have is my mothers birth certificate. I know their names & where my mother was born & that she was placed in a convent when she was small, her twin died but I can't find any record of this & I haven't found any dates that her parents were born or married. There is no one on her side of the family to ask because basically she was orphaned so how would I go about finding out anything at all. Her parents names were Bridget Sullivan & Gwilym Davies & my mothers birth was registered in Gloucester but nothing comes up on the records for any of these. Could it be my computer having a wobbly & should I keep trying or shall I just give up & concentrate on my fathers side which I am doing well with Thanks

Lorraine, What sort of time scale or dates have you, please? Anne

do you have any dates, perhaps we can help track them down. What records have you already looked at? Kat:)

Which site are you using to do your searching for the BMD certificates? Merry

If you have your mother's birth certificate, then I'm sure somebody on here can help you find the GRO index entries for your mother's birth and that of her twin, and also the twin's death, and then go from there. If you don't want to post the details from your mother's birth cert up on the thread (year, quarter, name, district) then send me a message and I will see if I can help you find it on the index, but if you don't mind putting it on this thread then do, because that way lots of people will be able to help. Most likely you are doing something like looking on FreeBMD for a year that they have not transcribed yet? Kate.

Thanks everyone I wasn't expecting offers of help straight away. Kathleen Davies b 1929 Jan - 95 Gloucester rd Gloucester Elizabeth Davies b 1929 Jan - 95 Gloucester rd Gloucester Gwilym Davies Bridget Sullivan We think Elizabeth died about 1932/33 from Scarlet Fever & Bridget sometime after. Kathleen was placed in a convent but I don't know where, possibly Hereford & thats all thats known.

Found this one Elizabeth Davies Gloucester 6a 427 1929 1st quarter MMN Sullivan Kathleen Davies Gloucester 6a 426 1929 1st quarter MMN Sullivan page no. different - will just recheck Elizabeth Yes -references correct - presume one was last line on page 426 and the other first line on page 427 ??

have checked death indexes for 1931 - 1933 - can´t see anything yet for Elizabeth (Gloucester area)

If on Kathleen & Elizabeth's parents I can find no trace of them & I have no idea where they came from how can I check for their births? There are loads of Gwilym Davies' & Bridget Sullivan's. I don't even have a time scale to work with for them as from what I can gather from my mother before she died Bridget was Gwilym's 2nd marriage & there was perhaps a half sister & maybe a brother. Its all very confusing. Thanks to everyone who has replied especially those that have used their own time to research this for me. Your all brilliant!

In order to find your grandparents births you will first need to find their marriage certificate in order to find their approximate ages and the names of their respective fathers. Do you know if your mother had any older full siblings? If not, then I would begin with checking the marriage records for 1928 and back a few years .....If you don't find anything there, then try 1929 and 1930......marriages didn't always take place before the birth! You say she was orphaned.....Do you know what happened to her parents? Might you be able to find their death registrations which would also include age at death? Merry

Can't seem to find any record of a marriage or death for them. Not sure if she had a brother called William but whether he was a full brother I don't know. She said her mother died of Scarlet Fever she thinks & that she was placed in a convent with the nuns. I have checked the Ancestry site, FreeBMD & Latter Day Saints & several others but there appears to be no marriage for Gwilym Davies & Bridget Sullivan as far as I can see. On my mothers marriage certificate it says that her father was deceased but as far as I know this was put there as she never knew what happened to him after she was placed in the convent. Think this is always gonna be a mystery, I can'r find them anywhere... I've even tried searching for William, as Gwilym is welsh for William but still no idea

Bridget Sullivan is a very Irish sounding name - is it possible they married in the RC Church? The marriage should still appear in the indexes of course. OC

Freebmd, LDS sites wont have marriages that late. The name searchable section of ancestry is just the same (bit behind) freebmd who supply it to them. You have to look at the actual bmd index, going through the years, quarter by quarter, looking at the images - have you done that? A Welshman and an Irish lady? - not an easy search.

My sisters & I have been looking for this elusive pair for years. We tried to find my mums family before she died of cancer so she would know if she had any family left & also so we could notify anyone for the funeral. She died in 1991 so as you can see I have been looking for a long time. It is difficult looking for a couple who have Irish & Welsh names. I know my mum was a Catholic & she had a huge crucifix that sat in a mini font that she kept, the nuns gave it to her .... it looked like Ivory & Rosewood but seemed more plastic to me

Im sure you will get there soon.

Thanks Heather I hope so :o)

I haven't a clue on time scale & dates. My sister in law is researching it too & she has Bridgets birth year as 1895 as a guess but that seems to early to me. I put this on my tree as a guess, she hasn't managed to find any certificates either other than my mums & her twins. Wish I had some idea on a date or place

So on your mothers birth cert under the entry for her mother does it say; Bridget Davies formerly Sullivan (suggesting the marriage was before the birth.) If orphaned as a child it would tend to suggest the parents either died suddenly (accident?) or were perhaps in thier late 30's or 40's when they had the children. Glen

Have checked the death index till the end of 36 only Elizabeth was Elizabeth M age 83 Sept qtr vol 6a page 334 in Gloucester. You do not think that the couple had split up and the mother took one twin with her and one stayed with the father? JoJo

From what my mother told me ...... her twin died of Scarlet Fever & her mother was either dying or dead when she was put in the convent. I have vague memories of my mum telling me she had a brother called William who was kept but I don't know if this is right & as she was dying of cancer its difficult to know whether her memory was confused about William but she told my sisters the same thing about her sister when they were little.