Genealogy Chat

I am really struggling to find my great grandfather, Richard John Gray of Shropshire, Ive found a Richard Gray on 1881 census but he was living with relatives cannot find anything on 1901 census but do know he was a machinegunner in the Shrewsbury Regiment for the 1st world war. I am really frustrated and have spent 15 pounds on 1901 and drawn a blank. Has anyone got any ideas as to where I am going wrong, after 2 months I am ready to give up as this is too expensive!!!!

Louise, what more do you know about him - approx. date & place of birth, of marriage & to whom, where & when, names of your grandparents' siblings & approx birth dates & place? Have you tried GRO indexes? These may narrow down the search area then you can look at parish records, other census years, etc. What about the IGI? Tony.

LOUISE Go to www.censusuk.co.uk where Harry will do search 4U,and details PRO Refs to get Cert.s from GRO Also at www.1837online.com U can search for pro Refs. by name/Year ,costs £5 for 55 units .. I've had luck with both Goodluck Bry

Louise, Give some more details like birth, wife's name? children, place where born etc perhaps a few of us could do a search for you. Many hands etc. John

Hi Louise I think the 1901 cesus decoder would help you (I should be on commisssion except that its free!!!) You can download it for free. Simply type 1901 census decoder into google and the site will come up. The decoder will not tell you anything different, but it will allow you to pull a larger amount of information through onto a spreadsheet and analize it ,allowing you to eliminate alot of the maybes without having to spend the money looking at them. It also gives you page and person IDs, which allow to to group potential households together. Have a look at the site, read through the help text there and if you get stuck give me a shout. Best Regards Maxine

HI Louise Please do not give up. Yes, this family history business is very frustrating sometimes, but it is also very rewarding, its a good feeling when you discover the names of another generation of your family or the names of brother and sisters of an ancestor that you could possibly trace downwards to the modern day and hopefully find distant cousins. Now, if you could give more details (age, places etc), I could try the 1891 census for you. Jeannie

Thanks for your replies.. Unfortunately I dont have much information at all other than he had 6 children: John Richard Gray born December 1910 ,he was the eldest child, other childrens names are: Amy, Nancy, Dennis, Edward and Richard. His wife died not long after Richard was born so no one knows her name, if anyone could help it would be most appreciated. Thanks again

Trouble is, middle names are often not given in censuses, and Richard Gray isn't a rare name, so you can't pick him out in a census without some more info from somewhere else first. One approach is to get the birth cert for one of the children -- the eldest, or the one you're descended from maybe. That'll give you his wife's name. Then you can look for his marriage, which will give you his age, father's name and occupation, and maybe useful witness names. Then you've got something to look for with the 1901 census decoder