Suggestions

Assuming the person is deceased (or likely to be) , you could put up a thread naming names on Find Ancestors.

Specifically ask for step-by-step instructions using the relative as an example.

If pre 1911, the usual method is to find the child on a census where there are parents named. Then looking at the age of the other children listed, guesstimate when a marriage was likely to have been. Search for that on Freebmd (or this site)

Of course, the only sure way is to buy the BC! :-D

http://www.freebmd.org.uk
http://www.freereg.org.uk
https://familysearch.org/

and the free census / bmd search on this site are good starting points.

It is worth remembering that just because a birth certificate shows a Mr & Mrs Jones as parents it does not automatically mean that they were married. Historically so far as the man chose to register a child as his own he did not need to be married. Back in the 1920s and before getting a divorce was very difficult and a lot of couples were in this bind so lived as man and wife - and registered their kids - but never had any marriage lines. Bigamy was far from unusual but when detected always meant at least 3 years in prison.

Particularly during ww1, ww2 many children were registered as the child of father x and mother y who was married to x but the real father was someone else altogether.

It is also worth bearing in mind that children are sometimes re registered with a different surname, sometimes some years after the original registration.

Misspelling of the mother's name is very, very common.

People with the same surname but not related in any way often get married to each other. If the locality you are researching has a lot of people with the name in question it can be quite a puzzle often only the actual certs will provide a solution and not always then.

Although BMD registration for all only started in 1837 the church started registering births in 1540 and at least the mother's first name was usually given after 1600. You can find births in the Parish Records and also the dissenter records. Family Search (free) is a good starting point.

For the children of parents with significant assets - property, farm tenancies etc - then there is a good chance of documentary evidence. The easiest to get hold of are wills.

good luck

thank you very much
kayleigh

Since civil registration in 1837 All Birth certificates have both parents names the only exception is in the case of an illegitimate birth where the father is not named

for into on all bmd certs check

http://home.clara.net/dixons/Certificates/indexbd.htm

Roy

Hello all
i am a new user and i am struggling ... could someone tell me how to find a mother and farthers name from a birth certificate ???
i know this is posible on the birth certificates now days but is it posible from old ones ??
thank you for your time