Genealogy Chat

HI

I am trying to find out some more info on gg grandparents so am trying to find their wedding details but to no avail. Is anyone able to help please. The details that I have are as follows:

Thomas Whitehead (DOB 1859) married Martha L Reekes (DOB 1853). Thomas was born in east pennard, somerset and martha was born in Evercreech (info from 1891 census). No idea when they married but their 1st daughter (Berniece) was born in 1884. I have looked on ancestry but have had no luck, If anyone is able to find them please can you let me know how you did it as I am new to this so still have heaps to learn etc. Thanks

Name: Thomas Woodburn Whitehead
Year of Registration: 1884
Quarter of Registration: Jan-Feb-Mar
District: Shepton Mallet
County: Somerset
Volume: 5c
Page: 778

These are the details. Wife is down as Martha Ann L Reakes

Best Wishes

Jane

I would assume this is her birth.

Name: Martha Ann Lewis Reakes
Year of Registration: 1853
Quarter of Registration: Oct-Nov-Dec
District: Shepton Mallet
County: Somerset
Volume: 5c
Page: 517 (click to

I found the same marriage as Jane using freebmd.

I searched for Thomas Whitehead, Spouse first name Martha.

Freebmd's search facility is better than Ancestry's as you can search by first names.

Crikey that was quick, thankyou very much. Pretty sure that this is the correct people. Please can you let me know where you found it. I am looking on ancestry, is there a better place to look?

Thanks v much for your help

I found it on Ancestry. Put in Thomas Whitehead and somerset and hey presto

Best Wishes

Jane

thanks both for your help. Please forgive me if this is a silly question but I am very much a novice at this so maybe going about things the long way round or completly wrong. If I search on ancestry and give an estimate of year of marriage +/- 5 years I get so many records so need to check each and every one. Plus the records that I am getting are not giving the spouses name. Where am I going wrong? I am looking on the marriage index and below are the sort of results that I am getting:

First Name on Page Last Name on Page Year Quarter

Sidney Herbert White Emma Whiting 1882 Oct-Nov-Dec

Mary Jane White Mary Ann Whittaker 1883 Jan-Feb-Mar

David Whitehead Martha Whittock 883 Apr-May-Jun

Fiona
Are you a paid ancestry member? If so go to the homepage(when you log in) and it says top left Historical records

Put in the name

I usually put in country england and county if known and then a date range.

It will then bring up a number of marriages as well as other things. You can then click into the marriages and it may well bring up loads and it can be a case of trawling through.

You then click on the box to the left of the name and it will give you the GRO reference at the bottom of the reference it will say click to see others on the page and that is where you will find who your relative might have married - there are normally 4 names per page.

Best Wishes

Jane

What you are looking at arethe lists from White to Whiting, a couple of hundred names on each list., Have you got a free trial with ancestry ? They wont show you the details for free.
Anyway its easier to ask on here for help!

Fiona

It looks as if you are looking at the Complete Index - this just brings up the pages that contain the surname you are searching for. You then have to look at the image to find the person you want.

As I said in my previous post, the best place to look for bmds before 1920s is freebmd.org.uk/

This is a volunteer organisation that is transcribing the indexes to make them into a searchable database. Their transcriptions are passed on to Ancestry, so Ancestry is always behind with its records.

If you want to continue searching on Ancestry, click on Home at the top of the screen. Scroll down until you see "Go Directly to UK Birth, Marriage and Death Records". Click on this; under the heading "Partial FreeBMD Indexes & Images 1837-1983", click on the one you want (ie, births, marriage or deaths).Then, enter your search criteria in the box that comes up.

Originally there were four marriages (eight people) on a page. This was later changed to two marriages (four people).

If you have any problems post another message and somebody will help you.

Thankyou so much to you all you have all been a great help, I really appreciate it.

Regards

Fiona