Genealogy Chat

I have been trying to find the birth of my gt grandfather i know the year and place he was born but having gone through the birth records i have come up with 3 that match what can i do next?

Have you tried the parish records for his baptism? This will not give you the date of his birth but could narrow down the three births you have found e.g if he was baptised in July you would know he was born before then. Susan

If you have census records you can make use of them in other ways, how old were they, is the oldest child still at home, if so since you also have an age for the mother you can calculate a date range in which to look for the marriage, which will give you her maiden name, but also look at who else is in the house, or living next door, they could be her relations and give you a clue, eg if a mother, aunt or brother in law is present. Once you have the marriage you will have both fathers names which means you have more chance with the birth certificate of getting the correct one.

What are the approximate dates? Which censuses have you found him in? Does FreeBMD give any matches? Martin

Have you found the family on the 1881 Census. If you can't find in the online 1881 Census then go to the CD-ROM as you can do more detailed searches there with wildcards etc. 1891 Lancashire is available on CD-ROM and I think some of Manchester is indexed. It is street indexed so at least you can check the 1901 address fairly easily. Register Office vary in their helpfulness but most will do as much as they can to help. I presume that several cover the greater Manchester area, check whether will take applications online as a a few will now do an initial check from an EMail query. As someone wrote, most will return your cheque in the stamped addressed envelope so it will not cost you the full £7 + postage if not found. Try Lancashire BMD as well as FreeBMD. Martin

I've ordered certificates from the Family Records Centre a few times and when I've found more than one possible entry they've given me a checking sheet. On the main form, you put reference details of the most likely candidate and on the checking form you put details of other possibilities. On the back of the main form, you put other information which will help them confirm which is the right entry, e.g., fathers name, occupation, etc. They'll send you the certificate that matches this information as well. Hope this helps.

Are the children's name completely different? It is not unusual for variations on names, nicknames, pet names etc to be used in place of the original one. Also you have the dreaded transcription errors - 1901 should be OK as you are presumably looking at the image rather than the transcribed result but I presume 1881 in from the LDS. Have you found them in 1891? I can check addresses in 1891 but I can't look for names (except in Bolton). Did the family have a "trade" i.e. will they appear in trade directories? Martin

Christine, Is Elizabeth's age and place of birth compatible on both census entries? and what are the ages of the others, could the earlier census children have died or left home, and the new names not been born yet? It is also possible if the 1901 children are old enough to have been included in 1881 that they were somewhere else at the time, have you looked. If none of this brings you some matches you may well have two separate families. Pam

Christine, What were the names of the parents and what would their ages be in 1891. Chris

Christine, Don't stress about the children not matching. In the 1881 census Elizabeth was 12, Hariet was 6, Mary was 4 and Thomas was 1. 20 years later for the 1901 census they have all left home and there are 3 new children; Edith aged 17, Sarah aged 13 and Robert aged 5, all of whom were born after 1881. Crista

Christine, What do you mean "there were only the 4 children"? Also, I don't see the Elizabeth you mention at the same address as the others on the 1901 census. Crista

Crysta Elizabeth was married in 1900 so shes not on the census she moved to america my grandmother only had two sisters and one brother i know this from what my mother told me,

Christine the parents are robert and hariet littlewood there ages in 1891 would be app 40 yrs thats both of them there children edith age 7 sarah age 3

Perhaps Harriet Jr, Mary and Thomas didn't make it into adulthood.

Crista yes you could be right with that need to look on 1891 census see if there on that thanks Christine