Frustrated!!

[Sandie V]

I can't find 1 particular marriage, and a death either, I've been searching and searching for months now, and just can't find them. Especially when I know the 2 people in question DID get married!!

Does anyone else have the same problems?

[Elin]

Sandie who are they and we'll have a look. Often when one person looks they can't find them but someone else can!

[Scrapcomber]

My DH great grandparents got 'married' too, 7 years after the first child was born and one month before the 3rd child. They had a small decorative church certificate which the vicar omitted the year on. My fathers Great grandparents, were 'married in the 1901 census but were not officially married until a year later. It happens more than you think. If you want to PM me with the details i may be able to help you.

[Christine]

You're not alone. I can't find a great aunts birth or marriage records despite the fact my mum was at the wedding so there was one and this lady is very much alive and well. It's so frustrating

[Jab]

Tell me about it! I've been looking for my other half's great grandparents marriage for months. I've found his gt grandmother's brother's marriage after talking to his stepson who's 93 and still going strong, I just can't find hers. On a forum someone asked in 2002 for someone to check a particular graveyard to see if they were buried there (they weren't but I know where) and said they were married in 1933. I've checked all through 1933, all I can find is the 2nd child's marriage. I'm going to have to spend an afternoon at my mothers and look through all the marriages on Ancestry and see if that gets me anywhere. I'll be doing cartwheels if I ever do!
P.S. I found where the burial place by ringing up the local council and asking if they had records of people buried in the local graveyards. She asked for the name and within seconds came up with gt grandmother and also gt grandfather who were buried in the same plot. It would have taken me ages to find the deaths as I didn't have a clue when they died.

[Sandie V]

Well here's the details, see if anybody can find them.....David Vincent married Emily Ball. Their 1st child was born 1905 and the 4th and last child born in 1919. They were both living in Blunsdon, Swindon. Emily's dad was the Parish Clerk at the local church so they HAD to have got married, plus it states Emily Vincent formerly ball on their childrens birth certificates. Any help would be really appreciated.

[Jab]

Well I've just been going through the marriages and found mine in 1916, 7 years after the first child was born! Yippee yippee yippee!
I'll have a look at yours tomorrow if no-one else has.

[Sandie V]

I meant to say, they weren't married on the 1901 census, they were neighbours living with their respective parents.

[mummygina]

Best of luck. Hope you find them soon.

I'd love to trace my family tree, but unfortunately my parents are from Cyprus, and the Cypriot Census is absolute rubbish. For eg, My mum was born in 1958, but her certificate says 1959??!!, and my dad has a total of 4 brothers and 1 sister, and they all have different surnames eventhough they have the same mum and dad???!! I think splitting the atom would be an easier task then tryin to piece our family tree together LOL

[jqp]

My sister discovered, after many years of asking her MIL for her marriage certificate and not receiving it, that they had married in the same quarter as her husband's first marriage! So their 25th anniversary that everyone had celebrated was true, they had just not told everyone that it was not their wedding anniversary!!!!! Apparently her FIL's first wife had refused to divorce him...

BTW I'm still looking for the birth of my great grandmother (a 25 year slog) who married, had 8 children, lived with my mother, died and was buried...but apparently she was never born!!!

[Emma Jane]

I have the same problem.
I have found my Great Grandfather's marriage certificate, death certificate and his name on the 1901 census but can't find his birth certificate despite knowing his date of birth, parents full names and rough place of birth (Edinburgh). Literally no one of his name was registered in Scotland 3 years either side of the year of his birth and no record can be found of his parent's marriage either.
I have no idea why it is proving to be so hard to find - he was born long after registration was compulsory so I will wait and see if the 1911 census can shed any light as I think I have exhausted all searches now.

[SunDrop]

With looking for birth certificates, don't forget that census returns contain information provided by the person filling in the form or answering the questions, deaths are recorded by relatives (obviously!) and marriages - hmmm, I don't think you need to provide your birth certificate to register for a marriage license.

This means that grandpa Joe might actually have been grandpa Alfred Richard Joe Bloggs at birth, but because the family already had a daddy alfred and an uncle richard, everyone knew him from day dot as Joe.

I had this with a great great aunt. And don't even start me on my mother's maternal side of the family. Her great grandparents had 6 surviving children, all of whom named their children after their siblings, who named their children after their uncles. We've got a mass collection of Sarah, Michael, Edward, James, Mary, and John Deagles. And because each generation was having babies around the same time, you'd think you got Sarah Deagle, daughter of John, but it was actually Sarah Deagle daughter of James, niece of John *ARGHGHGHGH*

[Emma Jane]

Lol Tisha - we have that to some extent as well. The Scottish side of my family followed the tradition of naming a first son after the father and first daughter after the mother and then nicknaming e1 so that they could all keep track.
The Italian side of my family have wonderful names that are far easier to trace but the records only go back a little way.

[Annie]

Maybe different areas in Scotland had different traditions? Mine are west coast islanders in the most part, and first son was named for paternal grandfather, second son for father. First daughter was named for maternal grandmother and second daughter was named for mother. Somewhere along the line one of the girls normally got their maternal grandmother's maiden surname as a middle name too. e.g. a paternal g-gmother was Janet Hotchkiss, so my dad's sister was Janet Hotchkiss McPhail. My mother was Marion Morrison Macfarlane for her grandmother Marion Morrison. So you get McLeod etc. turning up as middle names. Does help a bit as I can sometimes get a clue where to start looking from a later generation's middle names.

[Emma Jane]

Annie - You could be right. They were all called John - son, father Grandfather and Great Grand Father. Some of them became Jack's as a nick name. The middle names though seem quite random. They were all families with only one boy.
My Great Grandfather was a John Alexander Lawson which, although quite a common name, there were none registered in the year he was born or the years either side.

[Sandie V]

You've just made me realise something saying about Jack being a nickname for John. My DH's great grandfather's brother was called John, but there is a reference to a Jack in a book we have about the village that they lived in, and I couldn't find a Jack in the family tree..........so it must have been John which now means I know where he lived - Hoorah I feel like I've just won the lottery!!!!!

[Annie]

:D I was wondering whether to submit my comment, as it didn't really pertain to your problem at all. So glad the conversation helped, albeit in an unexpected way! :D

[jantyannie]

its always worth looking at nicknames as they can be relevant and works both ways.

I've only recently found a marriage for one set of great-great grandparents
They were refered to on the daughters wedding cert as Malcolm and Jessie but it turns out her name was actually Janet!

also found a cousin that was called Marjory but the birth was registered as Madge :)

[jqp]

Trying to find my own sister's would be difficult. We always called her Jeanette or Nettie, and her husband is Floyd...so would you look for a Louise and Joshua?? Both have always been called by their middle name. The shock came at Jeanette's funeral...everything had been booked under the name Louise by the undertaker..so lots of flowers and wreaths went missing.

[SuzyB]

Ive just stumbled across this thread when I was about to start a new one with the same subject!

Ive got the full name of my maternal great grandmother from her wedding certificate, along with her fathers name, obviously it has her age on so gives me apx year of birth, and cannot find either of them! She has 4 christian names, Ive searched under them all, she had a nickname, Ive searched under that, Ive searched under all her fathers christian names, and no joy, so Ive come to a dead end, very early on in my family tree on that side!
Anyone any ideas on how I can get on any further?

[craftyslh]

Can you track her from a census listing?

I had an interesting conundrum, I couldn't find the birth of my Great Grandfather, looked on the 1901 census and it said he was born in Mountain Ash in Wales, but then looked on an earlier census and he was listed as having been born in Normanton, Yorkshire. I'd been looking in the wrong area for months, now I've tracked him down. He'd also married twice, first wife must have died around birth of their last child.

I haven't ordered any certs yet, I waiting for other family members to cough up, they are all interested in what I'm finding, but don't seem to want to pay towards it. Are you having the same issues?

[SuzyB]

No, have looked on all the census listings and not found a close match on any of them.
Really annoying as Ive no other information other than what is on the certs as my grandfather died just before my dad was born and the only thing my grandma can remember about her mother in law is her name. Doesnt help that they were originally from Pimlico, London, and the family then at some point moved to the North West where we are now.
Disappointing as Ive managed to get to 1810 going through the other side so far, and have hit a brick wall so soon on this side :angry:
My dad is really interested in what Im doing as my grandma never spoke about his father (there was some confusion as to whether he really was his father :blink: ) so all this information is totally new to him - he's offered money towards all the searches but I dont mind, Im enjoying doing it and it benefits not just me, but my kids and hopefully theirs too when the time comes so I think its money well spent.

[katiepops]

Suzy, if you want to PM me all the details you have, I'd be happy to have a look for you while I'm on my travels. I seem to be getting very good at uncovering information quite by accident! Also, me and the old dear have memberships to quite a few of the genealogy sites now, so I'm happy to make use of what we've paid for if it helps someone else.

Kate

[SuzyB]

Aww thats really kind of you Kate, any help most gratefully appreciated, even if its just to nudge me in the right direction, will pm you shortly :)

[pierce-brosnan]

You've just made me realise something saying about Jack being a nickname for John. My DH's great grandfather's brother was called John, but there is a reference to a Jack in a book we have about the village that they lived in, and I couldn't find a Jack in the family tree..........so it must have been John which now means I know where he lived - Hoorah I feel like I've just won the lottery!!!!!

Good luck Sandie,

I was going to say I was looking for an aunt Dorothy Notley for years and it turns out her real name was Rosina Florence Dorothy Notley so no wonder I could find her. All the indexes etc had her down as Rosina!! My advice - think out of the box :D :lol: