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I'm looking for any descendants of a particular gent who resided in Brighton, Sussex, England in 1950.

I have the gent's first two initials and surname, and residential (street) address.

Can anyone recommend resources I could use to track down any of his descendants?

I'm unsure as to how to start, although I'm currently interested to find a 1950s street directory for Brighton to see if I can get some more information about who resided there at that time, and if I can obtain more details such as this particular gent's full name.

I'm also wondering if I can find information about who owned the property this particular gent resided at to see if this brings anything up.

Many thanks in advance.

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  • I am very appreciative that your question seems to be worded carefully to respect our G&FH SE policy that: "You must not include here in any circumstances information (including name, date and place of birth or any other details) that would allow identification of any living (or possibly living) individual by somebody reading this site. In practice, this means details about anyone born in the last 100 years, whether they are believed to be deceased or not, and whether or not they have given their permission." – PolyGeo♦ Oct 3 '14 at 5:12
  • For all potential answerers of this question I hope you will allow me to issue a gentle reminder that you should not ask for any clarifications that could encourage its asker to break that policy, nor provide any details that would directly break it. I think it is fine to help with general advice on where to find directories, and other likely sources, but to leave all specific interpretation of those sources with the asker. I sincerely hope that we are able to help you with your family history research within those parameters. – PolyGeo♦ Oct 3 '14 at 5:12
  • Thanks @PolyGeo, much appreciated. I am genuinely after pointers to resources and will not divulge any information about who I'm seeking information about. – sharky Oct 3 '14 at 7:03
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    And don't be afraid to work backwards in time from 1950 because it is when working on ancestors born over a 100 years ago that I think our site and format excels. – PolyGeo♦ Oct 3 '14 at 7:07
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Ancestry.co.uk has UK phone books up to 1984 which can be searched by last name and include Brighton -- unfortunately they don't seem to be searchable by address.

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  • Thank you, good to know! I'll definitely take a look if no other options pop up, because they appear to have a paid subscription model. – sharky Oct 7 '14 at 4:46
  • @Sharky They do a one month trial subscription -- you have to give payment details and remember to cancel at the end of the month... – user104 Oct 7 '14 at 6:15
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This may fall into the "teach granny to suck eggs" category, but here goes. It has worked for me more than once.

If the gentleman has descendants, than in all probability (although not definitively) he was married. Search for any marriages of that gent (surname plus two initials), principally, but not necessarily, in the Brighton area. If successful, and if you can pin down an individual spouse reliably, then search for births of children with the appropriate parental surnames. Again, if successful, timings suggest that these children may themselves have married, so repeat the process. It won't work all the time - it might not work at all, but it might throw up further clues.

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  • Certainly, this is helpful too, as I hadn't considered marriage records. It looks like ancestry.co.uk may also have such records. Cheers! – sharky Oct 7 '14 at 4:47

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