14
votes
What "hidden" clues are there in the GRO Indexes of births and deaths?
Understanding precisely how the GRO indexes are organized can give us key information about individual entries. The marriage index is a whole other kettle of fish, so this answer pertains only to ...
- 18.7k
7
votes
Strategy to find death of individual with common name?
I don't think this is a comprehensive answer, but I will outline my process for dealing with record hints on services which offer them like Ancestry and Find My Past.
Assemble all the information you ...
- 25.4k
6
votes
Accepted
Backtracking to find source of birth date?
I suspect it was the 1939 Register, as that shows a Catherine Cowin with birth date 24 Dec 1878 living in Liverpool C.B.
Keep in mind that birth dates on the 1939 Register were recorded as given by ...
- 18.7k
6
votes
Strategy to find death of individual with common name?
Common names are always difficult because there are so many false positives.
With such a common name as Thomas Jones, I would not search public death records or look for the death certificate until ...
- 16.7k
5
votes
Tracing ancestor CF Evans who died in World War 2 (aged 39 in 1945)?
If I am correct the Charles Fredrick Evans as required by you is listed as a Gunner in the Royal Artillery. His service number was 1801591 and you could follow him up on line via Forces war records, ...
- 330
5
votes
Accepted
Do any fragments of the 1931 census of England & Wales survive?
On the night of Saturday 19 December 1942, there was a fire at a store
in Hayes, Middlesex. The store, the responsibility of the Office of
Works, contained a large amount of furniture but in ...
- 1,410
4
votes
Accepted
Was the 1939 Register really updated after the end of National Registration?
If you look at the page 1939 Register Service on the Health & Social Care Information Centre website, the site says:
The 1939 Register Service (cost recovery) enables you to request data
held ...
- 25.4k
4
votes
Confirming parentage of Mary (1771? - 1851) wife of John James in Llanfair Nant Y Gof, Pembrokeshire, Wales?
It seems like the next step in utilizing the information from the will of John Francis in 1809 would be to locate the information related to this probate in the death duty registers which date from ...
4
votes
How to tell if a will was executed as written?
Not very helpful but in the two cases where I have acted as the Executor of a will, I would say that the sole documentation generated was:
The will itself;
The Request for Probate;
The information ...
- 11.5k
4
votes
Proving parents of Thomas Morgan of Tre-bryn, Pencoed, Coychurch, Glamorgan, Wales about 1808 were Thomas and Ann?
I also have concerns that any proof which looks at only parish registers and census records meets the standard for a reasonably exhaustive search.
To Harry's excellent answer I would add the ...
- 25.4k
4
votes
Accepted
Proving parents of Thomas Morgan of Tre-bryn, Pencoed, Coychurch, Glamorgan, Wales about 1808 were Thomas and Ann?
The proof has now been substantially improved from its original form, however I will leave the critique below as a (hopefully) useful list of things to think about when trying to locate the correct ...
- 18.7k
4
votes
Accepted
Case for seeking quotation to digitize Greenwich Hospital School admission record of John Smyth in about 1755?
As I understand, you have no other specific record that would link John Smyth to Wales. With this in mind I first think you should not get too caught up in the spelling of the name - John Smyth, John ...
- 18.7k
4
votes
Do any fragments of the 1931 census of England & Wales survive?
As previously mentioned all the schedules were lost, but if you want to learn more about the census and the reports that were generated from the data before the schedules were lost, here are some ...
- 25.4k
4
votes
Strategy to find death of individual with common name?
My wife had an ancestor who was extremely difficult to find, but I later discovered she was in a mental asylum. What confused me is that when she was committed, her husband apparently disowned her and ...
- 141
4
votes
Accepted
Finding records of professional athlete and trainer who married 1911 at Cardiff, Wales?
Brute force searching is sometimes the way to go.
I found your wife's great grandmother's birth record on Familysearch.
Esme Katherine Earley
England and Wales Birth Registration Index
Name Esme ...
- 2,436
3
votes
Accepted
Where did this baptism take place?
It looks to be Bryn Engan, which is likely to be Capel Bryn Engan in the parish of Llanystumdwy in Caernarfonshire.
Coflein describes the place as follows:
BRYNENGAN CHAPEL (WELSH CALVINISTIC ...
- 5,165
3
votes
Accepted
Looking for birth record of Catherine Jones in Llanfynydd, circa 1882
The first thing to check is the marriage certificate for Catherine and John James Cowin (From FreeBMD: Q3 (Sept) 1903; Chester; Vol 8a; Page 843).
The marriage record should give you the name of ...
- 5,165
3
votes
How to interpret differences between different birth indices in England and Wales
I have observed a similar problem with the Massachusetts State Archives' online searchable database for Vital Records, which can be accessed here: Search Vital Records (1841 - 1910). ("Vital Records" ...
- 25.4k
3
votes
What happened to the original household schedules used to produce the 1939 Register?
Audrey Collins' blog post National registration day: 29 September 1939 says:
The completed household schedules were collected and returned to each
local National Registration Office, but they did ...
- 25.4k
3
votes
Was the 1939 Register really updated after the end of National Registration?
I asked this question directly on Facebook.
The response I recieved is that, yes: "The Register was updated until 1991 when it ceased to be a working document".
This means that for married women, "...
- 18.7k
3
votes
Help needed reading a place of birth in an 1871 census record from Glamorgan, Wales
I think it's Cwmneath. Aberdare is in the Neath valley and if you look at a map of South Wales, you'll see a road, the A465, called the Heads of the Valleys Road which runs from Merthyr down to Neath ...
- 31
3
votes
Accepted
Finding more information about Brecon Arms pub and when specific individuals had occupancy as landlords
For the pub itself. change your focus from searching for people, and make the building your focus. Just like people, your three key points are the name, the time, and the place. Buildings aren't as ...
- 25.4k
3
votes
1921 Census and noting name different in Ancestry
Ancestry online trees allow the users to record multiple names. Users can display them by going to the Filter drop down menu above the Facts column on the left-hand side of the profile, and then ...
- 25.4k
2
votes
Accepted
Finding marriage record for Priscilla who married printer Henry Hughes probably about 1810 in Breconshire, Wales?
Today FindMyPast announced:
Wales Parish Registers
We’ve added a substantial tranche of new records to our exclusive
collection of Welsh county baptisms, marriages, banns and burials.
One ...
- 11.1k
2
votes
Proving parents of Thomas Morgan of Tre-bryn, Pencoed, Coychurch, Glamorgan, Wales about 1808 were Thomas and Ann?
From the five census records my hypothesis is that Thomas was born at Pencoed, in the parish of Coychurch, in 1808-1809.
Baptisms
I found that between 1805 and 1812 there were at least 4 Thomas ...
- 11.1k
2
votes
How to tell if a will was executed as written?
Looking at the instructions for searching and ordering copies of wills on wills.gov.uk, 'Search for a Will':
Not all grants of representation contain a will. Check the type of
grant when you ...
- 25.4k
2
votes
What does 'for the ferm' (or possibly 'farm' or possibly 'feren') mean in Welsh Land Tax records?
There are two spellings here – ferm and fearm – both of which, I suspect are a variant spelling of farm. The term is English, which explains why it does not show in a Welsh dictionary.
A few excerpts ...
- 18.7k
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