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 ...
- 24.9k
6
votes
How can I identify all the possible alternatives for a surname
For an 'out of the box' answer -- one of the more interesting blog posts I've come across recently is from Kenneth Marks' site The Ancestor Hunt where he offers a series of lessons on how to do ...
- 24.9k
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 ...
- 16.6k
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
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
5
votes
How can I identify all the possible alternatives for a surname
I'm surprised no-one seems to have mentioned using wildcards. Provided the search engine of the site you are using will support it (and Ancestry is pretty limited in this regard), putting in "Harp*" ...
- 1,226
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
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
Accepted
Citation of both folio and page in England census
To be useful, information not only needs to be right but also clear and accessible. Perhaps after due digging thru a dictionary or some other reference, someone can eventually figure out what "r" or "...
- 288
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 ...
- 24.9k
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 ...
- 24.9k
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
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 ...
- 24.9k
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
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
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
Accuracy of place of death recorded in the National Probate Calendar?
It is true to say that a death can only be registered in the district in which it occurred.
What can happen is that the information can be given to a registrar in another district who completes a ...
- 1,356
3
votes
Accuracy of place of death recorded in the National Probate Calendar?
I can only say that when I submitted a Probate Application Form earlier this year, one of the documents required to go with it, was an "Official copy of death certificate or coroner's letter". The ...
- 11.5k
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 ...
- 24.9k
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
Accepted
Is there list of apprenticeship types for FindMyPast record set called Britain, Country Apprentices 1710-1808?
General information about apprenticeships can be found on the National Archives website: Looking for records of an apprentice or master.
This index on FindMyPast was derived from the Stamp Duty ...
- 18.7k
3
votes
Accepted
Determining surname for 1782 baptism in Breconshire, Wales?
I am confident this is simply an error in indexing, and the surname should have been indexed as Howels.
This can be confirmed by looking at the index and images for this baptism register on ...
- 18.7k
3
votes
Accepted
Reading Irish birthplace on 1851 Wales Census?
I think it simply says 'British', indicating his nationality. Note that in 1851, Ireland was still part of the United Kingdom.
Added in response to the comments: It certainly was not necessary for ...
- 18.7k
3
votes
Determining subdistrict extent from code in post-1993 GRO index?
As no answer has yet been attempted, I will give the disappointing results of my efforts to find this information - but still live in hope that someone can come up with a better solution!
The bottom ...
- 18.7k
3
votes
Reducing cost of BMD Certificates in England and Wales?
The project to digitize registration records in England and Wales
started in 2005 when Siemens IT Solutions was awarded a three-year
contract to undertake the work as part of the Digitalisation of ...
- 1,226
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
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