Genealogy Chat

My family obviously aren't very family orientated, as I have been struggling to get info! I have gone back to my great grandparents (born about 1908) but I don't even have their date of births, names of parents, etc. Do you know where I can look up names from around this era? Thanks, Caroline

Gosh - you must be awfully young - My grandparebts were born after your Great-grandparents !!! Anyway - give us 'oldies' what you have and we will see what we can come up with. Dea x

its free search BMD on ancestry at the mo Jeanette http://www(.)ancestry(.)co(.)uk/search/rectype/vital/freebmd/bmd.aspx remove brackets

You get dates of birth and names from certificates. You can get rough years of births and names from censuses, from 1901 back. Which names and dates do you have at the moment, and we can work back from there? I don't see what is so hopeless about it. I didn't have the names of any of my great-grandparents' parents (or even all my great-grandparents' names) when I started this lark. One of my great-great grandparents is still unknown and likely to remain so. nell

First port of call would be Ancestry,but you will probably get loads of possibles and it's a trawl through the images,prior to 1910,some listings on Freebmd,far more complete pre 1900. Again though you will get loads of names that you cannot say either way are definate rellies. The freebmd and Ancestry are actually the same database,though freebmd running slow and can show server errors due to high demand.

And my Parents were born a few years after your great grandparents - yikes. Reading your post again - you havent actually got anything solid on your great grandparents so you need to look at what you have got, which is your grandparents info. Have you got their marriage and birth certificates which would give you more information on your great grandparents? You could look for the GGP marriage which would give you their dads names and occupations which would take you back before 1901 and then you can search all the census.

Thank you for the ideas; I suppose at 27 I am quite young to be doing this! I have traced back to 1841 so far for my Dad's mother, it's his father I am struggling with. (Back way earlier with my man's parents, they are easier) I don't have any certificates for them, and only a general idea of when they were married. Just their names. I guess I will be trawling through the free search for when they were married and try to get hold of a certificate from that. Thanks again, Caroline

You've got back to 1841 with one branch and you have a title with 'hopeless' in it! It took me YEARS to get back to 1841 with several of my lot! nell

Yeah you really need to confirm what you know,at least then you won't go chasing the wrong names,certs also quite handy for earlier names,eg William Andrew or Andrew William,both perhaps known just as William at some point. Glen

You dont have any real idea of dates? Then you need to have the solid info and work back from that. What solid info do you have on the grandparents? You know their date of birth? Then you could get their birth certificates and see the names of the parents. It will also give you the place they were born and the parents occupations and maiden name of the mum. Golden rule is work backwards confirming as you go.