Genealogy Chat

Curtis isnt an unusual name so why is it almost impossible for me to find ggrandfathers details his name i belive was Edward Curtis he came from catford i have addresses of farly streer and sports bank street these are what my father says rings a bell,think he married atleast 3 times so anyone with time on there hands this could be a great challenge i have been on G R for a year now still looking for him.think he was born around 1880 he also had a son called Edward and a son called Frederick born in early 1900s.

Which sites have you searched?? Without knowing how much research you have already done its difficult to advise. Plus some sites are pay to view & its not on to others to use thier credits alreadypaid for,if you have already searched the same arears Shirley

A long shot in 1881 View Record Albert Curtis abt 1878 London Islington, London, Middlesex, England Son 259 Copenhagen St, St Pancras Islington, London, England View Record Annie Curtis abt 1846 London St Pancras, London, Middlesex, England Wife 259 Copenhagen St, St Pancras Islington, London, England *****View Record Edward Curtis abt 1880 London Islington, London, Middlesex, England Son 259 Copenhagen St, St Pancras Islington, London, England View Record Ellen Curtis abt 1874 London Islington, London, Middlesex, England Daughter 259 Copenhagen St, St Pancras Islington, London, England View Record George Curtis abt 1870 London St Pancras, London, Middlesex, England Son 259 Copenhagen St, St Pancras Islington, London, England View Record James Curtis abt 1872 London St Pancras, London, Middlesex, England Son 259 Copenhagen St, St Pancras Islington, London, England View Record Jessie Curtis abt 1867 London St Pancras, London, Middlesex, England Daughter 259 Copenhagen St, St Pancras Islington, London, England View Record William Curtis abt 1844 London St Pancras, London, Middlesex, England Head 259 Copenhagen St, St Pancras Islington, London, England View Record William Curtis abt 1869 London St Pancras, London, Middlesex, England Son 259 Copenhagen St, St Pancras Islington, London, England Gloria

So your Great-grandfather ,Edward Curtis, was born about 1880 and his grandson, your father, was born.....when?? Who is the missing generation? Edward's son or daughter? Do you have the birth cert of this missing person? If you do, who is their mother?? If you don't, do you know when your father's mum or dad (whichever was the Curtis!!) was born and where?? You need to take this one step at a time when dealing with a relatively (ha, sorry!) common surname, or you may end up doing someone else's tree!! If you don't know when/where Edward's son/dau was born, do you have that person's marriage cert?? Merry

no he will be my fathers grandfather frederick is my farthers dad Edward is fredericks brother and there farther is also Edward who was born in 1880s Frederick & Edward where born 1900 & 1902 we think sorry cant be any more helpfull think there might of been a sister aswell.

frederick my granfarther was born in 1901 dulwich he was christened frederick joseph arthur thanks for all the help from you all

OK, so here is the birth reg for Frederick Joseph A Curtis: Name: CURTIS, Frederick Joseph A Record Type: Births Quarter: March Year: 1902 District: Camberwell (1837-1919) County: London Surrey Volume: 1d Page: 811 If you buy this birth cert it will give you the name of your great-grandmother and her maiden surname. From this you should be able to track down the marriage of Edward Curtis. As long as they were already married by March 1901 you have a much greater chance of picking them up on the census. They might even already be living at the address where FJA Curtis was born!! Merry

thank you so much merry it has taken me a year to find that. thanks again everyone x

GenesReunited can be useful for making contact with people and getting help but you need to use other sites (many of which are free). The 1881 census is available on the LDS site There is pay to view access to other census though you can often search indexes. You can search transcribed parts of the Birth, Marriage and Death index at FreeBMD and Ancestry (free). Many parts of the country have their BMD indexes on the UKBMD site. They vary from some counties with virtually nothing through to some with just about their complete index online. Lots of message boards and mailing lists at ROOTSWEB and other sites. These can put you in touch with other people researching a name or area. Again they vary a lot with some that can be very helpful. You can search the IGI at the LDS site. You can be reasonably sure of any parish register transcripts though not absolutely certain as there are often several families in an area with similar names. The parish register will help identify because it might have more information on occupation and address. Ignore any 'members's submissions' on the IGI as they are too unreliable. Also do some web searches, it is amazing what can be found. Most of these should be used as just a guide and checked on the original records where possible. Also get a decent family tree program and record *EVERYTHING* but mark it with the source of the information and how accurate you think it is i.e. you can be pretty sure that a Birth Certificate is correct if you are sure it is the right person but other information might be suspect. If you record the source then you can go back in a few years time and know where the information came from. Sorry if you are well aware of all this but got the impression that you might be relying on GR a lot. MB

thanks for all the advice i will be useing it all ,i am a member of ancestory and i find family search very good but this site always seems to have the best feed back. this member of the family has given me the most trouble