Genealogy Chat

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I wondered if anyone else had experienced this? After much searching for a crucial birth cert, I was overjoyed to find a handwritten entry at the bottom of a page - I had previously overlooked this. I sent off for the cert, only to have an apologetic reply that the district in the index was wrong, and that they weren't able to locate the cert without it. I'd found this in the 1837 online index. is there another index anywhere that might be correct? The district in question was Poplar, but the 1881 census had simply given London, Middlesex as place of birth, so it could be in a different district. Any thoughts? Sue (in NZ - mightily frustrated by the lack of this crucial piece of my jigsaw!)

Sue How frustrating! Do you have any other details - name of person, year of birth etc? Any other censuses on which their birthplace appears? nell

Hi Nell, The hassle is this: My g'grandfather was John UREN. I've found him in the 1881 census with his mother, Catherine Uren(b. St Hilary, Cornwall), as visitors in West Ham. He was 1, and the people he was visiting were the DALEY family - who appear to be his aunt, uncle & cousin. Another visitor, Catherine White (b. St Hilary, Cornwall!) was mother-in-law to the Head. So..my belief is that Catherine Uren was nee Catherine White. She was described as a sailor's wife. My grandmother had told me that her grandfather was a Cornish sailor named John Uren from the Penzance area. The only person I could find who fitted this description (& the right age)in the 1881 census was a John William UREN serving on The TWINS in Dover. He was born in St Michael's Mt, which fits the St Hilary bit beautifully. If this is right, I've then managed to find several generations back in Cornwall. BUT I can't find a marriage for Catherine WHITE & John William UREN, and I also found this John William with a different faMILY IN THE 1901 CENSUS. Was he a bigamist, or was Catherine simply living as his wife in name? A further complication is that family lore states that Catherine remarried don't know who) and that they went to America. John Uren (Jnr) came back to Canning Town, London in about 1898/99 where he met & married my g'grandmother, Elizabeth Maria VENTON, in 1900. I can't find them on the 1891 census (Though John William was with his mother & siblings on St Michael's Mount, Cornwall) , so perhaps they had gone to the US by then. My great-aunt, their oldest daughter, was named Catherine Elizabeth, so I think that I have the right family. There is some story about her name being Catherine Elizabeth ALLEN/ALLAN etc for a while, but I don't know any more than this, and haven't been able to find a marriage for Catherine UREN and X ALLEN or Catherine WHITE & X Allen - though I'm unsure where to look anyway. Oh yes, and John UREN was an only child (very unusual for those days) - which also led me to suspect that all was not quite right about his parents' relationship. Sorry you asked now??! If ANYONE can shed any light, or let me know of a different way to get the index sorted, please let me know! Many thanks. Sue (in NZ)

I had the same problem twice. Names not matching the GRO ref number. Margaret

What did you do, Margaret? Sue

The only thing that I can suggest is that you write to the local register office (Tower Hamlets is the one that covers Poplar). Explain the situation, that the GRO index is incorrect and they might help you. They will have their own indexing system which is independent of the GRO system. Not sure how helpful the London reg offices are though - have heard mixed reports from others on these boards. Also, he might not have been born in that area of London at all, but at least it's worth a try! The address & email for the reg office is at: http://www.fhsc.org.uk/genuki/REG/regoff.html#246 Good luck! Richard

Sorry I can't help any more but I notice there is a resemblance between the name Allen and Uren. (Think how the two could be written in a florid hand especially if the a was written as a large small letter if you know what I mean!)

Thanks both of you - food for thought. I'll try to get onto it this week, but have just finished a mammoth 3 hr ironing stint and must get to bed now,ready for another busy week at work and home. Thanks. Sue