Tracing great grandfather

[lizwizz]

Hi. I have posted a question in the family section as I didn't realise a geneology section existed! I am having trouble finding much information about my great grandfather. I know his dates of birth, death and marriage and his place of marriage, but I can't find much about his birth as I don't know where he was born. The 1881 and 1901 censuses aren't much help as there a few people of the same name born aroung the same time, so I don't know which one he is. My grandfather wasn't born until 1910 and they wern't married until 1904. Someone suggested I request his birth certificate, but what if its the wrong one, I could be on a wild goose chase. Maybe Dot could advise?

[dot.hawkes]

Hiya
You need to get the information from your great grandparents marriage certificate which will give their age at the time of the marriage and the fathers name for the bride and groom, then when you are looking on the 1891 and 1881 census returns, you will know the name of the head of house, i'e' ypour great great grandfather, assuming your great grandfather was living at that time in a normal familky unit and not an extended family or with just his mother for example. Using the info from the marriage certificate in 1904 you will get the name of the Church or Chapel which may well have beent he brides [arish but could also be the Church where your great grandfathers family attended too, which will give you another clue to the census registration district you may need to search.
Occupation will also be given on the marriage cert for both the groom and his father, which will also be useful in eliminating your options for your Gt Gf birth or his location on the 1901/1891/or m,aybe 1881 census. Also, try to locate his siblings names in your research to enable you to confirm you have found the right family group, this is something you can do by looking at your extended family, e.g. your grandfathers uncles aunts cousins etc, who would likely have descendants now as your second cousins who may well be able to tell you who their older relatives were.
Hope this helps, maybe someone else has a few more suggestion

Best of luck

Dotty

[lizwizz]

Thanks Dotty, that should keep me going for a while. I presume its the Family Records Centre in London where i would go for the marriage certificate.

[dot.hawkes]

you can but it is an awful lot cheaper from the local register office where the event took place