Just found my kids 6 x great grandfather on ancresty's new PRs

[dothawkes31]

His name was Alexander Laing, does that sound a wee bit Scottish to anyone else?

[dothawkes31]

On their home page all the London parish registers and Poor Law Union records, they've updated sonme and some are new, very7 easy to use and you can look at the film of the original parish regsiter entry, excellent as back up for the London IGs, i''ve found Alexander laing simply cos his son was the witness at his daughter's wedding and she was a plain Jane but his son and he had a more unusual christian name so it really helped, first had the marriage off the IGI in about 1990, so it's the first headway on that line for years.

[dundurn]

Congratulations, Dot. I'll have to have a look myself. Some of my wife's folks came down to Gillingham and Chatham from London and they've been a bit of a dead end for me so far (no pun intended)! As for your Alexander Laing, aye he sounds as though he might have been Alec or Sandy to his friends.

[DEN53]

I have recently joined Ancestry.com - but so far not too impressed with them - not sure whether I am doing something wrong - but I can find records of births, deaths etc but thats it - if you want to request a birth/marriage/death certificate they want £19.99.

[craft1948]

I think ancestry is about the best but I wouldn't get any certificates from them.....£7.00 on here.............
https://www.gro.gov.u...tificates/default.asp

[dothawkes31]

Den ancestry may own their transcriptions of the GRO index to Birth marriage and death, but they do not have any different access to the registers than anyone else and certainly as craft says, the certificates are cheaper if ordered firectlky from the regisrar generals office or even the local register office itsself. Ancestry make alot of revenue from those oversees who do not have the same access and familiarity with English/Welsh records of civil registration.

[cazzz1975]

have you found these records via ancestry.co.uk? I am currently at a standstill because there do not seem to be parish records that cover enough of oxfordshire

ancestry.co.uk can be quite good den, I found my partners families names entered on a steam ship (steam ship letitcia) in 1933 from ontario coming to the uk (goodness knows why they would want to come here I thought!) I also found the relatives canadian marriage certificate which was very detailed moreso than the uk ones

[dothawkes31]

yes cazzz, they are listed on the home page as the new or updated records. Oxfordshire is quite extenrively covered by the IGI, if you look at Philimores Atlas and Index to parish Registers cazzzz, it will tell you which parish registers are not included on the IGI and so you will be able to identify the parish registers that your ancestors may be in by eliminating any on the IGI.

[cazzz1975]

thanks dot, I will have a butchers

[DEN53]

Thanks for your answers, dot, craft and cazzz.

I have been trying to trace if my aunt had any step brothers or sisters. She died when she was 49 and never new her father. Her mother remarried and I have traced through Ancestry.co who he married and where he lived but do not know how to trace if he had any other children.

[craft1948]

The easiest (usually) way to do it den is to go into births and select a year 5 years after he married. Just enter his surname, and then where it asks for other put the new wife's maiden name, and I'd probably put in the district they were married in.
Ancestry will try and filter the fathers surname and the mothers maiden name to bring you back matches, and it usually looks 5 years either side of the date you put in.

[dothawkes31]

If it is after 1915 then the mothers surname is included in the index but before then as it isn;t included it can be down to the use of traditional names within the family or location and then just ilimination

[craft1948]

sorry den I assumed as it was your aunt it wouldn't have been that long ago....on ancestry it is actually from 1912 onwards that the mother's maiden name is given.
If it is before 1912 re-post with details and we'll have a ferkle about for you.

[dothawkes31]

you're right about 1912 craft but ancestry have the seperate set and that starts from 1915, the GR0 index changed the index content from 1912.

[craft1948]

don't want to disagree dot but I am looking on ancestry now and the mothers maiden names are given in 1912.

[dothawkes31]

Yes that's because the GRO started adding them to their index from then. Ancestry have two sets of indexes the ones to 1915 and the ones that continue to 2005. There is an overlap between 1912 and 1915.

[craft1948]

I know they are split on the datesas you say but you can still get the mothers' maiden names on ancestry from 1912.

[dothawkes31]

sorry what i mean is if you need to look after 1915 the mothers maiden name in undluced and you use the new set, if it is before 1915 and you use the old set then only the last 3 years have the overlap of the mothers maiden name from 1912 and so if you have a birth in those 3 years you can use either I guess. If den's relatives are after 1915 then he's no need to use the first set.

[craft1948]

you watch.....I'll bet it's 1910!!

[DEN53]

My aunt was born in Sept 1939 and died in Sept 1988. Her father remarried in 1946.

I found out that my aunt's maiden name was changed when her mother remarried.

I also traced her father to where he lived (not that far from me) but when typed his name, birth date etc - it came up with a death registered in Hammersmith London and not in Romford Essex where he had lived and that he died when he was 56.

I think when my aunt was alive, she did some searching but my cousins (her children) seem to know nothing much about this.