lost relatives

[lloret.fsnet]

how do I find my mothers relatives

[Lindy Loo]

Hi, if you are trying to trace the family history, then start with you mothers birth certificate. It will give your grandmothers maiden name, your grandfathers name and occupation and their address at the time of the birth. If you know or can find out when your grandparents were married try to get a copy of the marriage. Apart from their names, it will also show your grandparents ages, (full means over 21) their occupations, names and occupations of the respective fathers and names of witnesses. From the ages on the marriage certificate its easy to work out their birth year, then you can look for their birth certificates. I have found out that death certificates give some information too, but that's no help if you don't know when someone died! These web sites might help. www.familysearch.org (Morman site) www.freebmd.rootsweb.com (Births Marriages and Deaths)(not a complete listing but they are getting there!) You don't need to register on either and the information is free. www.1837.com is a pay-per-view site, and needs registration, but lists all Births, Marriages and Deaths registered since 1837. www.ancestory.com has loads of info and you can have guest membership (free) www.cyndislist.com - thousands of links to search sites. If there's a Geneology society or group locally to you they could probably give you pointers too. Tracing living relatives is harder as there are fewer resources. If you know any of their names, you can try advertising in local papers, checking the electoral register, phone books etc but not if they are ex-directory. Hope this points you in the right direction, and good luck with your searching.

[Ewood27]

I'll go along with all the points in the excellent answer above. If you are serious about spending time and effort to trace your mother's family history, ask at your local library (I assume you are in the UK) about classes locally in tracing ancestry. This is the time of year.

First of all, though, ASK anybody you know who may know anything useful. Write everything down and don't throw anything away - it may just prove useful later. Wills are a useful source too, "I leave the residue of my estate to be divided equally between my children a, b, c and d" or whatever.

It will take time and effort and a small amount of expense. What you will not get is someone to do all the work for you for nothing, so please be under no illusions.

[Lindy Loo]

Thanks for the compliment Ewood27. Wills? that's one avenue I hadn't thought of in the search for the ancestors. Maybe a skeleton or 2 will appear!!! Eeek!!