How do I go about finding a long lost Uncle (Irish) who disappeared in London 60+ years ago?

[wellSmart]

He was Irish and moved to London in the late 50s or early 60s?
He would have been 100 a few weeks ago so is probably dead.
The only information we have is his date of birth as it was the date of my grandmothers death (in childbirth).
Maybe that affected him.
I've done a DNA test on ancestry.com but no close relation showed up.
Any suggestions appreciated.
TIA

I'm in Scotland so use Scotlands people but there will be an online register for births.deaths and marriages for England
Someone else may know the link .
I love a good bit of ancestry detective work. .hope you find out what happened to him

Irish records seem much harder to trace.

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/birth-marriage-death-england-and-wales/

I read a similar case recently and I think the salvation army were mentioned frequently for being good at tracking down people.

If you know the area he was based in you could ask on facebook groups; Im on a few Irish in London ones building up the courage to look for my birth father (who has the most common name!)

Good luck OP 🤞

The London Irish Centre in Camden may be able to help.

Thanks for those suggestions, it's something to start with.

Your starting point would be googling to see if there is any mention of his 100th birthday online - local newspapers and the likes often pick up stories of people who hit that milestone.

Knowing his date of birth is good.

Does he have a "helpful" name - something unusual or maybe a middle name? If he does then Ancestry is a good bet to search for a death (unfortunately there's not a Scotlands People site for England - more's the pity, it's so easy to search a lot for free on SP and then order certs with a bit more certainty), then you can order a certificate if you want to see who registered the death (often a relative). Googling for an obituary can also help if he has an unusual name, or after you find a rough date on ancestry, as they often contain details of a spouse or children if there are any.

If he has a very common name then using the Salvation Army or a professional searcher is probably your best bet.

His name is Michael (Mick) Kelly so not distinctive.
His mother died on the 10th October 1923 so chances are that (or the day before) is his date of birth.

Do you have any details on where in London he went to?

I've sent you a PM @wellSmart

Find My Past has a search interface I find better for this sort of thing, though I use other sites like Ancestry and Family Search. If you assume for now that he is dead and that he died in England, probably in the London area, just do searches on his name on registered deaths and later for probate records for a range of dates. For instance, if males of his generation seem to die around 75 back calculate to search +/- 5 years at first in a 20 mile radius of London for say 1998. Play around with locations and guessed death year and see who turns up. Triangulate against registration of marriages, births of children, electoral register entries etc. depending on what turns up,

The key thing is that deaths MUST be registered and they should have date of birth recorded. That almost certainly sifts out all the others with the same name. Probate has date of death and last address.

Of course he might have then gone on to somewhere else.

I believe it was Kilburn/Cricklewood area. That's where most of the Irish lived at the time.
An uncle on the other side (my mother's side) met him in Cricklewood, I think it was, in the late 60s or early 70s.

Is it worth going to Kew birth and deaths registry? That's relatively close to where I live.

Was going to be my suggestion. Contact them first, save you some time.

Could you contact the lrish clubs or go round there and see if anyone remembers him..older men. Or maybe the Catholic churches. Or contact the GAA..hurling/ football clubs in that area as they often knew all the lrish around. I always feel sad about those lrish guys who went over and got lost somewhere along the way.
I hope you find someone who knew him.

I was going to ask was it Cricklewood in London? Also, lots of Irish ended up in Luton. My best friends parents started in London and ended up in Luton, so did their friends and family. Just an idea.

I and my brother were involved in the gaa in London for a number of years and we did ask a number of people but to no avail.
We did also put an ad in the Irish newspapers in London 25 years ago but nothing showed up.

Anyone living that knew him? If so, try to get as many details as possible out of them. Often my older relatives remember more than they mention in passing. Do you have any pictures? Have you built a family tree on ancestry.com? If so then potential records should start popping up.