To ask if it's possible to trace your great grandparents, and your great great grandparents even if you don't know their names?

[hellokittymania]

Hi, I'm trying to apply for my friends passport and I have to prove my French nationality since I was not registered on my mother's family book as a baby. As an adult, I need to fill up a form including all of the ancestry ancestry, sorry visually impaired, from both my mothers and my fathers sides. I just went on the records office website to try and trace my grandfather, since I know his full name. I don't remember my grandmother's name maiden name, and I don't know any of their parents names. What would be the best way, and the quickest way to get the information I need? Could the office help over the phone? I'm just worried in case I can't read their birth certificates if I order them. Sometimes, the writing can be very difficult to read.

Sorry, I'm using dictation. French passport, I am applying for my French passport but I need to have my nationality certificate first. Anyway, if anybody likes genealogy, how have you gotten the information you've needed.

No idea how it works in France which I assume is what you are asking ?

Here your parent/s would be listed, including your mothers maiden name and DOB, so you would then retrieve that birth certificate and the same info would be recorded for your mothers parent/s.

No idea though how it would work if there was a blank or 'father unknown' comment

If you are getting duplicate birth certificates, they are typed.

Hi, my dad is English. So I need to find the information for my grandfather and grandmother, their parents, and I think I need to find back to my great great grandparents. I think I have possibly, hopefully, found my great grandfather. But it's just a birth,. On my grandfather's information, it has his birth listed January 1915, and it has his mothers maiden name, but that's it. I need to find my grandfather's father's full name, and my great grandmother's full name. If the if that makes sense. If I call the registrars office tomorrow morning and ask them to help me over the phone in ordering what I need, could they do so?

I would start a tree on Ancestry, Start with yourself and put in your parents, with birth (and death) dates if applicable. Include places of birth etc if you know. Add anything you know about the grandparents - you can probably find a marriage record for him if you know his wife's first name and an approximate date and place. I don;t know what French certificates are like but if you buy copies of British ones they are easy to read as they are not in "real" handwriting. Or you might be able to get an official or friend to read them.

Most records offices will do a search for a fee. I paid £30 per hour for someone to find the info I needed.

OK, thank you banana. I will also see what I can do on ancestry.

Ancestry is probably the quickest way of doing it, as long as you aren't dealing with a very common combination of surnames.

Search back from 1915 for other children with the same surname/mother's maiden name combination. If there are children going back before 1911 then you can look for the family on the 1911 census which should give you both great-grandparents' first names and rough birth years. It should also tell you how long they were married for, which will let you search for their marriage record. If you order that certificate it should have both fathers' names and their professions.

If there are no other children registered, check for a marriage shortly before 1915 and order that certificate.

BMD certificates are generally legible. Older records can be challenging/impossible to read, but you should be okay with 19th and 20th century certificates.

Thank you, that is very helpful information kung fu panda. Can I just ask you, does it eventually ask you to pay on the ancestry website? I clicked on to find more information and it brought me to a free trial or something? I'm just checking, I don't mind paying the fee.

Hi hellokitty - Im a long time lurker on MN but have joined to say ancestry tracing is my hobby and Im pretty good at it ( found Mums long lost uncle and cousins and managed to introduce my dad and his brother to the half sister they never knew - after 70 years!)

i have an Ancestry account and would happy to try and search for if you message me details - I can then help you apply for any birth or marriage certificates you might need - it can be done online and arrives in a couple of weeks

As most of you know, if you’ve seen me post for a long time, I use the Tatian when I write. Dictation just called my dad sword. That is not his name. But all three, my father, grandfather, and great grandfather have had the same two names, alternating in order. But dictation exists insists that they are all called swords. It should be George by the way. I should have been Georgia, I like that name. Much better than what my real name is. Ha ha ha