Can you help me pls - I am stuck

[botheritagain]

Hi, been doing my family tree for a couple of months using Ancestry but am now at the limit of my knowledge and don't know how to find people who are proving difficult. I only know how to use ancestry and I'm not sure I am using it correctly as it can't find people I want. I try Free BLD without much success. Where else should I look for the two following sisters please????

Eg I want to find Beatrice Digby. Born 1906 in London. Hanover square district. Parents Walter and Helen Digby. I found her birth and her 1911 residence and then NOTHING. My relative says Beatrice married Stan and had three children. I can find no records. I can only find one death record in 1982 in Colchester and it's under her maiden name and we have no connection with that town so don't think it's the correct person.

I'm also trying to find her sister born same location 1908 called Mabel. All we know is she married an American called Jack and went to live in Texas, possibly in the 1950s but dates unclear. She may also have had a first marriage in London to another rich man. Name Unknown. I can't find anything on her. I have the worldwide version of Ancestry and I don't think I'm using it properly.

Can anyone help please with using your more experienced heads to find more info on these two sisters? And if you do, can you help me on how I go about taking all this a step further to track down tricky people?!

I just found Gwendoline Beatrice Digby b. 1906 m Stanley Whyte in Hammersmith 1941. I have a genes reunited account. I just went from age 16 marriage with five years either side jumping by five years at a time.

For Mabel consider whether she used her middle name like Beatrice switch off exact match for first name. Find her first married name starting 1923 and jumping again five years either side. Your most likely find is west London districts eliminate those first. Then look for Mabel Spouseone, divorce or death certificate for Mr Spouseone and then a later marriage for her using keyword Digby or Spouseone and find that name on an embarkation list to America. She might not have been married to Mr Spousetwo before she left or she might have travelled alone so search both surnames. Unfortunately if the second marriage was wealthy they might not have travelled by boat . But if she married in UK and she stayed with husband 2 ancestry will find her US death certificate.

@Menaimum thank you very much for this. That's definitely not the correct Beatrice though. She was born in Hanover square district of Pimlico.

That Beatrice and a Mabel both records have a side note connecting St Saviours Pimlico. A Mabel b1908 married George E Meredith 1924? at George's Hanover Square. His death 1934 I might not be right but really drill down before you discard- registration districts and registry offices don't always have same name. My GPs were this generation you're so lucky to have relatives you can still ask!

Thank you. That's their other sister Alice who married George.

I am so stuck on Beatrice and Mabel !

Have you actually sent for Beatrice and Mabel's birth certificates?

There are actually 13 births with the surname Digby registered in St George Hanover Square district between 1900 and 1915. Have you investigated any of those? Some of them are probably siblings or relatives of some sort.

Have you looked on census records?

You might need to ignore Beatrice marrying 'Stan' as a lot of people had nicknames they were known by. There is only one marriage of a Beatrice Digby, and it might be worth sending for the marriage certificate to find out who is says her father was, it might be the right one.

On FreeBMD: marriage of Beatrice Digby to Leonard Howland in the September Q of 1922 in West Ham.

If that turns out to be her, then:
FreeBMD Deaths: Beatrice Howland Mar Q 1964, and Leonard Howland Sep Q 1970 both in Hitchin.

@botheritagain Never take other people's trees for granted - you always need to check them all out yourself because there are so many errors on Ancestry. BUT sometimes they can give a hint. I found this by searching for Beatrice and then on "Make a Connection" find others who are searching for * on public trees.

This person seems to be descended from Harold who was their younger brother, so might be a useful person to get in contact with.

www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/168637475/person/352189667844/facts

I've just found a Mabel R Digby marrying a Samuel White or Weitz in Q3 1940 in Marylebone. It's possible Samuel anglicised his name so worth searching under both variants for a second marriage to the American. Could that be Mabel?

They might not have everything right, but some things match what you are saying.

Unless that is you!!

What you might be doing on Ancestry is narrowing down the search criteria too much. Try leaving it as open as possible.

I wish they had an edit button on here...

The other thing to remember about Ancestry is that a lot of the data is from family trees uploaded by other people, which may not be accurate. You need to concentrate on the actual official records.

Thank you all for your efforts. I have made some progress using your advice and tips and will update when I know for sure!

Very unlikely that Beatrice married at 16. Don’t rule out a marriage in a different part of London, she may have married in a church local to her fiance, or for another reason married in a slightly different region.

Unless that is you!!

It is! That's the results of my work on Beatrice yesterday. Nobody else had anything other than her birth year so I'm really proud to have added to it.

@SirVixofVixHall

Very unlikely that Beatrice married at 16. Don’t rule out a marriage in a different part of London, she may have married in a church local to her fiance, or for another reason married in a slightly different region.

There are no other marriages anywhere in the UK. It is the only marriage of a Beatrice Digby on FreeBMD between 1916 and 1966. Of course, it may be that not all the GRO records have yet been transcribed.

You need to send away for actual birth, marriage and death certificates, because not only do they have information regarding the individuals, there will also be the informant on the death certificate who is probably a relative, and on marriage certificates you find the fathers' names and occupations, and the names of witnesses, who were usually relatives as well. It all helps to build a bigger picture. The church they were married in can also yield information from the parish register about other family events, such as baptisms. People were often not baptised as babies as they are today, they were frequently done when older, or even as adults.
An ancestor of mine had 6 of their children baptised at the same time.

Ah, I thought it might have been, but more information than you mentioned.

I have some people who I cannot find in BMD records. It is frustrating. There is a baptism on Findmypast 1906 Pimlico for Beatrice. You can see search results without a subscription. I have a library login but it has exceeded the max amount to view annoyingly. You could contact your local library as lots of them are giving out their library logins during lockdown as people cant get to the library.

The church of latter day saints ( Mormons) also has a free genealogy site that may be helpful

jamandtonic ah, sorry, I hadn’t paid enough attention to note that it was the only marriage.
I had a quick look on findmypast but can’t see anything helpful. You may need to get the possible marriage certificate, then you can rule it in or out, and if it is right then you will have her new surname and be able to find her on the 1939 register.

I had a quick look and it does look as if Stanley was already married to someone else. I can find more details if you like, but you might enjoy doing it yourself.

@saker thanks so much for this, it's great. I found out a bit myself and agree with the three sons - but hadn't realised they weren't married!

Yes please - if you can find out who he was married to first and whether the first wife divorced him or died, I'd be most grateful.

However I have the 1939 register and it says they are married - and that she is Beatrice Lacey. So worth a double check to see what you come with; I'm a beginner and grateful for all help!