Family Tree - Advice

[abesnt]

Hi. I've been researching my family tree for a couple of years.

I have 2 questions.

1. Any advice on how I can find my grandmothers dad? My grandma lost contact with him age 10. I have a first name. Her mum never married and didn't live with the dad. They aren't on any census together. I have her birth certificate but there is nothing filled in on the father section. Without that I don't think I can can I?

1. Is there any way of finding out how the members of my family passed or is it a case of having to order and pay for a death certificate? I can't do that with them all obviously.

Thank you

It'll be hard to find your grandmother's dad with that limited information. You could do an Ancestry DNA test and recreate your family tree on there, and see if any DNA matches come up. Even better if your parent (son or daughter of the grandmother) took an Ancestry DNA test too. Or better yet your grandmother herself if she's still around?!

If you want to find causes of death then you do need death certificates, generally (although sometimes burial records may have some info). You can order digital images of (birth and) death certificates for £2.50 from GRO although I don't think it's full coverage yet. I have tended only to order certificates for direct ancestors although I'm more profligate now when they're £2.50!

Did they go to church? Was your grandmother christened? Church records might reveal something.

If there was anything unusual about a death, and especially if there was an inquest, it will have been reported in the local newspapers. Sometimes there are also reports of funerals, who attended, etc.

You can access local newspapers with the appropriate subscription to Find My Past or the British Newspaper Archive. You don't have to take out a full year's subscription. Alternatively, some public libraries offer access to the BNA on library computers.

(I love browsing through old local newspapers, and consider it well worth the money spent on the FMP subscription. You never know what stories you're going to come across. Something to request for a birthday or Christmas present, perhaps!)

For wartime casualties, you can search the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site, or Lives of the First World War.

Hi. Grandma not around. My mum would but she's not too keen. Would it work if I took one?

I'm not sure to be honest but she wasn't religious when he were growing up.

I seem to have subscriptions to Find My Past and Ancestry but then cancel them as I don't get the information I want 😂😂

Anyone used this?

Can I add the results to Ancestry.

Unlikely to find your grandmothers father without doing a dna test. To be honest you will get the better results with your mum doing the test. The cheapest time to buy them is Black Friday. I have been researching for 25 years. Just having a fmp or ancestry subs is not going to give you the answers you want. Now there are digital certificates for some events it’s like getting 4 certificates for the price of one. I usually think strategically about what certs to order to maximise my spend. You can also guess from the gro indexes however everyone who has done this for my dads ex.wife’s tree have assumed my dad is the father of her daughter however if they had bought the cert they would know he wasn’t. Newspaper archives can throw up interesting bits and sometimes you just need to randomly contact people and they give you a gem you never would have found out.

Ancestry you can upload to my heritage but not the other way round.

I knew my parents and grandparents. Mum knew her parents and 3/4 grandparents so I think it would be better get doing it. I don't mind £50 but £70!!!

Doesn't the dna test approach need the other person to have uploaded their dna? Or one of their descendants? They may not know who their great grandfather was either so might not be of much value?

@abesnt Are you including any of your grandmother's siblings in your research? Or your great-grandmother's?

When you can't go backwards, it often pays to go sideways.

Even if none of them are around any more, they might have known his surname. You might find that someone else in the extended wider family has compiled their family tree, and might have that vital bit of information you need.

I'm in the same boat. My father's father was adopted according to what I've been told. Have found his birth certificate on ancestry with mother's details but no father. I'm stumped as to how to proceed now, unlikely to find anything on the absent father. Also no idea how to find his adopted parents, or even if it was all done above board and legally or it was one of these family arrangements that we hear about. I've ordered the dna test kit so I'm hoping this will help.

Yes I know this is a strong possibility.

Hi yes I've included my grandmas only sibling and all my great grandmas siblings - about 12.

My mum would ask my grandma but she wouldn't talk about it.

My grandma was born in 1929 apparently in the workhouse but I can't find any info. My mum said her older brother born in 1927 and growing up he lived with my great grandmas brother.

Good luck.

She would probably have been baptised, though. Sometimes the vicar would make a note on the baptism record of who the reputed father was, especially in more rural communities where everyone knew everyone’s business.

In my family, one (very judgy) vicar decided to note on the record that a child was illegitimate, even though the parents had actually got married between the child’s birth and the baptism. Miserable git!

Also, Ancestry has special offers on the DNA kit all the time. If they haven’t reduced it for Valentine’s Day or lunar new year, they will at Easter!

If they were both single as far as you know, it might be worth checking the banns register for where they lived. I found who I’m sure is the father of an elderly relation who was illegitimate that way, his mum and this man (whose first name is also my relations middle name) had the banns called in the 1930’s around the time of the birth but didn’t marry.

Otherwise DNA is the way to go, your Mums results would be better (she will share more DNA with him than you will) but not impossible that you’ll figure it out from yours! My great-Nan was illegitimate and I managed to figure out her father was one of two brothers from my Nanna’s DNA results. I would advise testing on Ancestry, then downloading and uploading to My Heritage, both tend to have different ‘pools’ or people. I recently helped a cousin who connected to our family somehow genetically figure out who his mothers parents were, I would say that Ancestry was far more useful in untangling it all, but he did have a couple of good matches on My Heritage also.

In the UK 'illegitimate' is when parents were not married at time of birth. I believe in some Catholic countries it used to be the child had to be born 9 months after marriage to be classified as 'legitimate'. I'm not sure if that's still the case but used to be so. It's a factual statement not a value judgement.

Absolutely, but I feel that it wasn’t necessary to record it in the baptismal register. It clearly wasn’t a requirement, because most of the time only names and dates are recorded. As it appears to be at the discretion of whoever filled in the record, I’m sticking with my opinion of it being judgy.

The vicar of my hubby’s ancestors was being judgy about one of them not being baptised until they were 4! Parents were married in plenty of time.

Yes, but it worked for me. I found half cousins, etc on there who knew their family tree so was able to work out who my grandfather was with no name/details at all.

Thanks. I've seen it for £50.

My mum thinks the father of my grandma was married and had older sons.

But it's so strange how my great grandma would risk this. She was mid 30s when she had her children, she had both in the workhouse in a short space of time. It doesn't seem to add up. I've checked the census. She is living with her or other lodges most of the time. No other men.