Can I get information without paying?

I don't want to know anything, it may not be good news.I have two friends who spend their whole lives being obsessed with ferreting out details of their ancestors, one was pleased, the other wasn't.

Names can be very confusing. I was led on a complete goose chase by one reference I was looking at. My Father's foster mother was called Mrs Alice D.
The census indicated the village where she was born and the marriage cert gave her fathers name and his job. However on the census she was listed as Mary Martha and had a sister called Martha. When I caught up with a later census she was in service and known as Alice but the place of birth was as previously. Which made me convinced it was her but not fully proved. I eventually went for her death certificate and lo and behold death of "Mary Martha D" known as Alice.

It's worth persisting.

Thanks for the advice all. I have just been on the Genes Reunited site and found what I was looking for free of charge. Excellent site. Well no one mentioned payment or card details anyway!

Many local libraries have free access to Ancestry and Find my past sites on their computers, do try that. No need to pay for info. Good luck and I hope your search is successful.
Are there no family relatives you could ask if they know anything?
Maybe "thats what you think" was just a thoughtless comment with no truth in it? Or you could ask her what she actually meant by the remark. She may retract it.

Do you have her marriage certificate, nina ? Her age, maiden name and her father's name will be on it, you could trace her from that. If you have your fathers Christian name and know approximately when they married, you could find the marriage through that. In fact, if you have even your own birth certificate, it will have her maiden name on it. You need to do some lateral thinking!

Elegran mum's name doesn't have a variant. She was born in Somerset which I entered but unfortunately I don't know my nan's maiden name.
Thanks for the suggestions though.

NM, Yes quite correct, my mistake. Those in the range Pheonix wants should be there somewhere.

Thanks for the warning Katek!

Pompa It was not compulsory to register births until 1875. There are a lot BMDs which were not recorded my the Reg Office records. I have had to dig into the parish records.

Even my literate Chester relatives did not register the BMDs until the 1840s. The East Midlands Ag Labs had no chance.

NotTooOld Same with your grandfather. Was he known by a different name to the one he was registered under? Was he the eldest child? My grandmother was - and she was born and registered before her parents married, so had a different surname. I had found her parents marriage, so I knew the name I was looking for.

The registration (and birth certificate) of a younger brother or sister may produce the maiden name of their mother, which then can be used to search for a possible registration of your grandfather under her name.

Freebmd can be difficult at times, usually because you have incorrect information, AS Elegran says every birth since 1837 in England will be there somewhere. Try name, age & place variations.

The main problem I come across is where the birth is registered.

Nina Did you try all variants of your Mum's name and surname - including her mother's maiden surname in case she was registered under that name? Was she known by a different name to the one she was registered under? That may be a middle name (or something completely different!)

Do you know the area she was born and if not did you include the whole of the country? If it was not in England, perhaps she was registered in Scotland or Irteland, or maybe further afield?

FreeBMD has the registration indexes, from 1837 up to date, so if she was registered in England she will be there somewhere. I'll have a look for you if you pm me all the details you know.

Don't do what I did KatyK......signed up for free Ancestry trial, forgot to cancel and got stiffed for £89!

NotTooOld Birth registration in the UK began in 1837 and been compulsory since 1875.

Your Great Grandfather should be on a census though. Have you tried that. It might give some clues about a wife or when he married?

Have you tried looking for him on census records?

My PGM is totally unknown, my PGM kept that a secret. Only I do suspect a lodger.

I've just had a quick look at the site pompa recommend. I found it slightly difficult to negotiate and gave up when the said there was no record of my mum.

I don't think it's a 'wonderful story' at all! Why would you say that, NotTooOld? I'm sure phoenix was devastated...

Phoenix, why do you think your mother said that? Does she want you to ask more?

Phonenix - that's a wonderful story. Do hope you find out more - perhaps a long lost sister or brother???

My grandfather did not find out until his father died that he was not his 'father's' son. I would love to find out who his father was and I contacted Somerset House (as it then was) years ago but there is no birth certificate as in those days it was not compulsory to register a birth.

Only if you are looking at births after 1911 do you get the mothers name on the Birth certificate indexes.
Before that it was just the fathers name and he is whoever the mother says he is.

Thanks everyone. Oh phoenix what tangled webs we weave as we are finding out.

You only get what is in the index - with the reference so that you can order the certificate if you want to.

On FreeBMD you can search for a birth without putting in a name, using the approximate date and the name of one or more parent. If you know the possible date and/or place of birth it helps. It found my birth without me putting in my surname or my christian name - just my mother's name. (I did narrow it down by using the exact year)

Pheonix
www.freebmd.org.uk/

You could do the same thing as KatyK, using her maiden name as well as married name.

I'm going to put this in here, as I do not want to start a thread about it. My relationship with my mother has become non existent, don't want to go into details but just to say that during a phone conversation, I said "This is silly, I'm your only daughter!" to which she replied "That's what you think!" and put the phone down.

How easy would it be to find out if she did indeed have another child, and preferably without having to pay to get the info?

If anyone with ideas would prefer to PM me, I would be very grateful.