Читать книгу Collins Tracing Your Family History - Ryan Tubridy, Anthony Adolph - Страница 73

You approach the indexes with a certain piece of information – let’s say the names of your maternal grandparents.

You know that your mother was married in November 1956, so start with the General Registration marriage indexes for the December quarter, which covers marriages registered in October, November and December that year, and make a note that you have done so.

Choose the least common of your grandparents’ surnames and look it up, note down each instance of it, and cross-reference each to the other name.

If you do not find a record of the marriage, take the preceding volume (for the September quarter) and repeat the process.

Work your way back quarter by quarter until you find a pair of names that cross-reference. If the names are right, and the registration district and reference numbers match, you have probably found the right entry. Order the certificate.

If you know something else about either parties, such as their fathers’ names, or a middle name where only an initial is given in the indexes, ask for a check to be made by filling in appropriate details on the back of the application form.

The resulting marriage certificate should provide your grandparents’ ages and your father’s names and occupations. You can then calculate the rough time when they would have been born. If your grandfather said he was 23 when he married on 2 May 1923, then you can calculate that he would have been born between 2 May 1900 and 3 May 1899.

Birth record of Mary Ann Collingwood Paterson, 1854. Her father was then a railway agent.