Genealogy Chat

Have been struggling with where to go to next. We have a birth certificate for my husband's grandfather. Born18.8.1915 @ 36 Seymour Place, Marylebone London Name of Father = William Seymour Name of Mother= Millie Seymour nee Webb However, we can't trace a marriage certificate for his parents. Also intrigued as Grandfather was adopted I also think it's interesting that the father is a Butler and that there surname is the same as the street they live in. I wonder if there may have been a big house there at some point. I believe there is no number 36 left there these days. Any ideas? booklady

Where have you looked for the marriage? Zoe

We went to the family records centre and searched back for years. Only found one Millie Webb and a she married a John Seymour. Do you think they could be the same person? They married in 1907. Tried variations of Millie- such as Millicient but didn't try Amelia. Does anyone know if Amelia was commonly abreviated to Millie in those days or is this a recent to do. Just had a thought perhaps John and William were brothers. This grandfather was also adopted but of course there will be no records of his adoption as pre 1927. Thanks for the interest.

Ohh I hate it when that happens! Were they married in the same area as the child was born? Zoe

No they were married Fulham. Child born Marylebone. I suppose it's still London though!

Found this its a William but Marrying a Sarah Ann Webb London also comes under the Barnet area Marriages Jun 1891 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seymour William Barnet 3a 298 Webb Sarah Ann Barnet 3a 298 So there maybe a few more Webb/Seymour marriages for you to stumble across Do you know if he was the first child as some of my ancestors had children aged 1-35 so it is not always just before the child you are looking for..but if you know he was the first I would look a few years after as well as sometimes they marry after Zoe

Thanks for that Zoe but if they didn't marry till later would they still put her name on the birth certificates as being Seymour? Is this a naive question as I know that being unrmarried was frowned upon.

Zoe, did you find that marriage on freebmd?

Millie is also short for Mildred. Had a friend called this, poor girl!

Yes I found it on free bmd sometimes people fibbed as they weren't married yet and didn't want it to look bad.. But I am not saying they weren't married which years did you check for this marriage... Zoe

If they weren,t married it would have said father unknown. Very strict rules then

How embarrassing! I've just been through the file but can't find details of what years my husband checked. It's also a number of years since he looked it up so he hasn't got a clue how far back he went. Looks like we need a babysitter so we can search again! I think I might have looked at some point but I can't find any handwritten notes of mine. This will teach me to be more organised!

Hi Terese It's really annoying when you get an unknown isn't it! My grandfather's mother supposedly remarried and changed my grandfathers name from Williams to Jones without any official paperwork. Thought I would order his birth certificate and find out about her first husband whom I assumed died in first world war. However, his father was unknown and the birth had been registered by a third party! However, it looks like he might have been born in a workhouse so I need to apply to look at workhouse records and check. Genealogy is like housework. Never finished. One job just creates another!

You can look through the images of the pages of the GRO records free on Ancestry at the moment so you don't need to go to the records office ~ hope this helps Zoe

Thanks for that Zoe. Will I ever get to bed tonight?

Probably not LOL I'm the same!! Zoe

If you want help just write the years here that you are searching so if anyone wants to help, they don't double check the same years Zoe

I've just done 1910-1915. Now I'm off to bed! Thanks for all your help both of you.

Hi Booklady, as far as I know, the fathers name could be shown on the birth certificate even if they were not married. The father needed to be present at the registration and give his consent. If this is the case, perhaps they were not married at the time of the birth. Derek

Who registerd your grandfathers birth? Its poss whoever reg it called the mum Millie altho that wasnt her reg.name.For example. my paternal gran was Emma Ann but her second hubby called her Annie,They had a daughter in 1912 which he registered & he told the registrar the mums name was Annie ,because thats what he called her. If I didnt know better i would have been looking for the wrong name for her previous marriage & birth.. Shirley