ARC TBC Finding my Grandfather...
Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2019 9:50 pm
Hi All
I am new to genealogy and trying to research down my father's line to establish (or otherwise) a family rumour of Maltese ancestry.
I am principally researching using a combination of Findmypast, FamilySearch and the GRO website. I am the oldest sibling and my parents and dad's brothers and sister have long since departed this earth so I have little family memory I can refer to.
So far I have traced back to my Dad's parents, William James Wells (WJW) & Hilda Walter (HW) who were married on 14/3/1922. I have a copy of the marriage certificate.
WJW is stated as being 23 at the time of marriage which places his birth as 1898/99.
There is a WJW who died in the right place (Kent) in 1966 which roughly concurs with memories of him dying (I was 6 at the time). I have not yet ordered a death certificate.
I am struggling to find a match for a birth. There are a couple of potential matches based on year of birth. One is in Kent but the WJW's father's name does not match with the marriage certificate. The other is in Suffolk (and I recall my dad mentioning family connections up there) and WJW's father's name does match.
The 1901 Census shows a 2 year old WJW living in Hartismere and the 1911 Census shows a WJW at School in Diss. Parental names in these records match each other and with the father on the marriage certificate so I am comfortable that I can trace his whereabouts until he was 11 or 12 but thereafter I can't find a link to show how 11 years later he would have ended up in the Medway towns.
Moving forward from the 1922 Marriage Certificate I can find records of my Uncles' and Father's births but beyond that I cannot then find any trace of him and/or her in the 1939 Register. I do know that my grandparents divorced but don't know when as I can't find a divorce record. I can however find HW's remarriage in 1938.
The only other avenue that I can't figure out is that on the marriage certificate WJW's Rank or Profession is stated as "Driver AE" or "Driver RE" with a number 1860577 underneath but I don't know what this means. There is a Royal Engineers base within the Medway towns but I can't find anywhere to search if this was his service number.
Any help or guidance would be greatly received. Thanks in advance.....
Phil
I am new to genealogy and trying to research down my father's line to establish (or otherwise) a family rumour of Maltese ancestry.
I am principally researching using a combination of Findmypast, FamilySearch and the GRO website. I am the oldest sibling and my parents and dad's brothers and sister have long since departed this earth so I have little family memory I can refer to.
So far I have traced back to my Dad's parents, William James Wells (WJW) & Hilda Walter (HW) who were married on 14/3/1922. I have a copy of the marriage certificate.
WJW is stated as being 23 at the time of marriage which places his birth as 1898/99.
There is a WJW who died in the right place (Kent) in 1966 which roughly concurs with memories of him dying (I was 6 at the time). I have not yet ordered a death certificate.
I am struggling to find a match for a birth. There are a couple of potential matches based on year of birth. One is in Kent but the WJW's father's name does not match with the marriage certificate. The other is in Suffolk (and I recall my dad mentioning family connections up there) and WJW's father's name does match.
The 1901 Census shows a 2 year old WJW living in Hartismere and the 1911 Census shows a WJW at School in Diss. Parental names in these records match each other and with the father on the marriage certificate so I am comfortable that I can trace his whereabouts until he was 11 or 12 but thereafter I can't find a link to show how 11 years later he would have ended up in the Medway towns.
Moving forward from the 1922 Marriage Certificate I can find records of my Uncles' and Father's births but beyond that I cannot then find any trace of him and/or her in the 1939 Register. I do know that my grandparents divorced but don't know when as I can't find a divorce record. I can however find HW's remarriage in 1938.
The only other avenue that I can't figure out is that on the marriage certificate WJW's Rank or Profession is stated as "Driver AE" or "Driver RE" with a number 1860577 underneath but I don't know what this means. There is a Royal Engineers base within the Medway towns but I can't find anywhere to search if this was his service number.
Any help or guidance would be greatly received. Thanks in advance.....
Phil