Genealogy Forum UK

Hi

I am trying to research a member of my wife's family But no matter where I look I cannot find his birth or death records or in fact any census result. I have found referance on other documents to him. I know it was not compulsory to register a birth at first but not sure if it was compulsory to register a death. I have searched military records but to no avail. It is a rare surname so I thought the search would be easy. The surname is Sparwell. Any help or advise would be most welcome.

Steve

Passenger lists maybe? Did this person move abroad soon after birth? Also try different variations of the surname, different spellings etc. I had this problem recently, not only with my own Surname, but doing friends too.

Post tbe details and we can have a look.

Would you like to give more details?
Is it at all possible that he was registered under a different name - if his parents were not married for example.
Or if his father used two different names?
Did you check the census for Wales too? (I tend to forget to look there).

As you say, an unusual name - only 6 in the 1901 census for England and Wales!

I see that in FreeBMD there is a birth Sparwell registered at Harley Wintney. There is also a Sparrell registered there and that is almost certainly the same name. Have you searched using wildcards to pick out all the possible variations? Spurrell perhaps? Sp*ell would work well on Ancestry or FreeBMD even though it picks up some names which you won't be interested in.

Is this still a Brickwall, or have you solved it?

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