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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => London & Middlesex Lookup Requests => London and Middlesex => England => London & Middlesex Completed Lookup Requests => Topic started by: whytes on Sunday 17 August 08 21:30 BST (UK)
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I am trying to find any info on a William Owen..I dont know when he was born, where he was born or if he is still alive
All I know is he was married, and had one son in the 1940's and he lived at Havershill Road, Balham, London during the war, and that its possible William Owen worked as an Empoyment Clerk but again i dont know where or if that bit is true.
I have tried several searches and ended up know-where(including death)
can anyone help?
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Well, if you know his wife's name, the obvious thing to do would be to look for his marriage first. (If you don't know it, you'll need the son's birth certificate).
Without that, I don't know that you can do much with what you have, as the name is fairly common. Be aware that freebmd (and the name search on Ancestry, which I think is taken from the freebmd index) does not really cover the 1930s/40s, so you would need to search the original images to find the birth/marriage references.
Incidentally the name of the road is probably Haverhill without the s, unless it's changed since WWII. It's just north of Tooting Bec Common.
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Thanks jorose
Unfortunatly I have no other info, but I will be asking questions...in hope of some answers(I did find out he was alive in 1949/50).
I couldnt find any marriages to William Owen in the London area.
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Where were you looking, and which years did you check? I am sure there are plenty in the full indexes - if you don't have access to Ancestry, try seeing if your local library has access. Actually it is likely to be the other problem - you'll probably find a few possibilities. If you look for the son first, you should find on the index his mother's maiden name, which will help narrow it down.
The latest marriage I can find for William Owen in London on freebmd was in 1937, but freebmd has very limited coverage in this time period so I'd imagine there are many more hiding in the original indexes.
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I tried a couple of sites
findmypast and Familysearch but couldnt find any...I searched 1930 to 1940...I must admit I always find it hard to get into the English records...especially as I am in Scotland.
Thanks for the help will try again
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Yes, you will not get any marriages in 1930-1940 really unless you find something which gives you the original images. Ancestry, findmypast, familyrelatives all have this function but you generally have to pay for it.
It's worth checking with your local library to see if they have the library edition of Ancestry, since if you're just starting out I don't think it's worth getting a year's subscription.
On Ancestry, for example, they list two different indexes - the 'Partial FreeBMD Indexes' are searchable by name - i.e. you can put in William Owen and get back a bunch of hits, but not everything is in there. 1930-1940 will have very little coverage.
What you want is called the 'Complete BMD Index' on Ancestry. Then you must select a year:
http://content.ancestry.co.uk/Browse/list.aspx?dbid=8965&path=1940 (this should hopefully show you 1940). Then there are four quarters in the year. For each quarter, there are alphabetical indexes.
So to search properly from 1930 to 1939, say, you have 10 years, 40 quarters, 40 pages to look at. It's probably best to find the birth first and then work backwards from that year.
On findmypast you want to choose 'Browse' for births, marriages, and deaths:
http://www.findmypast.com/Pre84BrowseStartSearch.jsp
- then choose marriages, the year, the quarter, and then the page you're interested in. i.e. for 1940, Jan-Mar quarter there's a page that covers OWEN, Lilian E - OWENS, Gwenith M. Any Williams in that quarter will be somewhere on that one page.
Marriage indexes give you the surname only of the other party, so if your William married an Elizabeth Smith, you will see the surname Smith next to his entry. You can then look up the Smiths and see which one has the same reference number.
If you look up the birth index of the child, it should give you the maiden name for the mother.
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Hi I have just come onto this site. I too am looking for William Owen who lived at Haverhill Road, Balham around war time. He too had a son. I have been looking for years but with no luck. The William (Bill) Owen I am looking for information for I think worked as a Employment Clerk I think. ANY Help would be most appreciated please.
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Hello Queeniemum and welcome to Rootschat.
Whytes has not been on Rootschat since Jan 2009,but as long as he hasn't changed his email address should be notified that we have posted here and reply.
Do you know who your William was married to and when he was born?
Haverhill Road appears on the 1939 register (on Find My Past) under Wandsworth.
But we are not allowed to do look ups for others from it. Do you have an actual house number?
Maybe he wasn't there until after Sept 1939?
Regards
Carol
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Welcome Queeniemum :)
The electoral registers for 1945-1959 inclusive show a William and Cissie Owen at 8 Haverhill Rd.
In 1953 a John Owen is also there with them.
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Many many thanks. That is more information that I have had in years. Thank you.
I don't know the address of where he lived, just his name and street. Not much I know but I am hopeful.
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If you know the given name(s) of the son, then his birth registration index on FreeBMD should give you his mother's maiden name - does that help?
www.freebmd.org.uk
William and Cissie are not at 8 Haverhill Rd in 1960 and onwards.
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Thank you so much. I don't know the sons name sorry. I know i seem quite vague but my mother in law didn't give me any information, just William Owen, and living at Haverhill Road around 1940-50s and they had a son. I promised before she died, that I would not give up.
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Welcome Queeniemum :)
The electoral registers for 1945-1959 inclusive show a William and Cissie Owen at 8 Haverhill Rd.
In 1953 a John Owen is also there with them.
John could be their son,or he could be William's brother.
Quite a common name and no guarantees that they were married,or that their son was born in the Balham area.
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Thank you so much for that. Could I ask please how do I get onto the electoral register for those years?
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Thank you so much for that. Could I ask please how do I get onto the electoral register for those years?
It is on Ancestry. London Electoral rolls.
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=1795&enc=1
Take the addresses with a pinch of salt,they are often badly transcribed.
Although most of them do say house number 8 ;D
Put in Wandsworth for the County.
Carol
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Thank you soooo much. I will try now. You are so helpful thank you. :-)
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I recommend searching for Cissie Owen as she has the least common name.
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Oh yes, I will do that now thank you :)
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Do you know any more information than you've told us? E.g. any clue as to when the son was born (was he a baby, schoolchild, teenager or adult during the war)? Was he an only child?
I feel as though there must be more clues to the Owen family which could help us to help you.
What is the source for William being an Employment Clerk - does this come from a document?
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Hi
I could give you more information but is it safe for me to post on here please? :-)
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If it is sensitive or involves naming living people, don't post it on this public board. But if you wish to share anything by personal message (by clicking on the green scroll under my username) I'd be happy to see whether I can help you take the search further. Not if you don't feel comfortable, though. Personal messages cannot be seen other than by the recipient.
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I'd be interested to try and help to,so maybe Avm you could link me in ,if that's okay with Queeniemum,or PM me your self.
What we need is that tiny bit of info and I'm sure it will all fall into place,for us oldn's who've been doing this for years ;D ;D ;D
Carol
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Thank you so much Carol too. :-)
I really feel like I might get somewhere now after years of being on Ancestry and getting nowhere.
I really really appreciate this.
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It's a bit late at night for me to take all this in,but I've received the info from Avm and will see what I can find tomorrow.
Avm- do you think the wife was actually called Cissie,as she appears as such on all the electoral rolls,or should we be widening this search to include Cecilia's?
Dontcha wish it was a more unusual surname LOL ;)
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I can't thank you enough. x
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As an aside number 8 is not listed in 1961,it goes from 6 to 10.
So was no one living there or did they not fill a form in for some reason(maybe split up?)
New people living there by 1962 and 63.
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That's interesting Carol thank you. Do you think they may have emigrated too?
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I'm not 100% convinced that they emigrated,but it is odd that we can't find any of them after that 1959 electoral roll siting. Of course if they did,they could well have flown somewhere rather than being able to look them up on a ship's passenger list.
I wish I had enough info to tie all 3 of them together. So if you do think of anything else PM me.
Carol
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Sorry I have been amiss.....Tbh I can't remember why I wanted to find William Owen, as I am doing several tree's....and I am not sure which one he belonged to as it was so long ago.
But I will keep looking for him in the 15 trees I have going(For others as much as my own) and see if I can help....
Kimmie (Female ;) )
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Many thanks for that.