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Northumberland Lookup Requests / Smith/Byrne
« on: Tuesday 27 July 10 00:05 BST (UK) »
Hello there. My father sadly passed away last year and I have since been made aware that he had a sister that he hadn’t seen since 1960. So I have embarked on the arduous task of tracing my family tree (not easy when your surname is Smith). I have managed to trace my father’s parents to George Smith born c1903 and Annie Byrne b.1901 and I found that they were married in 1930. They lived in the Leeds/Wakefield area. My father (Eric Martin Smith) was born in Leeds in 1945 and I have been told that he had an older sister so after searching through all Smiths born to mother’s maiden name “Byrne” on the BMD records between 1930 and 1945!!! I finally found a tenuous link. A Kathleen R. Smith born in the first quarter of 1943 in Tynemouth with mother’s maiden name “Byrne”. I seem to remember my father referring to his mother as a “Geordie lass” and although I traced her birth to Leeds in 1901, her family may well have relocated to North Shields soon after her birth as there is no record of them in Leeds in the 1911 census. Also, although George and Annie were based in Leeds since their marriage in 1930, Annie may have moved back to the North Shields area to be with her parents while she was pregnant as George would have been fighting at sea at that time. As I say, this is all very tenuous and involves a little guess work but if any of you can shed some light on this so I can clarify some details, I would be very grateful. I have just ordered Kathleen’s birth certificate to confirm her parentage. I’m looking forward to hearing from someone. Many thanks.