Starting a tree with not much info

[mulberry-rose]

I’ve done a lot of research on my maternal side and want to try doing the paternal part of the tree. With maternal family I already had context and records from relatives.

But now since I’m estranged from the paternal side there isn’t much info to go off. I know my father’s name, birth place (don’t know his age) and where he lived. That he had maybe two brothers. But he has a very common name and so isn’t the easiest to find. 

Could anyone give advice on where to start?

Edit: this is in England

[Pheno]

Were your parents married.  If so the marriage certificate is the way to go as it should give you his father's name and occupation which could narrow down the search if a common name.

You will just have to keep going backwards, certificate after certificate until you hit somebody in either the 1939 register or the 1921 census.

Assuming we are talking England here.

Pheno

[Rena]

You've got all the names so I'd try freebmd.

The one hundred year rule before publishing private information seems to have gone by the board as I have just tested the freebmd website and found family births at the end of last century were available to view.

I eventually decided to go onto familysearch.org after they sent a few invites to set up my family tree.  When I landed on their website I discovered they'd already done a lot of the English side of my family !!!

[mulberry-rose]

Pheno

Thanks for the response. My parents weren’t married, only in a brief relationship. However he had been married before with other children (names & how many I don’t know).

Now that I think, I do have a lower range on his birth as I know for certain he was older than my mum.

Yes, this is Northern England. I should’ve clarified.

[rebeccaclaire86]

If you know where he lived, maybe electoral registers might be useful? If you could find him with a spouse and/or children, then you could track down a marriage certificate?

DNA could be a solution also, though I appreciate you might not be wanting to contact relatives, just trace them. If you did that and wanted to keep a bit of anonymity you can make the display name initials, I did this for an adoptee recently.

[MollyC]

Reply #2

The one hundred year rule before publishing private information seems to have gone by the board as I have just tested the freebmd website and found family births at the end of last century were available to view.

FreeBMD is only using what were already published indexes, and available in certain large libraries.  That dataset ends at 1999.  The GRO website continues to publish information about one year after it is collected.  However it includes less information.  For deaths, only the year of birth, not the date.  For births the mother's maiden name is redacted for 100 years, unless you already know it and include it in the search.

[mulberry-rose]

rebeccaclaire86

Thank you for the reply. I’ve tried tracking down a first marriage, there are quite a lot to go through 

Yes, I’ve been a bit hesitant on the DNA approach because of the possible contact. The idea to do it anonymously is very good.

[Biggles50]

rebeccaclaire86

Thank you for the reply. I’ve tried tracking down a first marriage, there are quite a lot to go through 

Yes, I’ve been a bit hesitant on the DNA approach because of the possible contact. The idea to do it anonymously is very good.

DNA does not work like that there is no automatic contact with anyone who either shares DNA or who manages shared DNA.

One of the problems those of us who use DNA is that many DNA matches have a user name that does not mean much when it is in isolation.  To give an example, one of my Wife’s DNA matches is M.S. that is all, no visible name, no tree therefore invisible.  Yes the DNA matches can see that DNA is shared but with nothing to go on apart from a user name there is nothing anyone can do effectively to identify the testee.

DNA also is not a “magic ticket” to solving relationship issues.

Taking a DNA test will only show people who are related to the person taking the test, the higher the shared cM figure the closer the relationship.  Again to give another example, you take a test and have a 50cM DNA match among the thousands of others, that 50 cM match might be linked to you via a GG GParent, that in turn could give a clue to the family.  There are a lot of ifs and buts and learning about DNA is a slog, learning how to use it is fairly easy.

So do take an Ancestry DNA test, create an Ancestry account and have a user name displayed which will mean nothing to anyone viewing it.  Then use the account to just to look at DNA matches, you can build trees in your normal Ancestry or Find My Past account or within the software that you use.

You can also receive the results, take a look at the high matches, screenshot each page down to say 100 DNA matches then turn off DNA being visible.  In the short time it is visible it is highly unlikely that anyone will try to contact you and if that happens all you get is an Ancestry message to the account with the “fake” ID.  Turn back on DNA visibility when you are comfortable to do so.

By the time you order, take and have the results it would be some 8 weeks before the results are known.  So plenty of time to work on the paper trails.

Good luck.

[mulberry-rose]

Biggles50

This is all very helpful, thank you. I’ve wanted to do DNA for a while but found it a bit daunting. But in the long run it’s likely more helpful than not.