BBC: A Challenge for Rootschatters

[alcrighton]

Births, December Quarter 1941

ROBINSON, ********
Mother's maiden name: HALES
Ref: *******

Although I have a couple of doubts:

- It's bit close to the marriage date of June Quarter 1941 but we have to remember that this was war time.
- I think the place of birth is in Shropshire but the BBC article has them in Kent

Even so I think this is worth passing on to the RAF.  I'm sure they'd be happy to stump up the 7 quid to get the birth certificate to prove whether or not this is the births a child of John V ROBINSON & Ethel M HALES.

Will continue to look through the birth indexes for 1942 & 1943 to see if there are any other candidates.

Al

ps. Have just edited this post as some of the inofrmation is likely to refer to someone still alaive and as such would be an invasion of their privacy.  The full details have been sent to the original poster to be passed on to the RAF

[Arranroots]

Well done Al - keep going!

Remember that forces personnel and their families are/ were often shunted about as per operational requirements, so you may still be right.

A 

[sarah e]

Alcrighton you are a star, I am absolutely amazed, I have been floundering around all day and have found nothing. May be she found out she was pregnant and they got married on the hop.

[kmo]

Births, December Quarter 1941

ROBINSON, ******
Mother's maiden name: HALES
Ref: **************

Although I have a couple of doubts:

- It's bit close to the marriage date of June Quarter 1941 but we have to remember that this was war time.
- I think the Whitchurch in question is the one in Shropshire but the BBC article has them in Kent

Even so I think this is worth passing on to the RAF.  I'm sure they'd be happy to stump up the 7 quid to get the birth certificate to prove whether or not Patricia is the daughter of John V ROBINSON & Ethel M HALES.

Will continue to look through the birth indexes for 1942 & 1943 to see if there are any other candidates.

Al

The RAF base near Whitchurch, Shrops.

http://www.controltowers.co.uk/T-V/Tilstock.htm

[sarah e]

I e-mailed the BBC earlier on to see if they had any extra info, and got a very prompt and nice reply from a lass called Sue. She referred me back to the lady at the RAF. I have just mailed Sue again and asked if the BBC would do a follow up on this if we were sucessful, and if so how would the BBC like to volunteer £8.50 for the cert. Cheeky, but if you don't ak, you don't get.

Sarah.

[sarah e]

Am now so excited I am tempted to rush off and order the cert myself. Gosh what a long wait, and its not even a rellie of mine.

[alcrighton]

I've finished checking the birth indexes up to June Quarter 1943 which by my calculations is the latest a child of the late Sgt Robinson could have been born and have found one another possible candidate:

Births, **** Quarter 1942

ROBINSON, *********
Mother's maiden name: HALES
Ref: *********

Have PM'ed the full details to Sarah.

Al

[Watermusic]

No reply so far from the Genes Reunited queries

Watermusic

[Timbottawa]

I've finished checking the birth indexes up to June Quarter 1943 which by my calculations is the latest a child of the late Sgt Robinson could have been born and have found one another possible candidate:

Births, **** Quarter 1942

ROBINSON, *********
Mother's maiden name: HALES
Ref: *********

Have PM'ed the full details to Sarah.

Al

I think both the births you quote are certain to be his children.  How many Robinson-Hales marriages were there at the right time to be producing children then?

I've done quite a bit of this sort of analysis in my own family tree with a lot of success, so unless you're dealing with two common names (and I wouldn't count Hales as particularly common), it's a safe bet.

Of course, it's unfortunate that the children's names are the more common Robinson, but it should still be possible (though costly) to look for relevant marriages some 20-28 years later.  I located a living relative who was born Pauline Butler (probably as common as Patricia Robinson) using such an approach.  I searched for and listed all possible Pauline Butler marriages, eliminated some based on location, and ranked the remainder in order of my perception of likelihood.  Then used the electoral roll and BT.com to locate the phone number of the top candidate, which proved to be the right one (though her husband initially denied it when I called, admitting later that he feared I was a scammer!).

Cheers
Tim