Hello
I am trying to piece together some family for my aunt. She has no records of certain family members and no memory of any information as she is in her 80s, but I have pieced together what I can. I have had limited success with GRO, but of course you have to know first where and when your looking for which I don't. I have also used FreeBMD which has given me some clues. So here is what I have so far:
I am looking for the birthdate and location of her mother (Dorothy Alice Garforth (formerly Carter), her father (Joseph Garforth) and his mother and father. A freeBMD search suggests their names are John Garforth and Martha Ann Garforth (formerly Dean), but that is just a guess based on dates and location.
Both her parents were British, but her father was a Banardos baby and went to Canada according to her brother. He also claims her father Joseph was born in Ashton-Under-Lyne. Not sure how he met her mother Dorothy, but my aunt was born in Canada, and then at some point they all migrated back to England.
Her birth certificate (Sep 1932) puts Joseph her father at 46 or 47 years old, meaning he was born 1885 or 1886. However, I received a birth certificate from the GRO for a Joseph Garforth born 4th June 1888 in Ashton-Under-Lyne.
Her brother claims their mother was born in Addington, but which Addington and where I'm not sure (the only Addington I know is in Kent). I hazard a guess, that back in the 1880s, people were still marrying locally, and the world was not such a globalised place, so I found on freeBMD a Dorothy Carter born in Warrington March 1887.
Following on from that a few more searches revealed some possibilities for her grandparents. Josephs birth certificate (if indeed it is the right man), lists John Garforth and Mary Ann Garforth as parents. Again, assuming they grew up and lived in Ashton-Under-Lyne, I found John Garforth Born Sept 1850, and a Martha Ann Dean Sept 1858. But who knows if these are correct.
Not sure what else I should do now. I had thought about signing up to Ancestry, but I'm not planning on doing a massive family tree. Just piecing together immediate family for her, so those four above will be sufficient. Am happy to order more certificates from GRO, but until I'm more certain of names and dates it may not be worth it.
And suggestions on what to do next more than welcome. Thanks
,
