maiden names

[eappleton]

My biggest problem is researching maiden names pre 1900s when they were not included in the records.  Any ideas?  I have so many branches of my tree which have hit a brick wall because I can't find maiden names.

Also not knowing the year of birth/marriage/death is frustrating when you have to enter to/from data.  I end up with far too many matches to wade through.

I am particularly interested in details of a relation who died in Prestwich Asylum.  I do not know the year of death.   Any idea where I can find these records?

Norah Barker nee Blakemore born 1901 Leigh, Lancashire (Atherton).  I have found a record NORA Barker died 1961 in Manchester but I cannot check that this is the correct record.  Norah is spelt wrong.  Again any ideas, please.

Ranting over!! 

Thanks Elaine

[suttontrust]

With any reasonably common names, there are problems of finding the right records.  However, there are two ways of finding a maiden name.  There's obviously the marriage certificate - but if that proves elusive, the birth certificate of any of the children will contain the mother's maiden name.  If you have that, you can wade through the marriage indexes; find a possible marriage of the man, cross check for the right woman marrying with the same reference.  With the death of Norah Barker, it may well be that the only way to check is to get the certificate.  It might contain enough information e.g. name of informant, to verify it's the right one.

[colinjohn]

Hello Elaine

You must treat the spelling of names with a little caution, it can be different for all sorts of reasons. Death certificates can be particularly prone to problems because, of course, the only person who knows all the answers is not able to give them. If I was reasonable certain that I had the right location and period Nora/Norah would not trouble me at all; similarly Ann/Anna/Annie/Hanna/Hannah and lots of other combinations - for surnames as well as forenames.

Does the age at death correspond? But again, treat this with a little caution.

As has already been said, the only way to be sure is to buy the certificate.

Good luck

Colin

[eappleton]

Thank you for your replies, they are really helpful.

After your advice, I have sent for the birth certificate.  I am fairly confident this is the right one.  I have also sent for a death certificate but am not sure if this is the right match because it was all guesswork and hours of ploughing through the years.

Hopefully these will help me move forward.

Thanks again.

Elaine

[sillgen]

It is sometimes useful to order the certificates from the local register office.   You can then say "I only want it if it is the wife of x or the child of y" and they will not charge if it is not the right one.  The main GRO office does charge to check details and will not send if even a small detil is wrong.
You can get an address for the local office by looking at the registration districts on www.genuki.com for the particular county you are looking in.     If you have used FreeBMD to find the death then you can click on the district name (in blue I think) and it will take you direct to genuki.   All BMDs are free to search on www.ancestry.co.uk    Look for the bit that says BMD index for England and Wales and then choose the complete version and you can see the pages of the books as you would if you went up to London to look at the books.
Andrea
Andrea