Hi Julie,
Well there are three places his parents names should be recorded. The first place is his birth certificate, next his marriage certificate and finally his death certificate but you don’t really need all three.
If you know roughly when and where he was born you should be able to get his birth certificate without too much trouble, as it's not too common name. On a quick look there are only 3 Arthur Fenwick’s born between 1910 and 1914 in Scotland! As this was filled in by his parents this is usually the most reliable source.
To get the information from this certificate you can:
- Purchase it from
www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk.
- Go into the GRO in Edinburgh where you can view it or order an extract.
- Pay a researcher to look at the certificate in Edinburgh and transcribe it (or they could order an extract for you)
Earlier certificates can be viewed on-line but after 1907 you have to order an official extract but at least the indexes are on-line now.
So once you have the birth certificate it should tell you both parents names and marriage date so you can then get their marriage and that will tell you their parents names and so it continues.
Well that is at least how it’s supposed to work, you will find problems along the way but just ask and we’ll do what we can to help.
For more information on getting started with Scottish research this link
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,24468.0.html will take you to a very useful topic another rootschatter has added.
Emma
