USA tracing

[sevenhampton]

Hi
I want to find info on my US father and his side of the family but don't know where to start. He also lived in the UK for a while and may even still be here. I only have his full name and date of birth, year of second marriage and that he was divorced in US. He also was in US army in the 60s & 70s, so is there a forces place to ask?
I got worldwide search membership on an ancestry search website but nothing whatsoever came up.
Can anyone suggest forums or info places I could try that aren't ordinary family tree/ancestor sites?

[sillgen]

Hi
Welcome to rootschat.  We do not reveal details of living people as a matter of policy on rootschat so you will have to be careful what you put - as you have been so far.   When you have three posts to your credit you can exchange personal messages so others can help you in that way.
There are websites for electoral roll entries in the UK so you may find him that way.   192.com is one I think.
The Army board may be able to help you with US army records.
Was his second marriage in the UK?   The full marriage index records are available on paying sites here (www.ancestry.co.uk and www.findmypast.com) so getting that certificate might help you.
Andrea

[sevenhampton]

Hi, Thanks for your reply Andrea.
With the electoral roll, there are several people with his name and I'd have no way of telling if any of them were him as theres no date of birth (and its over £150 you have to pay to do it)
I can't find any army sites that can help, nothing under Army board- thinking about it they probably wouldn't have recent info anyway.
I recently joined one of the paying sites you mentioned (paid for worldwide) and nothing came up in any marriage records under him or my mother, or any other records I searched on there, so thats why I thought I'd ask here.     

[sillgen]

Did they marry in the UK?    If so they will be on the full BMDs on ancestry or findmypast.   You may have just been looking at the free version which is not full coverage.   Work back from your birth, if you are the eldest.     I can't help with US records but if you can't find a UK one then send me the details by pm and I will look for you tomorrow.
Andrea

[Jacquie in Canada]

If you want to try to contact your father, there is information at the US Army website. I'll PM the link to you because it's really long and messes up the boards.

Jacquie

Edited to add:

I just discovered the RootsChat link shrinking feature so here's the link to the US Army webpage in case anyone else is looking for family:
http://www.rootschat.com/links/0557/

[sevenhampton]

Hi, thanks so much for your replies. 
Thanks for the army link Jacquie, most of the links no longer go anywhere, but one may be of help so thansk for that!
Andrea, thanks for that, I looked on findmypast and it didnt come up there either- I'm fairly sure it was UK marriage but I'm beginning to wonder now as nothing is coming up.   

[Jacquie in Canada]

Hi, thanks so much for your replies. 
Thanks for the army link Jacquie, most of the links no longer go anywhere, but one may be of help so thansk for that!
Andrea, thanks for that, I looked on findmypast and it didnt come up there either- I'm fairly sure it was UK marriage but I'm beginning to wonder now as nothing is coming up.   

That's too bad that some of the links didn't work. One that did - to the Veteran Affairs website - is probably the best one to try anyways. Good luck.

Jacquie

[Nick29]

Hi, Thanks for your reply Andrea.
With the electoral roll, there are several people with his name and I'd have no way of telling if any of them were him as theres no date of birth (and its over £150 you have to pay to do it)
I can't find any army sites that can help, nothing under Army board- thinking about it they probably wouldn't have recent info anyway.
I recently joined one of the paying sites you mentioned (paid for worldwide) and nothing came up in any marriage records under him or my mother, or any other records I searched on there, so thats why I thought I'd ask here.     

Ancestry only has indexes of marriages between 1837 and about 1915,  and between 1983 and 2007, because the ones between about 1915 and 1983 are still being indexed.  Your only alternative if you can't find his marriage on the BMD indexes is to search by hand, which can be really time consuming if you don't know which area of England he was living in when he got married. 

What you could try is to contact the Passport and Immigration Office, and explain the situation.  You may well be able to get some information about your father's movements in (and possibly out) of the country, and whether he has applied for dual nationality, under the Freedom of Information Acts. 

[sevenhampton]

Hi Nick
Thanks so much for that info, that must be the reason!