Wanting to start family tree

[CatrinaB]

Hi,
I've been wanting to trace my family tree for years.. Unfortunately my mum and natural dad weren't married and the only thing I have is his name, and where he was when I was born.. (He was also a Sergeant Major in the ROAC).

Any suggestions??

Catrina x

[jim1]

Hello Catrina & welcome
You've come to the right place.
The first thing you need to do is get a copy of his birth cert.This will tell you his father's name & occupation & his mother's maiden name.You can start by looking for it here:
http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/cgi/search.pl
You can then order it from the GRO:
http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/
When you have this you can get a copy of his parents marriage cert.
This also applies to your mother's side but it's best to get as much info. as you can from older family members.
What you are trying to do is get back to family who would appear on the 1911 census which makes them quicker & cheaper to find.
You can then go to the relative County board on here & ask for assistance.
At some stage you will need a prog. to record it all,there are free ones out there so ask others what they use.
hope this helps.

jim

PS. a couple of dont's:
Put up names of people who may still be living
don't put up your email address.

[CatrinaB]

I haven't got a birth certificate for my father, only had\have his name on mine..  All I have is the fact that he was in the ROAC around 1957-64 (ish) and was a sergeant major, although I do have an address for him at the time of my birth... But the building no longer exists..

Catrina

[LoneyBones]

Hi Catrina, welcome to RootsChat. 
I was just about to ask about your own birth certificate, but I see you have it already. Does it have your father's age?

Leonie.

[stanmapstone]

I was going to say that if you have his name and approximate age it might be possible to find his birth registration, but only if he has an uncommon name, and you have some idea where he came from.

Stan

[stanmapstone]

Father's ages are not shown on birth certificates in England and Wales. 
Stan

[bearkat]

You might be able to follow his army career by searching The Gazette which lists military promotions

http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/

You might find a family tree lisiting his name on GenesReunited.

[LoneyBones]

Well, you learn something new every day.  
We have ages on marriage certs in Australia. But then women got the vote in Australia years before they got it in England.  

Added; In fact if your father is already dead, you can put his name on here, with aprox. date of birth, and someone could do a look up for you.

Leonie.

[jim1]

To get a copy of his records,here will tell you what you need to do:
http://www.veterans-uk.info/service_records/army.html

jim