Tracing people over time…

An explanation of how I carry out a trace

Firstly, you find the subject’s birth record. You can use www.findmypast.com or www.ancestry.co.uk for your searches. If you have a Date of Birth the job will take seconds. If you have no idea of his age, then it’s a few minutes per year to search. Once you find the entry in the indexes you will also find the mother’s maiden name.

Within a few years before the birth there should be a marriage between the two names. This again should take a few minutes per year to search.

If the parents are elderly, then its best to find siblings, which are usually to be found within
5 years either side of our subject’s birth. These can be identified by the mother’s maiden name being the same.

This is usually enough to get contact details from the electoral roll and directory enquiries. I use www.tracesmart.co.uk and www.192.com/ . A phone call or a carefully written letter will usually get a response from them.

The system falls down if the target is called Smith, Jones, Patel etc. However, there are only a few names that are very difficult to search for.

Searches for life events after 1984 are much easier as the database will bring up all the results for a name. Before 1984 they are stored quarterly in alphabetical order, hence the five or so minutes per year to search for each name per event, whether it is for a birth, death or marriage.

All it requires is a bit of patience and logical thinking for you to locate the people you are looking for.