General Chat

I wonder if anyone out there can help me.A little while ago someone on this site somehow found the maiden surname of the female spouse of a man who is an ancestor of mine.I am baffled how they did this.I have tried BMD site and Ancestry.co.uk site but cannot see how they found this without a certificate of marriage giving this information.Has anyone any idea? Thanks,Carolyn

No idea, but try posting on the tips board, Carolyn.

If you go on FreeBMD, and find the marriage of the name you DO know, then click on the page number on the results, you will have a list of all marriages indexed on that page. (usually 4 to 6 names) From there you can get the likliest spouse. If you are ordering a cert from GRO, you only need the one name, the year and reference.

If there were children of the marriage it could be that the wife's maiden name was used as a forename. My father's name was John Albert Griffiths Beat with GRIFFITHS being the maiden name of his mother - all his siblings had Griffiths as a forename. It was common pracice in the late 1800s/early 1900s to include the wifes maiden name as a forename for children and occasionally the custom is still carried on today. One of my cousins did this. Hope this helps. Ron

The could have used the census in conjuction with the BMD index e.g. if John Smith married either Mary Jones or Harriet Thomas, you could find John Smith on the census after the marriage to see what his wife is called, however if both possable brides have the same name it's more difficult. Also one of the children could have had mum's maiden name as a middle name. And from 1912ish the spouses surname is included on the index of marrages and mothers maiden name on the birth index.

Thank you for your help ,Teresa,I will try that. Carolyn

Some sites match partners eg DurhamDotGov and Teesvalley-Indexes but obviously they are restricted to certain locations Beth :)

Also, if you go on the Births, Deaths Marriages for your area and you know the names of any of their children and DOBs etc., when you check the birth details for any children after 1910, it states the mother's maiden name in the end column.