Finding a person's date of birth. Is there an official register I can access?

[Deleted member 26715]

I do appreciate it seems to mean a lot for some, I’m probably the one who is ‘broken’.

I don't see you as 'broken' I see you as a victim of your circumstances, I don't know what went on in your life but clearly it was something quite traumatic. I'm sort of in the middle ground on it, my mother died 8(ish) years ago, I don't know the year, nor the date other than it was in March I only know this as they would have been married 60 years on the 25th & she didn't quite make it. She was cremated & ashes spread in a crematorium only 10 miles away but I have never visited, there's no headstone or plaque.

On the other hand my wifes mother died the year before mine, she has a headstone in the local cemetery less than a mile from our house, my wife on a regular basis beats herself up about not visiting enough or at all (for the last few years) from what I can see.

I appreciate we are really off topic but there is no right or wrong way to deal with this type of thing & I respect your views.

 

[PaulSB]

Probably not great for loking up descendants - designed for the opposite

My wife uses it a lot, with a fully paid up subscription. She has parts of both our families now going back to the late 17th century.

Good to read your wife has success with the site.

For me their approach makes a fundamental error. I had a passing interest in furthering the history we already held. Before parting with cash I thought I'd test it with known living relatives, my wife and children. In this digital age it should be the simplest thing to have recent data immediately available. I found nothing on immediate relatives living in my house. I reached the conclusion if the site can't have accurate modern digital information how can I trust anything historical.

As I say a fundamental error leaving me with the lasting impression the site is very unlikely to be accurate.

 

[T4tomo]

Your post raised my curiosity so I Googled my father’s name. First hit was a serial rapist and murderer from Indiana. Least my father wasn’t as bad as that!

same here amongst the images that came up for my Dad name was one of Margaret Beckett!??!?!

 

[Arrowfoot]

I do appreciate it seems to mean a lot for some, I’m probably the one who is ‘broken’.

It does seem a long time between your father’s dead and cremation, as you are obviously someone who does care, I appreciate this will be a difficult time for you and for that you have my condolences.

Please do not feel sorry for me. It makes life much, much, more simple for me and I am happy with that

You are not alone. Life is a slog and it does help when you let go and just hold on to the good memories. A smile on my face when I see on pipe in a shop window as my dad was a pipe smoker. He would light up when he is happy. I keep those good memories

 

[Accy cyclist]

I'm so happy! I found this after quite a few hours of rooting through old photos, paperwork etc. If I hadn't found it the 11th of March would've passed unnoticed.

If anyone wants to look up his 'family tree' please, be my guest and let me know. I've always wondered about his dad, as he died 2 years before I was born and there weren't any surviving photos of him apparently.🤔

 

[srw]

known living relatives, my wife and children. In this digital age it should be the simplest thing to have recent data immediately available.

One again, the clue's in the name. It's ancestry.co.uk, not livingpeople.co.uk

Living people are protected by data protection laws. Except for bare publicly available data no legitimate website will tell you anything.

Added to which, in the UK, censuses are secret for 50 years.

My local library gives free access to the site, and before Christmas it was temporarily available at home. With the barest of information (a name for my great-grandfather and an approximate birth date) I was able to find the exact house my greatgrandparents lived in, my grandmother grew up in and my mother was born into, what my great-grandfather did for a living, where they moved in retirement, two holidays they took and the fact that on one of them my great-grandfather took along his brother in law. And with the help of online maps I know exactly which house it is - one we drive past regularly.

That was a professional family. On the other side, from a long line of labourers, I could find almost as much information.

It has all the censuses up to 1931, complete* marriage, birth and death records, a useful 1939 mini-census, service records, ship records and so on.

Ask it a question it might be able to answer.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

I tried them once out of idle curiosity. I did a search for my son which came up with nothing! A waste of time and money.

Hi: Ancestry.com and similar sites need a DNA sample.
They will match you (or not, if they can't find anything in the database) with other members that have uploaded their DNA and/or a family tree. Those sites are designed to find long lost relatives or ancestors.
Had you and your son's DNA been in the database, or the DNA of relatives, you would have found him
There are other sites not based on DNA, probably from gov.uk.

 

[Nibor]

Microfiche at the local library usually have the birth death and marriage records you may have to go to the Harris at Preston though

 

[DRM]

Just recalled something, the 1921 census was recently released, apparently the next release won’t be for another 30 years as the 1931 census was destroyed in a fire, and there was no census taken in 1941 due to the war, the next one is going to be the 1951 census.

 

[Alex321]

Hi: Ancestry.com and similar sites need a DNA sample.
They will match you (or not, if they can't find anything in the database) with other members that have uploaded their DNA and/or a family tree. Those sites are designed to find long lost relatives or ancestors.
Had you and your son's DNA been in the database, or the DNA of relatives, you would have found him
There are other sites not based on DNA, probably from gov.uk.

They don't need a DNA sample at all. The vast majority of the service Ancestry.com provides has nothing to do with DNA.

They do provide an extra service - AncestryDNA, at quite a large additional cost which as you say, can match you with otherwise unknown relatives who have also uploaded their DNA, though it is mainly intended for giving you information about your ethnicity and origin.

But that service is not part of the regular ancestry membership, and it would only have found his son if both of them had separately uploaded their DNA - and even then only if he had given permission, since "We do not share with third parties your name or other common identifying information linked to your genetic data, except as legally required or with your explicit consent."

 

[Pat "5mph"]

@Alex321 you are probably right: I have a friend who is a professional genealogist, she put my DNA on many sites, but I'm not sure what consent boxes were ticked, as she has my password lol
I have made contact with quite a few of my late mother's relatives that had emigrated to the States a few generations ago, but never tried to search the sites for relatives that I already have contact with.
I assumed without DNA they would not find a match, unless someone uploaded a family tree and made it public.

 

[Alex321]

@Alex321 you are probably right: I have a friend who is a professional genealogist, she put my DNA on many sites, but I'm not sure what consent boxes were ticked, as she has my password lol
I have made contact with quite a few of my late mother's relatives that had emigrated to the States a few generations ago, but never tried to search the sites for relatives that I already have contact with.
I assumed without DNA they would not find a match, unless someone uploaded a family tree and made it public.

Most of their function is about finding ancestors, not current relatives, and is mainly done through searching of historical records - Censuses, parish records, various others. They have scanned copies of a heck of a lot of such records online.