Hi there!!!

[amandarosina]

Hello everyone!
I've been doing family research for many years now - doing all sides, maternal and paternal. I've come across a right dilemma! My great grandmother was born 1875 Maggie May Watts and on the 1901 census she is married to my great grandfather and is listed as being born in Birmingham. On her marriage certificate her father is Frederick Watts, a piano tuner, but can I find them on 1881 and 1891 census? Nope! I've tried every different way of spelling Maggie, Margaret, Margret etc etc, searched for piano tuners etc and I've hit a real brick wall. I don't know what to do next to find her family. Any help would be very very gratefully received. Ooo, tried to obtain a birth certificate for Maggie May Watts from Birmingham office from 1872 - 1880 and no luck which make me think she was known by a different name.... oh... I'm stuck :)

[Bo Peep]

|wave|Hello Amandarosina and welcome to the Brit-Gen forum. I am delighted you have joined us and hope you will get lots of help with your research.

Please take a look around the forum and when you are ready, post your queries on the relevant boards.

[SBSFamilyhistory]

Hi amandarosina

do you have her mother's name anywhere?

this may help to tract her down in terms of the census and her birth certificate.

Sue

[amandarosina]

no, I don't know her mothers name, I only have her marriage and death certificate, from which I got her fathers name, but nothing else.
best wishes
Mandy

[suedent]

Searching for a birth in Birmingham 1875 +/- 1 year the only Maggie May is
Maggie May Edwards 1876 Jul-Aug-Sep Birmingham 6d 57

[amandarosina]

Many thanks, I'll go and check it out on Ancestry now. :)

[amandarosina]

Bad news, not her, father given as Edwin, maltster, mother Mary with Edwin right through all census returns, so she wasn't married earlier or later to a Frederick Watts. I might try writing to the main birth certificate place, see if I can have any luck with that. I've already tried Birmingham offices and couldn't find her! What a mystery!!

[Geoffers]

She may have been registered just as Maggie or just as May - and later been baptised with the second name which she continued to use. Also, the surname may be spelt slightly differently. Have you tried looking under WATT?

Could she be the Maggie WATT registered at Spilsby in 1875? or maybe she lied about her age - was she the Margaret Mary J WATT born at King's Norton?

One census may be wrong - recording someone as born in a particular place in two census returns adds credibility.