surname hodges

[bella1958]

looking for any help on hodges surname my nans name was susan and my grandads name was john. they had 4 children . Peter, deceased hilaire, bernard and anthony. they lived in tividale but I have no dates to go on. My nans name was lee/lea before she married and they lived in kingswinford at penzer street but that is all i can tell you.

any information received greatly

regards

sue

[Geoffers]

looking for any help on hodges surname my nans name was susan and my grandads name was john. they had 4 children . Peter, deceased hilaire, bernard and anthony. they lived in tividale but I have no dates to go on. What you need to do is come forward to a time when you do have dates which can be verified from a source (e.g. birth or marriage certificates) and work back from there.

I presume from what you say that one of their children was one of your parents. If you don't have your parents marriage certificate, start there. Births, marriages and deaths since 1837 have been centrally recorded and index in England and Wales - this has been done by the General Register Office (GRO).

continued....

[Geoffers]

part 2...

The GRO index can be searched at many County Record Offices/Local Studies Libraries, or at the Family Records Centre (FRC) in London, or online. A project exists to transcribe the index and make it freely available - this is not complete but still ueful http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/cgi/search.pl
If you don't find an entry there, then you can also try a pay-per-view site which has the complete index 1837 online.
Using a reference that you find in the GRO index (note down all the details for an entry, including the quarter and year) you can apply for a copy of a certificate online http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/ (NB don't use other sites which have gro in the URL, they are private companies who will charge more money).

When you have a marriage certificate, this will include the ages of bride and groom and the names of their fathers. You can use this to start searching for the births of your parents and obtain the certificates.
continued....

[Geoffers]

part 3.....

Birth certificates include the names of both parents and maiden name of the mother so that you can then search with more confidence for their marriage certificate, and so on back. You hope initially to get back to the time when someone was alive in 1901, so that you can search the 1901 census
http://www.1901census.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
Census returns are useful in recording ages and places of birth, along with details of any other people living at the same address, who may be related.

My apologies if all this is teaching you to suck eggs, but it is not clear from your post if you know how to access these sources. This precis may give you an idea. If it is still clear as mud, please ask.

If you know more information, dates, places etc. Please post them and it maybe that other sources/ideas come to mind.

Geoffers

[Peter Goodey]

Sue
1. Go here: http://www.genuki.org.uk/gs/
2. Read, absorb and follow the links, particularly those in the Appendix.
3. Note the reading list, go to your library and borrow some of the books eg "Ancestral Trails".
4. Don't at this stage spend your Xmas money on buying books until you've dipped your toe in the water. We can suggest plenty of other things to spend your money on!
5. Follow Geoffers' advice.
6. Ignore blandishments to spend a lot of money on expensive subscriptions to online resources until you've sorted your family history budget out.
7. This hobby is like any hobby - it's a lot of fun and requires time and money. Unlike some hobbies it also benefits from mobility (ability to travel) . Mobility isn't essential but it saves on time and money.
8. If you get stuck, get back to us.