Finding a relative using limited information
December 27, 2015 2:19 PM   Subscribe

We've got two photos, a first name and potential surname, rough year and known location at that time, distinguishing marks and military rank. What are our options for finding out more about someone from the past with this amount of information?

My father and grandmother died in the last year, and in the course of sorting out their stuff it turned out that the man I knew as my grandfather wasn't my dad's biological father.

Family members have confirmed this was the case (it wasn't talked about while my dad and grandmother were alive), and a cousin who was about ten when my dad was born identified the man he remembers as my dad's biological father from some photographs we found at my grandmother's house.

We have a first name (in nickname format - think Billy rather than William), a nationality (Scottish), the fact that he was a corporal in the marines, two photographs of him in uniform signed from him (nickname) on the back, what look like tattoos on his forearms in the photos, an envelope addressed to Cpl [possible surname] from my grandmother that was never sent, his location in 1957...and that's about it.

In terms of expectations, we're not looking for a big reunion with long-lost family. It would be interesting to know a bit more about the guy, but it may be that anyone who knew about this at the time is now dead. If we can't find anything, it'll be mildly frustrating but understandable.

I'm aware of various genealogy services and forums, as well as military history sites, but don't know what our best options are. We're not getting many hits for his name and possible surname from general googling. All of this happened in the UK.

With the information we've got, where (if anywhere) is the best place to start?
posted by terretu to Human Relations (5 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
First thing I'd try is a reverse image search, on the slim chance that someone has scanned and shared the photos.
posted by Scram at 2:29 PM on December 27, 2015


Did you try familysearch.org? It is a free resource that also links into many other sources (some free, some pay but at least you know if there a possibility there). I found some very unexpected things that I hadn't seen before.

Another option is ancestry.com. They have good UK resources and I think you can get a free trial to find out if there is anything there or not. Just download a copy of anything you find so you can reference it again later.
posted by metahawk at 2:31 PM on December 27, 2015


In the U.S., long after my dad retired from the army, he got involved in a group related to one of the units he had been in during his service. They did memorial stuff and I don't know what all else. But I am wondering if the UK has similar groups associated with specific units. If so, they might be interested in having access to the materials you have and they might be willing and able to give you additional information about this person.
posted by Michele in California at 2:45 PM on December 27, 2015


First job, if you haven't already done so, is to check your father's birth certificate to see whose name is listed as his father. If you don't have a copy you can order one for a small fee from the General Register Office.

The main task is to link up Billy and his lastname. Military records would naturally be the best place to look. However, military records from the years in question are not open for browsing, and the information you want is exactly the information you would need to request a service record. Veteran groups might be able to help but it may be a bit of potluck.

Otherwise, there are still a few options. If the address you have for 1957 is a home address you can search historical telephone directories (available at Ancestry, I believe, and maybe elsewhere). The record might link up the lastname and the initial.

If the person's lastname is uncommon you can search the birth index to see if there are any matches. You can also check the marriage and death index to see if any person by that name wed or died, and also if their marriage had any children. For Scotland you may need the site ScotlandsPeople, but for England and Wales FreeBMD may suffice. Naturally, this will only help if the surname is uncommon enough that you would not expect to see multiple people of the same age with the same name.
posted by Emma May Smith at 3:26 PM on December 27, 2015


I'd be happy to run a free search for you on the sites I use. ScotlandsPeople (necessary for most documents from Scotland) charges you for any documents you want to see, but at least you can tell whether there are any to be seen.
posted by Joe in Australia at 12:41 AM on December 28, 2015


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