While out walking the dog the other day,I got talking to a friend who had a bit of a problem, apparently her parents split when she was quite young and her mother moved back into this area from down south, her father was, as she put it a bit of a rogue, and he was married four times and had at least two more children, whom she didn't even know existed I don't know how she found out about these new relatives but apparently there was not much more info other then that they existed so I immediatley thought that the good people on here would be able to give advice on how to get started tracking her missing siblings down.
She can do a search on ancestry.co.uk or any child registered with her dad's suname in the area she thinks he lived and in the time frame she has an idea on. Then she can look at the marriage index for his marriages using his name and the surname given in the index for the mother of the childrens he thinks are possibles, and then when she comes up with a match she can assume they are her half brothers/sisters, or alternatively she can get in touch with any surviving family she may know of.
That is assuming the children he had were born from a marriage and not illegitimate in which case they may not be registered with his surname,
Only last week we established that you cannot order birth certificates for people born less that 50 years ago without knowing their exact date of birth and so there may be problems confirming the half siblings.
thanks for the info, dot as I said I don't know how much info she actally has or how she got it but I'll print this off and hope it gives her a start in her search
Ok, if she does not have access to ancestry.co.uk or any other research website she is welcome to email me at dothawkes@hotmail.co.uk and I can search for her.
the next time I see her, it might take a few days, as she works odd hours to fit round looking after her OH who is disabled I'll give her a print out of this thread and let her decide what she wants to do, once again thanks one and all