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Our brief was to trace the paternal and maternal surname lines of the above subject. Information supplied showed that Winifred Isabella Wilhelmina Branch was born on 10th October 1932 in London. Our first step was to locate this birth in order to obtain as much information as possible from the certificate. The GRO (General Register Office) Index contained a reference from which the birth certificate was ordered. This contained the following information:


Now that both her parents names were known, the GRO Index provided us with the correct reference to order their marriage certificate. This contained the following details:


We turned our attention firstly to tracing the 'Branch' surname line. Now that we knew Alfred Branch was born around 1907, the GRO Index was checked once again and provided the reference to order his birth certificate.


We then decided it would be useful to locate this family in the 1901 census listing. The census is a survey of all households taken on one particular night every 10 years. The census returns for 1841 through to 1901 have now been indexed thereby enabling a search for a family or individual to be carried out without knowing a precise address.

In 1901 both Alfred and Isabella were living at 7 Aker Street, Southwark sharing the building with some of Isabella's siblings as well as her widowed mother.



A search was then made in the GRO Index for the marriage of Alfred and Isabella. This was found and after obtaining the certificate, the following information was revealed:


Despite thorough searches we were unable to find Alfred Branch in the 1891 census listings. We decided instead to locate his birth certificate which provided the following details:


With the above information, we soon located the family on the 1881 census.



This meant that Alfred's father must have passed away some time between 3rd April 1876 and 3rd April 1881. A check of the GRO Death Index gave us the reference which led to his death certificate.


We had hoped to find either Thomas or Emma or indeed, both of them together, on the 1871 census. This would have indicated whether or not they were married at this time and therefore narrowed down our search for their marriage date. Unfortunately, they were missing from the census so we began a search of the GRO Indexes working back from 1871 when their first son appeared to be born according to the 1881 census. It was fairly common for first born children to be named after their parents especially on the fathers side. The correct entry was soon located.


'Of Age' simply means that they were 21 years or above. Christian Samuel Branch is described as a 'Gentleman'. This means he has an income derived from sources other than employment, perhaps an annuity or a pension.

Our next step was to check the 1861 census for the 'Branch' family. We found them residing in Hammersmith.



Although ages given on census returns are often incorrect, they do provide a starting point to look for a birth. We now knew that Thomas Charles Branch was probably born around 1847 and Christian Samuel Branch, around 1814. We decided to compare the above details with the census taken in 1851.



We now checked the GRO Index for the birth of Thomas Charles Branch. We found him in 1846.


The next logical step would have been to find the marriage of Christian Samuel and Cecilia, however as they were both still quite young when the 1861 census was taken, we wanted to know if they could be found on the later ones. A search of the 1871 census proved fruitful this time.




There are two points worth noting here. Charles A. Branch now appears as their son whereas on the 1861 census he is a visitor. Although there was no formal adoption process at this time, for whatever reason, he was accepted into the family as one of their own. Secondly, is it simply co-incidence that the two surnames, Bough on the 1861 census and Branch on the 1871 census, have the same meaning?

Ten years later we found them residing at the same address.




As neither Christian or Cecilia appeared on the 1891 census, the obvious next step was to see if they had died in the intervening years. What we found came as something of a surprise.


Why was Cecilia not the informant we wondered? It turned out that she herself had died less than a week earlier on 3rd February 1883 of heart disease! The burial register for one of the local cemeteries confirms they were buried in the same plot.

We turned our attention to happier times and began our search for their marriage. As we were unable to find any reference to this event in the GRO Index, we assumed they were probably married prior to the start of official registration in England which began in 1837.  This was confirmed by a search of the IGI (International Genealogical Index). This is an index of births/baptisms and marriages worldwide taken from parish and non parochial registers compiled by the Church of Latter Day Saints. As this index is prone to transcription errors, it is important that the source documents themselves are consulted. In addition, the source documents usually contain surplus information that doesn't appear in the IGI.

The entry in the IGI led us to the parish registers for St James Church in Paddington. A copy of the entry was obtained at the London Metropolitan Archives. It reads as follows:


You will have noticed that Parish Register entries lack some of the information contained in a marriage certificate such as the occupations of the bride and groom as well as the fathers names and their occupations.

To complete the census set for Christian Branch, we sought him out on the 1841 census. Whilst not as useful as later ones, the 1841 census does at least show where the family were on census night. Note too, the incorrect spellings of their names.




Our final task as far as Christian Samuel Branch was concerned, was to locate his birth or baptism. Again we turned to the IGI for help and this led us to the parish records of  St. Mary in St. Marylebone Road. The source record showed the following:


In order to complete our research into the 'Branch' family line, we needed to find the deaths of the two Alfred Branch's mentioned above. To find the correct entry for a death in the GRO Index is usually a time consuming affair as often there are no clues as to when a person died. You simply have to go through them year by year, noting down all possibles. The task is made slightly easier if you are researching an unusual surname but otherwise it is a case of selecting the likeliest candidate and ordering that particular certificate in the hope that it turns out to be the right one.

We discovered the following about the death of Alfred Branch born in 1907.


Details of the death of Alfred Branch born in 1876 were recorded as follows:


This completed our research into the 'Branch' family line.

Following our brief, we now began to trace the maternal surname line of  'Barnard'.

We already knew from the certificate of her marriage to Alfred Branch that Maud Hilda Barnard was 19 years old in 1930. Our first step was to check the GRO Index for her birth around 1911.


A check of the 1901 census seemed to show that Harry and Kate had not yet married. To ensure we had the right Harry Barnard, we searched the GRO Index between the years of 1901 and 1911 and found the correct entry in the 1st Quarter of 1908.


With the added details of his fathers name and occupation together with his age, we were sure we had found the right family on the census.




We now knew that Harry John was born around 1885 but decided firstly to seek him out on the 1891 census.




It was now time to check the GRO Index for the reference to Harry John's birth certificate in order to glean as much information as possible. We came across it in the indexes for 1884.


The 1891 census shows us that Arthur Barnard was likely to be the first born child of Harry and Ellen as he is only 8 years old and one would expect to find older siblings if there were any. This suggested that they may not have been married at the time of the 1881 census so we searched for Harry and Ellen individually. We found the following:




Although he is calling himself Henry at this time (a quite common transposition), his age (although not quite tallying with the 1891 census), his occupation and the fact that he was born in Worthing, Sussex is good enough evidence that this is our man.

We also found an Ellen Cook working as a Domestic Housemaid in a grand house in St James, Westminster. Again, the age was a couple of years out (not unusual) and her surname was spelt without the 'e' (perhaps a transcription error)  but her birthplace was given as Worthing, Sussex and with no other obvious candidates,  it seemed likely this was the right one.

All the evidence pointed to them being married between 1881 and 1883 when their first son was born. Despite extensive searches of the GRO Index and numerous parishes around the Westminster and Rotherhithe areas, not to mention Worthing, we drew a complete blank. As it is quite possible that they never married, we had to accept we couldn't find them and move on with our research. After all, it doesn't affect Harry Barnard's ancestral line.

We now had to find Harry Barnard's birth. The ages on the various census returns suggested he was born some time between 1854 and 1858. The entry we found confirmed he came into this world in 1857.


Next, we looked for the family on the 1871 and 1861 census.




Ten years earlier, we found them further down the street.