Trace Your Past
- Example Of A Preliminary Search Report (£65)

I have used one of my own ancestors for the purposes of this example.

The information you have supplied to me was; "Albert Goldring born in Worthing, West Sussex c.1911."
From this statement, you have requested that I search to find out who Albert's parent's were.

First, I went to the index of births for the year 1911 and found the reference which led me to Albert's
birth certificate:

Birth
Registration district: East Preston.
Sub-district of Worthing.
County of Sussex.

On 11th February 1911 at 43 Becket Road, Worthing.
Albert Percy was born; son of George Goldring (Garden Labourer) & Harriet Goldring (formerly Charles).

This tells me that Albert's parents were George Goldring and Harriet Charles. I then searched the 1901
census to see if I could find the family listed. Census returns are carried out every 10 yrs, they give us
the following information: Address, Name & Surname, Age, Occupation & Where Born.
I found the following entry:

Census 31st March/1st April 1901
Administrative County: West Sussex.      PRO ref 13/957.
Civil Parish of West Tarring.
43 Becket Road.
George Goldring    Head    Married    33    Market Gardener's Labourer (worker)    Sussex, Goring.
Harriet Goldring    Wife    Married    28                                                                                Sussex, Ferring.
George Goldring     Son                          7                                                                                 Sussex, West Tarring.
Gertrude Goldring Daughter                5                                                                                  Sussex, West Tarring.
Dorothy Goldring   Daughter                3                                                                                  Sussex, West Tarring.
Irene Goldring        Daughter                 1                                                                                 Sussex, West Tarring.

This then gave me the approximate years in which Albert's parent's were born, enabling me to narrow my
search of the birth indexes and so find the following entries:

Birth
Apr-Jun    1868    Goldring    George    Worthing    Vol 2b     Pg 310

Apr-Jun    1872    Charles     Harriett    E Preston    Vol 2b    Pg 322

Now I have confirmed the year of birth by finding their birth entries in the birth index, I was able to
narrow down the possible year they got married to between 1890 and 1894 and using the marriage index,
found the following entry:

Marriage
Jan-Mar     1893     Goldring     E Preston     Vol 2b     Pg 451
Jan-Mar     1893     Charles        E Preston     Vol 2b     Pg 451

By finding entries for both George and Harriet, I have confirmed that I have found the right entry in the
marriage index.

To conclude, Albert Goldring's parent's were:

George Goldring, born between Apr-Jun 1868.
Harriet Charles, born between Apr-Jun 1872.
They were married between Jan-Mar 1893.

If you would like to know more about someone than just approximate dates of birth and marriages, then the
standard search is more appropriate.

The Preliminary Search is fully upgradeable to the Standard search.