On 16 Mar 2010 at 9:32, Jayne England wrote: > > Dear list members, I am new to this list and hoping someone can > advise me. I am researching a family tale that suggests there is a > distant family connection to this well known Leeds chef. The story > goes on to say the connection arises through MPW's paternal line - > the WHITE family. I have a copy of the marriage cert for MPW's > parents and therein lies my problem. Marco's father was named Frank > WHITE, the son of Frank WHITE according to his marriage cert. His > age given on marriage would suggest the year of birth as 1927. I > have contacted Leeds Register Office and they have searched for the > birth of a Frank White, with father named Frank +/- 2 years either > side of 1927 and come up with TWO options. Both born in Leeds and > both in 1927. So now I am stumped as to which one is the correct > set of parents! I also do not know the names if any, of siblings to > MWP's father, so can't even work out who the parents were via his > siblings. I have tried a search of google etc but cannot find > anything that shows the genealogical "tree" of this celebrity, so > if anyone could point me in the right direction, or can advise me > on how to differentiate between the two sets of parents, I would be > pleased to hear from you. I live in the West Country, so do not > have access to local archives, libraries etc in Yorkshire, so any > searching I need to do has to be done remotely. Thank you! Jayne > Are you sure the Leeds Register Office have given you the correct information? I have checked FreeBMD, as well as the GRO Indexes at Findmypast and they have only ONE Frank White born in a Leeds Registration District in 1927 - in the June quarter at Hunslet, vol 9b page 723, mother's maiden name LEE. So unless there was another Frank White whose birth record never made it to the GRO (or there is a Whire with Frank as a middle name) that would seem to be the one. If you go to the marriages indexes of YorkshireBMD at: http://www.yorkshirebmd.org.uk/cgi/marrind.cgi you will find a marriage for Frank WHITE and Nellie LEE at Holbeck Registered Building in 1922. There is a link to download the certificate. Yorkshire BMD is the website for indexes from the local register offices, not the GRO. The marriage doesn't yet seem to appear at FreeBMD but I found it in the GRO indexes at Findmypast in the Sep quarter of 1922 at Holbeck (another Leeds registration district), vol 9b page 1482). There are a number of Whites with the mother's maiden name, Lee, born in the Leeds area between 1923 and 1934 but because both names are so common it's quite possible there was another White-Lee couple. You can find the other children with FreeBMD. -- Roy Stockdill Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE