Ok so I have found my 2xG Grandparents on the 1911 census (not in Gloucestershire admittedly) and it states that they had a total of 11 children, 5 living and 6 dead. I was only aware of there being 6 chilren up till I found this so my question is - how do I go about finding these other 5 children? It appears that none of them were on a census so the easy way of finding them isnt available! The surname is Stephenson and in the place where they were from this was a very popular surname!

Any advice greatly appreciated - Jo x

Hi Joanne

If they are from any of the parishes in the records on this site, you may be able to find baptisms or burials in the parish records on this site.. can you give us anymore details of the family?

Simone x

They arent from any of the parishes covered by this site hun - they are from Northumberland lol! I was just thinking that any advice on how to find them if they dont appear on any census and have a popular name could apply to anywhere including family from this area.

Jo x

oh sorry Jo... tricky one isn't it.. there are a number of young deaths for Stevenson, betweeb 1901 and 1911 alone, obviously appreciate that they may have been born and died before those dates :(..

think a trawl of the parish registers may be the only way....

have you looked at birth reg's of those children you have to see if there is another child at same time... I found a couple of missing children this way... obviously were twins but one had died :(

Simone x

I agree with hunting though Parish records. I came across a set of twins born of Moses Bate & Mary Ann Smith Bate on this site. They were born in 1846 & died on the same day - five weeks later.

After I put them into my 'tree' the information re: them came up on a 'hint' on ancestry. Sad to find them, but thrilled being able to get the information from a Parish Records search on this wonderful site!

It may take some effort on your part but it will be well worth it!

Thanks for the advice guys xxx

I accidentally discovered that my great Aunt Bess had two children who were born and died in Cardiff, prior to her emigrating to Canada. I feel sort of badly that I didn't even know these two little ones had ever existed until recently. One cousin knew about one, another cousin knew about another. (The BMD index knew about both.)

I am still missing the names of four children born to my great grandparents that I wouldn't have known about but for the 1911 census. I've narrowed these "invisible" children down to about ten possibles. Parish records aren't any help, because at that time they were primitive methodists, and were baptised outside their own "circuit" by a minister their grandmother held in high regard. (Sigh.) I am hoping to narrow the possibilites down a bit before ordering birth certs . . .

My mother had two small brothers (Albert and Charles) who died at three and four respectively, and whose graves I still decorate each summer. (I have no baby pictures of my mother, but tonnes for Albert and my Aunt Floss, as my grandmother had them taken regularly to send to my grandfather during WW1). My mother, the sixth and youngest child, first appears in family photographs during visits with her Uncle Bill.

My uncle's recent obituary listed his four children, with no mention of the fifth, a infant son (also Charles) who predeceased him.

If my family is anything to go by, I suspect that "invisible" children are fairly common.

This still goes on today 2 years ago I had a visit from an Australian lady who professed to be a cousin of mine by my fathers sister,on close examination by my aunts family this turned out to be true-all members of my fathers family had died and no one knew of her existence
It turned out that whilst on trial for driving a getaway car for a gang of wage robbers in 1959 she had an affair with one of the gang and this lady was the result.
She was born in Aldershot adopted and the family moved to Australia -my grandmother often made mention of Cousin Wendy in australia but refused to elaborate futher and took all this to the grave with her as did my father and his sister.
Grandmother must have known a lot more than this because it turned out that Wendy was not her birth name but one the family that adopted her gave her
Regards Kelvin

That is an amazing story!

A friend of mine is adopted. I always thought his mother knew his birth family, which was confirmed when his older daughter was born, and his (adoptive) mother took one look at the baby and said, and I quote, "My G-d she looks just like Brian's mother! (Pause.) Forget I said that!"