howells (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Thursday, June 30, 2016, 14:05 (3062 days ago) @ shepway

Hi Nick,
welcome to the forum. As per Mike's post, sometimes the trickiest part of tracing a tree is finding the most recent branches, because records pertaining to possibly-living people are less-available to the public. For earlier records the National Census' are a great source of detailed information, but the most recent one that is publically available is the 1911 Census. Before that they were taken every 10 years back to the first in 1841. More recent Census' are not available to view, except the recently-released 1939 Register which Mike has given you.

For general guidance, this recent post should help you,
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/fodmembers/index.php?id=47250

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Searching FreeBMD for births to parents HOWELLS and SMITH in FoDean District gives this likely group(datewise wrt their 1935 marriage) of candidates, which fit your known names too;

Surname First name(s) Mother District Vol Page
Births Mar 1939 (>99%)
Howells Norman L Smith F.of Dean 6a 440

Births Mar 1941 (>99%)
Howells Gordon F Smith F. of Dean 6a 644

Births Sep 1942 (>99%)
Howells Jean E Smith F.of Dean 6a 530 S

Births Dec 1942 (>99%)
Howells Ralph Smith F of Dean 6a 500

(Note where says "Mar", for example, this means the Birth was registered by the parents during the Quarter ending March, ie the birth probably took place during the months Jan, Feb or March.) Judging by the dates and lack of a second name I suspect the last Birth, Ralph, is to another couple, not surprising as these are not rare surnames).

http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl

However one wonders why baby Norman wasn't included in the 1939 Register which was taken after he was born, in September 1939 ?. Hopefully you can confirm whether or not the above are indeed your family ?.

If they are yours, then GlosBMD has their Marriages, and helpfully gives you their full names;

Marriage Details
Groom Surname Groom Forename Bride Surname Bride Forename District Parish Building Year Register Entry
HOWELLS Norman Leslie MORGAN Margaret Anne Forest of Dean Parkend St Paul 1963 7 85

Marriage Details
Groom Surname Groom Forename Bride Surname Bride Forename District Parish Building Year Register Entry
HOWELLS Gordon Frederick ADAMS Mary Elizabeth Forest of Dean Cinderford Baptist Chapel 1967 8 48

Marriage Details
Groom Surname Groom Forename Bride Surname Bride Forename District Parish Building Year Register Entry
CAMERON Malcolm Douglas HOWELLS Jean Eunice Forest of Dean West Dean Christchurch 1970 6 98

As Mike's said, it's more rewarding and sometimes more reliable to do one's own research, a good start might be for you to familiarise yourself with the above websites. It's just a shame that Monmouthshire doesn't have an equivalent website to the excellent GlosBMD one, so tracing Ivy's line may be a little trickier than Fred's. Some of the Census information is available free-of-charge from the FamilySearch site, this old post should help you;
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/fodmembers/index.php?id=47251

Regarding the various subscription websites which give full access to Census' etc, including images of the actual Census forms, the Ancestry site is available to use free-of-charge at most UK public Libraries, plus luckily for you FindMyPast is currently offering free access until the end of this weekend, see this post http://www.forest-of-dean.net/fodmembers/index.php?id=47262

Good luck and don't forget we're all here to help if you get stuck.