How do I find out a persons maiden name. I am doing a family tree & so many people are dead, where do I look?

Answer 1

If you are in the UK check your birth certificate, the mums maiden name was included on the birth certificate in the J/A/S quarter 1911. So if the person was born after that year you will find it quite easily. Do you know when the lady got married her maiden name will be on the marriage certificate, you can obtain a marriage certificate for any date after 1837 that's when civil registration began in the J/A/S quarter of that year.
If you do intend to purchase a certificate they are £8:50 from the GRO http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/ or £7:00 from the register office where the life event was recorded. If you are planning to order from the GRO, you will need the volume and page number from the index of the relevant name.
Hope this helps.

Answer 2

This is one of the most challenging, yet so common, tasks of a genealogist. It often takes a lot of detective work and logic. But boy is it rewarding when you finally crack it. The steps I usually use (and remember, none of this gives certainty so always keep notes - lots of notes) are:

1. Get as much information as you can about the person. Especially dates (birth, marriage, death, etc.)

2. Most obvious, if they have brothers, then their surname (maiden) is almost assuredly the same as the brothers.

3. Check the middle name given on information you have. If the middle name is not a typical "first name", it could be the maiden name. Mary Ann Smith doesn't help much. But Mary Roberts Smith could indicate a maiden name of Roberts.

4. If the person has died (and lived after the mid 1950s), check the Social Security Death index...almost always they will appear under their married name. You can then request a copy of the SS-5 from the Social Security Administration and get not only the maiden name, but also (usually) her parents.

(now it gets tricky)

5. If you have a marriage date, look at the census for that locale just before the marriage (the closer the marriage is to a 10 year boundary the better). Just scan for the first name and birth date (make sure you +/- at least 1 year). You'd be amazed at how often you find only 1 or 2 hits, especially if the first name isn't in the top 10 list of names of the time. If you know sister names (even only by their married surnames), this can also help identify the family by matching children birth dates with your knowledge.

6. Check obituaries in the local she was living (using her married name). Often if a relative of her's died, she will be referenced as a "survivor" and the person for whom the obituary was about could lead you to the maiden name.

It ain't easy. But always, always, always keep obnoxious notes. It irritates me to no end when I go back and see something I have "discovered", especially when I was a newbie and didn't keep notes, and can no longer remember where this information came from.

Hang in there!

Answer 3

The best place to start would probably be marriage records - if you know where they were married, you could contact the local court house and they could help you find the records. The wife's maiden name would be on the marriage license.

Answer 4

You could go to the courthouse, health depatment,
archives inside the courthouse, marriage certifciate or to the gravesite. Sometimes the headstone will have the maiden name on them too.

Answer 5

If you know the woman's father's name at all, that would be her maiden name (aka the name before she got married). Same would hold true if you know her uncles on her father's side (his brothers)