Chris Smith (csdes @t dircon.co.uk) of Barnet writes: You may be able to help me with something. I am trying to trace the genealogy of the Harding-Young family here in Barnet and Hadley Wood. We think that John Harding-Young (1881-1966) was an auctioneer at Barnet Market, Hertfordshire. He had one son, William Harding-Young who was born in 1914 who joined his father in the auctioneer and surveying business. William ran Barnet Market for many decades but is now dead. He was a member of the HAC and served in Italy during the Second World War as a major. He married Phyllida Woodall at South Mimms and has three children, Daniel, James and Patrick.... Can you help me any further? Where would I go to find out more?

Answering the basic genealogical aspects of your question with any degree of reliability will involve purchasing certificates/information (see the provision of information from web sites) or looking at material which may well be in the Barnet Central Library, which I assume has a reasonable Local Studies section. In addition the privacy policy of my site is not to research people who may still be living. What I can do is point you to where you can find information relating to John Harding Young and then suggest where you can look for the more recent information.

From the information you give it is possible on FreeBMD to find the following entry:

Birth [July to] September 1914 of William H Young (mothers maiden name Folkard) in the Barnet Registration district - reference 3a 872

This will allow you to purchase the birth certificate - which should tell you, among other things, the full names of his parents, his father's occupation, and the address where they were living. The unusual maiden name allows one to find (on FreeBMD) the following entry:

Marriage [October to ] December 1913 of John H Young to Bertha Folkard in the Marylebone registration district - reference 1a 1242

This will provide you with the occupations and addresses of the couple, and the father's names and occupations.

[The following text, supplied by Richard] replaces the original incorrect interpretation of the evidence.] Bertha Folkard was my mothers aunt and she was born at Copford Green Farm, Copford, Colchester, Essex 1891. Her family employed a governess and she became a talented artist who taught art at the Colchester Art School before her marriage. Her father Frank was a farmer, and he started Frank Folkard & Sons, seeds merchants. He was also a JP, Chairman of Lexden and Winstree RDC , and on the Board of Guardians of Stanway Workhouse.

You are presumably more interested in John Harding Young. However it is clear from the indexes that while you know the family as "Harding-Young" official records appear to treat the surname as "Young" with "Harding" as a second given name - perhaps just an initial "H" and maybe in some cases merely "John Young". "John Young" is a very common name and even "John H Young" is quite common - and there are no obvious "candidates" born circ 1882.

However a check on the index pages of the death registers (on Ancestry) reveals that a "John H Young" died in the Barnet registration area in January-March 1966 aged 79 - i.e. born circa 1887 - and this date leads (on FreeBMD) to a John Harding Young, whose birth was registered at Yeovil area July-Sept 1886. This may is probably the 14 year old "John H Young" living with his parents and a sister on a Dorset farm in the 1901 census (Ancestry). Information from the certificates should confirm (or disprove) this.

It is worth checking the 1891 and 1911 censuses for additional information - and the 1911 census may suggest reasons why John and Bertha married in London. For later information on John you may be able to locate him in trade and street directories for Barnet, electoral registers, and telephone directories. You should start by looking to see what Barnet Central Library holds. In looking in these records you should be aware of the boundary changes that have taken place - as at the time Barnet was in Hertfordshire places such as South Mimms were in Middlesex. It might be worth checking whether John made a will as this could include information on surviving children and grandchildren.

Chasing details of later generations can be done by reference to the Birth, Marriage and Death certificate registers. This could be quite time-consuming and because the name "Young" is very common there may be some difficulties in identifying the right individuals. (Beware - FreeBMD is not fully indexed for the 20th century so you may have to wade through the original indexed pages). Directories and electoral rolls could also help.