Bygone Days
Article
Get back to your
roots
Getting started...
Part one
You no longer need to have a coat of arms and a huge ancestral hall to be interested in your roots.
Where to begin...
Whether your ancestors worked on the land or were shipped off to Australia, thanks to the internet, it has never been an easier or better time to start unearthing your Before you set out on a unique journey into your family's past, follow our advice to getting the most from your research.
Don't worry about record offices just yet, the best place to begin researching your family tree is at home. By talking to as many relatives as possible, you'll soon build up an idea of who was related to who, and how many children Great Aunty Dot had. Ask your oldest relatives for family names, dates and places and look for birth certificates, letters, newspaper cuttings, diaries or anything that will fill in the background on your family. It's also a good idea to decide what you want to find out. Are you drawing up a simple family tree or do you want more of an idea of what life was like for your ancestors?
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Are you going to follow just one
Exploring archives... When you've established a basic outline of your family's background, it's time to start finding solid records as evidence. While many records and indexes are now held online, visiting archives and record offices will prove an invaluable source of information, with help and friendly advice from the staff. "You'll find people haven't changed a lot," says Else. "There's a vast amount of bureaucracy that your ancestors ran up against and luckily, because we haven't been invaded since 1066, there's a huge amount of bureaucracy that can be found in record offices, the National Archives, local council record offices, local libraries, specialist institutions looking at certain occupations and places like the Society of
Going further back "Censuses and BDM records will get most people back through the Victorian period and then you'll find the records that are most important will be those of the church," says Else. Genealogists, which is a remarkable library because we concentrate on family history. "We collect other people's family history and you might find the research has been done before. So there's plenty that people can do to get started."
Births, deaths & marriages... If your ancestors were alive before 1901 and if you know where they lived, you'll be able to find them and details about their occupation in the census returns. But most people tend to start with more recent history, and by looking at records of births, deaths and marriages. Civil registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (BDM) began in 1837 in England and Wales (1855 for Scotland and 1864 for Ireland), when registration became a legal requirement. Before you can order certificates, you will need a certificate reference number, which you will find in alphabetically arranged indexes. The indexes are available at the Family Records Centre (www.familyrecords.gov.uk) in London and the certificates for England and Wales are kept at The General Register Office (www.gro.gov.uk) in Southport.
"Most probably the Church of England, which is the established church, but it might be a non-conformist church, Baptist, Roman Catholic, or Methodist." From 1538 in England and Wales, and 1555 in Scotland, each parish in the UK had to keep registers of baptisms, marriages and burials. Although they are certainly not exhaustive (some records have been lost over the years in church fires and floods), if you're lucky, you might find the names of your ancestors and dates of the events - and other information - on microfiche at the church or County Record Offices. "The church was also the administrator of the Poor Laws," adds Else. "So if your ancestors weren't so well off, they would have run up against the Poor Law. After the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, you might find them in workhouses. "Or, under the record of the Old Poor Law, you might find records of them moving around or having illegitimate children."
Separate registries for Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland are located in Edinburgh, Belfast and Dublin (See www.groscotland.gov.uk; www.groni.gov.uk; www.groireland.ie). The certificates include more information than indexes alone such as the name and residence of the mother and occupation of the father on birth certificates and the names of the fathers of the bride and groom on a marriage certificate.
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Filling the gaps... Once you've found out, and got the evidence to prove, the basic facts of your family tree, you can start fleshing it out into a fuller history by looking at local newspapers and local records from the time they were living. "Can I fill in the history of my ancestors and find out what was going on in their lives? Did they have a certain occupation or practise a certain religion?," says Else. "Were they mentioned in newspapers of the
local village or town? You can get such a feel for the community they were living in, for who they were and where they were living." The County Record Office will have records of local wills before 1858, and the Land Tax records which detail local land- or estateowners. While the British Library houses the national archive collection of newspapers on microfilm.
The internet One of the easiest ways to find out details of your family's history is undoubtedly the internet, which hosts thousands of sites and chat groups for those interested genealogy. "We've been doing social networking well before the kids got hold of it, so
So you find cousins that way and make those links." Many archives publish their indexes online, so you can search for your ancestors in census returns and BDM records on sites like www.ancestry.co.uk.
things like RootsWeb.com has been around a long time and they developed into things like GenesReunited.co.uk, says Else. "You can say 'I'm interested in this individual, this is my ancestor, is anyone else related to him?'
Avoiding the pitfalls Don't expect to track down every member of your family right back to the middle ages in just one week. Family history research takes time, patience and a few simple skills to reap the rewards. "It isn't a race, it doesn't matter how far back you get, but most people will find they probably get back to the early 1800s, and may find a problem," says Else.
You can search freely in some indexes, but you will have to pay to see a copy of the actual record.
"If you've got somebody who's living in a large city and you really don't know much about their name, because they may have been trying to avoid bureaucracy, some ancestors are going to be difficult to find. "But then again, you might get some people with a reasonably uncommon name, or something that you do know about them that you can pinpoint when you're searching for them, that will mean you have some phenomenal success."
Always write everything down! Note down all your sources so you can go back to them, as well as all your searches, even if they weren't
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"The big kick this century was the National Archives putting the 1901 census online," adds Else. "Despite having a few wobbles in its first year, the big realisation was there are people out there all around the world with British ancestry who wanted to look at records. So that has been a big development, people putting information online that you can get reasonably cheaply."
successful, so you know where you've been. Try not to rely on online sources only as lots of information will come from microfilm or microfiche in libraries, record offices and archives. "You can get frustrated because the internet might help you get to some records very quickly, but it hasn't got every record on it. "A lot of people will just put up infomation that they think is right and it's a bit like Chinese whispers. If it's repeated what was once speculation becomes a fact and when you try and prove that fact, you can find yourself going round in circles," says Else.
WEBSITES BOOKMARK to
The internet is an excellent tool in the search for family history. Some sites offer free trials while others require a fee. There are thousands to choose from, but here are a few to get you started... www.rootsweb.ancestry.com
www.sog.org.uk
Powered by US site ancestry.com, rootsweb is like the Facebook of genealogy sites, offering users the opportunity to share your research and get help from other family historians via message boards. You can also upload your details to huge databases so those with common ancestors can find you.
The Society Of Genealogists is a charity offering help and resources for those interested in finding their family history. The site includes a link to the society's online library catalogue, free information leaflets to download as well as details of the society's events and lectures.
www.1901censusonline.com If you know the first and last names of relatives who were alive in 1901, you can find them here on the census returns going back to 1841. The site is very easy to use, and you can search the indexes for free, but you have to buy credits to download and print a copy of the actual record.
www.cyndislist.com This site is an online reference book for family historians, with links to hundreds of thousands of genealogical resources on the internet from Australia, to Wills & Probate.
www.genuki.org.uk Genuki is a virtual reference library of genealogical information for the UK and Ireland. It includes links to sites offering information on diverse topics, such as how to read handwriting and where to find out about your ancestors' military history.
www.britishorigins.com This site provides internet access to many of the Society Of Genealogists' databases and indexes, including apprentice and military records. You can search records for free, but it costs ÂŁ6.50 for 72 hours to access the originals.
www.ffhs.org.uk The Federation Of Family History Societies exists to help family history societies throughout the country. You can search for your nearest society or those near where your ancestors lived and there are some handy search tips.
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk The National Archives, based in Kew, is the official archive for England and Wales, boasting 900 years of history from the Domesday Book to the present. The site has video guides on researching your family and you can search online for records.
www.genesreunited.co.uk The Friends Reunited spin-off allows you to search more than 500 million ancestors through births, deaths and marriages and census data, build your family tree online and you can register for free.
www.familyrecords.gov.uk This site is a consortium of organisations including the National Archives and the Imperial War Museum. It allows you to search the quarterly indexes of births, deaths and marriage records, immigration, census, wills and military records for free, before you order them from the General Register Office (see below).
www.gro.gov.uk (www.gro-scotland.gov.uk; www.groni.gov.uk; www.groireland.ie) The General Register Office keeps all the official certificates of births, deaths and marriages. Once you have found your ancestors you can order certificates about them online.
www.freebmd.org.uk This site is a collaboration between family historians to transcribe births, deaths and marriages indexes from 1837 onto the internet and you can access records for free.
www.ancestry.co.uk This site boasts the largest collection of UK family records on the web as well as access to censuses between 1841 and 1901. It also offers tips on searching as well as a video tutorial by Tony Robinson. The site is currently offering a free 14-day trial, but beyond that you have to pay to view records.
www.familysearch.org
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This site allows you to search the International Genealogical Index - a collection of hundreds of millions of baptism and marriage records from parish registers between 1538 and 1875 that have been indexed by the Genealogical Society of Utah (Mormons).