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Beginners => Family History Beginners Board => Topic started by: Darwinian on Tuesday 21 February 12 07:31 GMT (UK)
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Hello,
Im very new to researching family history and would like to know if Im grasping the core concepts. I have read many of the stickys throught the forums at RootsChat but am still a bit puzzled about the regular procedures to follow (Information overload! But in a good way!). This is how I assume it is best to go about the task of tracing family history:
- Search records on websites such as FreeBMD
- Find a match for a name
- Order birth cert to find out who the parents were?
- Use this info to trace back as far as possible, then move onto other sources like censuses/parish records?
So say the furthest back I currently know is Jim Jones. Do I search for Jim Jones and then have to order a cert to find out who his parents were, and then do the same to each parent to build a tree?
Is there a free way to find out who his parents were?
Finally, I would be most grateful if some members would be so kind as to detail what steps they usually go through when building a family tree. The more detail the better :)
Additional info: This is mainly to help out my father in law as Im trying to teach him how to do all of this for himself. He has an English heritage. I have a New Zealand heritage so am I correct to assume that the procedure will probably be quite different for me?
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Have you thought about using a free trial of a site like Ancestry?
Or use FamilySearch.org - the database from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) - it's free to use.
FreeBMD has sister sites in FreeCEN and FreeREG. They aren't complete, but where information is there is very useful.
Of course, much better is to post questions on RootsChat, and get answeres from helpful members!!
Essentially, to link one generation to another, you need either Birth Certificates, Marriage Certificates or Census information.
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You could look at the advice given by Directgov for Researching family history at http://www.rootschat.com/links/0kbm/
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) - the answers according to GENUKI
http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/genuki/faq.html
Getting Started in Genealogy and Family History
http://www.genuki.org.uk/gs/index.html
Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History
http://www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html
Stan
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Thanks for your replies.
So everytime you want to find out information about a generation you know nothing about you have to order a cert? Doesnt it get incredibly expensive incredibly fast? ???
Would you be able to give me a general outline of what YOU do when tracing family history?
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Personally, I use all the free websites (Family Search, FreeBMD etc) and I subscribe to FindMyPast and Ancestry.
I reckon that, for me, it is a good spend as I do lots of research (on RC!) for others! ;D
First step is to interrogate ask as many older members of the family as possible, for names, dates and relationships.
Some of it may be misremembered, but it could prove useful!
And ALWAYS start with living people, and go back one step at a time!
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So is it possible to do without ordering certs for each generation?
Do the findmypast and ancestry databases give you more info than the free ones?
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So everytime you want to find out information about a generation you know nothing about you have to order a cert? Doesnt it get incredibly expensive incredibly fast? ???
As long as you're not dealing with a surname like Smith, Brown or Jones ;D you can usually find the family in the censuses and that will often tell you who the parents are.
Then working out what date the oldest child was born,check Free BMD for a marriage between the father and a lady with the christian name of mum ! Note where they came from as marriages usually occur where the mum was born.
If you sign up to one of the subscription sites,for eg Ancestry,you might find that parish records for the area you need are online.
And lastly ask us ;)
Lots of us have access to parish record CDs or somesuch and can help you when you get stuck.Please put requests on the appropriate county board though if you can. If you don't know which county don't worry as a mod will move it for you.
Carol
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Carol - thanks so much :) Just the info I was after!
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Some of the sites are pay-per-view, which is great if you only want a few look-ups.
1911census.co.uk is free, unless you want the transcriptions.
Ancestry you can get on a 14 day trial basis (don't forget to cancel the subscription!).
What I did was:
I knew my parents names and dates of birth.
Using GRO Indexes (pre-internet!) I found their births, and mother's maiden names.
That led me to my grandparents marriages.
And that got me back to 1901 and the census (1911 wasn't online then).
From that I got other members of the families, and dates & places of birth.
Repeated this until I ran out of censuses!! ;D
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As someone who has been doing this since the summer I can warn that if you want loads of certificates then its going to cost an awful lot! Genealogy is not cheap. I use the free stuff, I use the LDS site pecally for he parish records, I use my local (thankfully) archives as most of my lot stayed around here.
I also use Ancestry and Find My Past, they offer slightly different things at times and a good screen cap is almost as good as certificates..... so I reckon the yearly subs are cheaper.
But it is an expensive process.
Roger
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Carol - thanks so much :) Just the info I was after!
;D ;D ;D
And yes,family history isn't a cheap hobby.
But it IS a lot cheaper now so much of it is online,than when I started nearly 30 years ago.
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"1911census.co.uk is free, unless you want the transcriptions."
Do the transcriptions offer more info than what you can access for free?
"I knew my parents names and dates of birth.
Using GRO Indexes (pre-internet!) I found their births, and mother's maiden names.
That led me to my grandparents marriages.
And that got me back to 1901 and the census (1911 wasn't online then).
From that I got other members of the families, and dates & places of birth."
How did that lead you to your grandparents marriages?
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I shudder to think about costs pre internet access.....
Roger
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"I knew my parents names and dates of birth.
Using GRO Indexes (pre-internet!) I found their births, and mother's maiden names.
That led me to my grandparents marriages.
And that got me back to 1901 and the census (1911 wasn't online then).
From that I got other members of the families, and dates & places of birth."
How did that lead you to your grandparents marriages?
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Yes, certs can get expensive, but you can by them at a rate that suits your pocket. Afterall, your ancestors aren't going anywhere :)
If money is tight, instead of "running" down a path, take it slower and get more in-depth info regarding a particular ancestor. There is so much of that type of info available on the web for free, or as part of the pay site which you may already subscribe to. Gives them more colour than just names and dates.
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Yes, certs can get expensive, but you can by them at a rate that suits your pocket. Afterall, your ancestors aren't going anywhere :)
If money is tight, instead of "running" down a path, take it slower and get more in-depth info regarding a particular ancestor. There is so much of that type of info available on the web for free, or as part of the pay site which you may already subscribe to. Gives them more colour than just names and dates.
I started rushing round trying to get numbers of people, and have now settled very much into the 'fill up one person as much as humanly possible before doing any others' camp.
Roger
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How did that lead you to your grandparents marriages?
Fortunately my surnames aren't that common! ;D
Finding a marriage of Garrad to a Crocker, when I knew their forenames, and an approximate time frame, wasn't that difficult using FreeBMD!
Even my mother's parents, finding a Sims-Bridger marriage wasn't that difficult either!
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Ah ok thanks very much everyone - I feel invigorated and ready to start :)
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I shudder to think about costs pre internet access.....
Roger
Although I was born in London,I now live 70 miles away.
Back in the early days the nearest place you could view the full GRO indexes was the Family Record Centre in Clerkenwell,so I used to go down on a coach trip every 3 months or so.
I used my local Mormon research centre to get a lot of the early censues and to order in parish records.
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One thing, make sure you get a user friendly piece of software to record it all on. The amount of data you will build up means its a false economy to settle for some rubbish 'back of an envelope' system.
I marvel how anyone ever did this on rolls of wallpaper and file cards.....
These forums are great fro getting unbiased views on the software out there, but its what suits you best that is what is best to use.
Roger
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After 1911, the GRO indexes show the 'other spouse's' surname so you can often find the year, quarter, registration district, volume and page for the marriage. From this you can buy a marriage certificate (if you want to), which should show their fathers names, and sometimes other family names as witnesses.
Before 1911, the indexes aren't cross-referenced. So you look up each name separately in roughly the right area and time frame and try to find a pair that have the same year, quarter, registration district, volume and page.
If you only have the woman's first name (say from a census) you can still do this. Find all instances of the man's name in the right area and time frame, then search by year, quarter, registration district, volume and page to see which women were married at the same time. Obviously this is much easier if the names are unusual. If you're looking for John Smith marrying someone called Mary in London you could be there for a long time! :o ::)
BTW if you do need England & Wales certificates, get them from the GRO
http://www.gro.gov.uk
or the register office where the event took place. Other sites may offer them but they are often (very much) dearer!
Linda
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Roger,
Have looked at a few programs and will probably go with RootsMagic5. Will probably purchase it but will use the free version for as long as it serves my needs. Thanks for the advice!
Linda,
Thanks very much for that info! Very helpful :)
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Advice comes from experience, I started with one and did a considerable amount of work, then realised it wasn't how I worked and have had to switch - the basic info comes across fine on a GEDCOM - but its all the media, pictures, scans, screenshots........ aaargh.
Make the right choice at the start and you don't end up backtracking.
Also, and this is very importnat, it may be for you, but its also for others - maybe even others not yet born - to use. So think about how it can be preserved for them to access.
Unless that is you want it to be as difficult a task as it has been for you - if they want to do their own tracing.
Roger
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Also, any paper info you obtain (certs, etc), scan it to your computer. Then make sure these and your Roots Magic (or whatever) file are backed-up regularly.
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Also, any paper info you obtain (certs, etc), scan it to your computer. Then make sure these and your Roots Magic (or whatever) file are backed-up regularly.
And if you are a born pessimist - I am - make sure the whole lot is backed up to a cloud somewhere. There are only two types of hard drives - those that are about to fail and those that have failed.....
And houses can burn down, be flooded, be destroyed by alien invasion.
My stuff is on my computer, on a separate hard drive and on the web, and is also on a cloud store somewhere.....
Roger
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As an example for you to practise on -
My great grandfather was called Frank Moxham and I knew he got married in Guildford, Surrey
Using FreeBMD http://www.freebmd.org.uk
New Query
highlight marriages
surname moxham
first name frank
district Guildford
click on Find
gives one result (you will often get more)
Dec 1880 - this means the December quarter ie Oct-Nov-Dec
Guildford 2a 82 - which means Volume 2a, Page 82
New Query
highlight marriages
Date range Dec 1880 to Dec 1880
Volume/Page 2a / 82
district Guildford
click on Find
gives
Evans Elizabeth
Hart Francis Frederic
Hart Mary
Moxham Frank
I knew that his wife was called Elizabeth, so he (probably) married Elizabeth Evans. It's always a good idea to cross-check this from another source eg birth certificate or baptism of one of their children.
By elimination, Francis Frederic Hart married Mary Hart (possibly a cousin)
You need to be aware that name spellings vary enormously and are sometimes transcribed as things you wouldn't believe (and it's these transcriptions you are looking at). So be prepared to learn about wildcard searches and other 'tricks of the trade'. If you are having trouble finding someone/thing ask on here :) :)
Linda
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Further to Linda's excellent example given above, there is also a shortcut you can use ...
Once you've got the result
Moxham Frank Guildford 2a 82
if you click on the 82 it will take you direct to the list of two grooms and two brides that were on the same page ;D This saves you having to do the second new query part of Linda's example. ;)
Heather
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You might want to check if your local public library subscribes to Ancestry Library Edition. This would give you access to the census records and other records that may be helpful, depending on the location of the ancestors.
Also, if you are near a Family History Center (the familysearch.org folks), they may carry a subscription to Find My Past and/or Ancestry Library Edition. You can see if a center is located near you on their website. I don't know off hand if there are any located in NZ.
As was previously mentioned, ALWAYS start with what you know for sure and work backwards from there one generation at a time. And keep track of where you get each piece of information from as you go along ... you might not be able to remember later when you want to find a particular record again.
Polarbear