How to trace family tree

first78

This is something I've wanted to do for a while now and as my OH lost her nan this week it's made me really want to know as much as I can about my family.

Both my parents are still alive but sadly all my grandparents passed away over 20 years ago and I have limited info about them. Can anyone give me any advice on how to go about starting to piece together a family tree? I will of course talk to my parents but will be surprised if they can give me dates of birth etc!

This is something I really want to do and any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Kew2u

Talking to your parents is definitely your first step. It took me a long time to trace my Gfather (born 1890) but eventually I did. There are many good online sites...some you pay a small fee to search records. Google Ancestors, Family Tree, genealogy. Using sites like these I've traced my family back to 1770. Good luck.
PS. Shout me if you get stuck, I might be able to help a little.

meritaten

ok - the first rule is - start from what you know! ask mum and dad about theirrcousins - and get in touch with them - you may strike gold and find someone who has already done the research! ask mum or dad if they have any marraige or birth certificates or death certificates - these can be a gold mine of information!

join one of the family history sites 'Find my Past is good, as is Ancestry. Their guides to reseach are really excellent and will get you started. I think Ancestry do a free trial - take advantage of that! There are free sites online - one of the most useful being the IGI, but be warned it IS incomplete as it is compiled by Mormons and they tend to research thier own families - but you may be lucky and find an ancestor!

I think you need to research grandparents first - get as much 'free' info from family as you can - and go from there.
Welcome to the fascinating world of Family History - Ive been researching mine and OHs for twenty years - and its addictive. right back to the 1600s in some cases! Good luck!!!!!

carerof3

I'm back to 1707 on one line, but then I started tracing my family tree over 25 years ago. It's a lot easier now a lot of things are online. Before that you had to visit local record offices, although this would still be a good place to go, if you live in the same area that your ancestors did. Once you get back to the online censuses (1841 - 1911) it becomes quite easy.

Your local library will probably have access to ancestry (http://www.ancestry.co.uk/) and you may be able to search there for free - you can in my library. If you are in London, visit the PRO at Kew - free access to as many records as you want! Soldiers in the great war, all the censuses and lots more. They are very helpful in pointing you in the right direction too. I stayed at the Kew Travelodge on one of their £10 per room offers, and went to Kew two days running. The Birth Marriage & Death records are free at http://www.freebmd.org.uk/ Genes Reunited are good (http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/) but you have to pay to email anyone with a connection.

Browntoa

long thread here

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1554629

about it

Mrs_P_Pincher

Beg, steal or borrow a hard back notebook and write everything down in it. I used to scribble things down on odd bits of paper and Mr P used to throw them away when he was 'tidying'. If it's all in the notebook, you won't be losing any pieces of the jigsaw.

Then get hold of a big piece of paper and draw out what you know so you can see where the gaps are.

Once you've done that, you will be able to see what you need to know and make the best use of that Ancestry 14 day free trial.

The only thing I would say is that I set out to produce a family tree for my Dad for his seventieth birthday in 1987. I started in 1986, gave myself a year, thought that would be long enough. I'm still going...

This stuff can take over your life.

Mrs P P

Mojisola

https://www.rootschat.com/ is a free site with lots of friendly, helpful people on it.

first78

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions and advice. I'm really looking forward to getting started this afternoon after work

What are the most important things to ask my mum and dad? I mean should I try and get names, dates of birth, place of death?? Anything else??

I'm definitely going to get a notebook as Mrs P Pincher suggests...I'm always using scraps of paper and misplacing them so that's a brilliant idea!!

ciderwithrosie_2

I know you said your grandparents had passed on but are there any old aunties or uncles left? What my mum did was asked them (when they were still able) to recall any important memories they had, events that happened in the family so she has those accounts too. Some of the problem finding records is the migration of whole families years ago, e.g. for work or evacuation during the war makes everything a lot trickier.

torbrex

Marraiges are important, from them you get all sorts of information. Both sets of parents are listed as well as place of residence and ages of the couple and the witnesess are sometime relations such as sister or brother.
If they were married in a church, they sometimes keep an anouncement book and there may even be a history of the family visiting the church for other things ie christenings going back through the generations.

I dont know much about searching through English records but I have quite a lot of experience searching through the Scottish ones if you need any help

Kew2u

Watch out for misspelt names on official records. The ppl doing the house to house census calls sometimes got it wrong or their scribbling wasn't clear. One relative was down as Elizah instead of Elijah. Another down as Leonard instead of Leonora. That had me going round the bend for awhile.