How to trace family tree

TonyMMM

first78 wrote: »

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!!

Get ALL the information they can give you - if possible do a structured interview, and record it on tape/digitally if you can. Take each person seperately and get them to talk about their life ..when/where they were born ...details of brothers and sisters etc. Ask about where they lived, where they worked , did they do any military service .... these things can be important because they are the sort of things that leave a paper trail you can check later.

Then go back a generation ... what do they know about their parents ..where/when were they born ...did they have brothers and sisters etc.. Then ask about grandparents etc.

The key thing for online research these days is to get to details of someone alive in 1911, because that is the most recent census you can look at.

Find the box of old family photos (every family has one somewhere) ...and go through them with your relatives and get them to identify people...write down what they tell you. I usually advise writing the info on the back of the photo in pencil.

Do NOT assume that everything they tell you is correct - check the evidence by looking at birth/marriage and death certificates. Memories can fade or get confused over time, somtimes secrets may have been hidden or just people in the family aren't who people thought they were - All families have aunts/uncles who turn out to be cousins (or not related at all) and similar things - but that is what makes doing the research interesting.

Be realistic - genealogy is not a free hobby - You can only do a certain amount for free ... you will need to buy copies of birth/marriage/death certicates (£9.25 each), and you will probably want to buy software and subscriptions to one of the Ancestry type sites to help.

The optionI usually recommend for beginners is to buy a copy of Family Tree Maker, which comes with a six month subscription to Ancestry included (which will get you started) ... although there are many other packages you could use out there.

Good Luck
( I've been researching my family for years and now do genealogy work professionally ... it can get addictive).

Olokia

carerof3 wrote: »

I'm back to 1707 on one line, but then I started tracing my family tree over 25 years ago.

I got lucky as one line of my family lived in Brittany, France and they have an excellent free site just for that area so I got lucky and found someone born in 1592 and their parent's names.

TonyMMM wrote: »

The optionI usually recommend for beginners is to buy a copy of Family Tree Maker, which comes with a six month subscription to Ancestry included (which will get you started) ... although there are many other packages you could use out there.

Or this site and the free software (Family Tree Builder) that comes with it. http://www.myheritage.com/
It finds matching people from other peoples trees (if any) and you can use that to help you. I started out with Family Tree Builder and then moved over to Family Tree Maker when I got stuck with the first site. I keep both up to date in case there are any new matches on the Builder one.

SailorSam

I started a family tree after my Mum died and agree with others that you should ask any of the older people in your family before it's to late. I've used the free online sites; the likes of Ancestry i log on to at the library and the staff there have been a great help, they ran a short course to push you in the right direction.
One thing i was disappointed with, it's not like when you see them tracing trees on the Tv, you only get a long list of names and dates, who the people were and what they did is harder to find. So what i've done now is start a biography/diary lots of little things going back to when i was a child about me and those around me. I hope even though it may be boring drivel now someone carrying out research in 50/100yrs time may find it interesting and add to it.

Mojisola

If you want to know a bit about their lives as well as who your ancestors were, a questionnaire like this one - http://fcs.tamu.edu/families/aging/reminiscence/family_history_questionnaire.php - is useful. It's written for the American market so you'll need to adapt where necessary. I think it's too long to do with people in one go but you could take it section by section round each relative.

The most recent available census is 1911 so you have to use family memories and BMD records to get back to there.

MessyMare

also- check out your local library- I know in Norfolk we can use the whole of the ancestry site for free from the library computers

Chuzzle

If you are on Facebook search for Ancestry.co.uk and like their page, any queries you have you can post to their wall and get very very helpful answers from others.

I am doing my family tree and got stuck with my great grandfather - he was born under one name, died under another and was known to friends and family by something else....still not 100% I have found the correct guy though!

I find its really interesting finding out what they did for a living...I have found that my gt gt grandmother had a tea rooms in Felixstowe and a sweet shop in Felixstowe.... the tea rooms is now a concrete toilet block :rotfl::rotfl:

harrys_nan

Hi, you have had a lot of very good advice here, just want to say enjoy your new hobby. It is very addictive and can be expensive depending on how deep you want to go.
I am lucky in the fact that my paternal (my birth) name is part of the One Name Study so have had a lot of info from that

katiefinger

Enjoy researching your tree ... it's highly addictive and you may uncover an ancestor of interest or a hidden skeleton in the cupboard!

A word of warning though (although this won't really affect you yet, it is something to be mindful of); the more you get into it the more likely you are to share your family tree with others. I always take great pains to tell people that although I've painstakingly researched, dotting each i and crossing each t till I'm blue in the face, I can't 100% guarantee that all the information is correct. Likewise, whenever I'm given information or access to a tree researching the same line/name, I always try to validate the info with my own research. It is very easy to make a simple mistake which can have major repercussions for your tree!

Also, be prepared for hitting a brick wall (you may uncover an illegitimate 3x great-grandmother, for example) as it can be very disappointing to find you can't go any further in your research in a particular branch. But don't let that put you off ... you have 31 other 3x great-grandparents branches to choose from! It can be mind-boggling!

RAS

first

i have done English and Scottish FH. For the period after compulsory registration started, records in Scotland (since 1855) are better because the birth cert gives the date of parents' marriage and marriage certs give both parents' names, as long as people tell the truth. In England (after 1837) the link back is not there. However, Scottish records prior to registration are very variable, as there was no legal requirement for churches or chapels to keep them.

My advice - speak to as many elderly relatives as possible, find out if anyone has already done the research by speaking to cousins.

Prove everything, I was given the wrong date, wrong location and slightly wrong father's name for my grandmother. My grandfather only discovered the true name of his father (and his own birth name) after he married and registered his first son under the wrong family name. He never used his birth name officially and was buried in the wrong name. His twin sister knew the truth and was married and her death was registered using the right name.

As soon as you get within sniffing distance of the 1911 prospectus, use it. Just be warned that the transcription can be deeply dodgy. Any idea where Tchedderley is? The double dd is correct.

indebtinsussex

have fun!

I've not researched my family tree, however we have a relation from way down on my dads side that did and managed to trace us and we're now meet up with whenever hes in the UK.