Family Tree Research (merged)

craftingqueen_2

Can anyone tell me where i can research my grandfathers history for free.I have his name and date of birth but need to check that i am ordering the correct certificate any help would be grateful.

craftingqueen

Dr.Lou

Your local council may have a records archive office which you can use for free. We have one in our local authority and it has all sorts of records, eg. census, marriages, births, deaths, church records and many others.

tigtag02

THIS is the site run by the church of the latter day saints and has the 1881 free along with lots of parish records - becareful to double check all submitted enteries!

THIS is another free site fof BMD but enteries seem to stop around 1914ish as the voulenteers have not transcribed further yet.

You wont get a copy cert for free but be careful not to get stung. Some sites will try and charge £20+ for the certs but you can order direct from the GRO (with ref number) or the local register office for £7 - you should never pay more than this.

ANCESTRY has the whole BMD indexed and is a great site - their fees are probably the most reasonable too if you are going to pay.

Finally, you can join GENES is free to join and search but you will have to pay the annual subscription if you want to contact other members.

HTH
tigtag

aaroncaz

this is the online gov.ordering service for certs:

http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/default.asp

cost is £7.

snowmaid

I can vouch for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The people who work there are very experienced and will get one started in geneaology in no time. The service is free. Expert, private researchers make use of this facility.

Browntoa

thought it was a timely bump due to the new series of "who do you think you are"

scottish_lassy

which was one of the best things on TV for some time!!!

Sailor_Sam

In my local library we can log onto the Ancestry, sites for free. I live in Knowsley, just outside Liverpool. Check to see does your library offer the same.

AdrianR_2

Hi all, since this thread went quiet, a significant development has come from the Church of LDS. The old IGI was a collection of transcribed documents and church members' personal research. This meant that although invaluable, some of the data was a little subjective and was not totally trustworthy without cross matching other sources. Now there is availabe a new preject that is in pilot stage at present but still invaluable, based on transcription of documonts only. This also tends to give more further information than some of the previous IGI entries. It broke a couple of my brick walls.
http://pilot.familysearch.org/
Also LDS are asking everyone with a genealogy interest to help take part in transcribing the documents. Yes you can be a part of entering the data. Some records are typed but most are hand written. There are usually one or two UK based record lists available to transcribe. This role of transcribing is eternal, with minimal individual glory, but there is global adoration and respect, and the personal achievement that you know you could help thousands of people in their quest to find their ancestors. Look on the LDS site for how you can help.

schoolfundraiser

Go to your local library and check out whether it has

a family history section for how to books

copies of local newspapers archived on microfilm for weddings, obituaries birth announcements etc

copies of local censuses on microfilm

copies of the IGI on microfilm

free access to Ancestry.com on their computers

a copy of the Vital Records Index on CD etc (burial records mainly)

a nice friendly librarian who can help you

details of courses for beginners


You can check what libraries have a local history section and extensive resources on www.familia.org.uk but many smaller libraries have an amazing amount of stuff hidden away.

also look and see where the county record offices are. They often have useful websites and also run courses.

Check out the bigger archives and libraries - Birmingham Library for instance has an extensive set of the Huguenot records in its Social Sciences section as well as things like copies of the Army lists, Phillimore's marriages etc in the Archives..

Check out the Family History Centres run by the Mormons (Latter Day Saints) who run the familysearch.org website. They have so many documents on microfilm that you can order and look at in their centres. see
http://www.familysearch.org/eng/Library/FHLC/frameset_fhlc.asp

for their library catalogue. Obviously the more obscure stuff may take a while to get there

Use your library to get books for you on interlibrary loan. It only costs £3.50 each at my library and I saved myself a trip to Edinburgh by ordering the Regimental History via the library rather than consulting it at the regimental museum. It was invaluable for tracing the whereabouts of my 1830s and 40s soldier and now I know more or less where to look in Ireland for his son's birth.

Check out the National Archives site for its podcasts - they are mainly based on the records they hold at Kew but David Annal's talk on searching Census Records is really useful

Join local history chat areas they often have a family history section.

Join a local group - genealogists are generally a friendly bunch and usually willing to help others out.

Google the name you are looking for. Check out as many hits as you can. Who knows you may get lucky. Try The Google News Archive as well as Google books

Check the LondonGazette online archive for things like bankruptcies, Army officers' commissions, probate searches etc

Wander round graveyards with a camera - cheaper than ordering a death cert and often it gives the birth year or age as well as the spouse and/or children's details. Cemetery records can usually also be accessed for free but you will need to make an appointment to look.

And finally talk as soon as you can to the most precious resource of all - your relatives. The records aren't going anywhere and time is on your side as they all gradually get digitised but your old aunty may not be around much longer to tell you about her mum and dad and her grandparents or what it was like in the war. Take along a photo or something you can ask them about to start it all off and record it - you can do it unobtrusively with your MP3 player if you want or just take a notebook and a camera to photograph the things they show you. And keep visiting to share what you have found and learn a bit more of what they didn't think to tell you the first time.

And don't forget that family history is also about YOU. When you get stuck or broke, sort out your stuff, write down your memories, think about what your descendants will want to know about you. (What houses you lived in where you were born where you went to school, worked etc) Take photos of your old school, dig out old photos and label them properly so someone other than you will know who is in them. :A