Family Tree Research (merged)

schoolfundraiser

AdrianR wrote: »

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.

As a new indexer but not at all new to family history I would say that to do it properly and well you need to be indexing records for the country you live in as place names and even surnames can be puzzling. Don't try to index for the USA unless it is the censuses and you are already familiar with their format and using them and also I found the Australian death records were difficult purely because the place names were so unfamiliar and I had no idea what state or territory they were in even when it was given because the writing was awful.

Also the handwriting is often the style taught to over 50s but which is alien to anyone younger so difficult to read. Some experience of reading original documents on film or fiche is also useful.

Not for the inexperienced family historian really. I remember the mess the prisoners made of the 1901 census transcriptions - now I am much more sympathetic to them and I started doing my family history when the 1901 census was released and have more than 25 lever arch files of my research!

ecp98rjs

I've found that www.myheritage.com is pretty good. You can upload your tree and it will help find matches to others. Similar in many ways to genesreunited but you don't have to pay to contact people. It will also do useful things like remind you of close relatives birthdays and anniversaries if you want.

Replay

I have been tracing my family tree for 6 years on and off, and am back to 1769 on my father’s side. These may have been listed before but here are the sites I use, and most are free!
http://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/rectype/vital/freebmd/bmd.aspx
http://freecen.rootsweb.com/cgi/search.pl
http://www.parishregister.co.uk/
http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp
http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/
http://freereg.rootsweb.com/
http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/
http://www.ffhs.org.uk/
http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/
http://www.genuki.org.uk/gs/
http://www.genealogylinks.net/
http://www.spub.co.uk/protgi/links.html
http://www.findmypast.com/home.jsp
http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/
Well that's just a few. If you are really serious then there is a book that tells you pretty well everything you need to know..................
Ancestral Trails available at Amazon for £22.00
Not cheap but WOW!!

mandymad

If you visit your local library they usually have a local history section. Here you can log on for free to the normally payable sites such as Ancestry. Also they have the original records on St Catherines index which is free to look at too giving you dates for BMD's.
If you request a certificate from your local registry office then its only £7 but if you order it direct from the General Records Office, its still only £7 (free postage) but it is printed from the original so you can see how your ancestors wrote and what their signatures looked like (if they could write).

If you don't want to pay for certificates then go back to your library. Once you know roughly the dates for Birth Marriage or Death then check through the Parish Records, this is free and if you find what you want then you'll only pay 10p for a photocopy. You'll often get more information from these than a certificate will give, as many vicar's liked to write comments in the sidelines about the people concerned.

If you are still stuck and need help then just ask the librarian, they're more than happy to help and they're free. If you're really stuck and need a helping hand to just get past one relative then use a researcher but only for that one person, you can then pick up the tree again and carry on doing it on the cheap. A good cheap site for this is https://www.findmytree.org.uk

A warning though.....family history is extremely addictive.

aaroncaz

Don't know if this site has been mentioned:

http://www.freereg.org.uk/

Parish Records, for free, though not all areas as yet.

Browntoa

Free Trial 30 day Subscription to thegenealogist.co.uk (Ancestry Search)
http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/freesub/



Your free trial subscription - NO credit card details required - Includes 10 Free credits

• Free access to our databases for 30 days (some databases require credits, see below)
  
  Currently we have birth, marriage and death records (1837 onwards), census indexes & transcripts, landowner records, directories and parish records; we will be adding more of these in the coming months.
  
  Click here to see which indexes are included already (opens in a new window).
• Free subscription includes ten credits; BMD searches 1984-2005 are free. Only the references cost credits. Use your credits wisely as you will not be able to add to them on a free subscription.
  
  (Many searches can be done without credits including post-1983 BMDs and volunteer indexes, but you will need credits for certain searches as well as for viewing images of the original pages)
• Option to buy a full credit-free Personal Premium subscription with a special deal.
• For personal use only.

How to get your FREE trial subscription:

Enter your email address twice, below, and click the button. We will email a unique link to you with simple instructions for activating your subscription.
Other terms:

1. Only one free subscription per household.
2. Offer may be withdrawn or changed at any time without notice.
3. Not available in conjunction with any other offer.
4. Unfortunately, if you have already had a free all-inclusive subscription as a result of a different offer, you will not be able to get another one.

Only The Genealogist includes such a wide range of databases:

• Award-winning complete birth, marriage and death records index
• military WW1 WW2 Rolls of honour
• Census transcripts
• Parish records and non-conformist records
• Directories
• Landowner records
• Knights of England - trace your ancestors back to the twelfth century!

We have:

• Directories from 1905 back to 1852
• Census transcripts from 1901 back to 1841
• Early birth certificates from registries and non-conformists (pre 1837)
• Birth, Marriage and Death records index from 2005 back to 1837 (when they began) for the whole of England and Wales
• Parish records from 1837 back to 1538 (when they began)
• Non-conformist records back to the 1600's
• Electoral Roll for London 2005
• Historic books back to 1127

http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/moreinfo.htm#bestbmd

Ruby38

Some libraries offer free access to Ancestry.co.uk via their computers that you book - for free - providing you have a library card and search Ancestry records as much as you like. I've done this in my local library. Not all libraries do it, but certainly the bigger branches.

barnishroader

do any of these work for research in northern ireland?

SuziK_2

Just to reiterate (sp) what has been mentioned about Familysearch further up the page.

The current search available is not always accurate and while very useful should be written in a notebook to be confirmed later and not written straight into your Family Tree which might send you down a wrong path later.

Very few of the dates I got where accurate with death when I actually went to the graveyards to search further, BUT this does mean it helped me find the graveyard I was looking for in the first place.

Also, it has an Aunt of mine up on the site as dead since 1982 and she is very much still alive and kicking. So just a word to be cautious and as with most things on the internet, use wisely and confirm seperately.

If you're Scottish or you find a family member who is I would definitely recommend ScotlandsPeople by the way!

Good luck anyone enjoying this hobby, I'm another addict.

toodunns

Just found this forum, such a lot of info, thanks everyone. Can anyone clarify what I can find out online, I live in Spain and was adopted as a baby. I am trying to find out about my birth father from scratch. I know his name dob and general area. I have found a birth record (after spending 10 pounds on 192.com - a rip off) but do not have a copy of it yet. Does anyone know if I can get anymore, i.e. marriage or death etc. online?