Family Tree Research (merged)

Squidgy

Have you tried the bbc website? When they did that series where they traced famous peoples family trees they had a section on their website on it and there was loads of information there if I remember rightly.

Squidgy x

Maisie

Start by asking family members for birth/death/marriage certificates and if you have any older relatives in the family ask them questions. St Katharines house in London has old journals that you can look at and get copies of certificates.
From a birth certificate you can get who the parents were then look them up and get their birth/death/marriage certificates. It's a fascinating hobby but needs plenty of time and patience.

Squidgy

Here it is:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/familyhistory/

mpet

I started my own research about 5 years ago and am still going!!! It can be timeconsuming, frustratng and totally absorbing. The first place to start is to ask as many relatives as you can for family stories/memories/photos. Make lots of notes of who told you what - then don't believe any of it without offical proof. i have found there is usually some truth in memories, but names/dates etc have a way of changing from the official records.

There are a lot of resources on the net now- but not all of them are free. At some point you will have to buy certificates etc to verify information. Get yourself a good book from the library on what to do and what records are available (There is much too much info for me to go into here). If you have an uncommon surname research can be easier, but here are a few sites to get you going.

http://www.genuki.org.uk/

http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/

http://www.1901census.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
(free index search)

Hope this gets you going


Mpet

NigeWick

pavlovs_dog wrote:

i am interested in tracing my family tree, but am a bit of a loss as to where to start, and how to keep the cost down

Start with yourself and work back in time, proving each generation with certificates if possible. To start with, get as many certificates of family events (birth, marriage, death) as you can from relatives who have them now. These carry quite a bit of basic information. See if someone in the family knows of anybody who has already done some research as there is no point in doing it again if you don't have to. I "inherited" my direct male line back to a wedding in Tonbridge 8 July 1688 just by asking. I am now in the process of proving all the information I was given. The Family Records Centre has census and other information that one can access for free. Copies of items will cost though. I stay at the LSE accommodation round the corner as it's £28 per night for a single room, including fatboy's breakfast. I joined the Society of Genealogists and their library is only a 20ish minute walk for the Rosebery Avenue accommodation too.

Keeping the cost down gets harder as you get more interested

Nigel.

Lillibet_2

My hubby has traced his family tree back over 450 years! He stared 2 years ago with genesreunited.co.uk ( charges a very small annual fee) & has gathered loads of contacts & other resources from there, he also uses our local county council history centre which is free & has copies of birth/death/marrige certs on view, local graveyards (massive amounts of info availble if your family has been local for a few generations, be prepared to scrub gravestones to be able to read them though) & occasionally other online facilites like the military, electrol roles & Somerset house to obtain copies of certificates which have to be paid for.

He recokens he has spent less than £50 since he started on actually obtaining info & certs (most can be viewed free of charge through one source or another, it's only if you need a copy that you have to pay plus military records I think) but he has gained a huge number of family all over the world who are now in regular contact & get free e-cards at Xmas, on birthdays etc, plus whenever one is in the area/country we try & meet them for a meal. He has also made friends with many people who now live in old houses where family members were born/worked & he has a pictorial history of people/houses/locations too : Thank God for digital cameras or we'd be broke in film processing costs! He even found out that one of his great grandfathers holds a recorrd for employment with one employer : He was a nurseryman with the same company for 91 years and is mentioned/pictured in several books! (the £50 inculdes a copy of one of the books:D ) I guess the wider spread your family has been, the more it will cost, if they have been fairly local until the last 2 generations, as in our case, it is quite cheap but if you need to travel to other counties/destinations to seek out the info then the cost will spiral.

Be warned, it is an addictive hobby :rolleyes:

Zziggi

mpet wrote:

I started my own research about 5 years ago and am still going!!! It can be timeconsuming, frustratng and totally absorbing. The first place to start is to ask as many relatives as you can for family stories/memories/photos. Make lots of notes of who told you what - then don't believe any of it without offical proof.

I started tracing my family tree about 7 years ago out of curiosity. You never know what surprises you might come across (so be warned!). mpet's advice about 'don't believe what people say without proof' is very true. I found out (by going for official documents) that BOTH my parents had been adopted by my grandparents. My mum never knew about her adoption and my dad knew about his but never told anyone (including my mum as it later turned out). You can imagine the family fireworks over that! This only spurred me on further. I managed to trace my father's birth mother and have met her a dozen or so times.

So if you think you live in a 'normal' family without divorces, extra-marital affairs and illegitimate children be warned, genealogical research may just shatter that illusion...

.... but it is an addicitve hobby!

paulac_3

Hi

I've also become a genealogy addict over the last four years and bore anyone who is prepared to listen with stories about my family, which now covers about a thousand individuals.

I'd agree with everyone else about the sites to use - they've all helped tremendously with my research - but do verify everything. You can waste a lot of effort heading down the wrong road.

I think the very first thing you should think about if you are really serious about researching your family is getting a good piece of software with which to organise your findings.

I use Family Tree Maker for Windows which is widely available and find it excellent. It does far too much to describe fully here but it allows you to keep large amounts of information on each individual you find and will allow you to generate trees and family reports automatically.

I would never have remained sane without mine. My husband bought it for my birthday years ago and he reckons it was the best idea he's ever had - it keeps me quiet for hours!

Hope your searching goes well
Regards
Paulac

rchddap1

I've done some tracing of my family tree and will simply echo what other's have already said.

The best way to get started is to talk to your family (particularly the older ones). You may have to do this a few times to get all the information, but once you have it you can start to look at names and family ties. One way of working backwards is to use birth / marriage / death certificates. However, always link this in with census records or parish records where you can. One of my ancestors didn't have a birth certificate and we nearly ened up down the wrong family tree! In fact my father was investigating the wrong family, until my mother and I became involved and ended up with census records from 1841 through to 1891 simply to find and confirm the identity of my ancestor.

It is a lot of hard work, but there are lots of people out there on all the sites other's have listed who will help you. Some have access to the census records so all you need in a name and a rough area and they'll see if they can find the person / people you're looking for. I have used the Freebmd site a lot for find info on certificates and to investigate some of my hunches. Another useful site in the www.ancestry.co.uk site. They have some forums on which there are some fantastic people who can help with more specific information requests.

Some of the local libraries have the census records for that particular region, eg, I went to Peterborough Library to look at the census details for the St Neots area.

Personally I have managed to get back to 1811 definately, and possibly 1792 (need to do some more work to confirm it 100%).

Also, don't believe everything your relatives tell you. My grandfather told us that we came from a family of miners....actually one of the brothers of my ancestors moved to the north to become an Iron Stone miner. We were actually a bunch of farmers...ohhh arrrrr.

As you can probably tell, it is very addictive and you'll find all sorts of things that you don't expect. One of my ancestors died in a mental hospital (what does that say about me...), another family member essentially lived in sin with a woman and had some kids (although there are no documents to prove he was the father...we only found out by getting in touch with the decendent of one of the children).

Sorry, must stop waffling. Good luck in your search, and no you don't have to spend a bomb. Just find lots of websites and don't be afraid to ask anyone a question...no matter how daft it might seem, as they may actually know the answer.

aeuerby

I find genealogy both fascinating and extremely frustrating. I am trying to confirm one on our ancestors is actually related to us (quite likely given the unusual surname!) Can I find his birth certificate? Can I twaddle. I've even been to the family history centre in London but there is no record of his birth so I am beginning to think he wasn't registered. He is on a number of census's though.

Without this information though I can't confirm that we are related to someone born at Tattershall castle :question:

Anyway, the free BMD is an excellent site (my mum transcribes some of the records for them) as are all the others mentioned in previous posts.

Angela.