Genealogy Advice

AndyD_OHD

Hi All,
I wondered whether anyone could offer any advice on how to research my family tree. I was watching a re-run of the programme the BBC produced, "Who do you think you are?" or something like that, and decided I'd really want to do that sort of thing, especially as we have a wee one (15months old) and another on the way, so it would be nice to have something of the history of our family.

Cheers

Andy

torbrex

First thing to do is start with the living, ask around you family to see if anyone has copies of relevant birth, death or marraige certificates. You will always find that granny knows a lot of this stuff and if she is still around you could fill a notebook in an afternoon.
Next is to find your local family history society, there you will find people more than willing to teach you how to go about finding and recording names dates and places, these folk are great, they will keep helping you whether you join or not.
Make sure you get a decent programme to store all the information, there are plenty free ones available on the web and I still use Brotherskeeper, one of the first ones that I found years ago.

Finally words of caution, you might find this hobby very addictive and also for every question that you get answered you will get 2 more questions.

Good Luck, pm me if you want to.

wallacebob

I did some of mine, very addictive!

look at http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/index.html for all the info.

My wife used to be a Registrar and loved when people came in for family history searches, try your local office. They can save you a lot of time as they know how to link people together, and spot inconsistant records.
Word of warning; some of the American sites, especially those linked with certain groups, are not accurate, as they think everyone with the same surname is related.
I found that census records where interesting, puts some meat on the bones of history. Also visit old kirk yards to look at head stones, that can show up things like early child deaths. Many Scots named the next born child with the same name as the deceased, can cause confusion.
Stick with official docs or reliable family memories, and you will find out some fascinating stories.

Browntoa

theres a whole thread here

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=4610&highlight=ancestry

a good helpful site here

http://www.british-genealogy.com/forums/index.php

if your family were local to the area where you still live then the local councils often have copies of the local censuses etc and other records and often free access to ancestry.com

AndyD_OHD

Is there anything like FreeBMD for Scotland? It seems FreeeBMD covers only England and Wales.

Cheers
Andy

jimmypiper

I have used scotlandspeople.gov.uk before. It can be a bit pricey if you have to look at a lot of documents though.

Browntoa

found this one for scotland

http://www.sctbdm.com/search.php

and

http://www.scotlandsfamily.com/deaths.htm

AndyD_OHD

Hi
I wondered if anyone could answer a puzzle I have? If I am right in believing that Censuses are performed every 10 years, why is it that you can only get access to 1901 as the first....? Or am I totally wrong....?

Andy

duchy

Privacy of the living

Roosh

The first real useable census you can use for genealogy is the one carried out in 1841. The last census you can use is the one carried in 1901. The reason is because of the 100 year rule. No census's within the last 100 years can be veiwed by the public. The next one which will be released to the public will be the one carried out 1911, but not until 2011. However there pressure on the government by some to release it earlier.

There are several good sites for this interesting hobby ... and yes it can be very addictive!! Good luck!!

AndyD_OHD

Thanks for the info.... it is understandable I suppose, but does make it a lot more difficult....guess I'll have to be doing a lot of foot work.....