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The three main sources of information when you start tracing your ancestors are:
- your family
- censuses
- birth, marriage, and death certificates
Let’s start by looking at each of these in turn. Please note that whilst this guide has been written
from the point of view of someone researching British ancestors, most of the principles also apply to research in the US and Canada.
WHAT YOUR FAMILY ALREADY KNOW!
It’s easy to under-estimate how much useful information is
already held within the family. For a start, it’s quite likely that one of your
relatives began to compile a family tree a long time ago - and then gave up,
because in the days before the Internet, researching family history was a long
hard slog. An older version of the family tree could well incorporate
information from relatives who are no longer alive (and which you might find
very difficult to reconstruct on your own).
But even if
you’re the first, you should still be able to collect a lot of information by
asking your relatives the right questions - just don’t expect them to have
perfect memories, though, or to remember everything on the spur of the moment!
In fact, you’ll often find that if you go back to someone with bits of
information you’ve gleaned from other relatives, or perhaps an old wedding
photo you’ve found, it helps to unlock other memories. It’s amazing how little
things can bring it all back!
When you
talk to your relatives begin with simple questions, such as 'How many brothers
and sisters did your father/mother have?', then follow up if necessary with
'Who was the oldest/youngest' and so on. Don’t expect people to remember exact
dates of birth (though they sometimes will), but a birthday or an approximate
age will be a great help in your later researches. At this stage it’s also
useful to gather information about where ancestors came from - there was a lot
of migration during the 19th century, aided by the introduction of
the railways, and many of us live in towns which barely existed 150 years ago.
People are
often known by nicknames, so try to find out - for example - whether Aunt Lily
was really Lilian, or Auntie Nell was in fact christened Ellen. Ask who got
married, and to whom, remembering to note the maiden names of your female
ancestors. And whilst divorce has only recently become common, many people
remarried following bereavement, often when they were still young enough to
have a second family.
Information
that’s written down is a bonus, whether it’s a marriage certificate or a family
tree written inside the family bible. The most unlikely objects can provide a
useful lead, from an inscribed clock or watch given as a retirement present, to
a book with a dated and signed dedication. 'To Florrie, on your 21st
birthday, from Uncle Fred and Aunt Maud, 19 September 1938' tells you not only
Florrie’s birth date, but also that she had an Uncle Fred who was married to
Aunt Maud - and that they were all still alive in 1938.
Relatives
are a great source of information - but memories are fallible. Always keep an
open mind, and double-check the information you’ve been given whenever you get
the opportunity.
The remainder of this guide focuses on online sources of family history information. Note, however, that most local records offices hold copies of censuses for their local area, and some also have microfiche copies of the indexes of Births, Marriages & Deaths. These indexes can also be inspected free of charge at the Family Records Centre in Islington, London. The Family Records Centre also holds complete copies on microfilm or microfiche of the censuses from 1841 to 1901.
BRITISH CENSUSES
The first
census of England & Wales was in 1801, and they have been taken every 10
years since (except for 1941). The earliest census returns to be generally
preserved are those for 1841, whilst the 1901 census is the most recent to be
made available (there is a 100-year embargo).
The 1841
census is less informative than later censuses - ages of adults are shown to
the nearest five years below, marital status is not indicated, relationships
between members of a household are not identified, and so far as birthplace is
concerned, the returns merely indicate whether someone was born in the county
or not, and whether born in 'Scotland, Ireland, or foreign parts'.
Nevertheless, as you work backwards identifying your ancestors, there will be
times when even the limited information of the 1841 census proves invaluable.
From 1851
onwards the information shown is broadly standardised, though there were minor
changes that are largely obvious from the census returns themselves. In
some counties (including Suffolk and Hertfordshire) local family history societies have wholly or partially indexed
the 1851 census, and a complete index of the 1851 Census for Devon, Norfolk, and Warwickshire can be purchased through the FamilySearch site (see below).
Fortunately for researchers, the complete censuses of England & Wales (including the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands) from 1851-1901, and the censuses of Scotland from 1871-1901 are all now available on the Internet. However, only the 1881 Census of England & Wales can be accessed free of charge.
1841 Census
All English counties and some Welsh counties are available at www.britishorigins.com, but can only be searched by subscription. However you can also search the 1841 Census at www.findmypast.com where you can choose between pay-per-view and subscription options.
At www.freecen.org.uk you can search a complete index for Cornwall and several Scottish counties, and there are partial indexes for Warwickshire amd most of the remaining Scottish counties.
1851 Census
The complete 1851 Census of England & Wales is online at www.ancestry.co.uk, and can be accessed on a pay-per-view or subscription basis. It has been indexed so that you can search by any combination of name, place, age, and birthplace, and the original census returns can be viewed online and saved as JPG files.
1861 Census
The complete 1861 Census of England & Wales is online at www.findmypast.com and not only does the search facility have more options, you can choose between two levels of image quality, the higher quality being far superior to other sites. It is a pay-per-view site.
It is also available at Ancestry.co.uk
1871 Census
The complete 1871 Census of England & Wales is online at www.ancestry.co.uk, and can be accessed on a pay-per-view or subscription basis. It has been indexed so that you can search by any combination of name, place, age, and birthplace, and the original census returns can be viewed online and saved as JPG files.
The 1871 Census for some parts of England can be accessed at www.britishorigins.com
The 1871 Census of Scotland is available at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk which is a pay-per-view site.
1881 Census
The complete 1881 Census of England & Wales is online at www.familysearch.org, a site
provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (often incorrectly
referred to as the Mormons) as a service to all family historians. The census
has been fully (and remarkably accurately) transcribed, and can be searched by
any combination of name, place, approximate year of birth, and county of birth,
but images of the original returns are not available on the site. You can print
out the records of the individuals or households you find, or save them in
GEDCOM format (a standard format used by many family history programs).
The 1881 census is also available on CD ROM (check the FamilySearch site for details), and it is important to note that the CD ROM version includes Scotland.
Otherwise the 1881 Census of Scotland is available at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk which is a pay-per-view site.
Note: the complete 1881 Census of England & Wales is also online at www.ancestry.co.uk, and the index can be searched free of charge; however a subscription is required to view the images.
1891 Census
The complete 1891 Census of England & Wales is online at www.findmypast.com and not only does the search facility have more options, you can choose between two levels of image quality, the higher quality being far superior to other sites. It is a pay-per-view site.
It is also available at Ancestry.co.uk
1901 Census
The complete 1901 Census of England & Wales is online at www.ancestry.co.uk, and can be accessed on a pay-per-view or subscription basis. It has been indexed so that you can search by any combination of name, place, age, and birthplace, and the original census returns can be viewed online and saved as JPG files.
It is also available at www.1901census.nationalarchives.gov.uk, and whilst the index can be searched free of charge you must pay to view the census images, or to find out the full details of the person you have found.
The 1901 Census of Scotland is available at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk which is a pay-per-view site.
1911 Census
The 1911 Census of England & Wales will be released in 2009, but it is possible to obtain copies of individual pages. See www.1911census.info for more details.
Which census should you use?
As the 1881 census is free it is a good place to start -
provided you have some information about your ancestors who were alive in 1881. But ultimately you're likely to have to pay to get the information you need,
and in this case you should consider taking out a subscription that gives you unlimited searches at Findmypast or Ancestry. Pay-per-view may seem like a cheaper option, but it will cost much more in the end.
Searching the 1881 census at FamilySearch
The FamilySearch home page is www.familysearch.org - click on 'Search' then
'Census'. On the census page select the 1881 British Census, and fill in as
many of the boxes as you wish (although you'll usually get the best results by entering less, rather than more!). There is ‘fuzzy matching’ for names by default, and you can specify an age range, but otherwise the information
needs to match exactly, which is why it usually pays to enter as little as possible. Even if you know the 'right' answers and the 'right' spelling, the enumerator probably didn't!
Initially
the search form displays 'Birthplace Country'; if you select England or Wales
you then have the option of choosing the county. Often you’ll have a pretty
good idea where your ancestor was born, but remember that county boundaries
have changed over the years. Also, because of the way the search works, if
the county was not entered by the enumerator (perhaps because it was obvious) entering a
county or even a country won't find the entry.
'Birth
Year' is somewhat misleading. The census was carried out on Sunday 3rd
April 1881, so someone whose age was shown as 10 on the census form would most
likely have been born in 1870 rather than 1871 - but the search assumes the
latter. In any case, ages were often estimated, exaggerated, or wrongly reported,
so it’s usually best to specify a range of plus or minus 2 years.
If you
specify the 'Census Country' as either England or Wales you then have the
option of choosing the county (and the town or village too). But even if you
think you know where someone lived, remember that they might have been staying
away from home on census night - and for perfectly innocent reasons!
Unless your
ancestor had a very common name - in which case a search could throw up
thousands of possible matches - it’s often better to specify the minimum of
information. You can always refine your search later if it throws up too many
matches.
And, as a last resort...
If you are
unable, despite making enquiries in the family to discover sufficient details
about your ancestors to identify any of them on the 1881 census, then you may
have to start with the 1901 census and work back.
BIRTH, MARRIAGE & DEATH CERTIFICATES
If you’re
lucky, you may find that some of the certificates for your ancestors have
survived, and are still held within the family. However copy certificates can
be obtained, although they will cost you £7.00 each. For an
introductory guide to Birth, Marriage, and Death certificates visit the
official site www.familyrecords.gov.uk/topics/bmd.htm which not only
tells you how to obtain certificates, but also details the information you can
expect to find. Marriage certificates in particular can be a goldmine of
information, providing not just the bride’s maiden name, but also the names and
professions of both fathers. Even the names of the witnesses can provide
valuable leads.
Although it is usual to obtain certificates from the General Register Office (GRO), if you know the registration district in which the event occurred you can visit the local Register Office. They may be able to provide you with a certificate which incorporates a facsimile of the original register entry, which in the case of a marriage will provide copies of the 'actual' signatures of your ancestors. Certificates ordered from the GRO are based on hand-copied records, so do not show actual signatures (though they will indicate whether a person signed, or made their mark).
To order certificates from the GRO you ideally need to provide the full reference, which means finding your ancestor in the indexes of Births, Marriage and Deaths. Even if you don't go ahead and order a particular certificate, just finding the event in the indexes may provide you with useful information. For example, from 1912 onwards the marriage entries show the surname of the spouse - which might be the missing piece of the jigsaw.
FreeBMD
The aim of
FreeBMD (freebmd.org.uk) is to transcribe the indexes of Births,
Marriages and Deaths for England & Wales from 1837-1983. As the name
suggests, there is no charge to use the site.
By March 2004 nearly 75 million entries had been transcribed for the years 1837-1910, and although this represents only about half of the total entries for that period, there are some years for which coverage is virtually 100%. In particular the coverage of marriages from 1866-1903 and of births from 1892-1906 is over 90%.
Although
FreeBMD lists only a proportion of the index entries, when yours is one of them it is the quickest way of finding the GRO
reference that will enable you to order a
certificate. In effect it is a more convenient version of the index books that
you can search in person at the Family Records Centre in Islington
(www.familyrecords.gov.uk/frc/).
A further
advantage of FreeBMD is that it often makes it possible to discover who the
second party was to a marriage which took place before 1912 (for later
marriages the spouse’s surname is part of the index entry). Prior to 1852 only
four marriages have the same page reference, and thereafter there were usually
only two to a page. Provided you know the first name of the bride, there’s a
good chance of being able to find out her maiden name without going to the
expense of ordering the marriage certificate.
Findmypast
Because FreeBMD's coverage is incomplete you may find only half of the entries you are seeking. Fortunately there is a site which offers online access to the entire indexes of Births, Marriages, and Deaths from 1837-2002. findmypast (www.findmypast.com) is not free, but for most people it is the best value option, as well as the most convenient one. A big plus is that the pages you view can be saved and/or printed.
FamilyRelatives
For the period from 1866-1920 the FamilyRelatives site (www.familyrelatives.org)
has a complete index of births, marriages, and deaths that you can search on first name and last name.
FAMILY TREE SOFTWARE
There are many family tree programs, some of which are available free, such as Personal Ancestral File which can be downloaded
from www.familysearch.org.
Family Historian
(www.family-historian.co.uk) is not free, but has received rave reviews - it is
also a British program written with local requirements in mind. It has an active user support forum to which the program's author frequently contributes.
All of these programs, even the free ones, will allow you to create family trees on
screen, and print them out. All support GEDCOM files (GEDCOM is the standard
format for the interchange of genealogical data), and it is worth noting that Family Historian uses the GEDCOM file format itself, so no file conversion is necessary.
THE NEXT STAGE
Although
finding your ancestors on the 1881 census is quite a satisfying achievement in
itself, having begun to research your family history you may want to go further
still. Perhaps the best guide is Ancestral Trails, a book by Mark D Herber
that is published by Sutton Publishing in association with the Society of
Genealogists. Many of the genealogical
resources on the Internet are US-orientated, but despite his American-sounding
name, Mark Herber is not only English, but has an extensive family tree to
prove it!
The Genealogist's Internet by Peter Christian is another valuable book which offers a superb guide to the ever-expanding
resources online. It is regularly updated, and the latest edition is the first to feature LostCousins.
As you work backwards from 1881 parish registers become an invaluable source of information, especially before 1837 when civil registration of births, marriage, and deaths was introduced. Most parish registers are held in county Records Offices or Archives, and can usually be searched - typically on microfilm or microfiche - free of charge. Other sources of information include wills, directories, and churchyard inscriptions. Visit the GENUKI site (www.genuki.org.uk) to find the addresses of Records Offices and Archives in each county.
The FamilySearch
site (www.familysearch.org) not only provides online access to the 1881 census
but also to other resources which have been compiled by researchers, including
the International Genealogical Index (IGI). The information varies in quality,
and you should therefore always check it before using it as the basis for
further research of your own, but it can provide you with leads that you would
otherwise never pick up from any other source.
When using the FamilySearch site be sure to search each resource separately - this will produce far better results.
There are
family history societies throughout the UK, and the Federation of Family
History Societies has links to the sites of member societies in England, Wales
& Ireland (www.ffhs.org.uk) whilst the Scottish Association of
Family History Societies provides links to those in Scotland. Most societies
keep lists of members interests, and some allow non-members to both search the
lists and contact members who are researching the same families (there’s
invariably going to be someone researching the same family - it’s just a
question of finding them!).
The GENUKI site (www.genuki.org.uk) is a virtual reference library of genealogical information with
links to other websites that cover every part of the British Isles. It also has
an informative section called 'Getting started in genealogy' which offers
excellent advice and information for the beginner.
TRACE YOUR 'LOST COUSINS'
In almost every branch of every family there's someone researching family history. Each will have a different starting point, and a different perspective, each will make different discoveries. Just imagine if all the people researching the same ancestors could pool their knowledge!
The Lost Cousins web-site is the answer. Using a proprietary method it links together distant cousins who have long since lost touch - if they ever knew the other existed. And unlike some other web-sites that I won't mention, it virtually guarantees that the people who meet up really are related.
USEFUL ADDRESSES
Family Records Centre, Myddelton Street, Islington (open Monday to Saturday)
General Register Office, PO Box 2, Southport, Merseyside PR8 2JD (mail order & online only)
London Metropolitan Archive, 40 Northampton Road, London EC1 (open Monday to Friday)
USEFUL WEB-SITES
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