Free Genealogy & Family History Help
Written by Angela Gooch on May 28th, 2007 in Family History.
Starting your Family Tree
Keep Records
It is important to record every piece of information gathered AND its source immediately, as when you’ve inspected 1001 records, you will forget what you have already covered!
Choose how you want to record your tree. Computer program, build an on line tree, or a hard copy. Remember to SAVE.
Start With Yourself
Your own home and your parent’s home will be a hive of BMD (Birth Marriage Death certificates, newspaper clippings, old letters and photographs (your library should have books on how to date old photos).
Begin by recording your immediate family.
If you’re using software, many of them will allow you to add images to each person’s field, so scan in all the documents and photos that you acquire.
Interview Elderly Family Members
Great Aunt Ada will love chatting about her mother or grandmother and will enjoy telling you about the happy days they had on Skegness beach when she was a little girl in 190-blob.
Try to steer the conversation towards facts and figures, particularly the occupation and birthplaces/dates of family members, as these will provide useful cross references. Better still, ask if you can record the interview.
Ask to see any BMD certificates/photos/clippings she may have and record the facts. She may let you borrow them to scan in.
Looking Elsewhere
You should now have got a good start to your tree but eventually you will exhaust domestic sources and will have to broaden your search.
Before this, it is useful to know what resources are available to you and what information is yielded by them.
Resources
BMD Certificates
From the year 1837 to present, civil records were kept of EVERY birth marriage and death.
These are kept at the GRO. Copies of the certificates can be obtained either directly from the GRO (via the 1837on line website) or from the district office where the event was registered. The current cost is £7 per certificate, and the process takes about two weeks.
The GRO website contains EVERY BMD available on a pay per view basis.
On finding your event, there is a reference number which you will need to order your certificate.
The certificates are invaluable as they give lots of information,
Websites like ancestry.co.uk and freeBMD have searchable records for BMD events but the transcribing process is still ongoing and is therefore incomplete.
Censuses
A census was taken every ten years beginning in 1841, the last one was in the year 2001. Due to privacy restrictions, these cannot be available for public viewing unless 100 years have elapsed. This means that in 2001, the 1901 census became public so Family Historians can now consult every census between 1841 and 1901.
Information on the 1841 census is fairly spartan but the remaining ones give quite a lot of detail.
The enumerator visited each house in his allocated district recording details of it’s occupants on a given night.
The information was then written on official forms which were then collated. (Take into consideration that most of the population could not write, which accounts for some deviation in the spellings of names. Ages in the earlier censuses were often rounded to the nearest 5)
Accessing the censuses
The censuses are kept at the archives usually in each county, eg the Lincolnshire Archives in Lincoln.
Local libraries usually keep copies of local censuses, eg Skegness Library or Alford.
These are either on microfilm or microfiche. Special readers are required.
Censuses for each county/year are available on CD-Rom and these can be bought from on line genealogical suppliers.
Several websites have made the censuses from 1861 available and searchable on line, although you may have to subscribe to access some of the records.
Newspapers
Libraries keep old editions of newspapers, often from the late nineteenth century. These can be invaluable for birth, marriage and death announcements.
Summary
So far we have discovered that in consulting BMD certificates and census reports, it is possible to trace ancestors back to the early 1800’s.
To trace back further, we have to use other resources.
IGI (International Genealogical Index)
The International Genealogical Index was compiled by the Latter Day Saints from parish records, and some of the records may go back to about the 1500’s. It is available on microfiche and held at the archives. Alternatively, the whole index is on line and fully searchable on the LDS website.
Free Census Lookups
I am an experienced genealogist and can offer lookups and supply documents from the following censuses
1841 England Census
1841 Wales Census
1851 England Census
1851 Wales Census
1861 England Census
1861 Wales Census
1861 Isle of Man Census
1861 Channel Islands Census
1871 England Census
1871 Wales Census
1871 Isle of Man Census
1871 Channel Islands Census
1881 England Census
1881 Wales Census
1881 Isle of Man Census
1881 Channel Islands Census
1891 England Census
1891 Wales Census
1891 Isle of Man Census
1891 Channel Islands Census
1901 England Census
1901 Wales Census
1901 Isle of Man Census
1901 Channel Islands Census
Instructions for placing a request:-
Post the following information in the comments box.
1. census year
2. census country
3. first name
4. surname
5. age on census
6. birthplace if known
7. county/town of residence
Genealogy Links
Ancestry.co.uk
FreeBmd
IGI Records
Search Church Records
1837on line
Post Your Appeal
You can post an appeal for family members or friends, or free genealogy help requests in the comments box at the foot of the page,
Ask an Expert
I am a genealogist with around 15 years experience. I have been helping individuals trace their ancestors for sometime now, normally quite successfully.
I led a genealogy workshop at the Skegness Library in
May 2005.
If you need any help with your research, post a message on the board. I aim to respond within 24 hours.
This is a free community service.
Resources I am able to search:
- England and Wales Censuses 1831 (Sheffield only) to 1901
- National Burial Index
- Birth Marriage Death Records (from 1837 to present) supplying reference numbers for you to order certificates)
- Pallot’s Marriage Index
- 2001 and 2004 United Kingdom Electoral Roll
- International Genealogical Index
- English Church Records for Births/Marriages (not Deaths)
- Servicemen (and women) lost in World Wars 1 and 2
- English Archive Newsreel (requires exact keywords)
Sample Certificates and Census
sample birth certificate
sample marriage certificate
sample census report
sample family tree
Good Hunting!
December 13th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
My grandfather, Arthur Garrett was said to be born in Paddington on 5 January 1869. He was a pauper in Workhouse chargeable to Paddington and on 18 November 1875 at the age of 6 years he was at the West London School at Ashford in Middlesex for several years before going to the training ship Exmouth. In the remarks coloum of the Register it says “Mother in Prison”. The next entry for Arthur Garrett in the register shows his discharge from the West Londonschool together with other members of the family. In the remarks column it says “Mother in prison, supposed to have gone”. My immediate aim is to establish the true identity of Arthur’s (both) parents; ie a birth/baptism certificate that shows his parents names. Can you help? If so, inform me of your conditions and I will forward further information if required. Harry Garrett