Find Ancestors

I don`t think you mentioned the Scottish Records office -.www.scotlandspeople .gov.uk-very good site. Rosalyn

nudge

Thank you June!

This obviously isn't being read....

this is to important to allow it to slip off the page nudge nudge

Another tip which would help you is, know what you want! Its all very well having a name and wanting to know everything about that person, but the truth is you won't. Also, where do you start? There are so many records that might be of use to you! What you really need to do is when you have someone you want to know more about, make a list of what you have on a piece of paper. Do you have their baptism? marriage? burial? If the person was around after 1837 maybe theres a birth, marriage or death certificate you can get for them. Added to that there are census returns, electoral registers, trade directories etc that might be of use. Were they in the army? navy? airforce? Were they in a profession that might have had registers, such as minutes from meetings or union records? Was the person ever in the poor house? Have you found maps to look at for the addresses you know they were at? The list is endless! You must always start with what you know! When you've made a list of what you have, make a list of what you want on a piece of paper. Be specific with yourself! Once you know what you want, find out if its possible to get records in regards to that. Then you're ready to start asking for lookups :)

Benjamin - Those are great tips! Thank you so much for sharing them with everyone. They are really useful.

On the subject of censuses, ages werent always accurate, of course, and some people just didnt know exactly how old they were. Also birthplaces were also unreliable, and sometimes people didnt know exactly where they were born and were bought up in a different part of the country to where they were born and put their birthplace as where they grew up. Also if you find an ancestor who was married under the mums maiden name and the father married the mother a few months later, it is possible the man who the mother married might not of been the child's real father.

Here are also a few other genealogy tips and hints. Never be thrown off balance by inconsistencies in names or ages especially in censuses or marriage certs. ie, the surname Knott might of been transcribed as Nott, and if for example, you think you ancestor was James Knott, born in 1850 in Holborn, London, but there is no record of a James Knott born in 1850 in Holborn but there is of a James Nott, dont discard that entry, as it was in the old days the case of spell it as you hear it. Also someone who was bought up by their uncle might of put their uncles name as their fathers name on marriage cert, and someone called Tom Smith might of been known as John Edwards. And if you cannot find an ancestor in a particular census, the it could be it was mistranscribed, your ancestor was abroad, or the enumerator simply missed the house or street they were living down, or the census page for that street is missing itself. That has happened to me in 1861 London census.

IGI - Although the familysearch.org webiste is an incredibly useful website, users should be aware of one or two things. First of all it is NOT a complete database of parish records. It holds no parish burial records and some churches have withheld their records from the Mormon church who set up this website. Not only that but not all parish records that they do have have been transcribed. Watch out for patron submissions! These are not always accurate (they don't need to be for the purposes they were made). Always check the source of the record you're interested in so you can check it up or mark it as suspect. To do this click the word 'Source' at the bottom of the record and read what it says.

Parish record lookups - Please be specific about which church and which parish you want lookups doing in! Some towns and cities have more than one church and so trying to find the information will be difficult. Just put what you know and if you don't know anymore, put in your original request that that is all the information you have. One way of finding out a parish might be by ordering a marriage certificate to see if the couple were using a specific church. Another way is by taking note of the parish under which the family were living in the nearest census to the period you're interested in. This is usually in the top right hand page of the census return.

If anyone is interested in adding some hints and tips to this thread please do! We could really do with some regarding the following topics *Wills & probate *Adoption - isn't there a specific service that deals with this? It would be worth adding it onto here *US records As well as any you think would be useful. Thanks!

Thanks to everyone who has beem bumping this topic! If everyone, once they have read it, bumps it up (see one of the above posts about how to bump messages) then I'd be really grateful!

Another useful tip - The only way of getting information about an entry in the GRO records is to send off for that certificate. A birth certificate will contain the following information :- Date & place of birth Child's name and gender Father's name (if available) Father's occupation (if available) Mother's name and maiden name Mark or signature of informant A marriage certificate will contain:- Date & place of marriage Groom's name, age, stauts (e.g. Bachelor or Widower), occupation and address Groom's father's name and occupation Bride's name, age, status (e.g. Spinster or Widow), occupation and address Bride's father's name and occupation Names of 2 witnesses and their mark or signature A Death certificate will contain:- Date and place of death Deceased's name, gender and age Deceased's occupation (or the occupation of nearest relative e.g. father or spouse and their relationship to the deceased) Cause of death and whether or not a doctor was present Signature, description and residence of informant Date when death was registered Certificates are only available after the start of civil registration You can order your certificates here http://www.gro.(gov.u) k/gro/ (content)/ Costs for ordering certificates can be found here http://www.gro.gov(.) uk/gro/(content) /births/(obtainingbirthcertificates) /certificatefees(.asp) Remove the brackets for the address

Thanks Rita :) Unfortunately I've just started a new job so my time has become somewhat limited! Otherwise I'd gladly look for your ancestors. Best of luck with the research!

HI SARAH WHAT A CLEVER GIRL!!!! AS A NEW COMER TO GR. I,V FOUND WHAT YOU,VE WRITTEN VERY HELPFUL AND IMFORMATIVE, NOW IF YOU CAN FIND ALL MY ANCESTORS AND RELATIVES, I COULD GET BACK TO MY HOUSEWORK, COOKING,GARDENING, AND HUSBAND TRAINING BACK ON TRACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CHEERS RITA

Thanks Lyla :) Thats really helpful info!

Some handy hints and facts about Births. Marriages and Deaths Civil registration did not begin until late 1837. Before this time births, marriages and deaths can all be found in the parish records. You cannot get certificates before civil registration begins. For the purposes of civil registration the year is split into 4 quarters.These 4 quarters are called March quarter, June, quarter, September quarter and December quarter. Each quarter covers registrations in the two months before the month after which the quarter is named as well as that month e.g. March quarter covers registrations in January, February and March. Only marriages that occur after civil registration begins will have details of married couple's address, age, occupation and father's names and occupations. Parish marriages before civil registration only list the couple's names and the day they married. Parish burials only give the name of the deceased, their age and where they were living (usually only the village). Sometimes you can be lucky and the reason for their death is added along with other titbits, but this is rare. Even after the introduction of civil registration not all births, marriages and deaths were registered despite fines and other incentives :) Late registration does occur and so your ancestor might be in a different quarter from the one you expect! If you can't find the birth of an ancestor it might be that they were illegitimate. Illegitimate children were often registered under their mother's name. Of full age on a marriage certificate means that the person was 21 or over. Be careful when using ages from marriage certificates. Brides in particular would pretend to be older than they were to get married! As a general rule of thumb when trying to work back how old a bride or groom might have been if they have lied is to work out a rough age range that they could be. The youngest they are likely to be is 16. It was however legal for girls aged 12 and boys aged 14 to marry back in the 19th century!

Thanks Heather! I forgot about that one :) And just to add a quick note about surnames. If you know that there are a few different spellings of the surname you're looking up that have been used, be sure to provide them as possible alternatives! You never know when they will crop up under one spelling or another!

Hi Sarah On the other thread, you had a note about alternative spellings of a surname........it's very useful to have this information where there is an index to search so could you paste it on here please? Heather