Genealogy Chat

Wills are a good place to start. They are filled with all sorts of info.
Prior to 1858 they are downloadable from

www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

While you're there, search by surnames, addresses etc
If you're lucky, it could throw up all sorts of stuff.

Also be aware that some schools still hold their own admission books so may be worth contacting schools in the area. You can find them from the local authority website or by searching on Friends reunited.

Youu could contact the local museum, archives for photos and there are loads of websites for images, maps etc.

I looked into schools

It is a catch 22 really - some records are held at LMA but obviously not indexed in anyway, so basically they said one would really need to be sure of which school ancestors went to as it would be very costly and time consuming to go through several of the 'possibilities'.

Must be a way to track this down but I haven't found it yet.

Quite a lot of parishes did research for the Millennium and a lot of books and booklets were produced on local history.

There are all sorts of facinating records once you start hunting but you need to think creatively. I get a bit obsessive sometimes and once spent weeks looking into every entry on Google for one of my surnames (thankfully a rare one).

Land records, prison records, apprenticeships, newspapers and all sorts can be great sources.

Sue

Only this w/end while watching TV, there was a prog on mentioning about 'Malster journeyman'
(I think it was about the Victorians? not sure)

They showed how the Malster worked and showed where he worked and what was invovled in his work.
I was fasinated as my Great great Grandfather was a Malster journeyman. Daniel Overs/Hovers b1830-d1876

I was never quite sure what a malster was before seeing this. I only knew it was something to do with the making of beer.
Boy! did he work hard or what!!

My advice is....watch any History progs on TV.
You never know....you could get lucky as i did.

Gerri

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It has been said before that a useful aid to finding people between census returns are the town and county directories like Kellys and Whites.Have you had a look at the Historical Directories site where loads of directories are online.Ancestry also have started putting them online.

Mike S

Well, first advice is to google for everything - getting photos of churches where they married, streets where they lived, school records,the type of work they did, insurance policies, google their names and the area and you may find a tree for them or records like workhouses, settlement certs or so on. Think of every possible thing that surrounded their lives and then google for that. If they were in London area, try Old Bailey online. Try to look for Wills - SOME up to 1858 on National Archives. You have ancestry? Try ww1 records and so on, just use your imagination as to what they may have done, seen, been and google.

Im enjoying this so much and I would like to take my research a little bit further for each person. I've got basic things like census records and things like. Has anybody looked in to schools and what they were doing inbetween the census'.

Trouble is I never know where to look and I get a bit stuck. Any Advice? :-)