Genealogy Chat

after a mammoth night of searching, (till 6-40 this morning) ive managed to get back as far as 1765 on my mums dads side and 1776 on my dads dads side how far further back can I get? how would I get further back? just by christenings? Thank u very much for any help Luv Angie xxx

Christenings and marriages can take you back to as far as 1200's in some cases, but I think you need to visit the Records Offices to see the entries. If you have done all that work in one night .... without a single certificate to proove your findings, I would be very wary of the tree you have built. Good Luck Elaine ;-)

In one night??? How did you manage that! You do need to get certificates to be sure of your facts. I hope you didnt rely on the IGI - I see you have another thread re that on here. My earliest one is 1550 and a marriage in Sussex. I doubt if I will ever get back any further.

There was a thread about this a while ago which I will nudge for you. You may be lucky if you have an unusual name with baptisms and weddings. A lot are at family search.org. If your family was well off. wills and property deeds are a good source of information. Go to the a2a access to archives site and try searching by family name or village and see if anything turns up. Another good place to try is family history on line which is not free but only costs about 10p a look up. It has a lot of burials. Goodluck and well done for getting as far.

Hi everyone thank u for all ya advice and help xxxxxx Most of my mums dads side has been confirmed by my mum & Aunt (my Aunt has a family bible and crossed matched it this morning for me) mums dads side was i admit a lot easier to trace back as my great grandads name is Alonzo Walter Binch which is very unusual and he is the only Alonzo born in Nottingham in 1873 (or around that time)(does help sometimes to have beautiful unusual names lol) Dads mmmmm is trickier I must admit my nannas ive given up on totally as im not brainy enough to sort the mess out. I did get confused on dads dads side as in one census it said that they were all British Subjects!!!!!! why it said this I have no idea as I have found all thier christenings marriage births etc and they were born in this country. I have proof now that the James Webb born 1860 at Weybridge is really my great grandad. Its when you hit a block like saying weird stuff on some census's that I get stuck. Am I doing it right tho? im learning all the time (but still cant understand quite a lot of things and feel daft keep asking Q's when the answers prob straight forward) Luv Angie xxxxxxx

One brick at a time is always a good move. Starting with you and working back a generation at a time, make sure you're certain of each person in your tree. It's surprising how easily 'facts' can get mangled. My dad's uncle died in WW1, but not when and where my dad said. It only takes one dud 'fact' and everything that links to it is firewood. Second marriages, illegitimate births and adoptions can all make the fact-finding more complicated. Some of the people here have spent years carefully polishing each little twig in their tree and are absolutely certain of their ancestry. Big isn't always beautiful!! J

Be careful not to go along the line of an identical named cousin or other member of the extended family! I have sisters Isabella and Ann Brown, who both married a John Abell (cousins removed) and then Jane Abell, daughter of one couple, married a nephew of the other couple - took 2 trips to the record office and a will to really sort out the connection. I also have one ancestress where both her grandmothers were called Mary Todd, both married in the same year and same place, but neither of them born there. I have traced one by a will, but there are loads of possibles for the other, and thats just using IGI as a start point. Jay

Well done Angela.