Genealogy Chat

I'm new to all of this and I've been wondering, do I have to keep buying birth and marriage certificates to trace people? Are there cheaper ways of tracing people - otherwise this is going to be a very expensive hobby!

No -there are a few sites that hold a lot of info ancestry (.) co (.) uk freebmd freepages family search org 1837 online and also asking for help from other genes members has proved a great success as people are really helpful. Good luck with all of your searches, Juliana x

It depends where your relatives lived and everyone on here is very helpful so fire away with a question. Rosalyn

Heidi www.familysearch.org does have a lot of records, but they do need to be checked with the original parish registers. You can look free on the 1881 census on that website as well, which will group families and give approximate dates as well as places of birth. nell

Hi, This can be a very expensive hobby. Sometimes the only way to be sure is to buy the certs and the costs mount up. Once you are hooked you then start buying wills, census CDs, parish records books on local history etc. Run now while you still can! Gwynne

Thanks very much everyone. I just needed a clearer picture on this. Looks like I've got several hours waiting to be filled doing these searches. However, GBP7 for each cert, can that really be justified?!

Ok, start with your parents and work backwards. Once you get before 1901 you can start tracing people on censuses. Let us know how far back you are and what you need to know. However, there does come a point where to prove a connection or find out a mothers maiden name or a father you will want to buy birth certs or marriage certs. You may want to subscribe to ancestry too. At about £70 a year it is well worth it as you can look up your ancestors and rellies 24/7 for yourself. To be honest, as hobbies go, its really not that expensive. Ancestry at about £1.20 a week and say even if it was one cert a month (which you probably wont do) - another £1.50 a week. £2.70 a week for a really interesting past time which gives you and your family so much satisfaction?? Cheaper than golf, a gym, the cinema or a drink down the pub, eh? PS I love your "several hours" doing the research. Youll find you do that many hours a day when you are hooked.

And sometimes you get info from a cert which is a big clue - it might be an address, a witness on a wedding cert, an informant on a death cert - which helps you to find out more. nell

No you don't have to buy all the certificate, but if you want to prove your family and not go off on a wrong line it is worth it. Just keep to the main lines of the family, ie parents for now. Try and get as much information before you buy one though. Looking and the childrens names will give clues (sometimes!). Look at the census as many as possible this does really help. It would be nice to get all the certificates at once but like most of us, we space it out unless we want bread and water for a week. The main thing is to enjoy, only get what you need. I still get that thrill when a certificate comes throught the door and thats after 4 years. Irene