Genealogy Chat

Pete, useful censuses only began in 1841 so they won't help you go back further. They will, however, help confirm what you have already found out. Pre-1837 you are in parish records territory. This is fine for a small village as usually there's only one church, but for, say, London, it can be a struggle just to confirm which parish to start with. Parish records are either in the church itself or the local Record Office. There are also CDs of the National Burial Index and Vital Records (baptisms and marriages) which are patchy and fairly expensive. Some counties have an Online Parish Clerk scheme of volunteers who have access to some transcripts of records. Again you need to know the parish, names and the rough date of whatever even you're looking for.

Hi, Are you new to family research? if so, remember that you have to confirm what you find on IGI etc, by obtaining BMD certificates etc, there are quite a number of errors on the IGI, though the births/marriages that have been extracted from the parish records should be ok, but anything entered by a member of the church really should be checked, to make sure you are on the right track. Much of the census information is already on line, some free some you have to pay for, but anyone who has membership to Ancestry (UK) would look up anything for you I`m sure (I would too) as long as you supply names and areas, date of birth if you have it, Scotland of course is a different kettle of fish, if you have any ancestors there then this is a pay to view site, but very very good value, since you can also obtain a copy of the BMD certificates, these cost 5 credits (about 50p) quite a difference in comparison to paying bt £7 for a cert. Do you want a look up for a census (up to 1901 this has for some areas recently been included on Ancestry) also 1871, 1881 can of course be accessed from the Mormon site free, do you know their web number, If I can help, let me know Maud

Traced my family name (Fathers side) back to c1790 using FreeBMD Genes Reunited and FamilySearch Internet, not sure what to do next, do I buy a Cencus CD if so which one are split into different areas as well as years? Any help appreciated. Pete.