Genealogy Chat

Can anyone give me some advice about where to look for information on relatives born before 1837. I am now stuck.

Thanks in advance

Have you tried the IGI at www.familysearch.org?

If not, try google, put "whereever parish records" and see what come up.

If still no luck, you need to check the parish records at the County Records Office for the relevant area.

Sam x

If they are still alive in 1841, the census can be helpful, and later censuses even more so. They can give a possible place of birth, although not always correct, but if it is, then the parish records are the place, preferably a film of the original, rather than a transcript, which can have errors.

Parish records can also contain errors though. My gt grandfathers 3 younger siblings were bapt together, luckily the register gave dates of birth as well as date of bapt otherwise I would have thought they were triplets. The problem is that gt granddad John was named as the father instead of his father William. I guess the vicar or deacon or whoever wrote it up got a bit confused. I had previously found the family on a census, so I knew who the father was.

It really depends very much where your folk are from. Scotland have a very good coverage on the IGI and because most of their coverage is taken directly from parish registers then there is a good chance of accuracy, barring transcription errors!

Ireland has a very poor coverage on IGI as Bishops often refused oermission for LDS to film registers.

England has spasmodic coverage with many counties sparsely represented. Northants has a poor coverage and only one of mine from all my Northants lot are on the IGI.

Wales, I have no knowledge.

You can use the IGI for starters if you can find your ancestors on there, but there is nothing like doing your own work at the CRO from where your ancestors came, as you not only get parish registers but also the Wills, Settlement Certs, Militia Lists, Apprenticeship Docs and so many other docs that will put flesh on the skeleton. You can belong to the local FHS from where your ancestors came, and belong to an FHS near where you live and go to their lectures/talks to help you further as well as meeting like minded people. Through the FHS you can pick up their CD's/books/fiche and other publications that have already been done. You can also purchase books on your villages/towns of interest and look on A2A for further help as to where to go. You can look at Tithe maps and see who owned the land where your ancestors lived. There is no shortage of places to go once back beyond 1837, just shortage of time! The FHS have list of interests where you can list yours and follow up on other peoples, a much better "hotmatch" than GR can offer.

Janet North London Borders