Genealogy

[pokefast]

I'm very interested in the above topic,and i'm gonna start researching my family history.

However i'm a little stumped as to where to begin searching.

I've got as far as my great grandparents on my mothers side,but no further.

My mum has been great,but my dad not so,he doesn't think i should do this ( for reasons he won't or can't give ) but i have decided its something i'm going to try and do,but obv won't broach the subject again with my dad as i don't want to upset him.

All my grandparents are dead now,and my mum has given me all the info and photo's etc that she can,so i really don't know where to go next.

Has anyone researched their family history?

Any advice/help would be greatly appreciated.

[Jon MW]

The 20th century is the hard bit.

Look at www.findmypast.com first

For the 20th century you need to tie up marriage dates and birth dates to work your way back, this can require a lot of browsing - and if you have a surname which doesn't leave unique results in this kind of search then you're going to need other resources to verify you have the right people.

Once you get back to 1911 you can use the census reports to work your way back to the beginning of the 19th century,  findmypast is working on these - but currently www.ancestry.co.uk have the best records.

There are other records - most obviously death (which can be handy for the 20th century to find the birth years for some people you're not sure of), and there are other sites - but that should give you a backbone of information to fill out your research with, and whilst you're doing this bit you'll just come across other stuff and naturally learn more about how to use the other resources available.

[curnow]

ancestry.co.uk , membership not cheap but does give you all census apart from 1911 to check out + lot more , findmypast has the 1911 census

start with grandparents birth certificates if you have them , should give names to check ie maden names / places , freebmd.co.uk can help you with searches for births/marriages/deaths  , you should be able to get back to around 1800 pretty easy

genesreunited.co.uk should find usefull as well

[pokefast]

Thanks Jon. I'll have a look at those now.

I have a not too common surname (  last time i checked their were only 2 of us in Coventry my uncle and i ) so hopefully that should help.

[pokefast]

ancestry.co.uk , membership not cheap but does give you all census apart from 1911 to check out + lot more , findmypast has the 1911 census

start with grandparents birth certificates if you have them , should give names to check ie maden names / places , freebmd.co.uk can help you with searches for births/marriages/deaths  , you should be able to get back to around 1800 pretty easy

genesreunited.co.uk should find usefull as well

Thanks mate. I have my grandmothers maiden name on my mum's side but not my dad's.

[Claw75]

i did the two week free trial on ancestry a while back and got as far back as three sets of great grandparents, but all got a bit wooly after that. if you're prepared to fork out for copies of certificates and stuff though, then it shouldn't be too difficult I would have thought.

[pokefast]

i did the two week free trial on ancestry a while back and got as far back as three sets of great grandparents, but all got a bit wooly after that. if you're prepared to fork out for copies of certificates and stuff though, then it shouldn't be too difficult I would have thought.

Yeah i've set some money aside for this and don't have anything to do till January,so i'm going to crack on with this.

I hope to get as many certificates etc as i can so i can have something decent to pass onto my son whan he's older.

[Jon MW]

i did the two week free trial on ancestry a while back and got as far back as three sets of great grandparents, but all got a bit wooly after that. if you're prepared to fork out for copies of certificates and stuff though, then it shouldn't be too difficult I would have thought.

Yeah i've set some money aside for this and don't have anything to do till January,so i'm going to crack on with this.

I hope to get as many certificates etc as i can so i can have something decent to pass onto my son whan he's older.

It can get expensive. I'd advise, do what you can without ordering certificates, then order the certificates that you know will definitely help your research - then fill in the gaps.

And when you order any certificates, try and be as certain as possible that you have the right person - after you've done the research, paid for it and waited around for it to arrive - finding out it's the wrong person is a bit crushing.

[pokefast]

i did the two week free trial on ancestry a while back and got as far back as three sets of great grandparents, but all got a bit wooly after that. if you're prepared to fork out for copies of certificates and stuff though, then it shouldn't be too difficult I would have thought.

Yeah i've set some money aside for this and don't have anything to do till January,so i'm going to crack on with this.

I hope to get as many certificates etc as i can so i can have something decent to pass onto my son whan he's older.

It can get expensive. I'd advise, do what you can without ordering certificates, then order the certificates that you know will definitely help your research - then fill in the gaps.

And when you order any certificates, try and be as certain as possible that you have the right person - after you've done the research, paid for it and waited around for it to arrive - finding out it's the wrong person is a bit crushing.

Yeah good advice.

On another note,how much info will i be able to find out?

Would these census tell me occupations etc?

[Jon MW]

i did the two week free trial on ancestry a while back and got as far back as three sets of great grandparents, but all got a bit wooly after that. if you're prepared to fork out for copies of certificates and stuff though, then it shouldn't be too difficult I would have thought.

Yeah i've set some money aside for this and don't have anything to do till January,so i'm going to crack on with this.

I hope to get as many certificates etc as i can so i can have something decent to pass onto my son whan he's older.

It can get expensive. I'd advise, do what you can without ordering certificates, then order the certificates that you know will definitely help your research - then fill in the gaps.

And when you order any certificates, try and be as certain as possible that you have the right person - after you've done the research, paid for it and waited around for it to arrive - finding out it's the wrong person is a bit crushing.

Yeah good advice.

On another note,how much info will i be able to find out?

Would these census tell me occupations etc?

If you go to either Ancestry or findmypast (or both to have a see how they look), the transcriptions of the 1881 census are free.

The different censuses provide slightly different info - generally they provide more and more the later it gets - but basically they have name, age, where born and occupation - and relation to the head of the household.

[Jon MW]

Look for your surname on the 1881 census - see how many there are, that can give you an idea how hard it's going to be

Obviously you then have to work back from what you currently have to see if you can match up with any of those results.

[curnow]

Family Tree Maker is a family history program , that you can put your family tree on and when purchasing it can get free membership to Ancestry.co.uk for 3 months

genes reunited is maybe the cheapest way by contacting someone with same names as yourself & copying them but so many have got it wrong on there & you find it better to do the work yourself ,

http://www.genuki.org.uk/ is a useful site as well as is rootsweb , ancestry has the 1881 census to search for free , l

[pokefast]

Look for your surname on the 1881 census - see how many there are, that can give you an idea how hard it's going to be

Obviously you then have to work back from what you currently have to see if you can match up with any of those results.

Good heavens above in Warwickshire alone in 1881 there were 9 pages worth!

[G1BTW]

Can't bring myself to put my DOB and mother's maiden name into a random website

[Laxie]

Trying to track them down when you're from America sure is fun.  Especially as it all leads back to various European countries in the end.