Single hen

[Sunshine]

I have just started helping my grandma with our family tree on my mum's side. We have signed up for a 14 free trial at Ancestry.com which seems quite good so far.

 

I was just wondering if anyone had any tips for researching. I only have one grandma still alive and no great grandparents so i have realised what an asset she is to the family and knowing family history so i want to find as much out as possible while she is still with us. On the other side i have no grandparents so its proving more difficult to research my dad's side as i didn't have as much info when i started. Not sure where to go now as i have tried searching family members on Ancestry but i can't seem to find them as i don't have much info.

 

I have found it really interesting so far and i love finding out where my family lived/came from and what jobs they did. On my mum's side the are pretty much all from Cheshire/Lancs and loads have been Pattern Card Makers or dressmakers. However on my dad's side i found out that my great grandpa went to Canada to fight in the war and then got married there and then came back to England( i have no luck finding him on Ancestry)

 

So any tips/advice on family trees?

 

Emma

[jackiepoppies]

Good luck Sunshine.

 

It's lovely to know your roots.

 

As an adopted person, I found it was always difficult when people want to know your family history, i.e. medical or when you're applying for jobs

 

Jx

[Lisa]

Hi Sinshine,

 

It is great fun! I think I have managed to get back to the early 1500's on two branches of my family tree but have struggled with others. I have got to plan all my lessons this evening but I will contact you at the weekend and give you all the website etc I have found useful then. I have wanted to try the Ancestry web site myself but have not had a clear time to be able to make best use of it. I would be interested in your opinion of it!

 

Till then

[chooklady]

The most recent history is sometimes the hardest to find, lots of records have to be 100 years old before it is released.

 

Get as much info from your Grandma as possible, make sure you record the things she tells you and make sure you record names etc from documents the way they are written down, not the way you think they should be so that you canfind them again at a leter date.

 

You can build a tree on http://www.genesreunited.co.uk and you might find someone who is researching the same tree as you.

 

http://www.familysearch.com is a site I have found very helpful over the years.

 

Good luck with your research, t is very addictive, I have lost whole days to family history.

 

Best wishes

Nicola

[chickweed]

I love researching my family tree.

 

Apart from the UK census Collection, I have found the Free BMD data base for dates after 1837 and http://www.familysearch.com for dates before then the most useful sites.

I have also found information on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site www.cwgc.com

 

These sites will often find spelling variations of surnames for you too, but be prepared to use a bit of imagination with the spelling of surnames. I have found 10 variations of one surname among my ancestors

Edited March 5, 2009 by Guest

[Snowy]

Nothing useful to add I'm afraid - just to agree! Especially with getting as much info as possible - even vague recollections of sibling names will be helpful. It is difficult when you search for a name and there are several possible matches on the census. Knowing sibling names helps you to pinpoint the correct family. I've managed to go back as far as the late 1700s. I use the genes reunited site and that has been really helpful. I've found some very distant relatives and been able to use the information they have acquired on our ancesters.

[Seagazer]

I have Ancestry but have been contacted by more unknown distant relations on Genes Reunited. The best things to get are marriage certificates as then you get the fathers details of the people getting married and can search from there, this also gives you their occupation as well which is handy for checking on the census.

 

A lot of my tree has actually been passed on by other members of Genes, everybody pools information.

 

I have come to lots of full stops though and not even that far back, it is so frustrating.

 

Good luck with your search.

[Sunshine]

Thank you for all you advice its really useful to have recommendations of websites from people who have used them not just book recommendations. I'm impressed about how far lots of you seem to have got (hope i can get that far)

 

I can definately see it becoming addictive, i keep browsing the net just to look for one member of the family and then i realise its really late and i should be going to bed!

 

I have found Ancestry useful so far (and its really exciting when i find a family member and see who they were living with and where they lived!) But i have only used it for finding family members born in the 1800's, i'm not sure if they go further back than that. Marriage certificates are definately the way to go as they have lots of info on them.

 

I've heard the Scottish records are different to the English ones? As I have family roots there that at the moment are a bit of a mystery and would definately like to find out more. The only info we have is my great grandpa's date of birth and parents names.

 

Lisa, will look forward to hearing from you,

 

Emma

[chickweed]

My husband Googled his own name which happens to be the same as his great grandfather's who was a coal miner in the late 1800s. Up popped a website about a mine flooding disaster that claimed 77 lives and his great grandfather was one of the victims. He found out about a memorial stone to the disaster which we have visited and saw his great grandfather's name inscribed on it.

 

The website gave us lots of other infomation about him and his family too.

 

For some reason my husband was never told much about this side of the family and doing his family tree has been such a rewarding thing to do.

[Sunshine]

Ok I have trying to sort out family tree stuff. My bedroom floor is in such a state(my grandma has given me all her family tree stuff that she has got from various family members) So trying to make sense and sort it out is becoming a nightmare.

 

I keep coming across more info in different folders and i don't want to mix them up so maybe the next step is to scan/photocopy everyting useful and file it myself.

 

How has everyone else got theirs sorted? On paper, computer or both?

 

Emma

[Snowy]

Ok I have trying to sort out family tree stuff. My bedroom floor is in such a state(my grandma has given me all her family tree stuff that she has got from various family members) So trying to make sense and sort it out is becoming a nightmare.

 

I keep coming across more info in different folders and i don't want to mix them up so maybe the next step is to scan/photocopy everyting useful and file it myself.

 

How has everyone else got theirs sorted? On paper, computer or both?

 

Emma

 

It's worth setting up a family tree on Genes reunited or something like that. That way you can add bits of information to the correct person as you come across them. There is space for you to record where you got the info from, so you could reference all your bits of paper and put them to one side as the information is transferred. I had the same thing - loads of handwritten notes from my gran. Once I'd transferred that, I started searching the on line census info for hard facts. Some of the handwritten stuff was incorrect, but it helped me trace my mother's family back to the 1700s.

[abwsco]

Hope you don't mind me joining in but is it easy enough to stop ancestry after the 14 day trial? A friend has already given me the 1901 and 1891 census details but I'm struggling to find Birth details on BMD so was wondering if that could help me more. I've also uploaded a tree onto Gene's and there do seem to be more possible matches with other trees on there. I'm confused.

[Sunshine]

I think so, i'm half way through my trial and i'm finding it useful in that it the census's from 1841 - 1901 and the BMD index. However i've not got further back than 1841 so wished i had gone for the premium option where you can see pre 1837 parish and probate records.Although I think we will end up paying for 1 month as my grandma wants to find out as much as possible and its difficult finding the time to meet up so we will change to the premuim option.

 

When you register for the free trial you have to put in credit card details so after the 2 weeks are up they will charge your account for the amount you have selected. However all you need to do is the day before the free trial ends, go onto the website and cancel the subscription or ring up and cancel. I've got a big post it note next to my compter reminding me of the date to cancel.

 

Its definately worth signing up for the free trail though, so far i've found lots of family members on the census so its tells you their age, address, who they were living with, occupation. One part of my family only lived about 20mins from where i live now so one day soon i'm going to write down the addresses and try to find them.

 

Also i've found the 'familysearch' website useful (thank you to people who reccomended it) and have found family members on there.

 

Good luck with your search

 

Emma

[Tiggy]

I found my cousin and we get on really well I use genes reunited, my uncle had been looking for my mom, they have not seen eachother for 60 years and they were living 20 miles appart!!! I love finding out about my families lives years ago, they must have been made of much tougher stuff back then, some of the jobs they did were dreadful

[chickencam]

Good luck with your search.

 

It is really interesting to find out about your past and how occupations and interests follow through the generations.

 

My parents did quite a bit of research a few years ago and this thread has prompted me to ask them for the details, so that I can add them to my husband's family details. It would be great for the children to have a good picture of their past for when they are interested.

[Mutrix Farmers]

Hope you don't mind me joining in but is it easy enough to stop ancestry after the 14 day trial? A friend has already given me the 1901 and 1891 census details but I'm struggling to find Birth details on BMD so was wondering if that could help me more. I've also uploaded a tree onto Gene's and there do seem to be more possible matches with other trees on there. I'm confused.

 

When I joined they sent out a welcome email and on it were details of how to cancel. I didn't have a problem when the trial was over.

 

I found genesreunited invaluable help, and it led me to get in touch with my cousin who I had never met and now correspond with regularly.

[Valkyrie]

I like Genes Reunited too. I have found 3 different sets of long distant cousins, one of which is linked by my great, great grandfather. My brother does all the research and I just plot it on the tree. It's just like a jigsaw puzzle. One problem is that spellings may not always agree with the way you want it - mainly due to many people being illiterate and the officials marking things down as near as they think. Even my grandad was a pain - he told us that his mother was Jewish (she wasn't) and her middle name was not what he told us - completely different!

Another problem is that if you find an ancestor was French you may not be able to trace further, I believe that the French records are destroyed after 100 years (scuppered us there). Irish ancestors may be hard to trace because of a fire in their records office years ago. Welsh ancestors are also difficult because there are lots of people with the same names. We have Welsh, Irish and French ancestry. The English ones who stayed in the same spot are easier - except for my dad's side who seem to drift around the south of England. We have found I live only 15 minutes drive away from my great, great grandparents on one side before they went to live in London. It seems that most of mine lived outside London and then moved to the city - and all the cousins that I have had contact with have moved as far as they can away from it!

[Seagazer]

Koojie - we have had problems with Irish and Scottish ancestors as well. We're supposed to have Jewish ancestors but goodness knows how we find that out. Also if families have argued and lost contact then you lose so much information. My Dad's family are well known for arguing amongst themselves and some of them destroyed family photos and documents I would love to see a photo of my Gt Grandfather who died in WW1 but "Ooops, word censored!"ody has any because of a falling out.

 

Also the tricky problem of not being able to find a marriage certificate - that can also make tracing ancestors so, so hard. But I think that is half the fun of doing a family tree

[chickencam]

My mum rang me last night, she is going to send me copies of all the documents that she has aquired and all of the other info. When I have this I will revisit this thread to get the websites etc