Hints & Tips for Beginers

[White Knight]

Hints & Tips


Collecting unwritten records.

01. Relatives, especially elderly ones, can be a world of information: seek them out and ask as many questions of them as you can. Some times with older family members asking little but often is found easyer by the family member

02. Be polite and give them time to answer your questions. Face-to-face interviews are best but remember some people may not be as quick as you in answering, You may also use the post or telephone if necessary- or e-mail, if they have it!

03. You could ask structured questions, seeking (where known) names, dates of birth, marriage and death, places where they took place and occupations- but also ask for any interesting stories that took place.

04. Ask relatives you interview for contact details of others, enabling you to network outwards. Use websites like SGR to find possible new relatives and let their leads help you in your own research

05. Don’t just seek out older relations. Younger ones may remember things told to them by deceased relatives, and they may also have old family papers.

06. One trick for jogging the memory of someone who says they can’t remember something you want to know, is to suggest an answer you know is wrong- it’s amazing how quickly they may contradict you.

Church Records.

01 If you know a date and a place of an event, but can’t find it on normal records, Go to the church in the area known and ask if you can look in the records they have at the church just to confirm things.

02. While your at the Church you might do well to look around the grave yard and see if you can find the grave of the person you are looking for any other connections that might be found

03. If possible talk to some of the members of the church as they may know things that might help you. I found this very good one day.

04. Some church records can also be found at the library and or on the internet.


Wills after 1858.

01. All wills proved and grants of administration made after 12 January 1858 are in annual indexes at First Avenue House (42-49 High Holborn, London, WC1V 6NP, 0207 7936 7000).

02. Wills and administrations were indexed separately up to 1870, and then all in the same annual index thereafter.

03. Copies of the indexes up to 1943 can be found elsewhere on microfiche- ask at your local record office or Mormon Family History Centre.

04. If you need the death record of someone who is likely to have left a will or administration, it is generally much easier to search the probate indexes (which are annual, and give a fair amount of detail, including date of death), than the General Registration death indexes (which are indexed quarterly each year and give little detail).

05. The indexes up to 1892 state the relationship (if any) of the administrators to the deceased.

06. Postal searches cost about £5 for a four year search and a copy of the will, with about £3 for each extra four year period you want searched.

07. Postal searches can be made through the Postal Searches and Copies Department, The Probate Registry, Castle Chambers, Clifford Street, York, YO1 9RG.

08. Don’t forget that wills could be proved several years after someone died: sometimes a married person’s will would not be proved until the surviving partner died.


Census Research.

01. You can search the 1901, 1891, 1871, 1861, 1851 and 1841 census for England and Wales.

02. Places of birth given in censuses are often inaccurate so, if in doubt, check other census returns for the same person for a ‘second opinion’.

03. The poor had a great fear of being ‘moved on’ or being told to return whence they came. In censuses, many claimed to have been born where they were enumerated, even if this was not so. I have found somebody on a census that said he was born in the place the census took place, The fact is he was born over 200 miles away from said place.

04. In censuses, households were sometimes enumerated though the back door. If the people you want are not found in the street-road-avenue-cresent or way you expected, use a contemporary map to discover what the surrounding streets were and look there as well.

05. Don’t forget that, while ages were given (supposedly) accurately from 1851 onwards, those for adults in the 1841 census were mostly rounded down to the nearest five years. Someone aged 45 in the 1841 census would therefore have been born between 1796 and 1791.

06. After censuses were taken, they were analysed for statistical purposes and entries were crossed off in blue pencil. So don’t worry if your ancestor seems to have been crossed out- he’d been counted, that was all!

07. If you cannot read a place of birth or occupation in a census, look up and down the surrounding pages and see if you can find the same word or at least some of the letters written more clearly.


Birth, marriage and death records (General Registration Index).

01. You can search the General Registration Index for Births, Marriages and Deaths between 1837 and 2004 on BMD index pages


02. When searching the indexes of General Registration, remember the entries appear under the date of registration, not of the event itself. A birth on 20 December 1950 might therefore be in the index volume for the December quarter of 1950 or the March quarter of 1951.

03. On marriages certificates, you may find exact ages stated, or it may say 'minor' or 'full age'. This means the people concerned were under or over 21 respectively. But beware- if people wanted to marry without parental consent they sometimes just told an untruth and said they were older than they really were.

04. On marriage certificates the fathers are sometimes stated to be 'deceased'. However, there are many cases when the father was dead, but his child's certificate does not say so. Equally, people who said their father were 'deceased' sometimes did not know one way or the other, because they were illegitimate and had never met their fathers, and in many cases never knew who he really was at all.


Internet.

01. There a world of information on the internet, and too many sites to name, from witch you can get so very much information. The thing to remember is... Sometimes the information you get is not 100% correct, so check it against other info such as birth, marriage and death certificates, Church records or any other means.

02. The Internet is a good way of finding things out and if you join a Genealogy site, That’s also a good way of making friends, with people that are more in the know how of searching your tree and get them to give you some hints and tips, they may even help you search for past members of your family.



I hope you find the above information of some help to you. I wish you all good luck in your search for your family ancestors.

(White Knight)

[White Knight]

Hi read above and if you have any hints and tips please feel free to add them in here.