How Do I Trace My UK Family Tree?

I was doing some research on the web today when I chanced on this article. I think it is worth republishing here, as the advice it give is so good.

How Do I Trace My UK Family Tree? By Mike Roy

A question I am often asked is how do I trace my UK family tree?

Taking the journey into the unknown territory of the past can be a mixture of exhilaration and tedium. You will meet with misspelt names, birth dates that vary from one census to another, missing ancestors and be led down blind alleys. But when you finally meet up with that elusive ancestor the joy of success will spur you on with your research.

Like every good journey it starts with the first step, so buckle up your genealogical seat belt and Ill guide you through the first important stages.

First find any birth, marriage and death certificates, correspondence, insurance policies, ration books, etc. These will be of great help to you as you start your research. Anything that will give you details of your parents or grandparents. Gather up as much information as you can and jot it all down to start your tree. Lay the tree out as the youngest first and work back. You can download blank family tree charts on our site if you wish, then start completing your family tree as far back as you can.

Keep detailed notes on each person. You will thank yourself for this action when you find that you are retracing back and forth to verify information. I cant stress this enough, you must be sure that you have the correct records for your ancestor, not somebody else’s. It is quite an easy mistake to follow the wrong family back through the centuries as names can be similar and sometimes the same. I found that my great, great, great grandfather had a detail double, with the same name, the same year of birth and the same place of birth. It took 2 months of research into each one, retracing details back and forth to tie in the right man! I almost felt I could claim the other man as an ancestor, I knew him so well in the end!

Your initial aim is to collect enough verified information to take you back to 1911, at which point you can delve into the world of census records and begin to unlock the doors to your past. Within the census your ancestors will come alive for you.

Don’t worry if you cant find any certificates lurking in drawers or boxes, armed with only your parents names you may still be able to trace back through the years, although you will have to buy birth and marriage certificates. I managed to trace my family tree knowing only the names of my parents and their dates and places of their birth. I needed to buy my parents’ birth certificates so that I could find out their parents details, thus keeping the trail going.

To overcome this type of problem I recommend you sign up as a member of a genealogical website, and then start searching their records. My first search was my fathers name, date and place of birth the results showed all the possible matches with my dad at the top of the list. I clicked on the link and it took me to the registered GRO entry for his birth, which in turn gave me the index reference details:

Surname at birth
Forenames
Year
Qtr. (the year is broken into 4 quarters)
District
Vol.
Page

Every event of birth, marriage or death registered in England and Wales is allocated a reference by the General Register Office. Next I went to the GRO website (www.gro.gov.uk) and purchased my dads birth certificate. I repeated the same process for my mum.

By supplying the index reference the correct entry can be located by the GRO and the certificate will be sent to you. You can also purchase certificates from registration offices, but if you want to research online without having to travel miles then the internet is the way to go.

I sat back and waited for the post, it took about 7 days for the certificates to arrive. I opened them with anticipation and I wasn’t disappointed. I had in front of me the full details of my grandparents, their names, addresses and occupations. I used this information to find their marriage, which in turn gave me their fathers names and this was all I needed to take me back to the census records and from there fly back in time to meet my older ancestors.

This completes the first article on how to trace your family tree. I will be publishing further articles on how to use birth, marriage and death certificate information and how to use census records found online.

Articles Source: How Do I Trace My Uk Family Tree?

ADVERTISEMENT: If you are starting out tracing your UK Family Tree then you may be interested in this downloadable book. Click the image for more information.

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06/08/2010

Secrets to Avoid Barking Up the Wrong Family Tree

Anyone who does research will testify to how frustrating it is to follow leads up blind alleys.Â In terms of genealogy, this could mean following wrong family lines. Anyone who has had a go at genealogy will undoubtedly be familiar with this scenario. It could be that you have been given a bad lead or perhaps misread some information that you have found. Either way, it mounts up to a lot of wasted time.

So how can this pitfall be avoided? Far from giving you a clever answer, I don’t believe that there are any, there are some general tips that I can give that might help you with your genealogy research. In fact the general principles could be applied to any type of research.

The first thing you should always do is keep a track of all of your resources, every book, every article and every web site. And get detailed information too. If your source was a book for example, get all the detail down to the ISBN number. If your research is by word of mouth, write down names, times and dates. Genealogy is all about information, so backing up your facts is critical.

Following a similar theme, you need to organise yourself and your research. File everything and file things where you know how to locate them. You will find yourself back tracking continuously, so make that side of genealogy as painless as possible.

Check your facts. Not just the literal snippets of information that you pick up, but also the logical order of things. Do the facts that you have collected make sense? Apply common sense to all of your findings and question them.

Do not accept carte blanche research from sources you don’t know. What I mean by this is really the types of research that one often sees advertised, offering to write up your family tree for a fee. Beware of these types of offers. The type of research upon which these tress are founded are often questionable. Save your money and do the research yourself. That is after all, part of the fun of genealogy!

If your family has spread it’s wings across borders, be very careful when collecting facts. As one example, dates can be written differently depending on where in the world you are at the time. Easy mistakes can be made under these circumstances. The date 05/04/75 means something different to people in the USA than it does to people in the UK.

Do not make assumptions about any piece of information that you might come across. Stick with the facts that you yourself have collected. One small assumption can lead you in all sorts of directions that you didn’t really want to go down. Remember that we refer to things differently now than we did in years gone by, so when something is taken from letters 100 years ago, it might not mean the same thing to you as it did to your forefathers.

Join up with web sites that have expertise in genealogy. Talk with like minded people and get the benefit of their experience. Not only will they have tips of their own to share to help you, they will have access to sources you might never have thought of. It is well worth your time talking to other genealogists.

Get an extensive look at one of the most remarkable Genealogy Reference Books there is available on the market today. Discover what going on in genealogy today!

Source: http://www.submityourarticle.com

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27/06/201027/06/2010

Steps to Researching Your Genealogy

Employ the following ten steps to discover your family tree .

1.Â Every section of a family’s genealogy should be as complete as possible.Â Endeavour to compile a precise account of each family.Â Looking forward, our descendants will be researching us .Â Those who come after us will appreciate having correct and detailed information as they research their genealogy.

2.Â Avoid being a copyist. DoÂ collect as much documentation as you can for proper evaluation.Â Â Just because it is in in print or on the internet does not make it a correct statement.Â Many earlyÂ genealogies were based on wishful thinking.

3.Â AÂ family genealogy,Â to be useful, should cite the sources that were collected in the records.Â Use a reference bibliography and, when ever possible, assemble your own genealogy research.Â Another person’s interpretation of the information may not be accurate and duplicating someone’s error only perpetuates the mistake.

Sources ofÂ data fall into two categories, primary and secondary.Â Primary sources are those statements or records, written or verbal, that were made at or near the Â time that the event occurred.Â The information will be an eyewitness account or from someone closely associated with what happened. The quest to find primary sources should be a priority. A secondary source comes from a non-witness, orÂ from one not associated with the occurrence.Â The recording would have been made at a later time, maybe from memory. Sources of information will be found in many different types of documentations including vital records, census and obituaries .

4. Do not hesitate and leave it too late.Â Living relatives can give eye witness accounts which may never be found elsewhere. Â Many years may be needed to find the answers to questionsÂ that you could have asked.

5.Â With records, as with sources,Â there are two factors in judging credibility.Â Are the records copies, or originals ?Â An original is the initial recording of an happening in accordance with the prescribed law or custom.

The occurance may be recorded in one or more orginal records.Â The birth of aÂ child could appear in Vital Statistics, in the Church Registry and in a Family Bible.Â All of these records would be classified as orginals because, in each case, it was the first entry ofÂ that birth in that vicinity.Â A copied record is one that has been transcribed, compiled, or copied from another record.Â The other record may have been a copy, or it may have been anÂ original.Â Each time a copy isÂ transcribed there is a possibility for error to creep in.Â The more times that the document has been copied, the greater the possible number of errors.

6.Â A certified copy is considered an official copy, but it is a copy and is, therefore, subject to error.Â This issue has beenÂ partially eliminated with use ofÂ scanning or photocopying . AÂ scan of an originalÂ document can be considered the same as the original.

7.Â No family history is consideredÂ complete unless research is done for eachÂ individual of the family.Â No one should be unnoted and no one should be excluded.

8.Â A name ought to be recorded as the entire name.Â Avoid using ditto marks.Â Always record the entire names of the children in your computer database or on a family group sheet.Â When if a person has been called by a nickname,Â include it.

9.Â If you find aÂ nickname has been used, such asÂ Beth, on some documents, and a different name for the same person onÂ other records, ensure you make note of both the names.

10.Â A child born to unwed parents assumes the mother’s name in most cases.

Use these 10 tips to guide your genealogy know how.

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