The census will detail people who were living or visiting a property on the night of the census when the recorder turned up at the address.
Lots of information is contained within the census records that will be extremely useful to you in forming a more detailed picture of your family.
The head of the household was recorded and then everyone else is listed after them and it is noted how they are related to the head. So you will see that they may have a wife or they may be widowed. You will be able to see the children that were living with them at that time and you may also see visitors, extended family, and if they were wealthy enough - servants.
From the census you will also see the occupation that they gave at the time and also their given age as well as a place of birth. You will come to learn that as you go through the census searching back that this information can vary greatly and so you must not rely upon it to be all too accurate!
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
Friday, 27 February 2009
Using the Birth Certificate to carry on your family history research
Now that you have the names of your great grandparents you should be in a position to go back to the GRO Indexes. You will now look for the record of their marriage. Start with your grandfather's birth date or from the birth of the eldest child and work your way backwards. Looking at each quarter of each year until you find it.
I always tend to look up the marriage under the spouse who had the least common surname. If your name is Smith or maybe Jones in Wales - Good Luck!
Once you have managed to get back far enough so that you have reached people who were alive during 1911 in England or Wales then you may be able to find them in the 1911 census at http://www.1911census.co.uk/. Once you get back to 1901 you can use Find My Past or Ancestry to search through the census.
I personally prefer Ancestry and you can also find Scottish Census transcriptions on this site. If you want to see the original Scottish census images then you will have to download them for a fee at the Scotlands People website.
I always tend to look up the marriage under the spouse who had the least common surname. If your name is Smith or maybe Jones in Wales - Good Luck!
Once you have managed to get back far enough so that you have reached people who were alive during 1911 in England or Wales then you may be able to find them in the 1911 census at http://www.1911census.co.uk/. Once you get back to 1901 you can use Find My Past or Ancestry to search through the census.
I personally prefer Ancestry and you can also find Scottish Census transcriptions on this site. If you want to see the original Scottish census images then you will have to download them for a fee at the Scotlands People website.
Thursday, 26 February 2009
So what Next?
So you now have the beginings of your family history on paper, PAF, or your another programme. So how to get back further and find out more information?
There are various sources that can be used when researching and so it is probably best to start with the basic and most obvious sources.
I make extensive use of the Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes . These can be researched on the internet on Find My Past where you will be charged on a pay per view basis. You can also look at them for free on ancestry.co.uk - you may need to subscribe to view some of the original images.
Civil registration of births, marriages and deaths began on 1 July 1837 in England and Wales. Registration took place at local civil registrars who in turn reported to the Registrar General at the General Register Office (GRO) in London.
So you have the name of your grandfather and you know when he was born and when but you don't know anything else about him and want to find out who his parents were. So look up his birth in the GRO Birth Index. The Index will provide you with his name, possibly the maiden name of his mum depending on when he was born, the district where his birth was registered, and the volume and page number to which his record is located.
Using these details you can then order a copy of his birth certificate from the General Register Office (GRO). At the time of writing this you may order a copy certificate online for the cost of £7 per certificate.
When grandfather's birth certificate arrives it will present you with the information that you will need to fill in his parent's details into your tree. It will detail when and where he was born, his full name, sex, full name of father, name of mother, father's occupation, details of informant (usually the mother), when the birth was registered and details of the registrar.
There are various sources that can be used when researching and so it is probably best to start with the basic and most obvious sources.
I make extensive use of the Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes . These can be researched on the internet on Find My Past where you will be charged on a pay per view basis. You can also look at them for free on ancestry.co.uk - you may need to subscribe to view some of the original images.
Civil registration of births, marriages and deaths began on 1 July 1837 in England and Wales. Registration took place at local civil registrars who in turn reported to the Registrar General at the General Register Office (GRO) in London.
So you have the name of your grandfather and you know when he was born and when but you don't know anything else about him and want to find out who his parents were. So look up his birth in the GRO Birth Index. The Index will provide you with his name, possibly the maiden name of his mum depending on when he was born, the district where his birth was registered, and the volume and page number to which his record is located.
Using these details you can then order a copy of his birth certificate from the General Register Office (GRO). At the time of writing this you may order a copy certificate online for the cost of £7 per certificate.
When grandfather's birth certificate arrives it will present you with the information that you will need to fill in his parent's details into your tree. It will detail when and where he was born, his full name, sex, full name of father, name of mother, father's occupation, details of informant (usually the mother), when the birth was registered and details of the registrar.
Where to start when researching your family history
So you have decided that you would like to research your family's history and learn more about your ancestors. That is great news! You are now embarking into a lifetime of fun, addictive and pleasurable research.
Before you dash off to the local library or Record Office with your new notebook and pens the best place to start is at home.
Start with yourself and jot down your full name, date and place of birth. Now working backwards note down the same information for parents and grandparents. Many people now begin to get stuck as in our busy lives we don't often stop to ask questions about our ancestors.
So that is exactly what the next step would be - go and ask questions. Spend some time with your oldest relations and ask them about your family and see if they can add any more information to the family tree which you are starting to build.
You will now find that you have several more names, dates and places and that your note pads may be starting to get a little higgeldy piggeldy. Assuming that you have access to a PC as you are reading this you may wish to download a FREE programme that will allow you to build up your family history in a way that will allow you to add, edit and print off various types of trees and reports.
Visit the site http://www.familysearch.org this site is very useful and I will come back to it later on. But for now if you look at the bottom right hand of the screen you will see that you can download a programme called PAF - Personal Ancestral File. This is a great basic programme and is absolutely fine for when you are first starting out on this big adventure!
Before you dash off to the local library or Record Office with your new notebook and pens the best place to start is at home.
Start with yourself and jot down your full name, date and place of birth. Now working backwards note down the same information for parents and grandparents. Many people now begin to get stuck as in our busy lives we don't often stop to ask questions about our ancestors.
So that is exactly what the next step would be - go and ask questions. Spend some time with your oldest relations and ask them about your family and see if they can add any more information to the family tree which you are starting to build.
You will now find that you have several more names, dates and places and that your note pads may be starting to get a little higgeldy piggeldy. Assuming that you have access to a PC as you are reading this you may wish to download a FREE programme that will allow you to build up your family history in a way that will allow you to add, edit and print off various types of trees and reports.
Visit the site http://www.familysearch.org this site is very useful and I will come back to it later on. But for now if you look at the bottom right hand of the screen you will see that you can download a programme called PAF - Personal Ancestral File. This is a great basic programme and is absolutely fine for when you are first starting out on this big adventure!
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