An Idea: Genealogical Time Line

[Jane Masri]

I thought it might be a good idea to start a chronological list of events that are relevant in our research, a quick reference to important dates.  It would look something like this;

1538 - Parish registers are started.

1837 - 1 July.  Civil registration started.

1841 - 6 June.  Census night.

1851 - 30 March.  Census night.

1861 - 7 April.  Census night.

1866 - June quarter.  Age at death included on GRO index.

1871 - 2 April.  Census night.

1881 - 3 April.  Census night.

1891 - 5 April.  Census night.

1901 - 31 March.  Census night.

1911 - Sept. quarter.  Mothers maiden name included on GRO birth index.

1912 - March quarter.  Spouses surname included on GRO marriage index.

1969 - Date of birth included on GRO death index.

I would start a new thread if Rootschatters thought this would be helpful & ask the moderator to make it 'sticky'.  Other Rootschatters could PM me with their findings & I would update the thread.

What do you all think?  I know I'm always ploughing through books, papers & magazines looking for these dates, I think it would be helpful if they were all in one place.

jane


Moderator Comment:
I've modified the title to help it stand out more 

[aghadowey]

A good idea for knowing what records to search for but not everyone is looking for English records (at least I'm guessing these dates are for England).

[Jane Masri]

Yes, they're English records but we could include Welsh, Scottish & Irish records or make a separate chapter for those on the same thread,

jane

[aghadowey]

Might be better broken down under each thread. Many times people post requests for records that simply don't exist and a list might help them to know what is and isn't available.

[Jane Masri]

   Sorry, aghadowey, I must be thick or something  as I don't understand what you mean, please explain,

jane

[Berlin-Bob]

Hi Jane,

"to give the child a name .....", what you are suggesting is a genealogical Time Line

Probably it would be easiest to add a bit more text, with seperate lines for events in any country (UK, USA, Canada, Scotland, Ireland, etc, etc  ..... ) ....

1538 - Parish registers started in England and Wales

1837 - 1 July.  Civil registration starts for England and Wales

1841 - 6 June.  Census night in England and Wales

1851 - 30 March.  Census night in England and Wales.

1855 -    Civil registration starts in Scotland
etc,


I would go one step further:

If people like the idea of a Genealogical Time Line, they could add various items here, to this topic, and I could summarise them in a

Genealogical Time Line  for the RootsChat Reference Library

rather than having "yet another sticky" on various boards.

Bob

[Lydart]

Excellent idea Jane ... and good that Bob can put it in the 'right' place for all of us to find. 

Can someone list/add the Canada and US censuses, please ... and their dates ...

[aghadowey]

Great idea Bob.

Jane-

Might be better broken down under each thread. Many times people post requests for records that simply don't exist and a list might help them to know what is and isn't available.

To give a few examples-
1. request for birth certificate for person born 1850s in Ireland (civil registration of births started 1864 in Ireland).
2. request to look someone up in 1890 U.S. census (destroyed by fire long ago)

[Berlin-Bob]

Might be better broken down under each thread.

There is a USING THIS BOARD topic on most counties and countries.
If we decide to go ahead with this, then we could always add a line to these "How to  .." topics, with the 'Time Line' address, rather than adding a new sticky topic. 

Many newcomers (and regulars) don't read them anyway, but at least we can say "we tried" 

Bob