RootsChat.Com
Beginners => Family History Beginners Board => Topic started by: Burnie43 on Sunday 28 August 16 10:05 BST (UK)
-
Hi
As you will see by my daft questions I'm completely new to all this so I'll apologise in advance !!
Where on earth do I start ? I'm feeling a little bit daunted by this .....!
I have my Fathers and Grandfathers birth certificates and that's it !!! I know a little bit of the family history and that my family come from Travelers !
Can you please point me in the right direction so that I can get this thing going ( I've been meaning to start for years )
Thanks in advance
M
-
Welcome to RootsChat! ;D
The basic steps are (assuming England and/or Wales):
1. A Birth Certificate will contain father's and mother's names (including former & maiden names).
Use www.freebmd.org.uk to find the marriage.
2. A Marriage Certificate will contain both father's names, (sometimes) ages of the couple, and occupations.
That gives you clues to look for births of the couple - again from FreeBMD.
3. Once you can get back to 1911, use censuses to find the family.
If you don't have a subscription to Ancestry or FindMyPast, try www.FamilySearch.org
Also, check out this thread:
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=480454.9
-
thanks
I'm on it now
M
-
head stones or Grave stones often contain valuable details. Do you know where ancestors are buried?
-
And always remember there is no such thing as a "daft question" if you don't know the answer, Burnie.
-
also if you care to post names and years and places of birth we may be able to help as well .
look down the list of sections on the home page there is one devoted to travellers you may find others who have knowledge of finding traveller folk .
regards
trevor
ps my welcome to rootschat as well ;)
-
Welcome to rootschat! Don't be afraid to ask any question or to talk through any 'brick wall' that you might have :D
-
Welcome to Rootschat from me too.
Fantastic help and advice is available from all the experts here so fire away with your questions.
If you do decide to take a subscription to Ancestry or such like please be wary of other " family trees" that appear to have all your "rellies" in them and don't take them for gospel. Please find your own proof. However, sometimes they are a good starting point.
Remember, genealogy becomes addictive ;D ;D
Good Luck
Dorrie
-
Burnie -
There's an old story of a traveller in Irelend who asked directions to Connemara, only to get the answer "If it's Connemara you'd be going to, you shouldn't be starting from here"
There is a lot of sense in the story ... and it bears on your question "where should I start?". The answer to that question is "well, it all depends upon where you're trying to get to". There are many different approaches to family history, and the research you will do will depend upon the outcomes you are trying to achieve.
HOWEVER ... if you have your father's and your grandfather's birth certificates, then you already know when and where they were born, their parents' names and addresses, and their mothers' maiden names. That gives you a core of information which is known and (almost) definite. I say almost definite because sometimes false information is given to registrars. But the key point is that you KNOW that these are your ancestors. As you work back, it becomes less and less certain that anybody you have identified actually IS your ancestor, so you need to find as much evidence as you can to prove the link.
Also, where you go next depends upon how much you want to spend. Are you happy spending money on certificates to prove (or disprove) family links ... or are you trying to do this on a minimal budget?
My suggested approach, though, would b ethis:
1. Gather in as much additional information as you can. Are either of your father or grandfather still living? If so, ask them to tell you as much as they can about the family they have known - names, relationships, dates or approximate deates and so on. Did you know your mother' sor grandmother's names and dates or approximate dates? If so, note them down. Do you have any siblings? ask them what they know.
2. Work methodically. Start with yourself, and link back to your parents. If you do not know your mother's name and maiden name, obtain your own birth certificate and this should tell you.
3. Once you know your mother's name and maiden name, check for the births of your siblings (including any you may not have known about).
4. Now look for your parents' marriage. If the names are common ones and you have a lot of possible candidates, use the knowledge you have gained already - their dates of birth, the dates of your siblings' birhts, and anything you happen to know from family lore (such as "I was only 17 when I married your mother"; or "we had to get married in a hurry because your mum was already 6 month spregnant") and places you know or believe your family lived. Once you think you have it, order the marriage certificate and check that the groom's father's name matches your grandfather's known name. If it does, well and good. If not, you have the wrong marriage, so go back and check again.
5. Now make sure that, if either or both of your parents are not still living, you have identified their deaths. Again, if there is any uncertainty get the death certificate that you think is most likely to be the correct one and sense check it against what you know. Does the place of death make sense? Does the cause of death tally with what you have been told (if anything)? Who was the informant? Do you know who they are and where they fit in the family. Does it make sense for them to be the informant?
6. Once you have the death, check for wills. They may or may not have left a will but if they did, obtain a copy and check that the people mentioned in it fit what you know. If there are any surprises, follow them up and try to account for them.
7. Carry this basic method back, generation by generation, until you have built up the basic framework of your family hostory.
8. Once you are back to people who should have been alive in 1911 or earlier, look for them in the censuses. Do your best to account for them in every census they should appear in, because this will give you a lot of additional information about their family, which will then make the search for other key documents and records easier. But do not despair if you cannot find them. Just note that "I cannot find so-and-so in the 1891 census" and move on. You can always come back and look for them again later.
9. If you hit a brick wall - a quandary that you cannot resolve with the information you have got - leave it for a while and research your other lines for a bit. Then come back to it. It may be that your research has revealed new information that helps you resolve it. Or perhaps you will simply have improved your research skills and no wsee possibilities that you did not see before.
The family story that you are descended from travellers, if true (and by no means all such family stories ARE true) will make it rather more difficult for you, as they will not always be in the same place from census to census, they may simply be omitted from some censuses, and identifying the births of children and so forth may be more difficult than it would be with a family which just sat in one place. They also may not have made wills in the regular way, or even married according to the requirements of the Established church (or any dissenting protestant church, or the Roman Catholic church). These are all considerations which will make it imperative to make sure that you are as solid as you can be in any conclusions you draw, before moving on to researchign the next link in any chain.
It sounds like you have a fascinating task ahead of you. Good luck with it.