Tracing my full family tree

[liverpool lady]

Hi
I’m interested in tracing my family tree.
My dad: Born in the 1950s in a Manchester nursing home (Doris Court)
Mother we believe is Irish and fathers name sounds very Jewish. We have the names.

Mother - her mum died when she was 6 and she never knew her dad as he left when they were young. We have her fathers name but not much else.

I’d like to trace both sides back particularly my fathers side.

I recently done a DNA test with heritage and results suggest a whole mix of ethnicities irish/finnish/welsh

regarding the second cousins i have no clue what this means iv tried to read up but my brain can’t compute where the link is. Iv messaged both and they don’t seem clear either!
Waste of time! What should i be asking them? Perhaps if i’m direct they can answer effectively? Should i be asking them for names of their grandparents siblings?

I feel like il never get the answers if i don’t try and seek some expert help

Should i pay for  service or is this easier than i think?
Any tips would help me a lot thanks xx

[jim1]

Hello & welcome.
First let me say that MyHeritage isn't the best site to use (my opinion)
they have quite a small DNA database so options are limited.
The largest is Ancestry.
As an example I put my wife's on both & got 3000 hits from MyHeritage
with 1 2nd. Cousin & over 20,000 from Ancestry with 30+ 2nd. Cousins.
You can put your DNA file on any site that offers it FOC but to use it
effectively you have to pay a sub.
I think that eventually you need to sign up to Ancestry or Findmypast to
have any chance of success although there are free resources out there as well.
To use your DNA results effectively you need to put yours & a 2nd. Cousins together
& select shared matches which gives you a list of donors that share DNA with both of you
meaning they are part of the same extended family. You can then put them into a group.
Repeat this with another match not in that group & do the same.
You should hopefully end up with 4 groups 2 for mother's side & 2 for father's side.
You then need to look at any trees they've provided & look for common names.
You're right to concentrate on one branch first & the first thing to get is your
paternal Grandparents marriage cert.
If they didn't marry you can look for them on the 1939 Register & go back from there.

[CaroleW]

First - Concentrate on the immediate line & what you know for a fact

You know the names of both your maternal & paternal grandparents but if your father/mother were both born in the 1950’s  there’s a possibility their respective parents could still be alive

Start by looking for the 2 fathers first - BMD’s.  www.freebmd.org.uk

Presumably your mothers parents were married so start by looking for their marriage & getting a copy of the marriage cert to find their fathers names. 

Use www.192.com to see if they are listed on the Electoral Registers

[Biggles50]

Welcome.

Join a local Family History Society and if you are of a certain senior age seen if your local U3A has a Family History group.

There are plenty of video tutorials on getting started.

Cousin relationship is pretty simple, a first Cousin will share a pair of Grandparents with you.

A Second Cousin shares a pair of Great Grandparents.

A Third Cousin shares a pair of Great Great Grandparents.

So if you see a hint as a Third Cousin there are two Greats, Fourth Cousin three Greats, fifth Cousin four Greats in the relationship.

My First Cousins children are my First Cousins once removed, their children are twice removed.

[jc26red]

Are you a member of your local library? Many allow you to book time (free) on their computers to access ancestry some also have Find My Past.

This will give you a taster of the subscription sites first.

Write down everything you already know, and what proof you have to back that up. Certificates etc.,

You can also download and tryout for free genealogy software before you commit to buying it. You will find keeping all the information you gather include information on where you got the info (source information) in one place helps keeping things tidy and the genealogy software helps you to understand your relationship to others

Ist cousins are children of your parents brothers and sisters
2nd cousins are descended from your grandparents brothers and sisters.
3rd cousins are descended from your great grandparents
Etc..

But first start with those closest to you, and you do need to create a family tree first to make sense of any dna matches you find.

FYI irishgenealogy.ie is free for births deaths and marriages in Ireland

Anything you don’t understand, please come back and ask. We were all novices once, there is no such thing as a silly question.

Good luck Jenny

[Kiltaglassan]

FYI irishgenealogy.ie is free for births deaths and marriages in Ireland

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/civil-search.jsp
https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/news/154-update-to-the-civil-records-3

Available to view for free the historic records of Births, Marriages and Deaths of the General Register Office (Ireland).

Solve the Captcha (prove you are not a robot) by ticking the box, and use initials such as ‘z’, ‘z’ to sign in. Ensure that you tick the ‘application to search’ box. Then click 'Submit'.

[heatherjulie]

A warm welcome to Rootschat

If your father was born in Manchester, you should hopefully be able to find his birth registration and mother's maiden name on this free site

www.lancashirebmd.org.uk

If he was born in East Manchester then the birth might be on

www.cheshirebmd.org.uk


Don't start paying out any money to join sites yet

[Biggles50]

Lan-OPC is another free to access Lancashire based source.

It stands for Lancashire Online Parish Clerks and it covers Parish’s within what was the pre-1974 Lancashire County.

The following is part of what I produced and sent to my Cousins, it may help you:-

Building any Family Tree is all about Information Harvesting.

Using multiple DNA testing of family members will help when a large tree has been built and it
would be good practice to get the tests undertaken asap.

Start by talking to all family members, not just close ones but the most distant you know of.
For each obtain their:-
(1) full name,
(2) actual birth date,
(3) birth location (if known),
(4) birth registration location,
(5) marriage date,
(6) marriage location,
(7) full name of Spouse,
(8.) if divorced gather information on each prior Spouse but include the divorce year and the full
names of children and which Spouse they had them with,
(9) Location(s) where they lived,
(10) Any extended time spent living abroad, location(s), work activities if known,
(11) Ask them to type up the information and eMail it to you and they could expand with a Life
Story,
(12) Obtain a digital image of each person and rename it with their birth name and date,
(13) DNA, ask each family member if they would be willing to take a DNA test. The more that do
on both the Paternal & Maternal sides the easier it will be to determine on whose side DNA
matches belong.

Also Harvest the same information for their Spouse(s) and for each of their children.
Then move back a generation and ask and record the same information for each of their parents,
as far as possible.

Then ask about Grandparents, again you are seeking the same information.
You are seeking answers to the questions that later in your research you will wish you asked your
relatives who are no longer with you.

People who have been researching their family tree and have only started their research after their
parents, aunts and uncles all have the same regret, “if only I had asked”.

Ask about family history, where they came from, their lives, what they did for a living, learn the
tales they grew up with, learn about their lives and document the information.

[Blue70]

Liverpool libraries have free access on their pcs to Ancestry and FindMyPast. FindMyPast is especially useful as they have both the 1921 census and the 1939 Register free.


C