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  • Is progress possible?

    I am new to family history research and I am just wondering if I will be able to make any progress or not.

    All of the books that I have read tell you to start with your nearest family and then work backwards using such info. as birth/marriage certificates etc.

    However my problem is that none of my family are now alive, and I do not have any certificates etc. to refer to.

    Is it possible to make any progress when I have such little information available?

    Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

    John

  • #2
    Originally posted by John123 View Post
    I am new to family history research and I am just wondering if I will be able to make any progress or not.

    All of the books that I have read tell you to start with your nearest family and then work backwards using such info. as birth/marriage certificates etc.

    However my problem is that none of my family are now alive, and I do not have any certificates etc. to refer to.

    Is it possible to make any progress when I have such little information available?

    Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

    John
    Hi John,
    Welcome to the forum.
    You can indeed make progress by starting with yourself - your full birth certificate will give your father's name and your mother's maiden name. If you don't have a full birth certificate you can buy one from the General Register Office here https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/c...ates/Login.asp for £9.50.

    Once you have that you can find their marriage record and get the certificate which will give you their father's names and their ages.

    You then trace their birth certificates which will give the same information as yours and once you get back to people born before 1911 you can track them with their families through the censuses going back to 1841.

    You do however need to subscribe to a website to do the research, there are 2 main ones. Ancestry.co.uk and FindMyPast. On these websites you can see the UK birth indexes which give the details you need to order certificates and you can see the censuses. There are many other records available but these are the main ones you need to start a family tree.

    We can help you but you are not allowed to post any names of people who may still be alive so if you would like me to give you a start to get your own birth certificate send me a private message - you can do this by clicking on my name at the side of this post and select private message.

    Margaret
    Last edited by margaretmarch; 20-01-17, 12:38.

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    • #3
      This is a good point of reference for how to go about it: https://www.familytreeforum.com/cont...etting-Started

      Anyone who's been doing this for any length of time will tell you that it's really really important (essential, even) to note where you information has come from, so that you can go back to check if something seems not quite right - or to justify to someone else, how you reached your conclusions. You're sure you'll remember BUT - if you do, you'll be the first ever to do so, I suspect!

      Ancestry and FMP are certainly very valuable resources and will probably prove to be essential eventually, if you are serious, because there aren't many other places where you can see the original images unless you want to travel around the country to visit all the different archives (fun but probably even more expensive than a subscription). Transcriptions are great - but only as reliable as the transcribers, and we're all fallible (especially when it's auto-transcribed by OCR!). Both sites come up with special deals to tempt you in, so you might as well defer a bit. until one of those comes up. In the meantime, there are a number of free options that can get you started. You'll find a number just by following the links on that Getting Started article I mentioned.

      My research is mainly in England, so the next info is biassed in that direction, but there may be parallels in other countries...
      For myself, I make a lot of use of the links you can find here: http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/ (links to sites with BMD records and censuses) and especially the page: http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/local_bmd It has a couple of sister sites, too which cover links to directories and military records. The local BMD links will often allow you an ordering option for certificates. It will be slightly more expensive that the GRO's £9.25 - around £10,usually - but you're one step nearer to the original, because until recently, the GRO records were quarterly transcriptions of the local records. Another free resource is the GRO's new searchable database for births and deaths (up to privacy cut-off dates); in association with that, they're looking at supplying uncertified pdf copies (trialled last autumn).

      If you're a member of your local library service, it's worth looking at what resources they can offer. In Hertfordshire, I can book a time-slot on a library computer to use the library's Ancestry, if my own sub has lapsed, but I usually do all the preliminary looking up at home, to save time in the library. I can get access to all kinds of reference material online from home - including the Times Digital Archive, which is OCR searchable. You can learn a lot from old newspapers!

      But do remember that information - even certified information - is only as reliable as the collection process:
      Were the right questions asked? - and worded correctly? (e.g. "Where are you from?" may not be the same as "Where were you born?")
      Did the person giving the info actually know the answer?
      Did accuracy matter to both the person recording the info and the person giving it?
      Was there any incentive to lie - or "massage the truth"? (e.g. social pressures not to admit parents were unmarried, or of a "lesser" status, or to "tweak" an age.)
      Did the person recording the info hear correctly? and understand what they were told? (People will tend to record info in a form that's familiar, so a place-of-birth may be distorted if the person is far from their birthplace.)
      Would the person supplying the info have had the confidence to dispute anything being recorded?
      ... I have several records where I know the information is inaccurate or actually wrong - and I can imagine very easily how it might have happened.

      But that point about noting your sources is so important. If you store enough info as you go along, it's much easier to check. I also tend to note how the names are recorded in each case, because that can vary from record to record for any number of reasons and it makes it easier to spot if someone has a phase of using a particular name so you can pick up other instances.

      But it's all seriously addictive and great fun. You'll find lots of helpful folks here.

      Christine
      Researching: BENNETT (Leics/Birmingham-ish) - incl. Leonard BENNETT in Detroit & Florida ; WARR/WOR, STRATFORD & GARDNER/GARNAR (Oxon); CHRISTMAS, RUSSELL, PAFOOT/PAFFORD (Hants); BIGWOOD, HAYLER/HAILOR (Sussex); LANCASTER (Beds, Berks, Wilts) - plus - COCKS (Spitalfields, Liverpool, Plymouth); RUSE/ROWSE, TREMEER, WADLIN(G)/WADLETON (Devonport, E Cornwall); GOULD (S Devon); CHAPMAN, HALL/HOLE, HORN (N Devon); BARRON, SCANTLEBURY (Mevagissey)...

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      • #4
        FindMyPast has a £1 first month on at the moment - for new subscribers:
        Are you a family history newbie? Getting started with genealogy doesn’t need to be daunting. These easy-to-follow beginner guides and introductions to tracing your ancestry will help you take the first few steps on your family history journey.
        Researching: BENNETT (Leics/Birmingham-ish) - incl. Leonard BENNETT in Detroit & Florida ; WARR/WOR, STRATFORD & GARDNER/GARNAR (Oxon); CHRISTMAS, RUSSELL, PAFOOT/PAFFORD (Hants); BIGWOOD, HAYLER/HAILOR (Sussex); LANCASTER (Beds, Berks, Wilts) - plus - COCKS (Spitalfields, Liverpool, Plymouth); RUSE/ROWSE, TREMEER, WADLIN(G)/WADLETON (Devonport, E Cornwall); GOULD (S Devon); CHAPMAN, HALL/HOLE, HORN (N Devon); BARRON, SCANTLEBURY (Mevagissey)...

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        • #5
          Thank you for these very helpful and detailed replies.

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