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Tracing before 1840

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  • Tracing before 1840

    How do you trace family members from 1840 and earlier, as there are no census for it. is it just birth certificates etc?

  • #2
    Parish Registers are a major source, combined with Wills, Settlement Orders, Apprenticeship records and so on.

    There's a section in the Wiki, I think, about this...
    Edit:Not titled that way explicitly, but this is what you're after, I guess:


    The IGI is a useful source - so long as you remember that its primary purpose is not our genealogy, but to do with the aims of the Mormon Church. As with anything involving transcriptions, it's sensible to check the original documents, if you can, so that you can see whether the transcription agrees with what you think it says - and in case there's any additional information there which was not transcribed.

    Some areas have OPCs (Online Parish Clerks) who may be willing to look up information for you - in some cases they have organised wholesale transcription of parish records. There's also FreeREG, the sister site to FreeBMD and FreeCEN, which has searchable baptism/marriage/burial records online for free. Some areas have projects (often connected with Millennium Heritage grants) whereby they have placed images of the parish registers online (e.g. MedwayCityArk, Handsworth), and Ancestry now has a very large number of images for (London) City Churches (plus a few others); some are searchably indexed, some are simly labelled by church and date, and you have to trawl them.

    Christine
    Last edited by Christine in Herts; 04-10-09, 14:26.
    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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    • #3
      Civil registration certificates only began 1st July 1837.

      So much of family tracing before that relies on parish baptism, marriage and burial registers.
      Sometimes the baptism register gives birth dates and addresses and father's occupation as well as parents' names.

      Burial registers give age at death and sometimes cause of death.

      Parish registers can be found at the relevant county records offices/archives. You can also order microfilm of them at your nearest LDS [Latter Day Saints] family history centre.

      Additionally, lots of London parish registers are available on subscription on Family Tree, Genealogy and Census Records - Ancestry.co.uk

      Two free sites with parish info (though I would always recommend seeing originals where possible) are

      FamilySearch.org - Family History and Genealogy Records and
      FreeREG - Search UK Parish Register Indices

      though there are lots of parishes not included, and coverage of dates varies too.

      You can sometimes find stuff online by googling the name of the parish and "parish registers" or "burials" etc.

      Alternatively pop a thread on here saying who/what/where you want to search and people can make suggestions.
      ~ with love from Little Nell~
      Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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      • #4
        thank you so much for that, very usefull to know!

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        • #5
          Have a look in your local library for a book called "Ancestral Trails" by Mark D Heber. It's got just about everything you need to know in it.
          Looking for Bysh, Potter, Littleton, Parke, Franks, Sullivan, Gosden, Carroll, Hurst, Churcher, Covell, Elverson, Giles, Hawkins, Witherden...

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          • #6
            Thank you Christine, Nell and Sal. Your info is very helpful.
            Those who were seen dancing, were thought to be insane, by those who could not hear the music.

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