Finding interesting information on family members?

[alig99]

Hi I've noticed that some people have managed to find information about individual family members that is beyond and above the BMD and relatives. I would love to know how I could look for information on my own relatives which could give me a picture of them and the time they lived in (of course providing there is some interesting information) so any hints or tips on this would be really helpful.

I have traced relatives to Dorset, Norfolk, Bristol, Wales and South and West London (these areas may have in either of the counties of Middlesex and Surrey).

In anticipation, thanks for your help. Ali

[greyingrey]

What kind of thing are you thinking of, alig ? I'm not very experienced, but you can get their occupations from census records & read local history books etc. You can try to find them through nineteenth century newspaper articles (available through most public library membership in the UK....you can use the number on your computer) That's the way, for example, I found the very graphic report of my ggg grandfather committing the crime of attempted murder

[keldon]

Newspapers are now one good source. The British Library's 19th century newspapers is a great resource. Try your local library or go to http://newspapers.bl.uk/blcs/
There's also the Daily Mirror / Express, Times, Guardian, Scotsman archives. And Google News archives.

[Christine in Herts]

Hello Ali

I've found extra info by doing some lateral thinking.

• Googling can bring up references - particularly if the name is unusual. Make sure you put the name into inverted commas, so that Google treats it as a single item, not each part of the name as a separate search term.
• My local library service gives me home access to The Times Digital Archive and the C19th British Library Newspaper Collection (Thompson Gale facilities), both of which are searchable using OCR.
• Historical Directories - see the Leicester Uni site - also searchable using OCR.
• Service records for members of the forces and Regimental diaries - which may not give named details, but indicate what the Regiment was involved with at any particular time - sometimes in great detail.
• The National Archives at Kew has a quicksearch (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/s...ck_search.aspx) which also picks up refs to DocumentsOnline, as well as A2A (many other archives' catalogues).
• Watch out for special offers on the big sites:e.g. Ancestry is making military records available 7-14 November:
  

  From 7th-14th November, you can search and view the original historical
  documents from our three most-used military collections, without paying a penny

• It might be worth having a wander through the FTF Reference Library (1st in menu in bar below FTF banner at the top), and seeing what links you can find there: either by place or by occupation.

Christine

[scuda]

Anyone can access the Gale newspaper site at the moment, without going through a library, via this link: http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/...btr?id=british
The password is test

By the way, there are some 18th century newspapers on there, not just 19th. Also be aware that your search will not necessarily bring up an article even if it's there! One character in the newspaper misread by the OCR will mean the word you are wanting does not register, so I always try several different searches - by place name, surname, etc.

scuda

[Mary from Italy]

The London Gazette sometimes has interesting information, including bankruptcies, military promotions and naturalisations:

http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/

The National Probate Calendar on Ancestry will show if your ancestor left a will (it only goes up to about 1940 so far):

http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=1904

Google book search is always worth a try. You may find your ancestor was mentioned in a book, but it also includes lots of other stuff, such as old Baptist magazines, and I've found biographies of some of my ancestors there.

http://books.google.co.uk/

For property transactions, old wills (pre-1858) and lots of other stuff, try the National Archives:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/search/quick_search.aspx?&queryText=

Also try and find time to visit the Record Office for the county you're interested in. They're sure to have lots of stuff which isn't online, including local wills (cheaper than ordering from York), settlement and removal orders, apprenticeship deeds, marriage licences, parish records, property deeds, etc. They may also have online databases or a catalogue, so it's worth looking at their website.

If you can't visit the Record Office, you can order microfilms of parish records etc. for a nominal fee through your nearest LDS family history centre.

Ancestry and FindmyPast have lots of interesting databases that are worth exploring, including passenger lists, convict indexes, parish records, military records, criminal records, etc.

If you have London ancestors, Ancestry has lots of parish records etc. The Old Bailey site is also interesting:

http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/

Finally, you'll find lots of links in our Reference Library (see the link at the top of the page). If you go to this page and click on the county you're interested in, you'll find lots of useful links for that county:

http://www.familytreeforum.com/content.php/333-England-2

And don't forget to have a look at our Magazine (see link at the top of the page), which contains lots of articles written by our members about how they researched their families and what they found.

[angelina]

All my really interesting stuff has come from family papers which i inherited - i think interviewing/interrogating family about what papers they have even if its recent helps enormously to make my ancestors seem alive. Family myths and legends are brilliant too - they may be a bit wrong but eventually they helped me to sort out some details.
And of course FTF has just helped me sort out one of my ancestors too even tho he died in New Zealand.

[Velma Dinkley]

I have found out lots of information by tracking down living relatives

[Darksecretz]

You could always have a look in our Places of Worship Database

http://www.familytreeforum.com/wiki/index.php/Places_of_Worship

this is an ongoing project that our members are involved in, we are aiming to photograph and store ALL known Places of Worship in the uk, be it Methodist, C of E, Catholic etc.. the photographs that we have already members can copy them and use in their trees.

[Janet]

I did not inherit any documents but I have found some very interesting documents through the County Record Offices where you can find all sorts of documents such as Poor Law, Marrage Licences and Bonds, Gamekeepers Licences, Bastardy Bonds, Wills, Apprenticeship Records and many others. If you are able try to take a few days holiday near the county record office where your folk came from and you will be surprised what wil come up.

Janet

[Janet in Yorkshire]

Sources I've found useful for my poor, law-abiding ag labs in the late 1800s & early 1900s -

school log book (held at county record office)
church parish magazines (bound annual copies at local library)
local weekly newspaper
sale catalogue for sale of the village, itemising all the properties & listing the tenants (in private collection of a local history enthusiast)
a printed diary of a local farmer/lay preacher - great for eye-witness descriptions of the village & annual events, also brief mentions of individuals
informal chats with long-term residents - often able to pass on anocdotes they heard in their childhood!

Jay

[alig99]

Thanks for all your responses, lots of different ideas to get researching. I'm not looking for anything spectacular nor any skeleton's (metaphorically speaking) in the cupboard. I was thinking though that there might be records of petty law breaking or records if they did "good works" etc. Anything really to put a bit of colour around the research. Anyway thanks again, I'd welcome any further ideas. Ali

[Olde Crone Holden]

My best finds, the unexpected ones, have either been through Google or through the local newspapers.

I have also found really interesting stuff in town archives (as opposed to County Archives), like who won best in show for marrows or whatever - the trivial stuff which really brings an ancestor to life.

OC