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Aid/Advice for Beginners

bren

bren

master brummie
GETTING STARTED:

The first thing you need is a pack of pens and A4 pad, you will quickly realize just how important it is to write everything down, a lot of information can quickly come your way and overwhelm you.
Who should be the first person on your tree, the one person you know the most about, you yourself, your full name, place and date of birth, if you are married the date and place and if you are a woman, your maiden name. As you go further back in time you will realize the importance of maiden names when searching through the records.
You might now want to include any brothers and sisters before moving on to your parents filling in all the relevant details as you did for yourself and you will see how quickly it will grow. If there are any details missing talk to other family members and write it down before you forget then carry on taking that logical step back in time to your grandparents.
At this point I need to emphasize the importance of accurate, verified data, birth, marriage and death certificates are a record of an event in time but the information contained in each is what links the generations to each other, only accept information you are completely satisfied with before adding to your tree. If you ignore this do not be surprised in the future to find you have gone down the wrong path and researched an entirely different family.
Here are a few basic abbreviations to use when drawing up your tree
b – born
bapt – baptized/christened
m – married
d – died
b – buried
 
Certificates: Birth, Marriage and Death.

Certificates of Registration for all these events began in the UK on 1st July 1837.

Birth Certificate:
Here you will find (1) Full date and address of birth (2) Full name (3) Sex (4) Full name of Father, if this is blank it indicates that the child was illegitimate (5) Full name of mother including her all important maiden name (6) Occupation of father (7) Signature and address of informant, usually the mother, you may find for the signature a mark or cross as in the early years not many where literate.

Marriage Certificate:

This records (1) the date of the marriage (2) Full name of both bride and groom (3) Their ages, if it says "of full age" it usually meant they was 21yrs or over. (4) Condition, ie – bachelor, spinster, widow etc. (5) Their profession. (6) Home address of each. (7) Full name for father of both bride and groom, if deceased this will be noted. (8) Profession of fathers.
In the section below it tell you where the marriage took place, who officiated and the name of the witnesses, take note of these as they could be family members you don't know of.

Death Certificate:

This records the date and place of death, full name, sex, age, occupation, the cause of death. You will then find the signature, description and address of the informant and when the death was registered.

This is the information contained on certificates and, especially birth and marriage certificates, is the valid or hard evidence you need to trace accurately that next step back in time along your family line. If you look at your own birth certificate, with your fathers name and mothers maiden name you can search for a marriage that may also have been in the same area that you was born in, if you are the eldest then in the years just preceding your birth. If possible now look at your parent's marriage certificate, again their full names, that important mothers maiden name plus their ages, quick sum and now you know what year, plus or minus one, to look for their birth, hopefully in the same area they married and you now know both your grandfathers names. So now you can see how one links to the other and this is why it is recommended, if only for your main line, that if possible to send for these two certificates to confirm your findings. When you get back to pre 1901 you now have another valuable aid in your research, the Census.
 
The Census.

From 1841 until the present time a census has been taken every 10 years, only missing 1941 because we were at war. Like many of our records there is a closure period, which means no access is given to those records of less than a 100 years old. There has been a challenge to this, which means we might get to look at the 1911 census a couple of years early. But in the main it is the 19thC census which yields a mine of information on our ancestors.

It is important to have no preconceived ideas about the way we spell our names. When the enumerator was filling in the form he carried, he could only write what he heard, or thought he heard. The accent played a part, particularly when he was listening to an accent to which his ear was not tuned. The question 'How do you spell that?' was pointless because often no one in the household could read or write. Try saying the name with the accent that would have been spoken at the time.
Another problem we have as researchers is the transcription.
The census was and is used for government statistics, not as we might think for us to find out more about our families. That is the bonus for us, so when we finally track down the elusive GtGt Grandfather after many hours searching, and find that the record has been transcribed incorrectly, it is often because the transcriber had to write what he thought he saw. It is incorrect, but look at the writing and you can often see why. It is a good idea to familiarise yourself with the way letters were written, so that at least capital letters make some sense. I always fill in the section for reporting such errors.

Age is another anomaly, there was no reason to remember the exact age of eight or ten children, life was hard and energies were used elsewhere. Grt Aunt Emily was born when there was snow on the ground, but which year was that? Ages will vary between census not greatly, but some times three or four years. The other reason which we have to consider is one partner fibbing, my Gt Gt Aunt Katherine married a man ten years her junior, and always gave her age at least five years younger than was the case.

There is a charge to view these records, and a choice of websites to use.
Used wisely they are a valuable tool for research.
__________________
1801 - 10th March These are the dates the census was taken
1811 - 27th May
1821 - 28th May
1831 - 30th May
1841* - 7th June
1851* - 30th March
1861* - 7th April
1871* - 2nd April
1881* - 3rd April
1891* - 5th April
1901* - 31st March
1911** - 2nd April
1915 Parochial Census re Aliens Act
1921 Sun/Mon. June 19th/20th
1931 Sun/Mon. April 26th/27th (records lost to fire)
1939 29/30th Sept. (except service personnel for ID cards)
1941 (No census taken due to war)
1951 9th April (Mon.)
1961 24th April (Mon.)
1971 26th April (Mon.)
1981 6th April (Mon.)
1991 22nd April (Mon.)
2001 29/30th April (Sun./Mon.)
There is a 100yr ruling regards census, they are not for public viewing until this time has elapsed from the date they are taken.




The early census, 1801 to 1831, recorded numbers of people, no names, no use to family research.
1841 was the first census carried out by the General Register Office (GRO), this included names but no relationship to the head of the house, no place of birth, just an indication if born in county and ages rounded off to the nearest 5yrs.
Returns from 1851 onward record name, age, sex, marital status, place of birth, occupation and relationship to head of house. From 1871 imbeciles and idiots are recorded and then from 1891 we also find employment status, number of rooms and a form was introduced for institutions and ships in port.
 
Parish Records:

As mentioned before Government records for Birth, Marriage and Deaths began on the 1st of July 1837 but prior to this the church was required to record such data hence the name Parish Records. Some of these record events back to the early 1500's but because of being kept in poor conditions a lot of them have not survived and some just disappeared, those that remain are now kept in archives in the region they refer to. For Birmingham you need to go to the Local Studies and History section on the 6th floor of Birmingham Central Library where you will find that many of the registers have been microfilmed, check with them first to ensure they have the register for the dates you are interested in. The information contained in these records can and does vary widely from the basic, name, event and date, it would depend on the person who was taking and recording the events and I suppose the cost, paper and ink being a precious commodity. Like Civil Records, Parish Records have been subject to change over the years and those researching should keep some of these in mind when looking for information from them.
It was 1538 when the rulers of the country ordered these records to be kept by the clergy and kept updated on a weekly basis, this was enforced throughout the country and a charge was made by the clergy for each entry. During the mid 1600s at the time of the English Civil War a lot of the registers became abandoned, hidden or completely lost and it wasn't until 1660, a 17yr break, that the church resumed the keeping of the records. At the very end of the 1600s fines and taxes were enforced against those that didn't report births or get their child christened, the clergy were fined for not recording the birth. The whole population were taxed to fund the war against France and the names in the registers was used to make sure everyone paid, this lasted for about 12yrs and was then abandoned. The use of Latin in the records was forbidden in 1733. In 1738, Methodist registers were started or should I say, made legal, some did exist before but had to be kept secret and hidden. Soon after this the calendar year as we know it was introduced, before 1751 the New Year began on 25th of March and was now changed to January the 1st so if you was born in January 1749 your first birthday was 1751.
 
Wills:

These are often overlooked and yet they are an excellent resource for family research and whilst it is true that not everyone made a will a surprising amount of people did and for quite small amounts. As with other records in early times, the Church of England was responsible for granting Probate and Wills had to be Proved in their various courts up to 1858 when at this point the State took over the administration of Wills. Fortunately, most of the Wills from 1383 to 1858 have now been indexed and these and the Wills can be found at the County Record Office concerned. Wills from 1859 have been indexed by year and alphabetically and these can be viewed at record offices and copies ordered, for location of archives for all areas see link below –

https://www.oz.net/~markhow/englishros.htm

The information contained most likely will be name, address, occupation and date of death. If an Executor was appointed, their name and address and also relationship to the deceased, if any, and obviously the amount left. Her are a few links to sites that give more information and links that are very informative, more than I can put here –

https://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/cms/1226.htm

https://www.familyrecords.gov.uk/frc/research/willsmain.htm

This site is excellent for information and lets you search online –

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/wills.asp

 
Military:

There are available a vast amount of Military records but there are two major problems, there are not a lot available online and the rest are so widely spread across the country that you have to turn into a bit of a detective to find their location before you can either visit the archive or you have to e-mail or write to the appropriate place before you access them. Rather than just cover one specific conflict here I think more benefit will be gained if I try and give as many finding tools as I can to enable you in your search for all the various archives that are available and probably the best is your internet search engine, Google until you drop, or whatever your preference.
I suppose one of the most popular sites to start with is The Commonwealth War Graves Commission –
https://www.cwgc.org/
CWGC have the most complete record of soldiers (and others) that died in the 1914-18 Great War that is available online.

The 1921 Compilation of Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-19

An excellent resource for locating those who died in the war is Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-19. Originally published in 1921 the compilations consist of 80 volumes for the soldiers with a separate volume for officers. Each volume deals with individual Regiment or Corps, and lists those who died, giving dates, locations, army number. It is not 100% accurate, but an excellent record that was based on regimental records.
These volumes give information that the CWGC does not for example, place of birth, place of residence, place of enlistment and any former regiment being the most common.
A full set of the Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-19 is available for the general public to reference in the Birmingham Central Library. Other Central and/or Reference Libraries may also hold copies, but check before going as they often only have the volume relating to the local regiment.


Here you can search for archives for a host of topics including military record's, you can also find what is available at the PRO Kew archive who probably hold more records in one place than anyone for the historian—
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

WW1 Medal Cards https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/medals.asp

Lots of information and links from the Napoleonic wars (1792-1815) to the First Gulf War (1990-1991), just click on the time line –
https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/familyhistory/bloodlines/military.shtml
 
Electoral Registers:

These are lists of people who, if entitled to vote, had/have registered their names in the qualifying period for a certain area. All the lists for Birmingham from 1832 to February 2001 are held in the Local Studies and History area of the Central Library, Archives and Heritage Service . There are a few years missing, these are 1915-1917 and 1941-1944. You can consult the current register atwww.birmingham.gov.uk/elections and for 2002 up to the current register contact the British Library.
From 1832 to 1869 only men who owned property could register to vote then reform allowed rate payers to register but only for local council/municipal elections, these can be found in the Burgess Rolls. Further reforms took place so that by 1918 all men over 21 and women over 30 could register then in 1928 the age limit for women was made the same as men, 21yrs, and then in 1969 anyone 18 or over could register.
Before 1884 the lists were in alphabetical order of surname then after reform the lists in most areas were by address, house number, street and ward.
 
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Bren, this is a really good piece of work.

Just 2 points,

The marriage certificate does not always have information that the father was deceased.I have one where I know that he was but it does not say so on the certificate.
When asked 'fathers name and occupation?' it was up to the couple to say if he was deceased.

Do not presume that in the census'wife' means 'married wife' which means that some of the children could be registered with their mothers name.
 
Bren
This is excellent work and clearly written for anyone just beginning family history research to undertand.

I hope Keith makes this into a sticky note so it is the first thing any clicking on the Aid & advice for beginners sees or maybe he can turn it into a PDF.

I hope you dont mind me making an extra suggestion and that is to have another section to give some advice to anyone asking this forum for family hsitory assistance or a lookups of the type of minimum information needed so that those giving help have the full facts and dont go off on an unrelated path.

Maybe a template of questions:

i.e. Dates, names of person/ parents, last known address , occupation is sometimes a help.

I am sure that you could add a couple of extra points in.

This is excellent work and very much appreciated.

Louisa
 
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Bren ,you how compiled such a brilliant article,so I hope you don't mind a few extras from other posters.
I was going to start a new thread with this but wanted to keep your Heading to the fore.

Make use of free sites but beware that they are far from complete.

If you find you grandfathers marriage do not assume that he married any of the ladies listed on the same entry same quarter same ref..These records are all submitted separately and his spouse may not have been indexed.

Recently I posted an article on another forum about a lost census entry in Staffordshire.A reply came from' a veteran researcher' telling me that I was mistaken in the facts that I had given for this persons birth because staffordshirebmd and freebmd did not have this person so where on earth had I found it..
I gave the entry and ref. number in reply and told them that I use GRO
index.
These freebies are helpful as far as they go but are not the complete records.
 
Brilliant Bren. You've invested so much time and effort there to help others, it really is appreciated. Useful for not only novices, also the rest of us who bumble along getting lost and mixed up (i.e. ME)
Thank you so much.
 
Don't forget there are Thousands of people who have put their family trees onto the WWW put their names in thus. Plus they will also be looking for you.

John Smith Born 1892 Hampshire

Smith family Hampshire

Families of Hamshire Smith

You will be totally amazed what you can find i found my friends whole famiy in one day Don't let it become a chore and don't get bogged down by needless paperwork it is so much easier today than when i started and lots of fun..Good luck everyone...Cat:)
 
Evening All

Glad you all approve, just like to say thank you to Di Poppit and Pomgolian for their contributions and i hope one of the moderators can pin this at the head of the thread, will make it a lot easier to refer to in the future.

I do agree there was a lot i could have added to this, in fact it was a lot lot longer, but i was trying to make it a short, concise informative topic that a new researcher could build on. I am sure a lot of you will understand that it could have turned into dozens of pages and the initial message lost so keep posting those all important "Tips", we all need them.


bren
 
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bren. A Brill piece of work. Sometimes things come clearer in the end.
Had a photograph of my wife's Grandfather in Army uniform, but did not know which regiment or when the photograph was taken,seemed like one of those hopeless cases. That was until on a Census we found his wife listed as Soldiers wife and then him stationed in Guernsey. Well worth the search and waiting for. He was in the Suffolk Regiment so still more to be found and what was the medal he was wearing ?
 
bren. Thank You so much, it is the first time we have seen his regiments badge so we are very pleased. The Regimental Museum for the Suffolk Regiment is in Bury St Edmunds but we have not been there yet.
 
hi Bren thankyou for the massive help in posting such a large amount of logical step by step method of doing your family history if i had this info when i first started (both parents from broken family's),wrong advice at a local library, down to 1841 in 15 mins flat finished up with the right gg/grandfather but2 wrong people in between then being told your family is no trouble to trace i have tons of bits paper that ive either printed or written information that ive collected so taking on board your timely advice its back to square one ,may also second your idea of putting it the first post on the advice thread i think it will save many hours of wasted search by keeping them on the straight and narrow

33bus:)
tom
 
Tom I've learned so much from the Folk on the Forum here and got so much help and advice and not only Family History. Its the photo's the Computer help,need I go on don't think so.

When we were at school it was 50 Pupils & one Teacher now its like having 50 teachers and yourself and I've not been caned once in 3 years

:D
 
Hi Bren

Well - I could have done with you two years ago when I first started researching my family tree, I bumbled along and at one point even researched the wrong family.

Your article is invaluable to beginners and people such as myself who still need
all the help we can get

Well done

Dianne
 
Hi bren thank you so much for doing all this for me and i am sure it will be very usefull to me and to other starting out as well . With help from other members on this site i got lots of info about my own family even went to the house my moms family lived in at the start of their married life that was brilliant .With my husbands family its so much harder as we know nothink at all about his mom and dad,s past so the 1911 census is the one that holds the start we need plus birth records anyway thank you very much for all the work you have put in. sheila
 
Hi Bren,

Thanks for all that you have given here on BHF.

I'm still in the process of piecing my family's history together, not an easy job as I don't live in England. Your clear layout will help me a lot as I have up untill now been having to work with scraps of information. I'll now piece that all together using your recommended pattern that I have printed off for future reference.
 
This is really very comprehensive. May I also suggest the importance of making notes of where/from whom information orginates so one can cross-refereence at a later stage if the need arises? Even at my early stage of researching I want to go back to double check and can't remember the source of some information. Happy Hunting! Alisan
 
I notice we have some newcomers to family history. This excellent information submitted by Bren should help!:) scroll back on this thread.
 
I have read this thread and I am struggling to fully comprehend all the information. I have my parents marriage certificate and a document from when my dad was de-mobbed after ww1. It has his army number and some mention of his pay. Could someone get me started please.

Name interests Gould.
 
Hi Stitcher

Yes, as i said it is a bit of a steep learning curve and seem a lot to take in at first, that's why i tried to keep it short and concise :D.

Go to "Surname Interests" and put all the info off the marriage certificate and your dads demob papers on there plus any other significant dates, i.e Birth, and let's see what we can find for you


bren
 
Hi everyone,

I think I am in right place to post this but if not someone will hopefully re-direct accordingly.

I have been researching my Mom's family tree , I have had excellent results with both Maternal and Paternal side of her family but I have now discovered that her Maternal grandmother had a brother who was sent to Canada , he appears on 1891 census , Mom remembers her grandmother talking about him and gave me his name (Clement West born approx 1886) , I appreciate that I will probably never find him or his descendants now but is there any websites I could use that could help me find when he went to Canada and what ship etc etc. Mom knows that her Gran was sent to workhouse when she was young so I know it is between 1891 and 1901 but any clues from anyone would be greatly appreciated. I would like to fill in all the gaps for my Mom , she is soo pleased with what I have found out for her so far , her Paternal side of family has been so easy, her paternal Grandmother i have traced back ancestors to the late 1600's ( pure luck and excellent internet resources) .. her paternal grandfather even easier , It all just fell into place and I have manages so far to get back to mid 1700's ( all through internet) , I am assuming that Clement would have been in Birmingham Workhouse (Dudley Road) and could have been sent to any of the cottage homes , but how would I establish that etc . Any advice greatly appreciated

Dianne
 
He was sent to Canada as part of the Middlemore Homes project.
Clement West sailed to Prince Edward Island on the Cartheginian 15th june 1895.
If you put middlemore homes in the 'Search' at the top of the page you will find many postings and also advice on where to find more information.
Alberta.
 
Alberta

Thankyou so much.. where did this info come from , I had a thought just after posting my reqest that he could have been sent via middlemore project , I cannot thank you enough Alberta , I am soo very grateful , this may help me find his descendants, My Mom is going to be over the moon about this,, she has shed so many tears everytime I show her something new regarding her family, this is gonna make her shed buckets of tears.

Again Alberta thank you SO MUCH

Dianne
 
Hi everyone,

After Alberta's excellent help with my search for Clement West who was sent to Canada via Middlemore Childrens Project in 1895 I then discovered the 1901 census return for the area he was sent to. He has appeared on the Canadian 1901 census as a "Domestic" , in other words a servant, It has upset me so much, I cannot remember his sister (my great grandmother) but I have heard all the stories she told my Nan (her daughter ) and also my Mom (her grandaughter) , apparently when they were very young they lived in poverty , food and heat was hard to come by but they had a loving and happy few years together as children, and they had loving parents. Sadly their father died after a very short illness and due to lack of money all three children were seperated from the mother shortly afterwards. My Greatgrandmother was in workhouse, CLement sent to Canada and who knows what happened to the other sibling - MaryAnn , . My greatgrandmother married my greatgrandfather William Shaw on December 24th 1904 and had a very happy marriage, I just feel so angry and sad that Clement was sent to Canada for a "new life" and ended up as a servant . I cannot find him on the canadian 1911 census, I only hope he bettered himself and found happiness elsewhere in Canada or surrounding countries.
 
Hi Bren,
I have been researching my family tree for approx 5 years,using BMD,cencus,parish records ,fellow ''tree people''etc
but have absolutely no idea how to begin to find military records.Where do I look ?Do I use a county a person was born/lived in,
surname,age etc ?My family come mainly from Warwickshire,Staffordshire,Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire
counties.I should imagine that my family members would have been in the army(as opposed to the navy and raf).I only know that my dad was in the fleet air arm ,as a young man ,towards the end of the 2nd world war.Nothing else is known about military service within the family..
Your advice would be appreciated please.
 
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