AMA - I'm a professional Genealogist / Family Historian.

[FamilyTreeBuilder]

Just that. Have my own business helping people look into their ancestry, the history of their houses, help with DNA tests , ancestors who have emigrated etc.

You're job sounds so interesting!

I've got quite a lot of information about my British family already but there are a couple of things i'd like to find out.

My grandfather divorced in the 1930s - I know divorce at this time was unusual, if there anyway I can find out the details? (Nosiness really!)

Also, my mums grandfather was German, came over in the 1900's as a toddler from East Germany . Family history is his mother moved he and his sister here after their father hanged himself (in a wardrobe! - not sure if the truth / logistics of that). Do you know any way to trace that side?

Do you think there will be a point when we can access the full 1921 census for a subscription price rather than paying for page? I was so looking forward to its release but the pay per page is just awful!

Ooh this is so interesting. Please could you tell us the most surprising thing you've found when you've been researching?

Can I ask - where would you start if you couldn't find a death / burial record? My father is desperate to find out what happened to his aunt. We have family letters which state that she died in the 1920s but I can't find a record anywhere. She had a number of names, which makes things difficult, but no combination of these leads to anything. No marriage records (even to the man she had a son with) Should I assume lost records or check emigration? I'm stuck, would really appreciate any pro tips, including 'hire me' because it would mean a lot to my dad to solve this mystery. Thank you.

I'm stuck going further back than 1841 without census information, any tips please? I have possibilities for some but can't be 100%, others have common names so could be any of the people in the search results.

@ZarquonsSandals

I've been doing my family tree for years. Hit a brick wall with ine branch as the names used by people (and some facts) just don't match any official records. Gtx3 grandfather lived with a woman and had a child. On all info it says they're husband and wife. They had one child. Wife died and he remarried 2 months later as a widower. No marriage or banns for first relationship. On marriage cert he says his father is Edward. No family with father Edward and his name as child exists in the county he says he's from (checked census returns). I have a likely family but different names. Guessing it's a case of tracing all of them on records to try to validate identity?

Or a DNA test? I would think that the way you tell the story, he was never married first time round. This was fairly common, people could get away with lies much more easily, especially if they moved away from their home village. He possibly did lie about his father's name - or just didn't know. I have come across lots of illegitimate people giving a totally made up name for their father on their marriage/death certificate to cover for the "shame" of not knowing.

@Bakingdiva

You're job sounds so interesting!

I've got quite a lot of information about my British family already but there are a couple of things i'd like to find out.

My grandfather divorced in the 1930s - I know divorce at this time was unusual, if there anyway I can find out the details? (Nosiness really!)

Also, my mums grandfather was German, came over in the 1900's as a toddler from East Germany . Family history is his mother moved he and his sister here after their father hanged himself (in a wardrobe! - not sure if the truth / logistics of that). Do you know any way to trace that side?

You can search for divorce records through the National Archives (assuming England/Wales). www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/divorce/ These cases were often reported in the local press too, especially if there was some sort of scandal involved.

German ancestry is very difficult, especially 20th century. German privacy laws are very strict, little is digitised, lots of 20th century stuff destroyed, country split after WW2. And a general lack of interest among current German people into exploring their recent past. Better records for the 19th century - for people who left Europe and went to the US/Canada. If your mum's grandfather was from Eastern Germany, records could be in Poland too. Was he Jewish? I would again advise looking at Facebook groups specifically for German genealogy (or Jewish genealogy if relevant) as there will be someone there who knows the specifics of birth records for Dresden or whatever.

@Maternitynamechange

Do you think there will be a point when we can access the full 1921 census for a subscription price rather than paying for page? I was so looking forward to its release but the pay per page is just awful!

Almost definitely.

Once FindMyPast have made back the money they have spent on digitising it all, it will roll out to be available on a standard subscription, or through other sites like Ancestry. Might take a year or so though.

@extramaturecheddarcheese

Ooh this is so interesting. Please could you tell us the most surprising thing you've found when you've been researching?

Hmm. There are surprises within every family and some of the stories are amazing.

Perhaps the best story/biggest surprise is in my own tree, a distant gg uncle of my mum's was one of about 10 kids growing up in a very rural part of Scotland, all his siblings stayed in the village and had jobs on farms. He upped and left and got on a boat in Liverpool, joined the crew and sailed the world. He pops up on port registers in Sydney, New York, Shanghai - and this was the 1860s. I can't imagine how different his life must have been from his siblings.

That's the sort of story which fascinates me.

@tinselvestsparklepants

Can I ask - where would you start if you couldn't find a death / burial record? My father is desperate to find out what happened to his aunt. We have family letters which state that she died in the 1920s but I can't find a record anywhere. She had a number of names, which makes things difficult, but no combination of these leads to anything. No marriage records (even to the man she had a son with) Should I assume lost records or check emigration? I'm stuck, would really appreciate any pro tips, including 'hire me' because it would mean a lot to my dad to solve this mystery. Thank you.

Do you have the full name(s) of your aunt? I would start with a birth certificate in the absence of any other documentation, or even look on FreeBMD to get a firm year and location.

She may have emigrated, the passenger lists are widely available on Ancestry up to 1960 but if she was using different names that could be tricky. What do you know about the son? Could you find his birth certificate?

@Baubletree

I'm stuck going further back than 1841 without census information, any tips please? I have possibilities for some but can't be 100%, others have common names so could be any of the people in the search results.

It can be tricky going back before civil registration. Some parish records are excellent, others not so much, especially when you have Mary and William and their children, Mary and William.

FamilySearch is good for pre-1841 records. Some of the best records are for guilds so if your ancestor was a weaver, butcher, merchant or something in a city check the local Guild Hall. Probate records exist way way back and can be helpful, if your ancestors left property/land.

This is a good guide from FamilySearch (assuming England/Wales)
www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/img_auth.php/e/ef/England+Pre-1837+Research+Strategies.pdf

Here’s my years-old problem. I have a distant GGG grandmother who was illegitimate but claimed (Dad’s name on marriage certificate and he obviously funded their apprenticeship). It’s one of those where I imagine Mum worked for him as he was a doctor with good records as his other legitimate son was a famous artist. He also had form for fathering children of his staff. But how do I figure out who Mum was? I’ve checked censuses for staff lists, tried tracing the marriages of all women in the area to see if they end up with the same surname as he didn’t have Dad’s surname (so presumably Mum’s maiden or new married name). Anyway I’m stuck and I have been for years!

Sorry it’s GGG Grandad not Grandmother

@Maternitynamechange

Here’s my years-old problem. I have a distant GGG grandmother who was illegitimate but claimed (Dad’s name on marriage certificate and he obviously funded their apprenticeship). It’s one of those where I imagine Mum worked for him as he was a doctor with good records as his other legitimate son was a famous artist. He also had form for fathering children of his staff. But how do I figure out who Mum was? I’ve checked censuses for staff lists, tried tracing the marriages of all women in the area to see if they end up with the same surname as he didn’t have Dad’s surname (so presumably Mum’s maiden or new married name). Anyway I’m stuck and I have been for years!

Is there a birth certificate? If so, who are named as the parents? There has always been fraud in the registration system, especially if babies were born at home. So easy to pitch up with a newborn and say it's yours, nobody is going to check and there is no other paperwork.

I am assuming you mean that your GGG grandfather was acknowledged and supported by his biological father, but didn;t live with them? Have you looked at census to see where he was living? 9 times our of 10 it will be with a family member, unless in a poor house or something. Don't fall into the trap of assuming anything - the mother may have been local, she may have been visiting her friend in the next street.

If there's a record of a marriage in a small CoE church from the early 1700s in Lincolnshire, can I assume the happy couple were CoE or is it possible they were RC or non-conformist?

What’s your fee structure like? Do people pay per generation you research, per hour you spend on it?

@mathanxiety

If there's a record of a marriage in a small CoE church from the early 1700s in Lincolnshire, can I assume the happy couple were CoE or is it possible they were RC or non-conformist?

Anything's possible. It is most likely they were C of E. Or at least Protestant. But I've seen Jewish people married in Anglican churches, Catholic children baptised in Methodist churches and all sorts of things.

@BSJohnson

What’s your fee structure like? Do people pay per generation you research, per hour you spend on it?

It depends - every project is different. I usually charge per hour, and agree a budget up front with the client.

Before Christmas I was offering a 3-generation research report for a fixed price, and basically doing as much as I could in the time.

Is Mac Family Tree worth investing in? It seems to have lots of functionality. ?

@TheDangerOfIgnorance

Is Mac Family Tree worth investing in? It seems to have lots of functionality. ?

I have no experience with Macs, sorry. But I do know that fellow genealogists have had issues with transferring files between formats so check any software out to make sure it's compatible.

I have a bit of family legend with a great great grandparent (they weren’t married to GG grandmother though) who was apparently done for murder. My question is are there any good sites for old newspaper articles especially London ones? That are searchable? I know enough about the crime/ dates/ locations that I might be able to search but not even the guys name! And defintely no date of birth (it was all hushed up for years!)

British Newspaper Archives is excellent - but you'll have to pay for it. I think you have a couple of free searches before you have to pay.

If he was tried at the Old Bailey, you may find details here : www.oldbaileyonline.org/

Do you get slightly frustrated by tv programmes such as Who Do You Think You Are? because they skim effortlessly over all the painstaking endless work involved in actually finding the records? Sometimes you see them viewing a page on Ancestry or similar, and they immediately find what they are looking for, or the subject of that programme walks into some library somewhere and is presented with documents about their ancestor.

Do you think those programmes lull the uninitiated into thinking that family history research is fairly easy, and that little effort is required in locating their ancestors' records? Have you ever found glaring errors in your clients' research so far, where they are barking (literally) up the wrong tree?

All excellent tips but he was born 1817 so by the 1841 census was already all grown up and married. I’ve looked at all censuses etc, potentially family friends within a radius of where he was to no avail. No birth certificate, at least not with his surname or his biological fathers surname. I’ve even looked at all marriages that might have resulted in his surname (for Mum) before and after his birth. Think I might have to admit defeat!

I love Who Do You Think You Are and I think they generally do a pretty good job. It is obvious though when they pull out this super obscure record that there has been a lot of searching and dusty archives in the background, but that doesn't make good telly. I also know they have discounted celebs whose stories aren't interesting enough.

People do make mistakes and sites like Ancestry are dreadful for it - we call them the "click and collect" genealogists who just accept every hint and suggestion Ancestry offers them, without stopping to think whether Agatha born in 1856 could really be married by 1864 and having children in 1940. I would never ever take anyone's research at face value and would always check it. That's why citations and references are so important, to let you go back and see where you found a specific piece of information.

One of the clients i'm working with at the moment fell into the classic trap of believing everything he was told - he had a "family history" written out by his father but it was only about 5% right. That's fairly common. I always tell people to note down the family stories about people and events but to always try to corroborate. Often the story about Uncle Alf who served in WW1 turns out to be about Uncle Pete who was in the Crimean War.