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.

@Maternitynamechange

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!

Yes that makes it very tricky. You could try a DNA test but going back so many generations you're only going to have distant matches and a massive task to draw up a tree to fit everyone in.

It's hugely frustrating, but not every mystery can be solved. Especially when people at the time had a vested interest in keeping it quiet.

What a fascinating AMA, thanks FTB.

Apologies for the sheer number of questions I have:

• How much of your research can you do digitally / online, and how much really necessitates you popping over in person to the records office / parish church in question? Do you ever have to 'sub-contract' out a particular task because you're not close enough to a non-digital source?

• You've already partially answered my next question, about people telling whopping porkies on docs:

"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."

I already have one widowed gr-gr grandmother who gave her long-dead husband's name as father of my gr-grandmother in 1865. Now a totally different gr-gr grandmother seems to have passed herself off on censuses and baptisms as married to my gr-gr grandfather without divorcing her first husband, and I suspect when they did finally formally marry in 1883 it was bigamous, despite her claims to be a widow.

Was there much danger of these inconsistencies being spotted by registrars, and what would have been the punishment for getting found out? And why would the latter two gr-gr grandparents have lied about their ages, making themselves 3/4 years younger than they are in all other docs? Did poorer/illiterate people in that era just not care so much about how old they were precisely?What other reason could there be for he claiming to be 30 when she was actually 33/34?

• I wasn't expecting much from the Ancestry DNA test because I already knew much of it from researching docs, so the ethnicity estimate shouldn't have been a surprise. And I know it's never more than a guesstimate and changes with every update - but actually 70% of mine was incredibly accurate in locating the exact regions of the UK. Then there's a very unexpected 11% Norse: given that I've found no direct Scandi ancestors but do have family from the Midlands and the north, this is just going to be a leftover relic of early medieval Viking settlement and interbreeding, isn't it? I'm surprised the percentage is so high.

The second surprise was finding none of the expected 12% southern Lancashire (fairly far south in St Helens, i.e. nowhere near the Scottish border), but that exact percentage of Scottish instead. I know that a lot of Scots migrated to Lancashire during the Industrial Revolution, but so far haven't found a single Lancashire relative who seems to have come from further north, and I've gone back to around 1750. Was this because most of the migration had already happened by then, or is it more likely that Scottish DNA populations are so similar to Lancashire populations that they just get confused during analysis? I'd be a little disappointed if it were the latter, TBH.

• Finally, if your clients have already done an Ancestry or 23andme DNA test, would you recommend they upload their raw data to MyHeritage or one of the other smaller companies and pay the lower price for an analysis? Or is it just not worthwhile and only really benefits the company in giving them a larger pool of data?

Hi @FamilyTreeBuilder - my father in law wants to do dome family tree research, but he is completely computer-illiterate, so I suspect he wants us to do it for him. We are going to tell him about the Ancestry website’s costs, and see if he wants to go ahead, but if he wants to do it himself, would he be best engaging the services of a professional like you - and if so, how would he go about it?

Many thanks in advance.

Is there any hope for my MIL who wants to trace her father who was a GI who went home to the States at the end of WW2? Mil was born July 1946. She doesn't even have a reliable surname or date of birth.

Dh got quite a long way with research some 20 years ago but ran up against a block when he found out that a lot of US military personnel records were destroyed in a warehouse fire.

Can anything now be done with the advances in DNA records etc?

My Gt Grandad had a bigamous marriage in 1919. I asked for the marriage certificate from GRO and received a modern hand-written certificate instead of the usual copy. Why would this be? Because it wasn't legal or something else?

You may not be able to help with this but I have a very frustrating query

I have a grandmother (cant remember how many greats), she was born around 1850 in Norwich.

But I cannot find actual proof of her birth, Ive found some births around the time that she should be born and ordered their birth certificates but the fathers dont match up in terms of job or name for her later marriage certificate I cant find the baptism records of her

I dont know where to go next, is there any point in travelling to Norwich to find the copies of the church records, (it was St James Pockthorpe in Norwich, the family lived on Barrack Street and were shoe makers)

@ItsOnlyWordsInnit - it's mostly online. I'm in Scotland and we are still under fairly strict pandemic restrictions in some areas. I was in the archives in Edinburgh about 4 weeks ago, my slot had to be booked 4 weeks in advance, papers quarantined before accessing, sanitiser, masks etc etc etc. So frustrating.

I am in several WhatsApp groups with other genealogists and there are often posts with "i'm in the National Archives if anyone needs a look up" or similar. It really depends what sort of research you are doing, most customers are just interested in the first few generations back, so I don't need to go to the national records of Scotland to pore over old medieval records.

On the lying - no, I don't think registrars were that bothered. I was in a very interesting talk a few months ago by a former registrar who is now a genealogist and he said that registrars are not allowed to challenge. If someone says they are 32, then that's what they write down. The exception to this is checking documents for marriage or whatever but they have to take other information at face value. I think there is a penalty for making false declarations but the registrar doesn't enforce that. I have recently come across a very sad case of a woman registering the death of her child twice within 5 weeks at the same registry office. She was in the workhouse and obviously not in a good place, she must have just gone along with what the officials told her to do. So the same child has 2 separate death certificates.

Lying on census about your age is SO common. People who age 7 or 8 years in the 10 years between each census. I don't think wanting to appear younger than you are is a 21st century thing. In my own tree, my ggrandmother was 2 years older than my ggrandfather and consistently changed her age to make him the older one. Perhaps they weren't that bothered. Also pre-1837 in England there would have been no birth certificates so it's quite possible people genuinely didn;t know.

DNA ethnicity estimates are notoriously inaccurate, especially with a small island like ours with people moving around. My gut feeling is that your "scottish" DNA is as likely to be Irish, especially in Lancashire. All those Ulster Scots who were put into Northern Ireland and then moved back in the famine for jobs in the mills. It's really not an exact science - my paternal ancestry is right on the English/Scottish border and I'm as much Nortumbrian as I am Scottish. But according to Ancestry, I have 0% English DNA.

I have uploaded my own DNA from Ancestry into MyHeritage and Gedmatch but it has only given me a few extra very distant relatives. And there are some privacy issues you have to be aware of, especially with Gedmatch. I'd always advise exploiting everything Ancestry has to offer first especially in the UK as they have the biggest database of UK test takers.

@SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius

Hi *@FamilyTreeBuilder* - my father in law wants to do dome family tree research, but he is completely computer-illiterate, so I suspect he wants us to do it for him. We are going to tell him about the Ancestry website’s costs, and see if he wants to go ahead, but if he wants to do it himself, would he be best engaging the services of a professional like you - and if so, how would he go about it?

Many thanks in advance.

Any decent genealogist will be happy to offer "training" or pointers to novices. A good place to start looking for someone locally is AGRA - association of genealogists and researchers in archives, or RQG - register of qualified genealogists. Both of these bodies have minimum standards which people have to meet before joining. There are also a lot of local family history societies up and down the country with lots of enthusiastic amateur researchers who would be delighted to help a newbie, free of charge.

My Grandmother had a child in the 1950s which died shortly after birth, would the reason be recorded on the death certificate and would the child likely to have been buried in its own grave? Thank you

@A580Hojas

Is there any hope for my MIL who wants to trace her father who was a GI who went home to the States at the end of WW2? Mil was born July 1946. She doesn't even have a reliable surname or date of birth.

Dh got quite a long way with research some 20 years ago but ran up against a block when he found out that a lot of US military personnel records were destroyed in a warehouse fire.

Can anything now be done with the advances in DNA records etc?

Yes. DNA would be a really useful tool in this situation.

You would have to get your MIL to take an Ancestry DNA test. When the results come in, she would have to go through the matches and work out which are on her maternal side and which aren't. Then it's just a case of taking the closest matches you can't ascribe to the mother's side and start sending emails, looking at trees people have put online, and trying to work out which family members were in the forces in WW2.

This is all a long time ago but feelings can still be raw and I'd always advise running through all the scenarios - father's family may not be found, they may flatly refuse any contact, MIL might find out he went on to do something awful. it's not always a happy ending and you need to be prepared for that.

Thanks for the answer :) I'd love to make a living at it as I can happily lose myself in anyone's family tree. I'm always admiring of people who've gone for it.

Really interesting thread!
What makes people come to you, rather than researching themselves, especially now there are so many records accessible online? Is it because they don't have the knowledge/technical skills, or something else? How do you get clients, do you advertise?

@MyShrivelledGnarlyFinger

My Gt Grandad had a bigamous marriage in 1919. I asked for the marriage certificate from GRO and received a modern hand-written certificate instead of the usual copy. Why would this be? Because it wasn't legal or something else?

It just depends - if the original handwriting is clear, they usually photocopy the entry onto the certificate which they send.

If it doesn't copy well or is illegible, they'll write it out again.

The bigamy isn't relevant - although very interesting! Was he caught? Did the second wife know?

@caprimoon

My Grandmother had a child in the 1950s which died shortly after birth, would the reason be recorded on the death certificate and would the child likely to have been buried in its own grave? Thank you

Yes. Reasons for death are always recorded, although for very small children it's often given as something general like failure to thrive or prematurity.

The burial will depend on the policy of the hospital and the wishes of the parents - burial details are not usually recorded on death certificates in the UK. Have you looked on FindAGrave to see if there's a photo or a transcription?

This is a fascinating thread OP!

Please could you tell me how to go about researching your house's history? Our house was built in the 1930s, so it's not especially old or exciting as houses go, but I'd love to know how to start finding out who lived here. We're in England.

@TwinklyBranch

Really interesting thread! What makes people come to you, rather than researching themselves, especially now there are so many records accessible online? Is it because they don't have the knowledge/technical skills, or something else? How do you get clients, do you advertise?

Bit of both. There is SO much information out there that people don't know where to start with it all. Or they do start, and expect it to be as straightforward as the TV programmes make it look and get stuck. Or they want a fresh pair of eyes over research they or someone else has done. Or they are interested in finding out about their ancestors or the history of their house, but don't want to do it themselves.

I do other stuff too - I have recently been working with a woman in the US whose maternal grandmother emigrated from Scotland in the 1920s, she is planning a trip here in September and wants someone to take her round all the places her grandmother would have known and visited. Old school, church she would have attended, etc. House histories are increasingly popular too since A House Through Time has been on BBC2.

I have a website, I use social media, and got quite a bit or work before christmas by advertising on local Facebook groups. I'm not pushing hard for work at the moment, I am completing my qualification and have unrelated work to do too, so it's a balancing act.

Is there some way I can find out what my house number used to be? I'd really like to find out who is registered as living here in 1939 but since then, dozens of houses have sprung up and I don't know whether it used to have a number or a name or what. And once I have that info, how do I search for a house. I have an Ancestry subscription. Can I use that?

Also, is there a way to find a photograph of somebody that I haven't thought of? I have an extensive photo collection but am missing one person and I'd love to "see" him. I've tried messaging people who have him on their family tree on Ancestry but they usually don't respond. He was in a relationship with my Great Grandma for 40yrs but they couldn't marry. I have his Bible, sign up papers and a letter he wrote but am desperate to find a photo if one exists. Any ideas?

@CatkinToadflax

This is a fascinating thread OP!

Please could you tell me how to go about researching your house's history? Our house was built in the 1930s, so it's not especially old or exciting as houses go, but I'd love to know how to start finding out who lived here. We're in England.

Modern houses are much harder. The 1939 register was taken on the eve of WW2 and the occupants of your house should be listed on there. More recent electoral rolls are online too.

For older houses there is obviously the census, but also property tax records, newspaper stories and maps. The National Library of Scotland have an amazing maps site covering all of Scotland/England/Wales maps.nls.uk/ - type in a modern place name and it's easy to toggle between old and modern maps. could spend hours on there.

@ShowOfHands

Is there some way I can find out what my house number used to be? I'd really like to find out who is registered as living here in 1939 but since then, dozens of houses have sprung up and I don't know whether it used to have a number or a name or what. And once I have that info, how do I search for a house. I have an Ancestry subscription. Can I use that?

Also, is there a way to find a photograph of somebody that I haven't thought of? I have an extensive photo collection but am missing one person and I'd love to "see" him. I've tried messaging people who have him on their family tree on Ancestry but they usually don't respond. He was in a relationship with my Great Grandma for 40yrs but they couldn't marry. I have his Bible, sign up papers and a letter he wrote but am desperate to find a photo if one exists. Any ideas?

Again, the maps at NLS as a starting point, then your local library or county records office should have old maps for your street.

It may not have had a number though. There's a good blog post about house numbering on the Postal Museum website. www.postalmuseum.org/blog/house-numbering/

Photos are generally not the sort of stuff that the main websites upload, it will depend if a family member has photos they are prepared to put online. Newspapers maybe?

Thank you OP!

What a fascinating job, I'm really envious! It must be so endlessly rewarding.

Don't reply to this if it's a nuisance (I'm sure you'll have lots of people popping up wanting to pick your brains!) but my maternal family is a bit of a conundrum. My mother and two of her siblings were abandoned and then fostered out in 1955. From what little I've been able to piece together, their mother was married and had a load of kids with one husband, then left him and had more children illegitimately with another man, then those three were the ones abandoned. Family folklore has it (I don't have contact with my mother) that there was some sort of awful crime and the bloke went to prison. Both he and my mother's mother changed their names multiple times. Then they met up much later, changed their names again, lived together in a different city for a couple of years and both died under the new (assumed) name.

Where would you start picking the bones out of that? I'd love to know what really happened, but I have no idea where to begin (I have ancestry membership, but they just disappear when they start changing their names!)

Thank you, @FamilyTreeBuilder!

May I ask a follow up question, please, @FamilyTreeBuilder?

If I subscribe to Ancestry, can I search both my family tree and my husband’s, or would I be limited to just my family?

I am coming round to thinking that a subscription may be the easiest way to do the research he wants, and just looking on the free site you mentioned earlier has definitely piqued my interest in looking at both my and dh’s genealogy.

@Greensleeves

What a fascinating job, I'm really envious! It must be so endlessly rewarding.

Don't reply to this if it's a nuisance (I'm sure you'll have lots of people popping up wanting to pick your brains!) but my maternal family is a bit of a conundrum. My mother and two of her siblings were abandoned and then fostered out in 1955. From what little I've been able to piece together, their mother was married and had a load of kids with one husband, then left him and had more children illegitimately with another man, then those three were the ones abandoned. Family folklore has it (I don't have contact with my mother) that there was some sort of awful crime and the bloke went to prison. Both he and my mother's mother changed their names multiple times. Then they met up much later, changed their names again, lived together in a different city for a couple of years and both died under the new (assumed) name.

Where would you start picking the bones out of that? I'd love to know what really happened, but I have no idea where to begin (I have ancestry membership, but they just disappear when they start changing their names!)

You should be able to find the index listing for the grandmother's marriage on Free BMD. That should at least give you the name she was using at the time of the marriage. If you know the guy's name, then newspaper reports will give details of his crime if it was notable enough. Name changes in the UK are tricky, deed polls aren't online and from what you say, they weren't changing their names legally anyway.

When someone dies you are also relying on the next of kin, or whoever registers the death, to know their name, date of birth and so on. If they don't, records are inaccurate.

People who are determined not to be found, won't be found.

@SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius

May I ask a follow up question, please, *@FamilyTreeBuilder*?

If I subscribe to Ancestry, can I search both my family tree and my husband’s, or would I be limited to just my family?

I am coming round to thinking that a subscription may be the easiest way to do the research he wants, and just looking on the free site you mentioned earlier has definitely piqued my interest in looking at both my and dh’s genealogy.

No you can start whatever tree you want. Some people start researching celebs, or royals or whatever. There's no need to have a connection to the people in your tree.