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.

@FamilyTreeBuilder, yes, the laws at the time meant that the CoE, as the Established Church, effectively functioned as the place where all baptisms and marriages were registered, and hence Jewish couples getting married in CoE churches, RCs baptized there too. Marriages taking place outside of the CoE were not recognised afaik.

I ask because my ancestors on my paternal grandmother's side were extremely devout RCs of English origin, switching to English-Irish mix, but some of them were buried in CoE graveyards in different corners of the colonies, and then there's this particular marriage in the little CoE church in Lincolnshire.

I guess what I'd like to know is the point where they became RC if they were protestant for a few centuries, or if they were always RC and had to have a CoE ceremony thanks to the laws of that time (1709).

Thank you so so much for the wonderfully detailed answers, @FamilyTreeBuilder. You have such an amazing job and you sound so passionate about what you do - but also realistic about what can be achieved.

DH is going to give me such a ribbing about the notion that I might have one branch of Ulster Irish rather than Scottish or Lancashire though - he's from Ireland and he's supposed to be the only Irish person in the household.

Just to add something to SDTG's question about whether you can research someone else's tree: there's a YouTuber called Useful Charts who does a lot of fascinating family trees, especially royal and religious ones, and each year he runs a (non financial reward) competition for people to submit the most interesting trees - so you get really elaborate trees for Harry Potter or Game of Thrones or famous politicians etc.

Thank you for this post.... I have been researching my Mums side of the family for about 30 years off and on... Northern Ireland and Scottish.... the first I am back to 1842 ish.. the Scottish side 1713 with lots of sideways branches... all of this supported by certificates and extracts etc. This continues to be a work in progress!
However my Dad was English and its a whole different story. No real information except his birth certificate. And I have to say the English registration system is not a patch on the Scottish one!! I am really struggling to trace beyond his mother..born Hampshire, and his father born Gloucestershire. Do I have to visit in person to access records? Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thank you, @FamilyTreeBuilder and @ItsOnlyWordsInnit.

@Bonbon21

Thank you for this post.... I have been researching my Mums side of the family for about 30 years off and on... Northern Ireland and Scottish.... the first I am back to 1842 ish.. the Scottish side 1713 with lots of sideways branches... all of this supported by certificates and extracts etc. This continues to be a work in progress! However my Dad was English and its a whole different story. No real information except his birth certificate. And I have to say the English registration system is not a patch on the Scottish one!! I am really struggling to trace beyond his mother..born Hampshire, and his father born Gloucestershire. Do I have to visit in person to access records? Any advice would be much appreciated.

No you shouldn't have to visit in person. If you have your dad's birth certificate that should give his parents' names and you can use sites like Free BMD to find their marriage index listing and the mother's maiden name.

If you are dealing with common names it's always wise to order up the full certificate to confirm you have the right couple. That's where Scottish records are brilliant, all online and mothers listed on marriage/death certs.

Remember that pre-compulsory civil registration not everyone baptised their babies, and some of the parish registers no longer exist.

To continue.. if I trace the cert on BMD index...where do I order it from?
Sorry, I don't get the English system.
My thanks again...

No problem. On the Free BMD site you'll marriage information presented like:

Marriages Mar 1876
Carter Emily Liverpool 8b 308

Then go to the GRO site: www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/app_select.asp
and enter the year, the Quarter (1st Q end March, 2nd Q end June etc) the volume number which is the 8b in the example and the page number, which is 308. The registration district is Liverpool. You only have to give EITHER the bride or groom name which is useful.

Costs £11 and in my experience they come fairly quickly. It's also worth checking on sites like Ancestry and Find my Past or FamilySearch as some church wedding records have been digitised - I've recently found them in Manchester and London.

How fascinating, what a brilliant job. I have two family mysteries I would love solved. One is that my mother’s father never knew who is father was and this affected him all his life. It was hard being illegitimate in those days (born in 1914). The other is my dad’s father disappeared on India in the early 1960s. I have no idea how to go about trying to solve such mysteries and would love to have any tips!

@FamilyTreeBuilder Hi thank you for posting this thread!
May I please ask, where the heck do I start?! I don't know a lot of details about my Ancestors (even about some of my grandparents as all but one were dead by the time I arrived) and I keep reading about people finding out all these stories about their ancestor's lives and I'm like 🫤❓

Thank you!

Thats brilliant!..thank you so much for talking me through this..
Phew!!! £11!!.. gosh thats expensive compared to Edinburgh!!
Oh.. its fine!!.it will be worth it in the end!!
I really want to level out the tree and honour my Dad!!
X

What weird and wonderful occupations have you come across?

Hello again
I have the birth certs if my aunt and her son. I have census records for them all in 1921. In that census she claimed to be married and gave her name as Tessita nisbet, which was her 'husband's' surname but I'm pretty sure they never married as there is no marriage cert or divorce records and he married 'again' in NZ before hearing she had died. Tessita is not her given name, she was Baptised Harriet, known as Evelyn then called herself Tess.... I've found a pic of the three of them and have them in the 1921 census as a family unit and then nothing until 1932 when he writes to her mother saying he was sorry to hear she'd died 6 years ago. I'm just so surprised that there is no record of a death that matches any of her various names with her birth date.

Thanks for your advice OP, that's a great place to start

I'm based in Scotland and my mum has done tons of family history on the Scottish side - very interesting and has got back quite far.

I'm half Irish and would like to know more about that side. I made a start, managing to make contact with an American relative (we shared a great great grandparent) but I am at a loss of how to get back any further. I've found my family on a couple of censuses but hit a wall after that. I am very curious because my grandad said we were part German shortly before dying.

My question for you is - I've been told Irish family history can be tricky because of the Easter Rising and the fact many official records were destroyed at that time. Do you know anything about that or where I might start?

Can I ask if you know anything about age of marriage laws in Ireland in the 1930's?

I think I found my Grandfather's marriage certificate but no date of birth is listed, just "Majority" (I think) basically stating they were of age. Only, it would have made my grandfather 12/13 years old! He was married to an older woman who was not my grandmother so I think it may have been a marriage of convenience regarding farm property.

Would love to know if you could offer any insight to this sort of situation as Google isn't producing anything. Thanks!

I've been told Irish family history can be tricky because of the Easter Rising and the fact many official records were destroyed at that time. Do you know anything about that or where I might start?

Perhaps perversely I've got further in my Irish descent than others.

The Four Courts fire was in the Irish Civil War in June 1922, not the Easter Rising. It did destroy a lot of Irish records, however, there were many 'elsewhere' so all is not lost. Also Trinity is putting some salvaged documents online, but it doesn't seem to amount to much.

One approach I found useful was to Go Back Again Later. By this I mean let time pass. Then revisit with a fresh mind to see if you have made some erroneous assumptions. Also additional records might be available.

@tinselvestsparklepants

Hello again I have the birth certs if my aunt and her son. I have census records for them all in 1921. In that census she claimed to be married and gave her name as Tessita nisbet, which was her 'husband's' surname but I'm pretty sure they never married as there is no marriage cert or divorce records and he married 'again' in NZ before hearing she had died. Tessita is not her given name, she was Baptised Harriet, known as Evelyn then called herself Tess.... I've found a pic of the three of them and have them in the 1921 census as a family unit and then nothing until 1932 when he writes to her mother saying he was sorry to hear she'd died 6 years ago. I'm just so surprised that there is no record of a death that matches any of her various names with her birth date.

How odd! If there s a lot of lying going on then I wouldn't take anything at face value, even the 1926 possible date of death.

It does make things very difficult when people change their names in this way to something entirely unrelated - easier when it's Elizabeth, Beth, Betty and Bess.

There will be a record of a death - but you just don't know which name it was registered under.

@Freetodowhatiwant

How fascinating, what a brilliant job. I have two family mysteries I would love solved. One is that my mother’s father never knew who is father was and this affected him all his life. It was hard being illegitimate in those days (born in 1914). The other is my dad’s father disappeared on India in the early 1960s. I have no idea how to go about trying to solve such mysteries and would love to have any tips!

DNA is probably the best way to solve an unknown parentage case, your mum would be better taking the DNA test as she would share around 25% of her DNA with this unknown man as her grandfather. But as I have said to other posters how easy it is depends on the strength of matches you get and how willing other people are to cooperate.

When you say disappeared in India was he travelling out there, or was he an Indian national? If he wasn't Indian, a search in the newspapers from his home area might turn up something. Although the closer you get to present day, the less info is available due to privacy concerns.

[quote SpringsSprung]@FamilyTreeBuilder Hi thank you for posting this thread!
May I please ask, where the heck do I start?! I don't know a lot of details about my Ancestors (even about some of my grandparents as all but one were dead by the time I arrived) and I keep reading about people finding out all these stories about their ancestor's lives and I'm like 🫤❓

Thank you! [/quote]
Start by writing down where toy know. And asking your parents, aunts, uncles etc what they know.

Basics like full names of your grandparents, where they were from (town/county), roughly when they got married, did they have any brothers and sisters, what did they do for work etc. An aunt remembering a story about granny telling her about holidays with her mum's sister Cathy in Lincoln can be really useful in the future!

@Baubletree

What weird and wonderful occupations have you come across?

All manner of manual occupations. My own tree are all agricultural labourers and farmers. I did have someone in a client's tree who was a knocker-up - nothing to do with pregnancy, it was their job to get people out of bed in time for work in the morning before alarm clocks were a thing.

Also the area where I live has a strong shipbuilding history and there are lots of caulkers, rivetters, chandlers etc. There are lots of websites where you can google old jobs to find out what they mean.

@Lucia23

I'm based in Scotland and my mum has done tons of family history on the Scottish side - very interesting and has got back quite far.

I'm half Irish and would like to know more about that side. I made a start, managing to make contact with an American relative (we shared a great great grandparent) but I am at a loss of how to get back any further. I've found my family on a couple of censuses but hit a wall after that. I am very curious because my grandad said we were part German shortly before dying.

My question for you is - I've been told Irish family history can be tricky because of the Easter Rising and the fact many official records were destroyed at that time. Do you know anything about that or where I might start?

Yes, Irish records are notoriously hard. There was no 1921 census, the 1901 and 1911 census do exist. Most of the other census returns (1841-91) were burned in the Easter Rising when the records office in Dublin caught fire.

But lots of other records do survive, like birth marriage and death records, parish records, land valuation records. A lot of it is online on the www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/ website - free. The main problem I have come across with Ireland is that when people moved to the UK for work in the famine years, they were recorded on a census as Mary Doyle, birthplace Ireland. Not a town or county. So you start looking for Mary Doyle, born 1840 +/- 5 years anywhere on the island of Ireland and have 100 matches. And no way of knowing which is the right one. Sometimes you hit lucky with unusual names - I had a lot of success with a family with a relatively unusual surname and given names like Rodger and Isaac.

I also very much agree with what @MMBaranova says. New stuff is being added all the time. The big sites like Ancestry and FamilySearch have transcription projects to digitise records, and local family history groups transcribe gravestones and other local records.

It's always worth checking every 6 months to see if anything new pops up.

I'm in my second intensive year of family tree research, but I never thought my skills could be monetized I agree with the OP's comments about how some people accept any and all hints on Ancestry without considering the viability of the data, you should definitely consider whether events are (a) possible and then (b) likely. One useful 'feature' I have found is that the further you go back, the less likely it is that people moved out of their family's village - so matching spouses becomes easier.

Interesting things I've found in my tree are two charges of bigamy (one convicted, imprisoned for two montsh!); and two complete changes of name, both confirmed through DNA tracing. But I still have two people that I just cannot trace, one disappears from records as a teenage (might have gone to Australia on a boat) and one appears as a teenager working in a mill.

It's always worth checking every 6 months to see if anything new pops up.

Definitely - I worked on our tree in 2020, then took a year off (and knitted instead!) before resuming in 2022. Lots more records, and lots more potential hints from research by others.

@TabbyBeast

Can I ask if you know anything about age of marriage laws in Ireland in the 1930's?

I think I found my Grandfather's marriage certificate but no date of birth is listed, just "Majority" (I think) basically stating they were of age. Only, it would have made my grandfather 12/13 years old! He was married to an older woman who was not my grandmother so I think it may have been a marriage of convenience regarding farm property.

Would love to know if you could offer any insight to this sort of situation as Google isn't producing anything. Thanks!

Majority means he would have been at least 21. Minors were people aged 16-21 and were allowed to marry only with permission of parents. Before the 1929 marriage act in the UK - I know Ireland was independent by that point but many of the laws remained - boys of 14 could marry, and girls of 12.

So it's possible he could have been 14, but I'd say unlikely. More digging required I think.