Has anyone traced their family tree?

[Afternooninthepark]

I’ve wanted to do this for a long time but since my mum has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s it’s something I really want to do asap.
Thing is, I don’t know where to start. Is it an expensive hobby? Do you need lots of info? Both my parents are only children and all of my grandparents have now gone. I do know where they where all born, lived and died so I suppose that is a start.
Can anyone give any advice on how I can get started?

First thing is to work backwards from what you know. So put down your mum and dad, then what you know about your grandparents.

Do you have access to any birth or marriage certificates? These not only give dates of births/weddings but have other info like father's name and mother's maiden name on a birth certificate, or the fathers of both bride and groom on marriage certificates, so it can get you back another generation. If you are Scottish, their certificates give even more info.

I got so into doing mine that I got an Ancestry subscription, but it is quite pricey. But they do have a free month's trial, I think, which you could try to see how you get on. One word of warning though - a lot of the family trees people have posted onto Ancestry aren't very accurate, so I take them as somewhere to get potential leads rather than accepting them as gospel. If you are searching on-line you have to be quite careful- it's tempting to take the first result on the list as "your" ancestor, but it isn't always the case. You also need to keep thinking logically - if you are looking for family in Brighton, a result of someone with the same name from Inverness, although not impossible, is less likely to be the one you are looking for.

Other sites like Find My Past I think let you buy credits and they also have a free trial period. They also give good tips on how to get started. FreeBMD lets you search the births, marriages and deaths indexes for free (although if you want an actual certificate you have to pay the records office).

Hope that's of some use and not too confusing! Good luck - it is a lot of fun.

www.bbc.co.uk/history/trail/familyhistory/family_trees/research_family_tree_01.shtml
www.findmypast.co.uk/?ds_kid=43700029851133840&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIqbKxoKuc3gIV6LDtCh267gkvEAAYASAAEgJvpfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CKa-sKOrnN4CFdXh1Qodz0AA-g

A lot of libraries have Family History Groups (with the added bonus of their own Ancestry subscriptions) which could help get you started.

Interview the oldies in your family NOW. The details they know and have forgotten are irreplaceable & unique. So much of my family history I am lucky to have b/c my dad did a huge sweep of interviews when he was 21; never would have had the info otherwise. Esp. if your mom is having memory problems, the trend isn't for that to get better (sorry about the diagnosis, btw ). Interview them ASAP.

Anything interesting you find out with the early research, go back & interview the oldies again to see if the new information jogs their memory.

Also, don't believe every story you hear, try to verify any stories with actual historical records. There a zillion myths in most families, many are exaggerations & untrue. Then you start finding stories people brushed under carpet, disowned siblings etc., those are the real gold.

Im on ancestry. It depends how much time you have on your hands. You can have a free trial for I think 2 weeks.

You also need to think about what you want to do - go directly back, or go a little way back and then come forward to find 2nd or 3rd cousins.

A lot depends on where in the country you are. Records from norfolk are not as good as records from London for example. Having said that new collections are becoming available all the time.

My tip is not to rely on other peoples trees. You really have to think critically and you might have to go back and redo bits. Its really common to give the children the same name as parents so you have to really look at which one it is.

Ive just bought a subscription to the national newspaper archives. Great uncle Bill played a hell of a lot of cricket! And won a couple of prizes at school. Uncle Geoff and Pansy were fined for riding a tandem without lights. Fun stuff.

Start with Family Search - the Mormons have lots of free info! See what you can get from that, and wait to use free trials on things until you know what you're looking for. Also if there is a specific area of the country see what records they have online - for example the Lancashire parish records site have loads but not all areas will have this.

It's also worth looking at the census records from the past. Used to be free, but not sure now.

Thanks all. I’ve only my mum and dad left so I’ll have to start grilling them for as much info as possible.

Did your grandparents have siblings and did they have children as that will open up another branch of the family. Also, did your great grandparents have siblings and cousins? So you could very well end up with a family hedge rather than a family tree!

I bet your parents have cousins, try to get in touch with them, too.

Your library or local county record office (archives) may hold census records on microfilm. If you have an unusual surname it might be worth visiting the General Registry Office in London to check the indexes of births marriages and deaths back to 1837. Prior to this records would have been kept by churches of baptisms marriages and burials, and for Anglican churches copies would have been lodged with the diocesan bishop (bishop's transcripts). Many of these are now held in county record offices in England, sometimes with the original parish registers. Bishops transcripts in Wales are I think in the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, but local record offices may have parish records. Once you get some leads there may well be other documentary sources in record offices and local history libraries. Good luck - DH and I traced his family back to 1784 and fortunately we were contacted by someone tracing the same name who sent us a family tree going back further. We only got to mid/late 19th century with mine.

I have just finished a course on futurelearn that introduces people to family research, introducing all possible sources and how to get at them. It was fascinating even for me who has no family to research in that area.

It is not too difficult if one of the grandparents has an unusual surname, I have found. Be prepared for some surprises though.

I did the free trial of Ancestry.com and got back as far as a marriage in 1790 on one line of the family. It didn't look as though I could go further without investing more time and energy than I had spare, so I didn't continue beyond the trial, but it was an interesting experience.

Be prepared for some surprises though. indeed! My dh is the interested one in our family, he found out my dgd was in prison and his father we think was illegitimate. On the other side, grand father who was orphaned and joined up in ww1 before his 18th birthday. He trawls the available on line census files.

One of my great-uncle's assumed a dead man's identity, and his children and grand-children only found this out when one of his great-grandchildren was given a DNA test as a gift and got into genealogy.

Our side knew he'd run off with a married lady and "broke his mother's heart" so was dead to his brothers. We are trying not to think about the man whose identity he assumed - his "married lady" 's husband

All sorts can come out of family tree research: in our case, though, I was very glad that my GF actually turned out to be my GF - GM had a GI friend in the war...

It's really addictive! My trees are now quite extensive but I've been lucky in that some were well researched already. You do have to check everything. Loads of people who use ancestry have no idea of the geography of the UK or that place names need to be correct. For example East Haddon and West Haddon are two entirely different places not different parts of a place called Haddon. Someone else has copied over my grandfather's family tree because their relative has the same name and birth year. But if you look properly the birth places are different and their respective WW1 records give their very different heights and I know my grandfather was very tall.

I've used a mixture of family search, ancestry and find my past.

Some good advice above.
Yes to grilling the rellies. Make good notes and record who /where you got the info.
Yes to the free trials on Ancestry.co.uk / FindmyPast.
Yes to familysearch.org - free. It's a mormon site and they have family history centres round the country. If there is one near you (google them), they have free access to some websites and often people who will help you.
Also look at freeBMD.co.uk for post 1837 free records and their sister site freeReg for some parish records. I doubt you will need to visit the GRO, it's all on line.
FindmyPast has got lots of old newspapers on line which can throw up interesting stories even if your family were quite ordinary.
Once you have a couple of generations back and you get to 1911 or before, you can start to make real headway via the census and you'll probably find lots of unkown family members.
Make sure you organise your research and record your sources. If you get into it consider buying a family history software program. I use Family Historian.
Visit your local archive. They usually offer free website access and the staff are generally very knowledgeable and helpful and it's all free.
Depending on the surname, remember that spellings changed or were often misspelled on documents.
Remember people often lied on official documents. Some women never age!
Good luck. It's fascinating. I've been doing it for over 10 years and have written a 60 000 word "book" for the family. It's a particularly interesting family!