To ask if you've researched your family tree on Ancestry.com...a question?

[HennyPennyHorror]

Say I find my Mum's parents and then her grandparents (in this case on her paternal side) ....and I know it's them. Then want to find THEIR parents....how am I supposed to know which of the people with the rightish name are them?

The names not that common...but not that uncommon either...I've narrowed my Mum's Dads' Mum's birth down to a small place in Galway/Aran islands but I can see a couple of options...one family seem more likely but what's the decider?

It might be that you won't know if names are that similar.
You could use the censuses to find out sibling names and then match up with birth records to show parents. Also looking at death certs could show the informant, who may be a sibling to a grandparent.

Look at the census records which will show others in the family.

Thanks but how do I find siblings if I'm not sure that's the correct person?

You have to order the certificates.

Is there a way to order them so you just get them online? I live in Australia now and don't fancy waiting weeks to get documents.

If you have a membership to Ancestry or one of the others like My Heritage, you can see most of the records you need online. I have gone back many generations that way. They have extensive access to collections where you can read the actual document. I have not had to order any. Have fun!

I haven't seen any marriage certs or how to get them....is there something I don't know? I'm on Ancestry.com

What subscription do you have, or are you attempting to build your tree on the free account? It's basically impossible without paying out for extortoinate access to records of the region(s) in which your ancestors lived.

I've got the free trial.

If you are a member on ancestry it should offer suggestions. Generally work back using birth and marriage certificates. These are attached to suggested matches and census records which will list people in a home. By comparing these pieces of information you can increase the certainty of the proposal

Free trial is very limited access

You will probably need to pay to access more records and then it’s all about trying to find as many documents as you can to back everything up. Sometimes you go down a lead and then come across something that makes you realise it’s not the right person. Where is your heritage based?

You do not necessarily need to go thru paid sites, such as Ancestry. Quite a lot of public documents are on line anyway.
I think your difficulty may be the location. I suggest you email the relevant records office and ask if any documents are on line.
As far as knowing which person is or is not an ancestor, you need to match a number of factors, ages, dates, births and deaths and eliminate the ones that do not fit. It is not always easy. ( Some of my Family are Jones in Wales - yikes! ) Good luck.

Salty Liverpool and Galway.

Ireland has great records, you should be able to google for the websites to search, such as www.census.nationalsrchives.ie

You just need to take the information you have and piece together what you can. It’s a bit like playing detective. Also DNA helped me heaps when I did mine

My sister is big into this. The DNA results showed matches & how closely she was related; 5th cousin etc. It can also indicate likely paternal matches, this is dependent upon the other DNA results they have of course. We have met relatives we never knew about.

Forgot to say, she was able to track down our eldest sisters father (different to ours).

Order a marriage certificate and birth certs. Sometimes on the census older family members live in same household. Also try and search parish church records. This can be done online for some areas. You need the Scottish website cant remember the name but I have used it in the past. There is often a pattern with naming from generation to generation.