How do you begin to trace your family tree?

[RhodaCamel]

It’s something I’ve always wanted to do but where do I start?
Both my parents are only children so no aunties, uncles or cousins. Both sets of grand parents have passed on. DM has early stage Alzheimer’s so I need to start asking her stuff soon before her memory of family members fades.
Where do you start when tracing a family tree? Do I get as much info from my parents as poss such as where grandparents where born, birth dates etc? Does it cost a lot of money to trace family members? What would be the best starting point? What are the best websites etc?
Sorry, lots of questions but I genuinely have no idea where to even start!

Start a free trial on Ancestry. Fill in what you know and see what pops up.

Ancestry has four months for 20 offer on till monday

Thanks, will have a look.

Get info from parents.
Look at family info such as any birth or marriage certificates already in the family (eg your parents may have kept those for their parents.)

Sites like ancestory.com
You can search general record office and send away for certificates.

e.g. You know when your mum was born and where.
If you get her birth certificate it will say names of parents.
You can then search backwards for their marriage certificate.
On that it will say names of their fathers.

Once you get back far enough you can search census records online so you can see who is in a household, so find siblings, parents etc.

I did my stuff but 15+ years ago now so stuff has moved on no doubt.

@RhodaCamel

Where are you?

I did it with my mum several years ago. We’re in Scotland and apparently Scotland has some of the best kept records worldwide. If you’re up here then you’re in luck!

Talk, talk, talk, yes. Write down everything you know already, everything, the tiny little things, the memories, nicknames, snippets, anything. Then talk to your parents and really listen, even the smallest impressions may matter later.

Learn how to use Ancestry and the LDS Family Search sites, the amount of info you can get for free is considerable, but you also beef to know how to filter it and decide what is worth backing up with getting certificates.

It's been a few years since I did work in this area but when I was on it pretty much full time I wad doing 3-4hrs a day, 5 days a week - it gets very addictive!

I agree with the free ancestry trail after you have some information from your DM 're birth dates of parents and places of birth as that will let you check the initial information that appears on Ancestry.
Do chat to your DM about her past as it will also let you have interaction with her later as it is the earliest memories that are forgotten last. Also ask her favourite children songs and hymns etc as music dies help with dementia and memories x
Have a look at Tracing your family tree magazines - your local library will also have lots of information to help you
Good.luck xx

Thank you all, I’m going to start tomorrow.
Does anyone know anything about the Find my past website? Is Ancestry better?
ArntNice thanks. I’m currently making a playlist for mum with all of her favourite songs from her childhood and younger years.

Ask your mum ASAP for details on both sets of grandparents & their families. Get their names, dates of births, deaths and places of residence. Then work backwards starting with your grandparents and their siblings. Good luck!

Is it possible if you have your birth certificate but dont know your parents DOB?

Find My Past and Ancestry are similar. Each has the core records but Ancestry has done more deals to transcribe parish registers. Try your county records office (if you are in the UK). Many of those will offer 'how to' advice and will have Ancestry, Find My Past etc.

Your Mum's recollections of he childhood and early life will probably be her clearest memories. My Mum had dementia and we spent hours and hours talking of her childhood even when she couldn't remember where she was (hospital) or where her parents were (died 40+ years ago). Talking about her childhood made her feel safe.

Where do you start when tracing a family tree?
People usually start with their Grandparents or Grt Grandparents. Getting back to them on an available census is a good goal to have because it gives so much information. For example the first available census in the UK is the 1911 census. Most people have a Grandparent or Grt Grandparent listed in it. The census then goes back every 10 years to 1841.

Do I get as much info from my parents as poss such as where grandparents where born, birth dates etc?

Yes as much as possible, including information about any of their siblings. Siblings of ancestors can be very useful in identifying the right family, on a census for example

Does it cost a lot of money to trace family members?

No it can be completely free
There are free to view online sites and the websites you see advertised on TV are free to view on most library computers

What would be the best starting point

What are the best websites etc?

The big ones like ancestry .com , findmypast, you pay a subscription to do your research at home, or access it free in a library (ask the staff).

There are some sites online that are free
familysearch
freebmd
parish register sites (often free)

Sorry, lots of questions but I genuinely have no idea where to even start!

The best thing to do IMO is to take a large piece of paper and draw the tree. Start at the bottom with you and work up. This is less confusing than online trees I think
Tips
Names are not always spelt correctly in records

Online trees are often wrong, especially on ancestry. com. Trust your own research

Ages are not always correct on the census

A female ancestor might have married under a previous marriage name

My nan had dementia recent events eluded her but events thirty forty plus years ago she could remember

Ask her for certificates, photos and names, schools etc. old Christmas cards and telephone books and diaries.
There is the 1939 census.
You can get a birth death marriage certificate for anyone you wish but do it yourself not via online.
Check out Ancestry and see if someone of the same surname has already done the work.
Church of the latter day saints has an excellent free genealogy site.
Whilst talking to mum make a memory book of what you reveal as this will help her talk to the nurses about her child hood and history.
The 1911 census in on Ancestry and they have the broadest range of
resources.
Getting to 1911 is the hardest part but earlier it gets very easy.

Thank you everyone for the info. I’ve signed up on Ancestry and have managed to get as far back as my great-great grandparents just by the names etc I remember myself. It’s my dad’s side which seems a bit more elusive, my paternal grandfather’s family were travelling fairground workers so I may draw a blank there, I’ll talk to dad and mum tomorrow to glean as much info as I can. Didn’t realise how addictive it is, it’s 12.15am and I’m still tapping away!

Oh yes. Very addictive!!

Maybe see if there are Family History Adult Ed courses in your area. I go to one and we learn about all of the different records that can be used to trace our trees along with some historical stuff (nothing heavy). And help - from our tutor and also from each other.

There are also a couple of magazines (who do you think you are and one I cant remember the name of!) which have articles and hints.

And don't trust the hints and trees that other people have done without double checking as there may well be errors - and that error will often be copied across all the big sites!! They all have my great grandma dying age 3!! (Clearly she didnt!! I have now seen the parish records and it was a baby sister with a similar name)

And don't trust the hints and trees that other people have done without double checking as there may well be errors - and that error will often be copied across all the big sites!! They all have my great grandma dying age 3!! (Clearly she didnt!! I have now seen the parish records and it was a baby sistersad with a similar name)

Really good advice.

Also be very sceptical of trees where the dates go back before the 16th century, because what you will find, especially in the UK, is the huge scale of the working class, whose records will inevitably begin to run out before the 17th century or even later.

I'm also very wary of trees making claims of land owning or aristocratic connections. Unless you're certain a recent ancestor was a member of the upper class, its unusual to find it or prove it. IMO its better to study the ancestors you know are definitely yours, their occupations and surroundings, and to research their siblings too.

I've been in contact with distant cousins, who I share a common ancestors with and whose ancestor (my ancestors sibling) was transported to Australia, not an uncommon event in England. There is always an interesting story somewhere, without having to go back many centuries, via uncited records, to William the Conqueror and his cohorts

If you have any Scottish ancestors, I can thoroughly recommend 'Scotland's People' . Although we are in England, both Dh and I have Scottish ancestors and have found information going back to the late 1700's. It does cost to see some documents, but we've only spent around £50. It was a lot easier to find information about our Scottish ancestors than it has been to find out about our English ones.
We bought a book on Amazon, to record our findings - because it is a family tree book it is set out in a logical way so even though our searches sometimes go off at a tangent, it is easy to record the information in the right place, so hopefully, when we actually get the tree drawn up, we won't have to spend hours trying to work out where people fit in, as the book has allowed us to do that as we've gone along.
I'd also second the advice to be sceptical of other people's efforts regarding your family tree. I found an online one submitted by a cousin whose parent was estranged from the family and consequently a lot of the information is massively incorrect and some people don't appear at all (a step-child grandparent is included but the actual grandparent doesn't).
Have fun but be aware, once you get started it does become addictive!

Good luck.

I found a lot of American family trees who had Scottish ancestors named Stuart/Stewart are linked to royalty, even when it's obvious from the dates that x person can't possibly be 120 years old, and they're not actually descendants of Mary Queen of Scots/James the whateverth.

My current bugbear is that one branch of my family all lived in a smallish area, with maybe 5 different surnames, and it's very tricky working out if the John Smith aged 24 who married Mary Jones aged 22 is the one already in my tree, or just a third cousin. Also people who were known by a totally different surname (quite often their mother's maiden name), so eg my GF John Smith was always referred to as Johnnie Jones, as his mother had been Margaret Jones before she married James Smith (known as Jimmy Black, as his mother had been Anne Black before marriage). Helps with the maternal line once you get to the bottom of who's called what though.

Also falling foul of the "lets not talk about anything scandalous" mindset, where I know that a GGM had her daughter illegitimately, and emigrated (probably to Canada) without the daughter, but as no-one ever spoke about it, my DF doesn't know any details of (potential) cousins. And the other DC I've found were girls, so harder to trace as adults if they married.