Getting started with genealogy

[loveisagirlnameddaisy]

Apologies if this is regularly asked, I had a quick skim over recent threads and nothing jumped out at me.

I am a complete genealogy virgin but have been interested for a while. I want to get started this year but am clueless as to which tools/sites are the most productive? The only one I have heard of is the obvious one - Ancestry.

Any good starter tips?

Always double-check everything against official records, and assume that other people's online trees are full of mistakes unless proven otherwise.

Work backwards from the known to the unknown, so if you know your grandparents marriage date, you can send off for their marriage certificate which would give you their ages, residence, occupation and fathers' names and occupations. There will also be witness signatures who may be related also. Once you know their age at marriage you can work out roughly when they were born etc.

Never assume that the person you find is the right one, you often have to eliminate several people with the same name before you find the correct person. Make use of census records and note the names of other family members on the census too. If you hit a brick wall going backwards with your ancestor, you can sometimes overcome it by tracing their sibling instead.

Thanks toppkatz Are there any tools in particular that you use?

A good place to start is to ask any relatives what they remember of their family, note it all down carefully.

Take any hints and matches on ancestry with a pinch of salt, always research it and verify it yourself before adding people to your tree.

Don't just rely on one document or source, try to find the person in the census and birth/marriage /death records to make sure its definitely the right person.

I find the freeBMD website very helpful. There was also a great chat forum called rootschat that was really helpful - not sure if it's still going as I haven't used it for a few years.

If you are going to subscribe to one website, personally I would always choose Findmypast over Ancestry. I feel that it is a lot more logically organised and actually searches for what you asked. Ancestry is good at coming up with a wildcard from nowhere because it doesn't stick rigidly to your search terms, but most of the time, it's not what you need.

A very good online beginners course is available from the IGHS here if you are able to pay for it.

Thanks, will look at that course!

I prefer Ancestry over Findmypast but that's just personal preference, you need to subscribe to one or the other.

The rootschat forum is fantastic. Full of really knowledgeable and helpful people.

Familysearch and freeBMD are 2 useful free sites. The GRO (general register Office) where you order certificates is free to search and good for finding mother's maiden names.

Agree with PP, take other people's trees and ancestry hints with a pinch of salt - they are so often wrong. With the trees people copy information from each other so you may find a relative in several trees all showing for example the same death date, but it's wrong. Research everything yourself and look at the actual record images rather than relying on just the transcriptions.

A subscription to the British newspaper archive can also throw up interesting results if you search for an ancestor's name or address.

Go sideways and research siblings as well as just trying to go back as far as possible. You build up a more interesting picture of people's lives and family connections.

I prefer Ancestry. Find my past has a lot of transcription errors and find it less user friendly. I cross reference with free BMD website. Also recommend doing a DNA test at some point if you have the money as it really helps. Good luck, I've been doing it for 10 years and still finding new stuff all the time!

@loveisagirlnameddaisy

Thanks toppkatz Are there any tools in particular that you use?

Census records online (and previously on microfiche in the library for 1881). I mostly used to use Familysearch.org for the censuses, or anything else I could find that was free. I also used FreeBMD a lot.

The main thing I did was to start with the living (ie: me as I'm an only child and both parents deceased) and worked backwards. I used their marriage and birth certificates to find their parents, and their parents' marriages on FreeBMD. Fortunately my grandmother's maiden name was extremely unusual, and everybody of that name is related to me somehow, which helped!

Finding out ages, the names of other siblings and birthplace etc from the censuses I was able to find and send off for other birth and marriage certificates. It is also a good idea to find people's death certificates too, so if someone is on the 1891 census but not on the 1901, and their dc married in 1887 with the father not shown as deceased you can narrow it down very easily to the death being between the marriage date and the date of the next census.

Going further back, I used parish register records, again on Familysearch, but I've not used it for a few years - I've let the hobby fall by the wayside really.

Make notes of where you found the information, and if you can cross-corroborate, all the better. For instance a sibling with an unusual first name on a census might be the witness on another family member's marriage certificate, or the informant named on a death certificate.

There are a lot more online records available now, but the main thing is that you really need to double-check anything you find on anyone else's tree that they've uploaded.

Otherwise you will find yourself literally barking up the wrong tree!

It depends where you are…freebmd only covers England and Wales

Make notes. Color code everything. Check online records etc and keep copies of things. Obtain marriage and birth certificates.

I too prefer Ancestry.
I use ScotlandsPeople a lot too.
FamilySearch is brilliant too (but I find their search engine very cumbersome).

Check, check & check facts again.
I’ve been doing it 14 years now, dipping in and out.
I love it. Good luck.

Try this course, OP:
www.futurelearn.com/courses/genealogy
You have to register first with Future Learn and this course is free. It runs frequently every year and is paced well for a beginner.

Future learn have a 6 week course that is free if you sign up for the basic level - Genealogy: Researching Your Family Tree. Next one starts on 7th March.

Also if you have access to a library they have a free version of Ancestry that you can use, a useful way to try it out.

Good luck with it all, I’ve been dipping in and out for years - it’s quite addictive!

I would start by talking to as many family members as possible. Take notes and copy documents/photos where possible. Not everything you’re told may be accurate.

Family search, freebmd and the general register office (GRO) websites are all free (you need to pay to order certificates though. The GRO is great for finding out maiden names and middle names and births of children that don’t appear on censuses.

Ancestry and find my past are both good. They have slightly different sets of parish records. Find my past has newspapers, which can be a goldmine of information. If you build a tree on the websites, take the hints with a pinch of salt. Sometimes Ancestry does come up trumps with a great hint. The 1939 register tends to be more up to date on findmypast.

The FAN club principle. Have a google of this. I’ve found it hugely helpful to research out and down as well as backwards.

Facebook has many helpful groups focussed on a particular area of genealogy.

Take your time. Check everything really carefully. You may need to order certificates sometimes to be sure you’re going in the right direction. Order from the GRO - ancestry charge a huge mark up.

Make a note of where you found information. You will forget.

Other helpful websites include: Findagrave, deceasedonline, wills and probate government website (can get some info just from a search and ordering wills is only £1.50.

If you have jewish ancestry, try JewishGen.

Good luck.