Complete beginner - where to start

[User415373]

Hi,
I've always wanted to learn about my family tree/past but I just don't know where to start. I only know my mum and her mum, and my dad and his mum. I can't ask for more info on either.
I just want to be able to piece together a basic family tree, at least back to grandparents or even some great parents.
I would also like to do the ancestry DNA (my siblings and I suspect my half brother's dad might actually be my dad, this is wishful thinking on my part but my brother and my sister are keen to do the test as well so between the 3 of us we might be able to work out if my brother and I are full/half? Or if I get no matches from my father's side that my sister matches with we might be able to work or out that way?
Do I need software to build a tree? Is there any free software? Should I just use paper and pen or even basic tools on Microsoft office?
The ancestry test comes with 3 months subscription, is this enough to get going? If I don't pay after this will I lose my tree or will it stay there for when I next decide to do more research?
Are there any guides anywhere or top tips on how to get started?
Thanks.

No software needed.

Ancestry tree remains in the system if you don't keep up the subscription.

Do not trust Ancestry suggestions or anyone else's trees. Or transcriptions. Only original documents. Start with what you know for certain and work backwards.

Good luck.

When you have the Ancestry test results, you can upload them.to other sites to look for more matches.

@User415373 Forget online resources completely for the moment. Many uploaded records are riddled with errors and mistranscriptions that other people have made.

Start with yourself. Date and place of birth, and siblings (if any). Then your parents - marriage date, their dates of birth and who their parents are. Do you have any aunts & uncles, or cousins? Write all of them down too. Speak to family members, and ask them for information. They might remember, for instance, that their 'Great Uncle Bill' wasn't Bill or William at all, his real name was Arthur William and he used his middle name all his life.

Search online for 'simple handwritten family tree example' or similar, and draw it all out on a big piece of paper.

Work backwards from the known to the unknown one generation at a time, and once you get to a brick wall, then come back and ask us some more, and we can point you in the direction of where else to look.

Fantastic thank you so much.
Unfortunately I can't ask my mum when she married my father, absolutely cannot bring him up in conversation! So me, my siblings and parents is all I've got for now (I think I know my father's DOB). I'm guessing I'll be able to find their marriage and birth certificates on ancestry and go from there?

Yes, I'd start there.

And for the next generation or 2 back, the 1921 census is currenrly free on Ancestry for a few weeks.

Try searching on FreeBMD - the reference numbers on there can be used to order certificates from the General Register Office (GRO).

This is where you can order the certificates you need.

https://www.gov.uk/order-copy-birth-death-marriage-certificate

Here is a great article on creating a family tree https://photoglory.net/how-to-make-a-family-tree.php
There are multiple ways to do so, you can do it on paper, on your computer, through online services, etc. I suggest you to do the digging yourself and not trust companies that promise to find all the info and build a tree for you. Besides, doing it yourself and discovering new info is exciting. It's time-consuming, but it's also a very interesting project.

Thanks, do I need to order the certificates? I'm wondering if a subscription to something would be cheaper if the certificates at £12.50 a time or is that the only way?

You cannot see the whole cert even if you subscribe to a site.

Subscribing to ancestry gets you access to index, from where you order certificates

You can make some estimated guesses /assumptions if you have anunusual surname, but a commonone? Dot the i and cross the t's with certs

Gnealogy is a passion of mine.

Free bmd is a good start to identifying names going back. I started with trying to identify relatives in my gp wedding photo. Newspaper articles about the event, guests and gifts were fascinating too. Subsequently Newspaper Archives uncovered all sorts of other stories around activities, businesses, crimes(!) etc various memvers were involved in.

For many certificates there's the much cheaper option of a digital scan or a PDF rather than a paper copy. From memory they're about £3 and £8 instead of £12.50.

Ok thanks! I can see it getting very expensive so I might have to wait/save up for a bit/take it very slowly!
I do have an unusual surname on my father's side (I've never met or heard of another) but not so unusual on my mother's which I'm more interested in really.

If you can get to a centre like the Kew archives or your county local history centre, many documents and records are available foc. Also libraries often subscribe to either Ancestry or FMP, although usually offering basic access only. Around certain anniversaries like Remembrance Sunday these sites offer a few days free access. Think Ancestry has it until 9th March.

@User415373 Another option would be to join GenesReunited maybe. People researching the same names can get in touch with one another. That's where I found some pretty vital information regarding two of my relatives.

Specifically:

"Do not trust Ancestry suggestions or anyone else's trees. Or transcriptions. Only original documents. Start with what you know for certain and work backwards."

The above x 1000

Plus be aware, even 'original documents' can have errors or omissions.

A lot of birth and death certificates you can get a digital image of for £3 via the GRO

Plus be aware, even 'original documents' can have errors or omissions.

True. Or even outright lies (especially marriage certs!).

FreeBMD.org.uk is a free to search site, very very useful at the beginning, look up people you know, then move on from there. You should be able to find your parents marriage relatively easily. Good luck

No, you don't need to order any certificates at all. That is, if you are looking for births and deaths.

You can search the GRO indexes for free here (you may need to create a free account first though)

https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/indexes_search.asp

So, for example, if you know that a Bob Blair married a Sally Booth (just random examples) then if you put in both surnames you will be able to find out the names of any children that they had. You can search up to five years at a time.

The only problem is that if it is a very common surname then it will give a lot of other results as well as the one that you are looking for.
.

So, it's simple to find children on the GRO index when you already know who the parents are.

But, if you want to find out the surnames of the parents of somebody who was born you have to use Ancestry or some other website to get that information.

The reason is that the GRO do not give out mother's maiden name for anyone born in the last 100 years (so, after 1925). But if the person you're looking at was born in 1925 or earlier then you can still use the GRO to search for their parents surnames.

However, this information is available on Ancestry and other websites.

So, if you are looking for the parents of a particular person then on Ancestry (or the GRO if they were born 1925 or earlier) you put in the name, rough date of birth and rough location of birth.

It will then bring back a list of everyone with that name who was born in that area in that time period.

I used Family Search for about 2 years before I subcribed to any paid for service and got quite a long way. If you do not know exactly when your parents married you can probably make a guess by knowing when their first child was born and going back a couple of years. You can then put this estimate into their profile when searching, and will probably find one or several results for you to look at. You will probaly be able to eliminate some of them, especially as your surname is unusual. FS has all the indexes that are on BMD.
The site can be confusing at first, but persevere and you will find it gets easier. I personally think their search engine is far superior to Ancestry's.
Good luck!

All you have to do is...

1. Become a minor celebrity, anthing will do - gardening, cooking, reading the news/weather, TV sofa ornament, etc.
2. Next contact the BBC and suggest they feature you on 'Who Do You Think You Are'
3. Then just sit back and let the BBC Research Department squander away Licence Payers money investigating your past.
4. Act suprised, horrified, puzzled, smug etc. when the findings are 'exposed' on national Teleevision.

I'm stuck working on Stage 1 at the moment, and as Captain Oates once said... " I may be some time..."

Here is a family tree slideshow template if you decide to do it in digital https://smartshow-software.com/family-tree-slideshow-template.php
If you have photos, digitize them and start building one, then use Ancestry or search for the GRO indexes (as mentioned above)