How to begin researching and creating a family tree

[Gassylady]

I am keen to start making a family tree. As in start with my parents and work back several generations for now. Not planning on doing DNA. Any tips on free resources and how to keep track of information - does anyone know of a nice book to collate all the info in?

I would be inclined to start with the birth and marriage certificates for your parents and grandparents.

You can get them from the GRO, if you don't have copies already.

I have several the birth certificates and one of the wedding certs already I think. How best to organise and keep track of all the info?

I would start with a folder like this while you are starting.

https://www.ryman.co.uk/ryman-display-book-a4-40-pocket-red?

I would suggest drawing the beginnings of your tree on a sheet of A3 paper.

Use FreeBMD to find birth, marriage and death (BMD) certificates, and if you want to send away for them, use the reference number and order from the official General Register Office (GRO). Your local library should have free access on their computers to websites such as Ancestry, and some of them run family history workshops and self-help groups.

Always go by official records - BMD certificates, the censuses, parish registers, registers of wills etc, and use trees and information uploaded by other researchers as an aid rather than as a legitimate record. Just because something is on the internet does not mean that it is correct. If you find a record on someone's tree, do your own research into official records to comfirm it before adding to your tree.

If you hit a brick wall, work sideways into your ancestor's siblings, nephews & nieces plus their spouses, as they often crop up living together on a census. If you are looking for a John Smith age 12 father William and mother Mary in London on the 1881 census, you are far more likely to find the right family if he has a sister called Hepsibah age 9 and a brother called Bernard age 7 than if you are just looking at all the John Smiths of that age.

Thanks both excited to get going

Local libraries often have free access to ancestry and find my past. Be careful not to take other people's research on it without checking original documents as some people's research isn't that good and they will make mistakes.

https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Genealogy_Research_Forms

There are lots of free record sheets and charts here.

The Family Search Wiki in general is really useful

FamilySearch Research Wiki https://share.google/fVap6BJNOQ5FYCJ84

Ancestry.com

@newrubylane thats a great link thank you

@Gassylady check out at least this genealogy site, there's nice information, sources for research, tools and templates too if you wish to print out your future family tree 😊

My advice would be to check, and check again before you commit something to your tree. Many people simply copy other people’s trees (complete with errors) and never corroborate for themselves. As an example, my great-grandma was raised by her maternal aunt, on the 1911 census she’s listed as “daughter” - there’s quite a few people who have taken this as fact and so it is added to trees incorrectly. Ancestry keeps telling me to add a father, but it’s her uncle, not her dad.
I have done it myself once, I thought I’d researched my grandad’s side thoroughly but after about a year of dipping in & out I realised I had the completely wrong family! It was a different Robert & Caroline who were living and working in the same area, at the same time!

Good tips both thank you