Family Tree

[HappyDaddy]

Am I going senile or was there a section on Mumsnet, for people who were doing family trees or tracing ancestors?

If not, anyone know any good websites to get me started? I'm loath to subscribe to the first one that I find.

before you start subscribing to anything you have to write down what you know for sure and what you htink you know, check all of that, ask details from any old relatives - but treat their answer skeptically !

Then once you know where and when you are looking come back here (or cat me) and we can point you in the right direction - that may be the internet, the central records office in London, or local records offices.

I tried Genes reunited but it was a bit of a waste of time as my old witchy bag of a mother refues to tell me my fathers name!!!
Dunno if it would be a good choice for you as it relies on other people putting in the family they are looking for.

if you can get back as far as 1901 then ancestry.co.uk is good because it has the census returns back to 1861 (among other things) - 3 month subscription is about £30ish.

I tried Genes reunited but that's not so good.

I'm writing to the MOD to get my granddad's demob papers from the war. All my old relatives are dead.

how far back can you go ? If you can get a birth or marriage certificate that will take you to someone alive in 1901 then it should be more straightforward.

The birth, marriage and death registration indexes are in London, and also many large libraries.

have a look at www.genuki.org.uk/ and
www.familyrecords.gov.uk

Hopefully you have a rare surname .

My surname is common in Cork but not in England, which might help.

are your family Irish ? if so you may have problems - lots of the records were destroyed in I think 1921 in a fire at Dublin.

About 3 generations back are Irish.