Genealogy Chat

If you have the time, make a point of reading the Tips Board messages.
There is a wealth of useful information on here. Likewise with the Records Office Board.

If you want to keep any particular piece of info just for your reference then Reply to that thread with a message..eg., ‘Keeping for future reference’. This thread will then be stored in ‘My Threads’ and you can refer to it, as and when you want.

If you want to ‘Nudge up’ a thread that’s dropped of the most recent pages of any board then again just add a Reply with the word ‘nudge’. That thread will then appear on page 1.

When adding a Trying to Find Message DO put at least the Surname in the Thread Subject box.

Others CANNOT see under which Surname you have entered the message on and won‘t bother to read your message.

There are some very helpful people on here that will do Look-ups on Census records and Birth, Death and Marriages…you only have to post a message on ONE of the boards and you are sure to get a response.


Here are a few Free websites that you can ‘have a go at searching’ for info yourselves.

‘Practice makes perfect’… …so they say!



www.freebmd.org.uk
Where you can search for Birth Death and Marriage records.


http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp?

LDS (Latter Day Saints) website.
Where you can search the IGI (International Genealogical Records) by Name, Region (Country, County).

Plus Census records for:- 1881 UK, 1881 Canada and 1880 USA.

Be warned that the IGI Records are NOT a complete listing of Births Christenings etc., but it can provide some very useful information.

Any records that say “Extracted from the locality” are transcriptions from the church records or civil registrations of that area.



http://www.dorset-opc.com/

Free website for looking up pre 1837 BDM’s (Birth, Death, and Marriages) and some Census records.

Also links at the bottom of the Home page to other Counties.

I have added the following to one of the many "newbie" threads.

Laptop Dancer OBE



Request review

Today at 09:58

Can I just say to newbies - "GOOGLE"
I find many requests for help that I can find in seconds on Google.
It is always worth a try. You will be amazed what you can find using a search engine.
And when looking for something that constitutes more than one word - ie Aunty Jane's Recipes if you enter it on Google as "Aunty Jane's Recipes" you will only get results that contain that phrase rather than results than contain Aunty and Jane and Recipes separately.

Parish records here - quite good for some counties and being updated all the time:

www.freereg.org.uk/c

As laptop said, Google especially if you are looking for parish records for a particular town or county. Cheshire has a very good site - won't give you the site address, you can practice googling for it!!

See also Heather Positive Tinker’s thread:- TIPS FOR NEWBIES, PLEASE READ

Here,s one thats probably been said before but I learned the hard way .When searching census records always , always view the original .mis transcribed records can send you in totally the wrong direction .Never ignore people listed as lodgers or boarders as quite often they have a relationship with the family .One of mine was the step father and I didn,t realise for 12 months !..
Kim

Go to your local library and borrow a book on researching your family history, there are plenty to choose from. It will pay dividends in helping to understand what records are available and where, also, how to make sense of them.

Always note your sources, so that you can return to them if further questions arise, there is nothing more frustrating than having to go back over old ground because you forgot to make a note of where you found something..

Don't accept everything you find on the web as fact, double check everything until you are reasonably satisfied that the information is correct.

Jennifer

Keep a record of all the places you look where you don't have any luck.

When I started researching I found myself hunting through the same set of parish records in the local Records Office because I hadn't made a note to myself that my previous search months before had been a waste of time!

If you are researching an unusual surname (either a rare one or one which normally belongs in a different part of the country) keep a note of every time you spot someone of that name. You may not make a connection for a long time but they could easily be related.

Sue
x

Remember that even official documents can be wrong. Census records can be wrongly transcribed, wrongly recorded by the enumerators or our ancestors may have given wrong information,

Some ancestors even lied!

Surname spellings were not fixed until the early 20th century in many cases. When people were illiterate the spelling of their names depended on who was writing it down. Sometimes you need to know local accents and think how might it have sounded to the listener.

Sue
x

if one of your Ancestors is "adopted" early 1900,s please check the local religious groups in that area . I know this sounds daft but there where a lot of Catholic and Protestant (C of E) rescue commitee,s at this time .The religions actually battled over these children , especially the illegitimate, and fought for their "moral upbringing "..when taken into care .Look out for conversions of faith a few years after baptism, or even second baptisms .
Kim

To add to Jennifer's note about libraries - they also often have Ancestry (.co.uk) subscriptions so that you can check that site for free.
Also, local history libraries (or centres, or ideas stores - or whatever name they go by) can often help with electoral registers, local directories, photographs and newspapers - hours of happy research & dedicated professionals to help. Love your library.

J
J

n

Thanks for all that information. I was wondering what the nudge messages were about. Now I know that, and a lot more. Dorothy

Theresa
Further to above. Are MY THREADS and BOOKMARKS the same thing? Dorothy

Hi Dorothy,

Bookmarks can be anyones thread you wish ,to keep track what information has been given or you find intresting--------

My Threads,-are are a post you create yourself,, that is then termed ---*-Your Thread* which you can at any time find to see if any replies have been added to a enquiry you may have asked,,,,,,,,

Nudge

Thank you Teresa, I will definitely keep this for future reference.

KathyS

If someone kindly shares their tree with you, do not assume it is accurate and simply copy the information from theirs to yours, but use the information from their tree as a basis for your research, check the authenticity of the information so that you then know that the information going onto your tree is accurate.
There are a quite a lot of tree's online which have inaccurate information and entries, and if any of that information gets onto your tree, all your hard work can be destroyed

u

n