Genealogy Chat

i started doing my tree last year but stopped. well ive started again and i am surrounded by bits of paper with dates and names on!!!!
I cant even rememberv how i got half the info so ive decided to start anew, but i cant remeber what it is that i have to keep.
ie. source citation,class,piece,folio page ect. i dont know what any of it means.
someone help please?
joy

"class,piece,folio page"

- these are the parts of the ref for a census image

eg RG13 class
1111 piece
12 folio
24 page

The class describes the year; the piece may be (willing to be corrected) the book.

When the book lies open you can see two pages - they stamped every other page with a folio number, so often the folio number is about half the page number.

hi Ivy
thanks for replying. So are these the details i have to keep record of? And what do i have to keep a record of on birth/death cert ect?
Thank you
joy

- the numbers are only useful if you need to find the info again - and your ancestor is called John Smith....

- if you download the census image it will have the reference on anyway

- ditto birth and death refs - they're only useful if you need to order a certificate from the GRO (£7 each in England and Wales) - if you can get to a local record office offering photocopies at 50p each, the refs won't be necessary

- if you already have refs in the format say 6d 142 you might be able to find the event again from Free BMD, but it would be more helpful if you also have a name, a year, a quarter, a reg district and the type of event.

thank you for your help ivy.

Joy, what a Joy to hear from you. I haven't stopped at all, but still don't have a clue what I am doing, and I now have 1600 relatives that I am really sure about, but still not a clue what I am doing!

If you have got certificates of births, deaths or mariages, well, you have the proof. If you want to put that proof onto your computer, you need to either load the certificates as images and link to them, or just put them in a file of acid-free pockets and that is fine. So on your computer, you just put "Certificate". If, however, you want other people to be able to check your sources, you would need to reference where you got the certificate from e.g. Macclesfield Q3 1867 7b/128. Very nice for other people, but if you have got the certificate why do any more?

Onto census records, well, again, it depends on what you want to do. You can download them onto your computer, or print them out and file them, or link them to your family tree program (assuming you have got one). All this referencing depends on what you are doing it for. If it is just for you, tracing your family tree, and not for the benefit of anyone else, all this referencing can be a bind. For example, if you you have found your great grandfather born in Birmingham in Q1 1879, reference 8c/457, you can either send for the certificate and scan it into your computer, and attach it to the record of the man, and not bother about the reference, or you can record the reference on his record so that other people might be able to use it. Personally, if I have a certificate, I just record "Cert" on my file. I can't see any reason why any of my family would be troubled by that. And I am only doing this for my family, so I feel no need to record the fact that is was Q1, 1879, 8c/457.

Hope this helps, but I get in mudldle sometimes too.

Regards

Margaret

Hi Margaret - yes, there are many ways to deal with the info - it's our tree and we can paint it as we wish.

Joy, if you have any problems in matching any of those refs, post them up and SKS will see if they can find it again (but only if that's what you want to do!).