Genealogy Chat

Ok, here's a question which will hopefully generate a few good tips... What are peoples favourite methods/sources for tracing ancestors pre BMD certs and census data? Paul

(1) Check out a relly on the IGI (with place of birth). OK if there aren't many in the parish with that name. Get parents name(s) (2) Find the other children with the batch number, surname and parents names (3) Double check the information against the parish registers Don't know if this is 'the way' to do it but have found a lot of links this way Carole

First place to look would be the IGI (on www.familysearch.org). Then try googling the county where they came from and see if they have any parish records online. See if there is a Family History Society in the area of search to see if they have transcribed any parish records for their area. Use your local LDS Family History Centre (addresses on www.familysearch.org) where you can order parish records on film for a few pounds. Kath. x

Paul you can always google the parish/county where your ancestors were born. Georgina.

1. Realise you need a lot of luck some records survive some don't Men are usually easier to find than women. Pray for unusual christian or surnames. 2. Look at ages on census. Some will get you back to before 1800. 3. Occupations tradesmen were listed in historical directories on line 4. Look what's available for local parish. May have lists of rateable values. local electors etc. 5. Memorial inscriptions. Some are on line some from FHS. can give extra information particularly children who died in childhood 6. Wills check national probate register 7. Death certificates. people born from 1750 onwards might have diedafter 1837. 8. Look for second marriages. A lot of widows and widowers remarried after children had been born. 8. Rootschat free site has lots of local links if you search by county.

I have just been looking at some settlement orders for a local parish though not alas my relatives but they can give a suprising amount of detail. Here is one from 1759 for Anthony Green a labourer in Bitton near Bath. The information of Anthony Green aged about thirty-two who upon oath saith that he believes he was born at Calne in the county of Wilts. and when he was about eighteen years of age he hired himself as a servant to Thomas Rawling of Fieldgrove in the hamlet of Bitton in the county of Gloucestershire and lived there the whole year and received his full wages after this he hired himself to farmer Leonard at Bars court in the hamlet of Oldland and lived there ten months. Then this informant went away ill with the smallpox and continued sick for about three months and sometime after this informant went back to the said master Leonard and served his time out and received his fulll wages and has worked as a day labourer ever since with the said farmer Leonard. And about twelve years since he was married at Bitton church to his present wife Rebeckah by whom he hath two children living William aged about ten and Mary aged about six. crossed with an X.

www.genuki.org.uk/ You can try looking on the individual parish or town page of Genuki, which often has links to free snippets of information, I've found burials, tithe map mentions and all sorts for various folk at various times. www.a2a.org.uk/ if you have a small parish/town, or an unusual first/surname, you can try here. That's how I found a reference to a document for one of my gt X 3 grandfathers, which led me to the records office and a statement he made in a settlement dispute, giving lots of info about his income, living conditions etc. www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ Sometimes you can find a Will, or info about a Chelsea pensioner, or a legal dispute on The National Archives site. Just put their name in the search box on the home page. Think about WHO you want, WHEN and WHERE. There might be apprenticeship records, bastardy bonds, etc. If they are Jewish or Quaker, there might be specific records to search. I've found a good idea is to go to a records office or a local history centre and have a good nosey around. nell

Nudged for Steven on Records Board. Kath. x

Can I just point out, that just as the IGI does not cover every parish, the fact that you may find someone of the right name, baptised at the right time, on the IGI, this does not mean that it is your ancestor. In my Skillings family, there are no less than three Edmund Skillings, all baptised in 1722/3. One dies as an infant, the other two marry. They must be related, but I still haven't sussed out how (and none are on the IGI).

If you are happy that your relative was born in a particular county (from previous census records) and you can't find that particular Parish records on line, then do what I did and contact the appropriate County Records Office. After only a week they sent me details of the Baptims of my Gt Grandfather and 3 of his siblings including a couple of birth dates as well, plus the names and date of their parents marriage! 5 seperate record details for £20. Well worth the money, I think! That was the Hampshire Records Office.

I have just discovered the A2A archive site. This is an online catalogue of the archives held at many record offices. It can be searched by keywords. and can provide a list of documents held about a particular family or village. I found one document I was interested in and have received a quote of 50p a page plus 40p postage for copying so it will not break the bank. I have been looking at old quarter session reports. I had not realised how partial my family were to hare poaching. The family then became farmers and were prosecuting their neighbours a few years later. The grandson of one of the offenders even became the local magistrates.

The best source for pre 1837 relatives were parish registers. These are the source of most of the IGI records. They normally record christenings, marriages and burials. Early registers were a simple book with details of birth marriage and death entered in chronological order. An entry may read something like May 6th Mary daughter of Thomas Brown blacksmith and Mary his wife was baptised. In 1754 the Hardwick marriage act introduced printed marriage registers. These give date of marriage parish of groom and bride, brides maiden name, and whether the liscence was by banns. In 1812 printed books were introduced for christenings and burials. Baptisms give denomination, child's christian name, parent's name abode, and trade. Burials give name, abode, when buried and age. You may find additional information. Christenings look for godparents, address marriages look for witnesses whether the bride was a minor whether they signed their name burials look for comments like Infant son of found dead in bed (one of mine) widow of also check memorial inscriptions which may give more information. Parish records can usually be found at the local record office. Common abreviations. OTP of this parish B banns called L license Sepullt buried Here is a marriage entry from my family tree. Note: 30 November 1843: George Frederick Blacker, a bachelor of full age, resident in Midsomer Norton, working as a surgeon; son of Samuel Palmer Blacker, a gentleman married by licence Mary Ann Keel Dudden, a spinster of full age, resident in High Littleton; daughter of John Dudden, a gentleman. The marriage was witnessed by John Dudden, James Chivers (Parish Clerk) and --------- Blacker. Names were ofton latinized Jacobus, for Jacob, Francis for Frank etc.

How does the a2a site work? If you find a record that may be relevant do you then have to apply to the appropriate records office for a copy? How much does it cost?

Hi Stefan There won't be a standard charge. It will depend entirely on how strapped for cash the record office is, what systems they have available for copying etc. It could quite easily range from a couple of sheets copied free to a charge out of £10 per hour (or more) Each record office should be able to give you a quote before you start.

Here's a list of the major collections available at British Origins (http://www.*britishorigins.com)* * Boyd's Marriage Index covering the whole of England (1538-1840) * Marriage Licence Allegations (1694-1850) * Wills (1700 - 1845) * Probate records (1267- 1500 and 1383- 1883) * London Apprentice records (1442-1850) * Apprentice records covering the whole of Great Britain (1710-1774) * Court Records ( 1574- 1714) * Militia Attestations (1886-1910) * Boyd's London Burials Index (1538-1853) * Boyd's London Inhabitants * Trinity House Petitions (1787- 1854) * Teachers' Registrations (1870-1947) * England & Wales Censuses for 1841 (27 counties so far) and 1871 (13 counties) Imformation from lost cousins newsletter.

Times Digital hasn't been mentioned yet, I've found that helpful. You can view it on-line by registering with the Bedfordshire Library and getting a card number and pin number.

Using the IGI at familysearch.org Choose the country, then the county, and finally the city, town or village - and you'll see a list of the relevant batch numbers with dates. For example, here's the entry for Stansted Mountfitchet in Essex, where LostCousins is based: Stansted Mountfitchet (Independent) C067551 1822-1837 (Old Meeting Independent) C067561 1791-1837 In this case the parish church (St Mary) isn't included in the IGI. There are a number of reasons why this might be - it doesn't necessarily mean that the registers have been lost (in fact the Essex Record Office does have them, going right back to 1558). Let's suppose that you were looking for a baptism in one of the independent chapels. In this case you could just click on the batch number to search by surname. You can even leave the surname blank and see a list of ALL the baptisms in the batch. Should you want to carry out a more sophisticated search, go back to the IGI Search page at FamilySearch, and type the batch number in the appropriate box. (Note: don't cut-and-paste it - there are hidden characters that will confuse the software.) When you include the batch number there's a lot more flexibility about what other information you enter - for example you could search for children baptised to any couple called John and Mary irrespective of surname. Searching using batch numbers is very useful when you're trying to find all the children of a couple, or all the children with a particular surname baptised in a specified church. But it's only by using batch numbers that you'll learn how to make them work well for you! from Lost cousins newsletter

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Added by Katarzyna . on 26/06/2006 19:09:27 The LDS has filmed many different types of records from IGI to records re land Registry, Cemetaries, Military records, Probate Records, Schools, Directories, Public Records, etc etc. They also list all the parish churches etc that they have filmed for the IGI so you can find records for a specific Church , chapel etc. Go to: http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp? Then to Family History Library Catalogue at top RHS From here you can search the site in many different ways , by town, village or by name etc. For example if you click on a village name, eg Baylham, Suffolk, and follow the blue links this would give you , Cemetaries Census Church records . For a town like Ipswich it gives about 15 links including the above and Military records, Probate records, Directories and many more. Just keep following the Blue links. When you have found the records you were looking for you can ‘View Film Notes’ which gives you the FHL Film number you need to order it from an LDS centre. Searching by name is useful too. Hope this helps as a further resource for those who didn’t know it existed.

This is all very informative, thanks everyone, picked up a few tips here.

Nudging again.