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Top tip - using the Genes Reunited community

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Julie

Julie Report 26 Mar 2004 21:20

Have just joined Genes Connected and don't really know how to start tracing my ancestors. Any advice would be welcome.

Unknown

Unknown Report 26 Mar 2004 21:40

I would suggest that you start with your grandparents and then work back from there. You don't say which years you are looking for but if it is around 1881, you can go to www.familysearch(.)org which is the Morman site and look up the census for that year. That will give you the family living at a certain address at that time. There is also the IGI index on this site. Some records go a long way back. Perhaps someone would help you with the 1891 census which is not yet free on-line. Or you could try the 1901 Census, which is a pay to view all names, but you can view free to start to see if your family are on there. www.census(.)pro(.)gov(.)uk Remove brackets when typing in to Google search or another search engine. Best of luck. Margaret

Helen

Helen Report 26 Mar 2004 23:00

I found the best thing to do was ask my older relatives (luckily both my Grans are still around, 90 & 93!) for names and memories. Ask parents/grandparents/aunts/uncles etc. for the names of their parents and grandparents, sisters and brothers names etc. To be able to start using the information available online you really need to have the name and approx. birth year of a relative who was alive in 1901. You can then trace them on the 1901 Census which can be found through links under 'Resource Centre' on the left and maybe find their parents and siblings. Another way to do it is by ordering certificates for births or marriages. If you know your Grandparents names and roughly when they married you should be able to get the GRO reference from the 1837 online site (resource centre again!) which will enable you to order their marriage certificate. This will (hopefully) give you both their father's names and you can work backwards from there. Don't be afraid to ask for help on these pages, there's usually plenty of folk willing to give you a hand or point you in the right direction. Be warned, this hobby is addictive and can get expensive. Maybe you should get out now before the bug bites!!!!