When we sit down to watch ‘Who do you think you are’ on television it is astounding at how far the team of researchers are able to trace the celebrities family tree back. I often sit there and wonder what gems my family would hold if I was able to do that.
With swathes of TV researchers and an endless budget it is made to look so easy whilst they employ various methods of family research.
Luckily with the invention of the internet, methods of family research have become much easier for those of us who do not have access to TV budgets.
The first method of family research is to ask your relatives. It can be amazing how much knowledge is passed on from older generations in the form of stories or snippets of memories. This can be the best way to find out towns where people lived, maiden names of maternal grandparents, and when people died.
Armed with this information, the next family research method would be to consult with Birth, Death and Marriage records. Records of these events started in England and Wales in the mid 1800s so it would be possible to trace back nearly 2 centuries using this method of family research. These are now mostly transcribed for search on the internet, or it could be possible to visit your local registrar who would have access to the local records.
If your family has been in the same parish for many generations, a visit to the local cemetery would be another useful method of family research. This would give exact dates of birth and death and maybe throw up relatives that you didn’t know about.
Once you have used these methods then visiting the census records is another great family research method. Although only done once every 10 years, the census gives all the full names and ages of the people in the household, along with their occupations, therefore giving you more insight than the birth or death certificates could.
There are also military records and emigration records that can be searched via the internet or through archives, which may fill some gaps especially around war time.
Whilst sitting at a computer researching the internet may not be as glamorous as the TV show, it will certainly be just as rewarding.
What Methods Can Be Used To Research Your Family History?
Tracing Your Family Tree Using The Census
Tracing you family tree through the recent historical past can be a relatively easy task since the invention of the internet and the publishing of the Census Information.
The Census is an anthropological data collection of every person in the UK, it takes every persons name, age, occupation and where they live at a given point in time.
It is through the Census that the government gets accurate population statistics to help inform local authorities, schools and communities.
The Census Bureau therefore houses an enormous amount of valuable information when it comes to tracing your family tree and researching your ancestry.
The census of the UK has been happening since 1801, and happens every ten years to provide a snapshot of the country on a given day.
The census information is held securely for 100 years, under the Data Protection Act so the 1911 census data will soon be available through the National Archive. The census information is also exempt from the Freedom of Information Act however as it is deemed non-sensitive, the 1911 data will be available early.
Due to the large amount of information available via the census, it is a very useful tool in tracing your family tree. The census is available through various websites for example www.ancestry.com where you can search the census for specific names.
If you know the full name of your grandparent’s parents, it would be possible to find them on the census. This will provide you with their occupation, age and who they lived with on that given date in time. Going back to the previous census and so on, will eventually take you back to their parents where you can then start the process again. Each time you find another generation, it will open up a whole new list of names to find on the census.
Since the 1960s the censuses have been electronic, where as previously they were printed reports. The much older censuses are interesting, not only due to the information they hold, but due to the painstaking amount of hand written work it took to compile and the sometimes beautiful old fashioned script that they were written in. A visit to an online census is worth it, just for that.