Family history - where to start
Family history isn't something that can be done in one afternoon!
- Always start with your present family and work backwards
- Start by talking to your close family, other relatives and family friends
- Check whether anybody else has done any work on your family
- Write down everything you find out and use official documents to confirm it. People's memories can play tricks and you don't want to start out with inaccuracies
- Obtain copies of birth, marriage and death certificates from your local register office, the General Register Office: www.gro.gov.uk or the Family Records Centre: www.familyrecords.gov.uk
- Start a checklist to record which birth, marriage and death certificates you've obtained
- Find out whether there's a family Bible, or whether anybody has newspaper cuttings of significant events
- Create a chart entering dates and places for each person - this helps you to construct your family tree
- Record where you find information and where you have searched.
To find:
- baptisms or marriages use the IGI or parish registers
- burials or deaths use parish registers, or if after 1856 use local burial records
- a birth use the census and some later parish registers
- the occupation use census and trade directories
- the place use census, trade directories or electoral registers.
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