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Tracing your genealogy and family history, and compiling your
family tree has become a hobby enjoyed by a rapidly increasing
number of people in the days of the internet. Online research
possibilities have opened up the chance to everyone to trace their
ancestors. Mllions
of Records, Millions of Answers. Ancestry.co.uk - Click
here 
Genealogy, and our interest in our own ancestors, has been one
of the fastest growing leisure activities of the late 20th, and
early 21st, centuries. This interest isn't, however, a modern
day phenomenon. Reaching way back in time, important figures have
tried to chart their ancestry back to great kings and warriors
- and even to God in some cases! We had reached the 20th century
before more 'ordinary' people became interested in their lineage,
and it was the latter half of the 20th century before more than
a few people were interested in ancestors if they weren't important
or influential.
During the latter half of the last century numerous Family History
societies came into being to share findings and resources amongst
both their own members and jointly with other societies. During
these years trawling through Parish Registers, census returns,
wills and other documents was a time-consuming task, involving
visits to Record Centres in London and in each of the various
counties. It's probably fair to say that this changed radically
with the coming of the internet into our homes: the world was
within reach of our fingertips with the click of a button. The
'Digital Age' had arrived!
Before you start, you need to consider what exactly it is that
you want to gain from 'digging up' your ancestors! Do you want
to create a family tree that traces your familial name, through
the direct male line, as far back as possible? Do you want to
trace your family connections back through both the maternal and
paternal lines in each generation? Do you want to trace your family
back along both the maternal and paternal lines, but also identify
siblings and other relatives and research them, in turn, down
to the present day? Do you just want a comprehensive list of names
and relationships with all the relevant dates or do you also want
to learn about and understand the conditions in which your ancestors
lived or, unhappily, struggled to survive? Each search is as valid
as the next and the decision is yours alone to make.
The advice that's often given is to start with one branch of
the family that offers some clues to get you started and follow
just one line, at first. The thinking behind this advice is that
you won't be distracted and miss something important. I think
this might have been excellent advice before the coming of the
internet but now, with so much information available on-line,
it's possible to cast a wider net, initially, and find out what
surfaces. With your findings it might be possible to separate
family tales that are based on wishful thinking from the reality
of the actual events. It can also provide you with little snippets
of hitherto unknown information that can open many a new line
of research that had previously seemed like a brick wall.
Where to start? Again, the received wisdom is to start with family
members, picking their brains for stories, dates, memorabilia
and so on. So many genealogists will be heard bemoaning the fact
that they only became interested in their family history when
all the earlier generations were already dead! Look in your own
collections of papers and photos that might have been inherited
or passed on from extended family members. Talk to the surviving
friends of your older, deceased family members; very often friends
are closer confidants than family. One word of warning,
though, and that is to never take anything at face value. Take
any information as a starting point and research it thoroughly
yourself before you accept it as fact. Just because something
is stated in a document of birth, marriage, death, census or a
will etc., it does not make it a fact. Treat it as a clue until
you have proved or disproved it by reference to another source.
It's often a temptation to accept, as truth, a fact that sits
comfortably with what we believe or hope to discover. It's all
too easy to be seduced in this way and travel down a branch of
the family full of interesting characters and events until, suddenly,
a fact is discovered that makes the link of your family with this
branch an impossibility. An earth-shaking crash will be heard
as the branch falls off your tree, taking with it weeks or months
of research. Together with this is the resultant feelings of loss
as these people you've come to know and understand; to suffer
and be happy with, are no longer family members! You're bereaved
all over again! If this does happen (and it probably will at some
time!) don't immediately consign the branch to the recycle bin
of the computer, archive it for future reference as there is often
a chance that it fits into the tree somewhere.
After all the 'don'ts' and warnings, where is, then, the best
place to start? Everyone you speak to will have a different idea
and the answer, probably, is that you should start from yourself
and work back in time. There is rarely a satisfactory outcome
if you take an historical character, and work forward in time,
trying to find the elusive connection; better to start with a
parent or grandparent with whom you feel most confident of progress
so that invaluable research experience can be learned with relatively
few problems to hinder the process. If you have knowledge of some
members of the family alive in 1901 this gives you the all important
link to the information contained in the census returns of the
latter half of the 19th century. Because of data protection and
other legal requirements it can sometimes be far more difficult
to locate 'lost' family members in the 20th century that in the
more distant past.
Assuming that you have collected, collated, and made sense of
the information made available by family and friends, make a decision,
now, on how you will archive and reference the source material
as it accumulates. It's often handy, at this point, to use whatever
you've gathered together to create the templates that you'll need
in order to organise your research and information to accommodate
more data as you acquire it. Don't think that, just because you've
only a small box file of documents and a few photos at the moment,
it will always be so! Start organising your records right from
the start and before it becomes a massive task that is too daunting
to tackle. Meticulous record keeping and a logical retrieval system
are of paramount importance. You'll find that there are many commercial
packages, useful methods outlined in books and magazines and plenty
of advice to help you find what works best for you, personally.
Most have both advantages and disadvantages inherent within them.
Find one with which you feel most comfortable working and then
tailor it to suit your specific needs.Your research is going to
take you into investigating Parish Records, Poor Law records found
in the Parish Chest, Bishop's Transcripts, census returns, wills,
probate, BMD records (civil registration from 1837), newspapers
and directories; you will search through apprentice records, records
of criminal proceedings, armed forces, shipping lists, estates
and manorial holdings, and the list goes on; it is virtually endless!
Time spent organising your chosen method of data saving and retrieval
is time well spent. As time goes by you will need to periodically
trawl through all your copies of documents and written notes to
jog your memory on events that, at the time you saved them, weren't
relevant but might now provide a vital, missing piece of the jigsaw.
If information is archived logically, and with even a rudimentary
indexing system, this task becomes inifinitely easier and less
frustrating.
Because you are reading this on-line and, presumably, have access
to the internet, this is probably the best place to start your
general research. On the internet you will find thousands of websites
offering information, either freely or for a fee. There are offical
sites, government sites, personal websites, commercial sites;
the list is endless and endlessly confusing. Take time to explore
and consider a number of them; compare what is on offer and for
what price. There are a great many personal family tree websites
on the web and quite a number you will discover contain the name
of a member of your family. Before you get too excited, and leap
about with joy because all the problems have been solved, consider
the possibility that it mgiht not have been researched quite as
thoroughly as you would have hoped. Take the information as you
own starting point and try to prove or disprove the facts using
other resources. Apart from anything else, it's not as much fun
letting someone else have all the pleasure of search and discovery!
Wait until you've experienced the thrill of making a new, and
hard won discovery, and then you'll know what it really
feels like to have put a 'twig' on your family tree!
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