Have You Researched Your Family Tree

[Lord Bracknell]

It's a fascinating thing to do. I've traced all my ancestral lines back to the end of the eighteenth century / beginning of the nineteenth (and some further back than that). I'm a mix of framework knitters from Leicestershire, iron workers from Durham (and, before that, the west midlands), farm workers from the Scottish borders, Irish immigrants (off the land and into the iron industry), clockmakers from Northumberland, scavengers and fellmongers from Cumberland.

Not an ounce of wealth between the lot of them. But there's a surprising amount of information out there that is readily accessible to anyone who cares to go looking for it.

The best source of information is the census records. Some are available on-line free of charge (eg the 1881 census at http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp?PAGE=census/search_census.asp )
Others are available for a subscription. I pay for access to loads of records through www.ancestry.com - pricey, but well worth it, once you've got going.

Getting hold of birth, marriage and death certificates can also deliver lots of information about ancestors - the nineteenth and early twentieth century indexes can be searched on-line free of charge at http://freebmd.org.uk/ Original certificates can be ordered at £7.50 a time - expensive, unless you use this facility sparingly.

 

[Nibble]

if ever there was an argument for nature over nurture...

It is in my nature to be a prick but I was nurtured into a fully blown ****.

 

[Moshe Gariani]

But there's a surprising amount of information out there that is readily accessible to anyone who cares to go looking for it.

following the birth of my son 5 months ago I'm taking an interest in this for the first time... I know that other family members have made plenty of progress on my side of the family in the past but Mrs G's family remains uncharted as far as I know...

what are your top tips? I've taken the free trial on ancestry.co.uk but am having limited success searching for even basic information...

 

[ben andrews' girlfriend]

The only really interesting thing I found ( my Grans sister was the Lady mayoress of Scarborough) was on my dads side.

My dads mum was one of three sisters and a brother who lived in Belfast. Anyway, their mum and dad had agreed to go to America just before the war and they had it all planned. The family sold their house, the dad left his job, and on the night before they were due to sail to America, Dad( my GGd) went out to say goodbye to his mates, took with him all the money they had and blew it all on beer and gambling.!!!!!!!

GGrandma went ballistic and took the family the next day down to the port, explained the situation but the shipping company would not take them to the states, they however took pity and allowed them to jump on the first boat to Liverpool, they left him in Belfast and eventually settled in Huddersfield, where GGd finally came over and settled with them.

To her dying day, Nan used to go mental when she recited the story..

You never told me that! That's brilliant!! Who is the poet that we're related to?!

 

[Buzzer]

You never told me that! That's brilliant!! Who is the poet that we're related to?!

John Cooper Clarke.

 

[Meade's Ball]

Identifying my full line of history is not something i currently crave, perhaps more immediately self-obsessed at present than a linear perception of disease-ridden genetics might glowingly feed. I know my mum looked into this when severe illness struck her, as if tragedy encouraged her to name and picture everything of it's possible cause. Personally, i suppose age and that daunting confrontation of daily mortality may force me to look into the subject with care and concern in time, but as yet i am still hunting myself more than a greatgrandfather amusingly crushed by boulders who may tragically look a little like me before or after.

 

[severnside gull]

Its great fun to do but very time consuming and it helps to keep detailed notes. I have had a number of false trails that when you get copies of birth certificates prove to be nothing to do with who I am researching but I have got back to the 1760's with several generations of shoemakers on the one side (one of whom died in the poor house so shows how successful they were) and on the other I'm back to the mid 19th century and coalmining in Kent.

My biggest surprise was finding that my Lancastrian father was the only one of his family to be born or raised up north as his dad and all the others came from Shoreham! I have relatives there now who I never knew about or met although I lived in Brighton for 15 years

 

[London Calling]

Charlemagne being the most famous Frank of all time.

First ruler to oversee education for all................................

 

[Lord Bracknell]

I think my parents have got back to the 1600s. I will ask them what tactics they have used and get back to you on that front. We appear to stem from 'oop North (Big players in the salt industry in Northwich) and Cornwall (Methodist preachers ).

My ex-in laws were big in nineteenth century Cornish Methodism. They built a huge Methodist chapel in Redruth ("the cathedral of the west", sitting 3,000 people), on the proceeds of their grocery business.

 

[The Large One]

My ex-in laws were big in nineteenth century Cornish Methodism. They built a huge Methodist chapel in Redruth ("the cathedral of the west", sitting 3,000 people), on the proceeds of their grocery business.

Didn't the witch in Hansel & Gretel build her house from the proceeds of her confectionery business?

 

[Lord Bracknell]

following the birth of my son 5 months ago I'm taking an interest in this for the first time... I know that other family members have made plenty of progress on my side of the family in the past but Mrs G's family remains uncharted as far as I know...

what are your top tips? I've taken the free trial on ancestry.co.uk but am having limited success searching for even basic information...

A subscription to Genes Reunited might help you hit lucky. If a distant cousin has already done the research, you might track them down through the use of the search facility on that site. That can certainly kick-start the process of discovering lots of information about ancestors in the late 19th / early 20th centuries.

You have to pay an annual subscription, though, to get the most out of the site.
www.genesreunited.co.uk/

 

[Theatre of Trees]

My parents have been doing this and have got back to the 1800s on the maternal side but the trail has stopped due to the fact that my ggg grandfather was born in either northern France or Belgium and migrated to southern England to work as a carpenter building the London-Brighton railway before settling in the Haywards Heath area and becoming farm labourers or market gardeners.


The first national census was in 1801 so anything before that will be heavily reliant on church records as all parish registers recorded births, marriages and deaths, these themselves really only start appearing during the mid 1500s so unless you are blue blooded it becomes very difficult to trace anybody during medieval times.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

In practice, the quality of all parish records in the 1700s is so poor as to make it very difficult to be certain whose record you are looking at.

I've got an ancestor called Edward Nelson, and I know that he was born somewhere in Westmorland some time round about the 1770s. But which one of the 23 people with that name who turn up when you search the on-line index of Westmorland parish baptisms is my great great great great grandfather? There's no real way of telling, if all you have is a name.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

... but I know much more about Edward Nelson's son, my great great great grandfather, John Nelson, who died when he fell down the stairs on New Years Eve, 1872:-

This is how his death certificate and the local paper tell the story:-

John Nelson; Scavenger; age 67; died 31 Dec 1872 at Gilesgate, Hexham; cause of death:- fall down stairs (lived two or three minutes); informant:- information received from Lonsdale M Cockcroft, Coroner for Northumberland. Inquest held 2 January 1873; registered 9 Jan 1873

Death and Inquest reported in the Hexham Courant, 4 January 1873, page 4:-

FATAL FALL DOWN A FLIGHT OF STAIRS IN GILESGATE

An inquest was held at the house of Mrs Jackson, Tanners Arms Inn, Gilesgate on Thursday last before L.M.Cockcroft, Esq., coroner, on view of the body of an old man, named John Nelson, 67 years of age, who was killed by falling down a flight of stairs on Tuesday evening. Mary Walton deposed that she kept a lodging-house in Gilesgate, where Nelson lodged with her. He was employed under Mr Story, the contractor to the Local Board of Health, to sweep the streets. He had lodged with her about a month. She saw him on Tuesday night, about eight o'clock, sweeping up the street, and she also saw him a little after ten o'clock going up the steep stairs that led to her own door. He went up the stairs before her with his besom over his shoulder and she assisted him by placing her hand on his back. She left him on the landing, leaving the door open for him to go in. The old man had had some liquor, but he was not tipsy. She had just got about the middle of the floor when she heard him fall, and her little girl shouted "Mother, Nelson has fallen downstairs." She ran out with a candle, and found him lying on his back at the bottom of the steps. The shank of the besom was still in his hands, but the head was lying off beside him. She got his head up and put it between her knees. He never spoke, but only moaned, and he died before assistance came to them. A little blood came out by the side of his mouth, but he did not bleed from the ears. No one could have been beside him at the time that he fell, else she would have seen or heard them. She had known him for a number of years, but never knew him to take a fit, nor had she heard him make any complaint. It was a dark night, and there was a kind of drizzling rain falling. When he got at the top of the stairs he went on to the .... head, and in returning to the door of his lodgings, he must have missed his footing, and fallen downstairs. - Mary Walton, a little girl, daughter of the preceding witness, stated that she was in the house when the old man fell. She did not see him before he fell, but she knew it was him because she heard his clogs as he was coming up the yard and she saw his besom when she looked downstairs. It was a sudden fall that she heard; she heard no stumbling. There was no one about when he fell. Their door was open and it threw a light right into the yard. - The jury returned a verdict that Nelson's death was caused through falling down the flight of stairs.

 

[aftershavedave]

i've traced most parts of my family back to 1650 or so and i've done everything on the internet. it's actually quite straightforward if you're logical.

here's how to start:

1) garner as much info as you can from family
2) obtain birth and marriage records, censuses from 1841 to 1901 on ancestry.co.uk (you'll need to pay a subscription for a couple of months)
3) for records pre 1837 use the IGI (google IGI and family search run free by the mormons)
4) supplement all of this stuff with national archives, scottish and irish origins, and believe it or not....by google.

I found that my family owned one of the largest textile factories in Europe, and a distant ancestor is one of the inventors of plastic.

pm me if you need any help.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

My ex-in laws were big in nineteenth century Cornish Methodism. They built a huge Methodist chapel in Redruth ("the cathedral of the west", sitting 3,000 people), on the proceeds of their grocery business.

Well well well. Those Methodists were rather adventurous.

Another relative appears to have been blinded in a mining accident and ended up selling boxes of tea from a cart that he pulled round Truro. An unusual find from a document found in the Courtenay Library...!

Right. Withers beckons!

 

[smudge]

John Cooper Clarke.

He's quality! "Twat" is my favourite.

 

[SICKASAGULL]

If you are in the Brighton area there is a Family History Room in Brighton Museum which has a number of Cencus`s, also free use of PC`s which have access to Genealogy websites and many books of course,Well worth a visit.

 

[m20gull]

Using the same sources (Ancestry, GenesReunited and FamilySearch) I have got both mine and the wife's back to the 1600's and found nothing more interesting than labourers essentially, apart from a whitesmith, miller and publican. And a scissor-grinder!

 

[Bry Nylon]

Hard to imagine a like-titled thread on a Norwich City forum...

What?