Find Ancestors

This topic is intended as a helpful introduction to make sure you get the best results from your lookup requests. Please take the time to read it, all the way to the bottom as more stuff gets added. If you have any tips you'd like to add just add them. If you think theres something else I need to add advice on, let me know :) Please keep bumping this up for people to read! Thank you

GENERAL LOOKUP ADVICE 1) Decide what it is you need looking up. Its no good just posting a name and hoping for any old information. Do you want to find their death? their birth? their marriage? a specific census entry? 2)Check that someone hasn't already offered the lookup you're asking for. There are usually a few ancestry topics etc. and some people have access to specific census returns. Use the search box to look for topics. 3) Always make sure you put the area that your person is in in the title to your post, e.g. 1871 census Wakefield lookup! . A lot of researchers can only help with certain parts of the country and so look at those posts first. 4) Give as much information as you can about the person(s) you want us to look for. A name is not enough! 5)Let us know what you've already tried looking at, what you've found and discounted and anything that might stop us re-doing research you've already done. It means you get the answers you are looking for. 6) Above all, be patient :) Like all boards there are busy times and not so busy times. It may take a few hours or a day or two to get an answer, but most topics will be answered! If you're worried that your message hasn't been seen, read below to find out how to nudge your post so that its back at the top of the board. 7) Always say thank you :) People are more likely to be helpful and friendly again if you do.

HOW TO NUDGE A TOPIC Sometimes topics don't get answered because it was busy or because the person who can help you wasn't around when you posted it. If you feel your topic hasn't been answered, rather than post a new topic, you need to 'nudge' it to the top. Heres how Add a reply to your topic. Most people will send a message along the lines of 'nudge' or 'bump'. By adding a new message you have put your topic back at the top of the list again. Now go back to your topic and find your message which says 'nudge' or 'bump' or whatever it was you used. Click on the delete message option at the top of that message. On the next screen click the delete box underneath the box with your message in. You of course don't have to delete the message, but some people feel this makes the topic tidier. Why not test out this new found skill by bumping this topic up for others to read? :)

CENSUS LOOKUPS Heres some tips for getting a response to your census query. 1) Make sure you put which census you want the lookup for in the subject bar, along with which area you're wanting the lookup in, e.g. 1891 census Leeds. Just putting 1861 census lookup often isn't enough to make people look. 2) Give the full name of the person(s) you're looking for. Also include (if you know it) the year they were born, where they born, their last known occupation, their last known address. Also make it clear where in the country you expect that person to be. 3) If you've found the person(s) in other census returns it can sometimes help to tell people about it. 4) Be reasonable in your request. Some names are more common that others and so even just giving the likely county they will be in isn't enough. If you can't give a lot of information, don't worry. Make it clear on your topic that you don't know any more that what you have already given. 5) Be patient. Few census returns are indexed either by name or address and so it can involve a lot of searching. 6) Always say thank you :) 7) The 1861 census is one of the least accessible as few indexes have been produced for it. Therefore it is the 1861 census requests that are the hardest to find info for. also Message originally posted by Lyla :- Census information (taken from the Getting Started section on your home page). The first true census was taken in 1841, enumerating everyone by name, with adults' ages rounded down to the nearest five years and stating whether each person was born in their county of residence. From 1851 to 1901 they include names, ages and places of birth. Ages and birth places may be recorded incorrectly but usually they can lead you straight back to the right baptism register. The dates of the censuses were 6 June 1841; 30 March 1851; 7 April 1861; 2 April 1871; 3 April 1881; 5 April 1891 and 31 March 1901. They can be searched at the Family Records Centre (see above). The 1901 census is fully indexed at www.census.pro.gov.uk and the 1881 census is indexed at www.familysearch.org. Those for Scotland are at New Register House. Those for Ireland only survive for 1901 and 1911 and are at the National Archives, Dublin, with copies at the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland.

Message originally submitted by Richard Platell GC - LOST THREAD? If you "lose your thread", i.e. a thread that you either created or on which you have posted a request has dropped off the first few pages of the board, then click on the "view your threads only" link (located on the right towards the top of the board). The board will then show only the threads which you have created or to which you have added a message. Then, when you have found and opened the required thread, click on the "All Replies" link to see other people's subsequent messages on that thread. If you feel that your query hasn't been resolved, then "nudge" the thread as explained above. If you have received any responses (whether helpful or not!) , then add a short message to let others know that you've at least seen the response (this will also nudge the thread back up the board, serving 2 purposes at once!).

Message originally submitted by Lyla - If you have a lengthy request, no matter how nicely you set it out it will still bunch up and look horrible when you post it. The best way round this is type a very simple note such as "See Below". Then you can reply to your own thread and set it out clearly. Hope this makes sense.

SURNAMES If you know that there are a few different spellings of the surname you're looking up that have been used, be sure to provide them as possible alternatives! You never know when they will crop up under one spelling or another!

BIRTHS, MARRIAGES AND DEATHS Civil registration did not begin until late 1837. Before this time births, marriages and deaths can all be found in the parish records. You cannot get certificates before civil registration begins. For the purposes of civil registration the year is split into 4 quarters.These 4 quarters are called March quarter, June, quarter, September quarter and December quarter. Each quarter covers registrations in the two months before the month after which the quarter is named as well as that month e.g. March quarter covers registrations in January, February and March. Only marriages that occur after civil registration begins will have details of married couple's address, age, occupation and father's names and occupations. Parish marriages before civil registration only list the couple's names and the day they married. Parish burials only give the name of the deceased, their age and where they were living (usually only the village). Sometimes you can be lucky and the reason for their death is added along with other titbits, but this is rare. Even after the introduction of civil registration not all births, marriages and deaths were registered despite fines and other incentives :) Late registration does occur and so your ancestor might be in a different quarter from the one you expect! If you can't find the birth of an ancestor it might be that they were illegitimate. Illegitimate children were often registered under their mother's name. Of full age on a marriage certificate means that the person was 21 or over. Be careful when using ages from marriage certificates. Brides in particular would pretend to be older than they were to get married! As a general rule of thumb when trying to work back how old a bride or groom might have been if they have lied is to work out a rough age range that they could be. The youngest they are likely to be is 16. It was however legal for girls aged 12 and boys aged 14 to marry back in the 19th century!

CERTIFICATES The only way of getting information about an entry in the GRO records is to send off for that certificate. A birth certificate will contain the following information :- Date & place of birth Child's name and gender Father's name (if available) Father's occupation (if available) Mother's name and maiden name Mark or signature of informant A marriage certificate will contain:- Date & place of marriage Groom's name, age, stauts (e.g. Bachelor or Widower), occupation and address Groom's father's name and occupation Bride's name, age, status (e.g. Spinster or Widow), occupation and address Bride's father's name and occupation Names of 2 witnesses and their mark or signature A Death certificate will contain:- Date and place of death Deceased's name, gender and age Deceased's occupation (or the occupation of nearest relative e.g. father or spouse and their relationship to the deceased) Cause of death and whether or not a doctor was present Signature, description and residence of informant Date when death was registered Certificates are only available after the start of civil registration You can order your certificates here http://www.gro.(gov.u) k/gro/ (content)/ Costs for ordering certificates can be found here http://www.gro.gov(.) uk/gro/(content) /births/(obtainingbirthcertificates) /certificatefees(.asp) Remove the brackets for the address

PARISH RECORD LOOKUPS Please be specific about which church and which parish you want lookups doing in! Some towns and cities have more than one church and so trying to find the information will be difficult. Just put what you know and if you don't know anymore, put in your original request that that is all the information you have. One way of finding out a parish might be by ordering a marriage certificate to see if the couple were using a specific church. Another way is by taking note of the parish under which the family were living in the nearest census to the period you're interested in. This is usually in the top right hand page of the census return.

IGI - Although the familysearch.org webiste is an incredibly useful website, users should be aware of one or two things. First of all it is NOT a complete database of parish records. It holds no parish burial records and some churches have withheld their records from the Mormon church who set up this website. Not only that but not all parish records that they do have have been transcribed. Watch out for patron submissions! These are not always accurate (they don't need to be for the purposes they were made). Always check the source of the record you're interested in so you can check it up or mark it as suspect. To do this click the word 'Source' at the bottom of the record and read what it says.

Originally posted by Benjamin Caine :- Here are also a few other genealogy tips and hints. Never be thrown off balance by inconsistencies in names or ages especially in censuses or marriage certs. ie, the surname Knott might of been transcribed as Nott, and if for example, you think you ancestor was James Knott, born in 1850 in Holborn, London, but there is no record of a James Knott born in 1850 in Holborn but there is of a James Nott, dont discard that entry, as it was in the old days the case of spell it as you hear it. Also someone who was bought up by their uncle might of put their uncles name as their fathers name on marriage cert, and someone called Tom Smith might of been known as John Edwards. And if you cannot find an ancestor in a particular census, the it could be it was mistranscribed, your ancestor was abroad, or the enumerator simply missed the house or street they were living down, or the census page for that street is missing itself. That has happened to me in 1861 London census.

Originally posted by Benjamin Caine :- On the subject of censuses, ages werent always accurate, of course, and some people just didnt know exactly how old they were. Also birthplaces were also unreliable, and sometimes people didnt know exactly where they were born and were bought up in a different part of the country to where they were born and put their birthplace as where they grew up. Also if you find an ancestor who was married under the mums maiden name and the father married the mother a few months later, it is possible the man who the mother married might not of been the child's real father.

Another tip which would help you is, know what you want! Its all very well having a name and wanting to know everything about that person, but the truth is you won't. Also, where do you start? There are so many records that might be of use to you! What you really need to do is when you have someone you want to know more about, make a list of what you have on a piece of paper. Do you have their baptism? marriage? burial? If the person was around after 1837 maybe theres a birth, marriage or death certificate you can get for them. Added to that there are census returns, electoral registers, trade directories etc that might be of use. Were they in the army? navy? airforce? Were they in a profession that might have had registers, such as minutes from meetings or union records? Was the person ever in the poor house? Have you found maps to look at for the addresses you know they were at? The list is endless! You must always start with what you know! When you've made a list of what you have, make a list of what you want on a piece of paper. Be specific with yourself! Once you know what you want, find out if its possible to get records in regards to that. Then you're ready to start asking for lookups :)

Originally posted by Rosalyn Barclay :- I don`t think you mentioned the Scottish Records office -.www.scotlandspeople .gov.uk-very good site. Rosalyn

A very important tip! At the end of the day family history research is meant to be fun :) This topic has not been written to put people off. The purpose of this topic is to help people get the most out of their lookup requests. Its not a list of rules, just suggestions at best. Please do not be offended by this topic.

nudge

nudge

Think this needs a nudge

Sarah - your very helpful thread could be, I think, useful to forward to the site owners, for them to include it somewhere when the site is next updated. Joy