Genealogy Chat

This is where all the fun begins!! I have only managed to get back as far as 1902 so the 1901 census is of yet, no use to me. It is not particulary easy going but I am making progress slowly. As the other person has said (sorry, I have forgotten your name already!), you really need to talk to your living relatives and bleed them for as much information as possible. Find out places of events if they don't have dates as that can at least help to narrow the search down. Occupations are also useful as you can then narrow it down to right job and place. Guess work and estimates for marriage dates has worked for me so far. I normally find out the birth dates and then start looking about 15-20 years later for their marriage details. Or if I find a marriage, I then work back 15 - 20 years for the birth. If you find marriage details, you can be pretty sure that within a year or so there will have been a birth, or at least, this is definitely the case with the ones I have found so far. If you have a child born a long time after the marriage, it would be worth trying to find other siblings born earlier. Try the "Family Search" link on the links page. This page gives you whole households if you can find someone you want and is good and free. FreeBMD has files from 1837 - 1906 but they are not all complete and some years are more complete than others. Any time you get stuck, just post a message on this board and someone will help you. They are all brilliant and have been great at keeping my spirits up and stopping me quitting when the going gets tough! Hope this helps. Good luck.

Michelle How far have you got exactly? If it's not all of your living relatives than they are a MUST before you go any further. If you've got back as far as the turn of the century then the 1901 census can be a help to start finding family units. Graham

How do I move on. I have gone as far as I can but although i have input my last relatives i don't know any D.O.B's. Where do i go now or what do i do to go back further? Michelle