In the days before the internet, local newspapers were how information on local happenings was communicated. As such, many of our ancestors appeared in these publications at some point in their lives. An appearance could be as simple as a brief announcement of their birth, marriage or
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Wills can be really interesting for family historians. They give us an insight into the mind of the person who wrote them – not to mention that they can list most of the members of the person’s family! This article gives information on what you might
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Parish records include many documents other than parish registers which can also be very useful to the family historian. These are known as “The Parish Chest”, after the large wooden chests in which all parish documents were once stored – the picture above shows an example of
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Until the time of Henry VIII and the Reformation, virtually everyone in England and Wales was Catholic. After then everyone was supposed to be Anglican but in reality there were always people who didn’t conform to the established church, either openly or in secret. Each group left
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Following the last article, you will hopefully have identified baptisms, marriages and burials of some of your ancestors in the online indexes. The next step is to check the original records from which those indexes were created. If you have an online image of the record, then
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In order to trace your family tree beyond the 19th Century you will need to use the baptism, marriage and burial registers of the Church of England. even if your ancestors were Roman Catholic or Protestant Non-Conformists. There is no single online source for these records and
Read more →The 1939 Register was taken on the 29 September 1939, just before the start of World War II, and the information was used as the basis for things like identity cards, rationing and conscription. It is an invaluable tool in bridging the gap between the 1911 census
Read more →Census records provide a snapshot of households on a single day once every ten years between 1841 and 1911. These records can be used to trace your ancestors through time and see how their lives developed. The document below provides information on the census records and how
Read more →Vital records are birth, marriage and death (BMD) registrations, documented as certificates. These are key building blocks in tracing our family history. The indexes to birth, marriage and death registrations not only allow us to find the references to obtain certificates but often give valuable information without
Read more →Most people are curious about their family’s story and TV programmes make researching family history look easy – type in a name and the answer is there, go to an archive and the archivist brings you the key documents with the page featuring your family marked. In
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