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Help I'm Stuck with my Genealogical Research!
Standard Proceedure back to Mid 1837
Birth - Marriage - Birth - Marriage etc.
Don't for get death Certs ages in index for 1866.
Also Census.
Should point you back to parish family living
in before 1837.
1837 Back to 1538
Use Parish Registers of Baptism, Marriage and
Burial
1538 to 1086
Court Rolls
Dombesday Book
Before 1086
Gets More difficult!
So we are all back ton 1086 or are we stuck
Who 1900s - Eastenders
1800s Idiosyncracies with reg system show
overhead
1700s Latin, bad writing
1600s Civil War
1500s Poor Register survival rates an copying
1300s or 1400s Poor survival rates try
Inquisition Post Mortem and Published Genealogies Also many Wills
in PCC etc.
1086-1300 Peasants Revolt some Court Rolls
Burn't very poor court roll survival rate. Black death
rapid burial and scribes may die
Before 1086 There are a few saxon wills still
in existance, Bede, Anglo Saxon Chronicles
But we are probably stuch in the 1800s, 1700s
or 1600s
How I did it?
Don't forget:
1901 Census Index On Internet from 1 Jan 2002
With trial 1891 Norfolk?
1881 Census Index
1851 Census Index Published for many places
Scottish Records Via Internet, 1891 Census,
1881 Census, Births Marriages and Deaths
British Vital Records esp. late 1800s,
Liverpool & Wigan St Catherines etc.
IGI Now on the internet
Memorial Inscriptions - publishedfor many
places
#### DO NOT RELY ON INDEXES OTR TRANSCRIPTS
ALWAYS CHECK THE ORIGINSALS ######
Guild of One Nasme Studies
Poor Law Records, Settlement, Removal Orders,
Bastardy, Oversears of the poor accounts, Constables accounts,
Highway accounts.
Churchwardens Accounts can go back before
Parish Registers and can include payments for burials eg Prescot,
Lancashire
Wills and Probate Records
Freemens Records of Towns
Court Records, Ecclesiastical Court Records
Where indexed
Society of Genealogists esp Great Card Index
esp pre 1837
Heraldic Visitations
Get organised
Family Tree Programs
Custodian and Cloos
Manual Systems eg that offered by Ramsbottom
Reconstruct the entire family as this will
give information on your Ancestors.
Check for infant burials when looking for
baptisms to rule out some baptisms.
Where possible check other coloborative
evidence buy certificates when you can if you follow the wrong
line it can be very expensive on time just to save £6.50 on a
certificate. Try and prove each fact 3 times if possible.
Check your assumptions eg Birkenhead being
read as Birkenhew but clearly Birkenhead after some practice and
10 years.
Be professional in your research ask yourself
questipons and try and solve them. Think of ways of disproving as
well as prooving your links record why you come to your
conclusions.
Recommended reading:
Colin Rogers - Family Tree Detective
Mark Herber - Ancestral Trails c£20
Phillimore Atlas of Parish Registers
(c) Simon Martin 2001
My Talk Handout - Help I'm Stuck - http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~copestake/stuck2.html
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Last updated 7 October 2001