Help I'm Stuck with My Genealogical Research

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HELP I'm STUCK

Show Birth and Marriage Certificate on the screen in the pre-meeting time. What is wrong here? How would you solve it?

There is a Standard Proceedure for building a pedigree it is:

Standard Proceedure back to Mid 1837

Birth - Marriage - Birth - Marriage etc.

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 to 1086 are we?

Why are we all not back to 1086?

Who is back to 1900s - Eastenders - Show File

1800s Idiosyncrasies with registration system show overhead of Birth and Marriage Certificate again. Not enough information being gathered at the time of registration, Scottish system better but starts later.

1700s Latin, bad writing

1600s Civil War

1500s Poor Register survival rates and copying errors, summary on copying ie only name of person baptised nothing else.

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 Burnt very poor court roll survival rate. Black death rapid burial and scribes may die some court rolls not written up.

Before 1086 There are a few Saxon wills still in existence, Bede, Anglo Saxon Chronicles

But we are probably stuck in the 1800s, 1700s or 1600s.

How I did it? What problems I faced using the overheads.

The two biggest tips are:

DO IT NOW - Interview the living before they become the dead. Do this before you do anything even before you get organised. Write up your notes as quickly as possible, and then go back with your typed up notes, and get them checked.

DO IT NEXT - Write on the back of Photos in pencil.

At least you will have a rough family history and know exactly what your ancestors looked like.

Get organised

Computer

Family Tree Programs

Custodian and Cloos

Manual Systems eg that offered by Ramsbottom

Yes that sounds nice I must do it some time - START NOW

Don't use scraps of paper unless that is all you have on you at the time. Buy a small hard-backed robust pocket notebook.

Do use pocket computers but back them up, and take extra batteries.

Or use strong hard backed notebooks leave the facing page blank for future observations and cross-references. Leave first few pages blank for contents/Index. Number each page and number each notebook.

Record everything and where it can be found again

Record everything [Records can still be lost, but a least you can reconstruct it from your notes] and its source so you can find it again.

You will need to look at things again. With experience you spot things you did not spot the first time. Eg Birkenhew on a Banns register entry turns out to be Birkenhead.

Handwriting and Latin

Go on courses and/or borrow books to start to get experience reading old writing and Latin. The more documents and transcripts you read and translate the better you will get.

Borthwick Wallets - York

Gooder - Latin For Local History

A Secretary Hand ABC Book, Alf Ison, Berkshire Books, ISBN 1 871941-08-3

The Record Interpreter - Charles Trice Martin - Phillimore

If you are stuck - consider the following

Did the event take place in a different geographical or administrative area [eg Peculiar]?

Did the event take place in a different country, or did the person emigrate? [Remember Scotland and Ireland are different countries for our purposes]

Was the event recorded in another denomination or religion?

Are there any historical copies of the record eg Bishops Transcript or Parish Register Society who transcribed the record. They may have transcribed your entry before it got ripped off the foot of a page or faded. [I did some work on a baptism from Bradley in Derbyshire the foot of one of the pages in the parish register looked a bit raged, when I compared it to the Bishops Transcript, the baptism I sought was there but had now been lost off the foot of the parish register due to wear and tear due to too much use. Always check Bishops Transcripts as sometimes the bishop's copy may have more detail that the parish register as it was the Bishop or Archdeacon who would read it.

Could the event have happened at a different time to that thought? Did the person think it was age next birthday they wanted. Or a census age can be rounded up or down. [In 1841 Enumerators were instructed to mark adults down to the nearest 5 years, sometimes they thought the instructions were the same in 1851 and may have continued to round down then too]. Remember there can be late baptisms and late probate of wills.

A possible date range of birth can be calculated from just one age and a date a person was that age, as follows:

Day + 1 / Month /Year - Age - 1 till Day/ Month/ Year - Age

eg Today is 19 Nov 2000 and I am 34 years old

So I was born between 19+1/11/2000-34-1 and 19/11/2000-34

So I was born 20/11/1965 and 19/11/1966

or between 20 November 1965 and 19 November 1966 which is true. - 25 December 1965 and my picture was in the Wigan Observer to prove it!

Try it with yourself as long as the age late birthday is correct it is fine. But you never ask a lady her age do you, and that is where problems start?

These calculations can then be combined to reduce the possible date of birth even more:

5 Jan 1800 [------------------------------------------] 4 Jan 1801

30 Apr 1800[-----------------------------------------------]29 Apr 1801

Therefore possible date of birth is:

30 Apr 1800[------------------------] 4 Jan 1801

Remember Americans and others have different ways of recording dates. Always show the month as a 3 letter word Jan, Feb etc. and the year in full in your notes or exactly as it appears in the document if transcribing.

In 1752 some days were lost from the Calendar and the year started on the 1 Jan not 25 Mar [Lady Day] this results in the tax year being the 5 April every year. People understandably became confused on how old they were if they lived through 1752.

The event is not recorded at all? Drunk vicar? Dead vicar? Absent minded vicar?

Eldest son may not appear in a will as he inherited all the land which is often not recorded in earlier wills.

Has the person changed their name? Most names are spelt phonetically in the past ie how it sounded. Copestake has been spelt Cowsteak [Very tasty], Capstock, Copestick, Cowpstacke etc.. Married women change their name at marriage except in Scotland where they can retain their maiden names. Married women at death are listed under their married names. I have forgot this a number of times. A H at the front of a name can be missed off eg Hapwood could be Apwood no problem except they are a long way from each other in an index. Names can change on copying eg Sampson to Samuel, well they are both in the bible!

Is there more than one likely record? Kill em off with the burials register and wills etc. Marry em off! if by licence you can get age at marriage and if married before. If they are having two lots of kids in two different places at the same time they are probably different people [or bigamists!]

Are your assumptions really correct, write out the persons full lives as a narrative story. Does it really work? Could he have been in two places at the same time?

Are the records really lost?

Church warden burnt them, or put in a cellar which flooded or both- Snelston

Ultra violet light can reveal washed off inks.

Look for copies made before destruction eg Antiquarians records etc.

Check for contemporary copies eg in deeds or Bishops Transcripts. Is the record still in someone's attic [Particularly Non-Anglican] was a copy made by the parish before it was deposited in the Public Record Office of Ireland, before it was burnt down?

Have you only looked at the index? The entry may be there but indexed under a different surname or missed of the index. Eg Staffordshire Parish Register Society indexes to their volumes are very useful indeed, but not 100% accurate.

Is the entry there but you missed it? Due to bad writing, pages being missed in microfilming, Latin, twins. Have a break and look again. It is often possible to see the original record if the microfilming is bad.

Finally - Don't forget:

Don't forget death Certificates - ages in index for 1866.

Do buy certificates as they confirm your family line and it is a false economy just to rely on indexes.

Do double check everything.

1901 Census Index will be on the Internet from 1 Jan 2002. Also I understand the 1891 Census for Norfolk is being used as a guinea pig and may be on line before then.

1881 Census Index

1851 Census Index is 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 - published for many places

#### DO NOT RELY ON INDEXES OR TRANSCRIPTS ALWAYS CHECK THE ORIGINALS ######

Guild of One Name Studies

Phone a friend.

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 especially The Great Card Index especially good for Pre 1837

Heraldic Visitations

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 collaborative evidence. Buy certificates of brothers and sisters of your ancestor 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 questions and try and solve them. Think of ways of disproving as well as proving your links record why you come to your conclusions. Keep checking for other possible entries.

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