Want to know a little bit more about your ancestors?

http://channels.netscape.com/ns/atplay/nameorigin.jsp?floc=ap-main-1-L1

http://www.genuki.org.uk/indexes/SurnamesLists.html

Thanks for that. The Ellis Island site came up with the goods!

I've just traced the entry of my father's aunt into the US from Poland in 1923! Not only that but found other distant relatives entries as well. Another few pieces in the jigsaw of my family history!

i've always been interested in names, i really like the way you get trades mentioned like smith, fisher etc :) And i think it's cool to know that if you are called johnson, you know someone called john is one of your ancestors!

my family name is unique in that anyone with my name must be related to me. There are two theories to where it comes from, but we do know that my great grandfather created it.
one theory is that my great grandfather came to england from ukaraine and was asked to write down his family name when he arrived. He did so, in russian and as the immigration type people couldn't read russian, they looked at it and said it looked like 'hanison'.

the other theory is that his mother was called hannah and so became hannah's son (hanison).. although this one is dubious because his mother wasn't called hannah!

either way, whenever i meet a hanison, i know they are somehow related to me because the name didn't exist until my great-grandfather came here :)

Mine's almost unique too (only one other family in the world), it's a Yorkshire fishing fly...but I don't think I'll tell it to you without persuasion...go look it up.

My surname is also unique in that all those in Sheffield with my name are related - even though through time, we don't know each other.

i also know my surname was created by putting two names together, but my husband has never shown a real interest why.

also all in sheffield with the same surname are related to two brothers, we do know that there are people with the same surname in lincs. but they didnt want contact when we tried to speak years ago.

i would like to give a go at finding out more so if anyone can get the ball rolling so to speak i would be interested.

The problem with genealogy is that we are at the mercy of the clerks, scribes etc who recorded the details of birth, marriage, death, census etc. What if they made a mistake? We must also remember that surnames change over the centuries. I do not just refer to spelling here, but also to the practice of apprentices taking the surname of their master etc. I am lucky in that my maternal line [the Anglian surname, Shirt originally Sherd] can be traced from my mother back to early 16th century Cawthorne [near Barnsley], and then with a pedigree supplied by Cheshire records back to 13th century Macclesfield Forest [the then hamlet of Sherd], and the Del Sherd family, foresters to the King. I am incredibly lucky. Most people who are not landed gentry [and I certainly am not!] cannot trace their "trees" much beyond 1700, according to Anthony Camp, one of Britain's foremost genealogists.
There is a way of bypassing genealogy involving genetics. Oxford Ancestors [run , I think, by Professor Brian Sykes] can do genetic tests for around £200 to determine your paternal line of dna descent [using male Y chromosomes], or your maternal line. Re the male Y test, they can determine whether you inherited this from Celtic, Anglo-Saxon/Danish Viking [at this point in time the latter two are indistinguishable], or Norwegian Viking male ancestors. The company advertise on the net.

Originally posted by HarrietStar

the other theory is that his mother was called hannah and so became hannah's son (hanison).. although this one is dubious because his mother wasn't called hannah!



Strangely the earliest record on FreeBMD is the death of one Hannah Hanison...it was in 1840 ;)

But there are no results with that spelling from IGI, where the cut off date is usually 1837.

Originally posted by rosiebear
.
i would like to give a go at finding out more so if anyone can get the ball rolling so to speak i would be interested.

Good starting point here...

http://www.genuki.org.uk/gs/index.html

what's FreeBMD and how do i look at it? it'd be really good to get more information about my ancestors :)

Originally posted by HarrietStar
what's FreeBMD and how do i look at it? it'd be really good to get more information about my ancestors :)



FreeBMD is a searchable on-line index of the civil registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths which began in 1837.

http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/

IGI is a searchable on-line index of mainly baptisms and marriages from 1538 (in theory) to 1837. There is also an index to the 1881 census.

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp?PAGE=igi/search_IGI.asp&clear_form=true

If you're going to embark on tracing your ancestors have a good read on that link I gave Rosie :)

Originally posted by Greybeard
FreeBMD is a searchable on-line index of the civil registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths which began in 1837.

http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/




But I should mention that from 1837 to 1875 the onus was on the local registrars to ensure they recorded each pertinent event, and of course some were missed, there are estimates that it may have been as many as 15%. From 1875 the onus was switched to the people with hefty fines for a failure to report events and so the record is much more complete from this date...but still not 100%.

The same caveat applies to IGI - errors in transcription are common so the original source is the only certain proof.

Nevertheless it's a fascinating and rewarding hobby, and can turn into an obsession if you're not careful ;)

thank you :) my mother-in-law has just started using BMD to transcribe records for a genelogoy group, she says its great. I might get her to do my family tree!

Originally posted by HarrietStar
thank you :) my mother-in-law has just started using BMD to transcribe records for a genelogoy group, she says its great. I might get her to do my family tree!

If you cant find what your looking for on free BMD, because its not fully transcribed yet, www.1837online.com is worth a look, its basically the same as Free BMD but more complete, as it uses the index from ONS, however you have to buy units inorder to view your searches.