Jump to content


Researching Family Tree - which provider to use?

Recommended Posts

Thank you so much for all your kind replies - it has given me a great start and I am really grateful for your time and advice. xxx

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Be careful if you "borrow" info from other peoples trees as they could have the wrong info themselves. Wouldn't be the first time I've followed or found a Fred Smith marring a Mary Jones then find out that there was three other marriages about the same time and I've picked the wrong one.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Don't forget the suggestion earlier in the thread to ask older family members for their memories. You'd be surprised how much information you can get and may be able to borrow birth/marriage/death certificates. Also worth making sure others in the family are aware of your interest so that you are offered any old papers, certificates, photos, etc before they get binned.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

If your family came from Sheffield don't forget to try the Sheffield Archives.

Many people scroll the ancestry sites for years on the net and think they have got all the information but there's lots more to be had by looking in the genuine church registers of births , marriages and the funerals that took place.

Not everything is on the internet there are still many more that has yet to be put on but the Sheffield archives will gladly let you search these old books from the strong room but have to be handled with care of course. There's many a searcher who " make the pieces fit " because they are lacking that vital information. You can also take pictures of the information you find. It will take years for all the old information to get on the net.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

A friend uses ancestry.com (or .co.uk). It's not free but every so often has free weekends. I've done some searching on the free weekends and my friend has had great success with ancestry for both herself and me.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Re: Researching Family Tree - which provider to use?

Another good free site is http://www.rootschat.com

Lots of very helpful people on there.

 

I would also recommend http://www.rootschat.com. I find it easier to use if I stick to the Forum section. Another thing that you really have to do when doing family research is to order certificates reasonably often or you could find that you have gone off at a tangent and are totally unaware of it. If you get marriage certificates and/or birth certificates as often as you can afford just to keep you on the right track. It's a lot easier to drift than a lot of people think. You only have to look at the public family trees on Ancestry to see that people following the same family line have come up with different people because some of them didn't verify their information. If you get the correct Page and Vol. reference numbers then sending for a certificate is a bit cheaper. You can usually get these from http://www.freebmd.org.uk.

If you get stuck just put a post on http://www.rootschat.com and someone will usually help in one way or another. I know that you will enjoy doing it and I wish you every success.

 

Grannypat

Edited by grannypat
spelling

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It's certainly a good idea to obtain cerfificates whenever you are fairly sure of a family link. Amd even if the certificate shows that you are not on the right track it can save a lot of unnecessary searching. I usually obtain them via the G.R.O. website here.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

If you find any of the site fees expensive try getting someone to share the fee & the site.

 

One piece of advice I would recommend is to record every source numbers of the individuals so you can check them again. Sometimes it is quite difficult to find the individual records again if you do not.

 

Another tip is to remember most people in the old days could not read or write & so many records have different spellings of the names for the same individuals so do not discount any information you find just because the name is spelt differently. I have found 11 different spellings of my surname & often for the same person or individual family. Many names were spelt phonetically & different dialects in different areas spoke the names differently. I hore this helps you. PopT Happy Days!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Just to say that on http://www.rootschat.com you can ask for someone to look things up for you if you don't want to or can't afford to join some if the sites which cost money to join. There are always plenty of people willing to do this for you.

 

I don't live in Sheffield now and I needed someone to pop into the Sheffield Archives for me. I had already paid out quite a lot to this department in fees to look things up for me and so wondered if there might be someone living nearby who might have the time to do it for me. A chap answered and he lives outside Sheffield. He doive to the outskirts and parked and then hopped on a bus to the Archives where he browsed quite a few things for me and even went back 2 or 3 times to try to find more. I can't praise the people on that site enough. I would encourage everyone to give it a go. I live in Dorset now and so offer my services to people who need things looking up in this region. We all help each other.

 

Grannypat

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.