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Researching Your Family Tree

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As anyone started researching there family tree, if so have you got any tips on how to start. I need to find an interest and I think I would find this a great way to spend my spare time .

 

Are the websites that are advertised on TV a good starting point, any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

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Write down everything you do know before paying to use a site such as Ancestry.  Ask relatives to tell you what they know. If your family is Sheffield based mainly then use this site for additional help - free indexes to start  you off with some things and very helpful people too on the forum.  http://www.sheffieldindexers.com/ForumIndex.html

 

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Use free sites such as

https://www.freebmd.org.uk/  ,

https://www.freereg.org.uk/

https://www.familysearch.org/en/home/

 

Also put on here surnames you are interested in & one of us may have same family. I would be happy to help - send me a PM if interested

John

Edited by johnpm

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Another site which I have always found very helpful is www.rootschat.com  The people on there are always willing to offer advice and in some cases will go out of their way to help you search. I  think that you will find that researching your family tree will become addictive. One word of caution though - you MUST get certificates. Not for everyone and everything but for strategic ones as it is very very easy to go off on a tangeant and find that you lose YOUR thread altogether and then you continue researching the wrong family altogether. The sad thing is that you wouldn't realise that that's what you've done.  Also if you find someone else is researching the same branch as you do not just accept their research as valid without checking it first. For instance on Ancestry Public Members Trees I have found quite a few trees over the years which have the wrong information on them.  So get certificates and check other peoples research info. 

I hope that you enjoy doing this but I'm sure that you will. 

 

Grannypat

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I tried to send you a PM but it says you can't receive messages. Is that right?

 

Grannypat

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I second what grannypat has said. Always buy or copy source documents to verify your research so you don't climb someone else's tree.  I researched mine the old way of going to archives in different counties before the advent of the internet. Best thing as I know my tree is correct. 

Digital copies of certificates can be bought more cheaply here - https://www.gro.gov.uk/  but do ask relatives first - you do not know what they may have squirreled away . Photos to. 

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Another good site is Curious Fox  (    www.curiousfox.com   ).

You can either go on it for free,   or pay about £5.50 for the year.       I've made some great breakthroughs on there,  & also helped a lot of people with their search.                  It's not records,  it's people asking for information.       

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Ancestry can be accessed for free at the local public library.

Familysearch.org is worth using as well.

You can get some information from the British Newspaper Archive. ( https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/  )

At its most basic it will give two sentences which may need interpretation (Girths, Marriages and Deaths) but it also gives the date, title and page number which save a bit of time if you go to the library. Remember that although an incident took place in one place, there might be a report in a paper from somewhere else e.g.

Quote

... 01)111:N84 TO THE WILX/Wa UV THE SU/YURI:FS. -by the CEplosion, which toot Place at the Edmond's Main Colliery, in Worshro Dale, near Barnsley, in December, 1'43, thirty-four females wore made widows. It wax believed by the executive of tlio Workiter ...

Published: Tuesday 29 March 1864
Newspaper: Uxbridge & W. Drayton Gazette
County: London, England
Type: Article | Words: 13514 | Page: 6, 7 | Tags: none

Check out https://wyhf.wordpress.com/2012/11/20/edmunds-main-colliery-disaster-memorial-event/

for more on this incident.

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Thank you all so much for your advice, I am going to seriously look into this. I should be able to get a PM grannypat , although I haven’t been active on here much since the site changed.

 

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Spoiler

 

I did try to PM you but it said that you were unable to receive them. You should, perhaps, have a look into this as PMs can sometimes be useful. You have received some really good advice above. The members on here are always so helpful when you call upon them for their help. Sheffielders you see - salt of the earth.

 

Grannypat

 

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On 08/09/2019 at 20:35, vicky & John said:

As anyone started researching there family tree, if so have you got any tips on how to start. I need to find an interest and I think I would find this a great way to spend my spare time .

 

Are the websites that are advertised on TV a good starting point, any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Hello Vicky & John.

Gather as much information as you can and lay it all down.

Make a list of what you don't know from the list of what you do know.

Talk to as many relatives as possible.

Do simple searches on the internet,

put your family name in. If you know where one of your relatives are buried

try the graveyards friends of societys. They are usually only to happy to help.

A couple of sites on't internet have photo's of gravestones & include transcriptions

you can see for nothing. (www.gravestonephotos.com) 

When all that is done - see what information you can get for nothing. 

(my Scottish blood showing through there) Get on a 14 day free trial & 

blast it, follow what ever leads you can (always cancell a few days before the free trial ends)

Have a breather, digest what you've got - have your next set of question ready.

(find another 14 day free trial etc)

Started my quest 3 year ago from some scribbled notes on the back of an envelope.

Be prepared for the unknown.

Don't think every thing you think you know already is going to stay that way.

Don't think you've ever finished.

I've got my direct bloodline as far back as 1736 and another line as far as 1650.

Best of luck Vicky and John.

Enjoy. I have.

Rocker

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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