Family Tree

shouldbeinbed

Had a bit of a genealogy diversion on the named after thread.

I've finally managed to get into my dads computer and picked off the family tree stuff he had started doing when he died and fancy carrying it on. He seems to have gone wide and has tracked as many bits of the family as possible back to early 1800s rather than just following the direct parent line.

Anyone else done/doing theirs and which eay would be best to go for someone with not a lot of free time?

LangerDan

I've been looking into mine for a couple fo years now, but on a very infrequent basis. There is an absolute wealth of resources (most of them free) available via the internet these days, which does allow you do litle scraps of research as time is available to you. The only tips I can offer are:-

1) You'll probably have to deal with the Mormons - they operate a free record search facility called www.familysearch.org , which is an enormous database of civil registers -including births marriages and deaths. Most of their records date from early 19th century but some go back a couple of centuries earlier.

2) Not much you can do about it if you don't, but if you do have an unusual family name OR a given name that goes back generations, it can make searching via google quite easy. I'm fortunate that our family name is not very common in these parts and every generation has included at least one of only 3 given names. However, if you are "John Smith", you're probably goosed.

3) There are many family trees already in existence - it might be worth asking relaitves if they have carried out any research - or even search the various genealogy forums to see what others are working on. I struck gold last year when I discovered that some guy had published his autobiography in electronic format on the 'net. As part of his work, he had researched his family tree back several centuries, which had some of my family on it. The end result was that he had a framework in place for our side of the family that has allowed me to go back to ~ 1636. There is a fairly weak link from there to the suspected previous generation, but if I can stitch that together, we'll have been able to track the family back to the late 1400s.

4) To be honest, while tracing the tree back that far is interesting, what I found far more intruiging was fleshing out the life stories of my ancestors in the 18th and 19th centuries. Where they lives, what they did, how big were their families, did they emigrate etc.

Bronzie

Had a dabble with this last year using Ancestry.co.uk - not the cheapest option as you have to pay for each search or pay an annual membership of around £80, but it is the easiest option.

The best data are the 10-yearly census returns as you can track who was living with whom, where and any children etc they had.

Fascinating stuff when you get into it, and I did get quite hooked and probably spent a bit more time on it than I should. Turned up a few skeletons in closets as well.

Pross

Made a start but neither of my parents seem to have an in depth knowledge of their grand parents history so it was hard work. Why is it when a celeb does their family tree on Who Do You Think You Are? they have some exciting people in their past but from the little I've managed so far the best I can get is that a few generations back someone on my mum's side had a child young and out of wedlock that was brought up as her sister.

Would love to get into it more but it is just too expensive and time consuming.

afx237vi

I did a free trial with ancestry.co.uk last year and it's amazing how quickly you can get a basic outline just by using the census data. I think the censuses go back to 1821 or 1831 or thereabouts, so you can get quite a lot of info - names, birth years, birth towns, occupations, marital status and so on.

But it's also really easy to hit dead ends and it is hugely time consuming. Once you get the basic layout of your tree, then the work really starts if you want to know more. Unfortunately I didn't have the time or the will to keep doing it, but I might go back to it in the future. I used http://www.geni.com to lay it out, which was really easy to use.

kettrinboy

The Ancestry free trial is well worth a go, but if youve got a common name like Smith you will spend ages and ages on loads of pages, it will be something like 20,000 or more of them,i didnt get far with the Smith,s in my tree, on the other hand if your names are uncommon you can get far in a short time,in two hours i found my 4xGt Grandad born in 1801,was the village blacksmith in Sywell, just up the road from me, until i went on Ancestry,i thought our family were from Norfolk so ive got a lot more knowledge now for free.

Cleat Eastwood

This is interesting. It shows that the fruit doesnt fall far from the tree. Type in your surname and see the spread/localisation.

http://gbnames.publicprofiler.org/

Bronzie

My great great great great grandfather was born (c.1802) and lived all his life in a village 15 miles away from where I live now. Not a well travelled family. :oops:

Pross

Cleat Eastwood wrote:

This is interesting. It shows that the fruit doesnt fall far from the tree. Type in your surname and see the spread/localisation.

http://gbnames.publicprofiler.org/

That shows some interesting results. Although my surname is Welsh the largest number actually shows up in Herefordshire in both the maps with slightly lower levels in the adjoining Welsh counties and my home town is in Monmouthshire but close to the Herefordshire border.

dag_on_a_bike

Never been too fussed by this myself, but I have a cousin now living in the USA who has traced our 'tree' back as far as 1641. I was well impressed.

My wife, whose mother was German, wants to trace her origins but has no idea where to start. Most resources seem to point to the UK or USA but German records must exist. Anyone got any tips?

LangerDan

DAG on a bike wrote:

Never been too fussed by this myself, but I have a cousin now living in the USA who has traced our 'tree' back as far as 1641. I was well impressed.

My wife, whose mother was German, wants to trace her origins but has no idea where to start. Most resources seem to point to the UK or USA but German records must exist. Anyone got any tips?

https://www.familysearch.org/s/collecti ... ion=EUROPE

Scroll down for links to German records