Research Hints
This page is intended to help beginners get started. Mainly it concentrates on research in the records in England & Wales. This is due to the writer’s lack of experience in other areas. If any reader wishes to contribute notes for guidance in other areas such as Scotland, Ireland or North America, Australia, New Zealand, please submit them for editing and inclusion.
Contents:
England & Wales
· GENUKI
· Civil Registration
· Census
· Parish Registers
· Wills & Admons
GENUKI
This is a web portal leading to many other sites and is the best starting point for UK and Irish research. You will find more in-depth information than the outline below. The arrangement of the site is mostly a hierarchical one based on Counties. Each County page has a lasting of internet sources with seamless hypertext links to take you to them. The format for a County page is firstly a listing of useful resources followed by parishes in alphabetical order. The content for a parish varies from…nothing…a picture of the Church…picture plus parish register transcripts…same plus war-memorial transcript…same plus census extracts. In fact it is like the lucky-bags containing candies that I remember from childhood!
Go for it…… http://www.genuki.org.uk/
Civil Registration
The civil registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages commenced in June 1837. The data is accessed by searching in the GRO (General Registry Office) indexes, which can be found in the Family Records Centre in London. They are often termed St Catherine’s House indexes, derived from their former home. Microfiche/film copies are available in many other places including LDS (Mormon) Family History Centres.
The indexes are by Year and Quarter, within which the sequence runs Surname and then first names. The data given is the key to ordering the purchase of a certificate. You need to note Year/Quarter; Name of individual; Registration District and a reference number, which is actually the Volume and Page for the certificate. If you are looking for a MOWBRAY, contact me (address on home page) and I can provide you with the data in most cases.
Birth certificates give when and where born, names of both parents, mother’s maiden name and occupation of father. Marriage certificates give date and place of marriage, names, ages and marital condition of each partner; their occupations, places of residence, fathers’ names and occupations. Also you see their signatures (or marks) and those of two witnesses who may be relatives.
To purchase the certificate you can apply by e-mail using a credit card. The charge is 8 GBP (British Pounds), (= approx 12.80 USD) per certificate, by telephone 0870 243 7788 (outside UK, replace leading 0 with +44 where + is your international call number) or by e-mail to
certificate.services@ons.gov.uk.
If you wish the GRO to make a search, the fee will be 11 GBP and you must supply full names and an approximate for the specified event. They will only make a three-year search.
To find out more about the GRO services www.pro.gov.uk/about/frc/ then click on Services and down to Births, Marriages and Adoptions.
When your sequential use of Birth and Marriage certificates has taken you back to 1891, you can use Census records and minimise expenditure.
Census
The census was taken every 10 years from 1841, but as there is a 100-year closure rule, the latest available is 1891. The 1881 census has been indexed nationally and is available on CD-ROM from the LDS. It can be searched in their FHCs. The other censuses have been surname indexed in some case by Family History Societies and copies in book or microfiche form can be purchased. If you join a County Newsgroup, people will often do look-ups, and some may even make an extract from the actual census.
Otherwise, the way into the census record is by the place of residence of your ancestor. The FRC in London and the LDS FHCs have place indexes to get you to the relevant micro-film. In 1841 the country was divided up into Poor Law Unions, which were groupings of parishes for administering the new Poor Law. These areas were chosen as Registration Districts in 1837 and in 1841 the census records were grouped in the same way.
For a given household you will find (1) the address, (2) the residents by name, age, relationship to the Head of Household, occupation, and place of birth. The 1841 census is a little more restricted in that age is rounded to the nearest 10 years for those under 16, relationships are not stated and birthplace is only given as within or not within the county where the residence is.
It is intended to release the 1901 census in a form searchable on-line and the release date is 2 Jan 2002.
Parish Registers
Henry VIII ordered the recording of baptisms, marriages and burials by parish priests and most of them commenced in 1538 or some years later. Most, but not all, have survived and have been deposited in County Record Offices. Each year, the parish had to make a return of the year’s events to the Diocese and these were kept in the library and known as Bishop’s Transcripts. To locate records for you ancestors you need to know the parish, or at least pin it down within a small group of parishes.
The LDS Church has done genealogists a great service by copying and indexing either PRs or BTs. The documents themselves are held on micro-film and may be viewed at your nearest LDS FHC after paying a very modest charge. The names have been indexed in the International Genealogical Index (IGI), which is organised by County, Surname and then First Name, with similar first names listed in sequence of event date. The coverage is not 100 per-cent. Also there are errors, so after finding an entry one should always check the PR/BT. The name index is by “Soundex” so there is no need to search on suspected spelling variations.
Usually the IGI does extend beyond 1840 and it mainly covers baptisms, although some marriages are present. For baptisms you will see the parent(s) and the parish and for marriages you will see the spouse and the parish. The date of the event is given in both cases.
Early PRs and BT may give difficulties in reading due to script or deterioration and the data given can be sparse compared with modern entries. Nevertheless, for the period before June 1837 when civil registration began, these records are the mainstay of proven genealogies.
Wills & Admons
Before 1855, all administration of the estates of the deceased had to proven before ecclesiastical courts. For the family historian this gives the advantage that many from as early as 1300 have been preserved and are available for inspection in County Record Offices. The tracing of the appropriate repository can be an obscure process, and you should first scrutinise the booklet “A Simplified Guide to Probate Jurisdictions” by JSW Gibson pub. FFHS (on-line bookshop at www.familyhistorybooks.co.uk ). This booklet also gives references to printed indexes, which are usually calendared, i.e. all names beginning with, say M, grouped together but not in strictly alphabetical sequence within the group.
After 1855 the Civil Authorities took control and whilst County Record Offices may have local indexes, you can often find a national set at the local Probate Registry. There you will obtain advice on how to procure a copy of the Will in which you are interested.
Wills give a fascinating peep into the circumstances of the testator just prior to his/her death, but perhaps more importantly they spell out relationships with named successors and sometimes refer to their parents. It is by no means unusual to be able to confirm three or more generations of kinship by means of a Will.
If the deceased failed to leave a Will, the next-of-kin had to apply for Letters of Administration (usually abbreviated to Admon.) in order to be able to administer the property of the intestate. Occasionally there will be an Inventory with a Will or an Admon and the resulting list of worldly goods gives an insight into the life of the deceased.
