tracing family

[mycats]

Where on earth do I start??

[dot.hawkes]

by writing down a list of all your living relatives and deciding who is related to who and in what way. Then think about all the weddings and funerals yoiu went to and try to find old photos and identify everyone related to you. Then start talking to your living relatives, especially the older generation, and find out what they recall of their parents and grandparents. it can be very interesting. Once you have done some of this, decide which side of the family you are going to look at first, choose one that is close to where you live now if possible, as alot of the research wil be easier and you will learn about the sources available easier.
Try to find out if any of your family, including any members living abroard, have already begun the research, this can sometimes be the case and so you can exchange and not duplicate reseach.
Find out what your local library has available for general reseach and also practise usinmg some of the online national indexes on Ancestry.co.uk. Look for your own birth first to work out how the indexes for Births Deaths and marriages in England and Wales work.

[mycats]

cheers Dotty, thing is, we erm dont get married in our family lol

[dot.hawkes]

oooo living over the brush eh? a challenge with illegitimacy as the mum could not add the dad to the registration of birth if the git didn't go with her to the register office lol

[carolegif]

Always with start with "the known" ie: yourself, and work backwards. Try and get information on an ancestor who was alive in 1901 and look them up on the census which is free (as are 1881 and 1841).

dot.hawkes is right, get as much information as you can from the living and documents. Other sites to try are:
Free BMD, FREECENS and GENUKI or the Mormon site familysearch.org - all free

happy hunting!
carolegif

[rosies]

Start with living relations, then work back.
Obtaining birth death & marriage certificates is a brilliant way of finding spouses, siblings and parents.
Try and keep to one branch of the tree at a time otherwise you will get yourself in tangles.
If you hit a brick wall on one branch, then proceed with another one.
You should hopefully find it very satisfying and a project that you can carry on for amny years.
Oh yeah and dont forget the internet, invaluable message boards on genealogy sites.
Rosie

[mycats]

cheers folks but honestly, my fathers parents were married no one else has been lol
They are both dead and I dont talk to him