I am doing the Purcell Family Tree and I live in Canada.

[RoseofSharon]

My Question Is -How do I go about finding their descendents in Gloucester and Reading as I know very little about how close places are in England?

LDC

[noxlumos]

Well nowhere is that far away in England because it's a relatively small country but gloucester is about 80 miles from Reading.A good place to start if you know of ancestors (I'm assuming you mean ancestors and not decendants) that lived anywhere between 1851 and 1901 are the census returns that were taken every ten years, 1851,1861,1871,1881,1891,1901. They are available on sites such as www.ancestry.com and there is a small charge.We also have a civil registration index which covers all births marriages and deaths from 1837, available from the same site or from www.1837.com

There are records of Trade Guilds and various other indexes but the above is a good starting point.

If you want to know how far a place is from another place go to http://www.theaa.com/travelwatch/planner_main.jsp

and that will tell you once you enter the relevant info. Happy ancester hunting :)

[fo3nix]

another idea, further to noxlumos', is to download google earth. this has all the major places in the UK on it too, very handy for seeing how far away things are (with great visuals!)

http://earth.google.com/

[Sammy Snake]

Also try www.genuki.org.uk It is very good at telling you what places are nearby and what resources are available for various counties/places.

[dotjhawkes]

Use the IGI (International Genealogical Index) to get a demographic fix on your family and then you can home in on the census returns and parish registers.

[~sillycow~]

I live in Gloucester and my boyfriend grew up with the Purcell family and was only drinking with a one of the brothers yesterday afternoon!! I also know someone who is engaged to one of them!!

[RoseofSharon]

sillycow------I would greatly appreciate it ifyou would get one of the Purcells that you know to e-mail me with any information his family might have on Lily , David Sr , or Charles.

Roseof Sharon

[~sillycow~]

i think bf will be seeing him on Saturday, give me your email address and i will explain the situation him and ask him to pass it on to him