Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5 | Page 6 | Page 7

Family History - An Introduction

Have you ever wondered who your ancestors were, where they came from, or what they did for a living?

No doubt you will know someone who has traced their family tree, or seen one of the episodes of ‘Who Do You Think You Are?‘ on television. There are so many reasons why you might want to start researching your family history. These days we lead increasingly busy lives and we tend to live and work further away from our families. This can make us lose sight of where we come from and who we are related to.

Genealogy

Genealogy is the study of information about your ancestors and who you are related to. Researching
your family‘s history is a very interesting way to discover your roots and can be great fun - it can be like a really gripping detective story. Yet for the uninitiated beginner, starting to trace your ancestors can be a daunting, difficult and confusing task. You have to invest some time into researching your family‘s history, but you never
know what you‘re going to find...

How and where do you begin?

It may sound obvious, but the best way to start your research is by writing down everything you know about
yourself and your family. Note full names, dates of birth, marriage and death, and where these events occurred
- geography will play an important part in your research as you attempt to locate relatives you may never have
met nor even have known about. Once you have done this it‘s time to talk to other members of your family.
Start with parents, uncles and aunts and then work back a generation if you can. It is important to note that
when researching your family history you should always start with yourself and work your way backwards
through the generations. Ask them what they know - names, dates and places relating to people. You should
be able to compile a fair amount of information about your grandparents, their parents and other people you
are unlikely to have met.

If your family members agree you could record your discussions - this could make an important family heirloom that can be passed on from generation to generation.

It is a sensible idea to compare as many different versions of an event as remembered or described by as many members of your family as possible as memories can fade.

Dates and events can often get muddled with the passing of time, and the use of pet names can cause great confusion.

Do not simply take what you have been told at face value - an important part of the research process will be to verify what you have heard.

Physical clues at home - the family‘s personal archive

Once you have gathered as much oral history about your family as you can, it‘s time to widen the search - you will be amazed at how many wonderful documents you will find within your family simply by asking to look in attics and basements as well as through drawers, boxes and files. What one person sees as rubbish could be your treasure trove!

You want to keep an eye out for personal documents - certificates of birth, marriage and death, wills, employment records, diaries, personal correspondence, a family bible and photographs are just some of the items you could find.

This stage of the process will provide you with written evidence and helps you to build up a sense of what your ancestors looked like, what they did and the sort of people they were. The smallest snippet of information can be an important clue - dates and places on documents can lead you to a geographical area from where your family originated, which, in turn, could lead you to further discoveries about your family.

Piecing together your family tree

When you have gathered together as much information as you can, it‘s time to arrange it into a family tree. The family tree is one of the most widely used methods of organising family history information. It is basically a map of your roots, you can see at a glance how your family are related to one another.

What do you do next?

There are many ways to proceed, depending on how much you want to find out or if you only want to concentrate on one or two ancestors in particular. It is always sensible to double check the information you have already discovered or been given. You should check that all the names, dates and places you have are correct by checking them against official records. Look at indexes to birth, marriage and death certificates. The next step is to work back in time and use the information contained in certificates and census returns to discover new and previously unknown relatives.

Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5 | Page 6 | Page 7