Who Do You Think You Are? Encyclopedia of Genealogy (10 page)

Check the following to see if some of your proposed research has already been done:

•
The records of the Society of Genealogists

•
Burke's
and
Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage, and The Records and Collections of the College of Arms

•
Indexes of published pedigrees

•
Genealogy websites

•
The Guild of One-Name Studies, for a particular surname (especially if it is unusual)

It is imperative that you find out the sources of any research undertaken by other people before you even consider incorporating this data into your own family tree – it is vital that you can double-check their accuracy. Even if somebody else's research has been published, their work is still liable to human error and it is not unusual to find a pedigree published in two books that has different dates of birth or death cited in each version. Therefore, check as many editions as you can for each published pedigree so that you can compare the information they contain, and then follow up the document references in the footnotes and examine the original sources.

Just as you did when you were collecting information from relatives, you should treat all second-hand evidence as merely a guideline to follow, rather than gospel truth. Use it as a short cut to the records that will allow you to verify the information, rather than taking the data at face value as proof of the past. Family trees published on the web are even less reliable simply because anybody can add to genealogy websites without needing to authenticate their entries. If you do contact another researcher who has seemingly investigated one of your family branches, do not be afraid to ask them how they came to their conclusions and what sources they have used. You can then follow up these sources yourself to see if you find them convincing as evidence.

‘
Treat all second-hand evidence as merely a guideline to follow, rather than gospel truth.'

Despite these words of warning, family tree sharing facilities are fantastic genealogical tools, particularly the online versions that enable researchers to share ideas and learn from each other's work. Once you have completed your research you should consider making it into a book, perhaps using one of the family tree software packages suggested in
Chapter 2
– many of which include a publishing suite – so that you can deposit your work at the Society of Genealogists or your local record office for other researchers to benefit from.

Genealogy as a pastime is at its most popular in the twenty-first century, partly thanks to the wealth of resources that have been made available online to millions of people at the click of a mouse. Whereas family history was once the domain of the upper classes who had access to (or were keen to prove) their pedigrees, and die-hard genealogists prepared to spend hours scouring reels of microfilm in search of each new name on their family tree, now anybody with a vague interest in their roots, regardless of status or origin, can start investigating. Because there is such an enormous interest in the subject, there will always be somebody online who can be of assistance if you are struggling with your research.

There are literally millions of genealogy websites out there – just try typing ‘family history' into Google and see how many hits you receive! This can make it difficult to know where to begin, so here we'll de-mystify the process and highlight the most useful sites you'll need to visit. Basically, the core resources you will be working from can be broken down into the following categories:

•
 
Commercial or institutional websites supplying access to datasets, images of records, or indexes to documents (‘dataset' websites)

•
 
Websites of genealogical organizations that provide advice, or links to other resources (‘portal' websites)

•
 
Websites where you can link with other users and join social networks (‘network' websites)

There are many commercial websites that have worked in conjunction with archives to provide reliable historical material online. For example, The National Archives at Kew have teamed up with commercial companies such as Ancestry and Find My Past to enable online access to census returns, military records, ships passenger lists and more, whilst the National Archives of Scotland have established a partnership with the Scottish General Register Office and the Court of the Lord Lyon to create an official website – www.scotlands people.gov.uk – where Scottish parish registers, civil registration,
probate and census records are available to those unable to travel to the archives.

‘
Datasets are digital collections of particular records that can be searched using a name-based index or search engine
.'

As a result, there are many commercial subscription-based websites that offer access to datasets, namely digital collections of particular records that can be searched using a name-based index or search engine, and you will often find more than one website offering access to the same records – civil registration indexes and census returns being prime examples (the relevant resources are listed in
Chapters 5
and
6
respectively). The differences between the various websites are usually the type of search engine they offer and the cost of accessing the records. For instance, you may find two websites that will give you online access to census records, but one is better for finding ancestors by name and one is more useful for locating addresses on the census if you cannot find an ancestor by name. Equally, one website may offer a better deal for pay-per-view subscriptions and one a better deal on yearly subscriptions, so shop around and work out which ones better suit your needs.

In addition to the commercial organizations, major archives around the British Isles also give online access to digital copies of some of the documents in their holdings – though of course hard copies can still be ordered if you prefer. Therefore if you cannot get to these archives very easily you may be able to access some material from home. The types of records available from each archive's website varies widely; for example, The National Archives' website has a Documents Online area where you can pay to view copies of wills from medieval times to the mid-nineteenth century, as well as many military and naval documents, and you can order images of specific document references that are emailed to you using the online Digital Express facility. In contrast, the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland does not yet enable any access to its holdings over the Internet. It is worth checking the websites of both the national and local archives that cover the regions your family were from to see if they have digital collections of any of their holdings, though this should not be considered a substitute to visiting the archives. Despite the growth in online availability, the bulk of the documents you'll need will almost certainly have to be viewed on-site.

It's not just archives that are putting their holdings online. Online newspaper archives are increasingly useful for family historians,
helping you to locate articles about your ancestors that may otherwise have never been found. It is always worth checking the local newspaper that covered the area your family lived in if you have a date of birth, marriage or death for a prominent ancestor that may have warranted a mention in the personal announcements or obituaries section. In the majority of cases you will still be required to visit the local library or county record office or go to the British Newspaper Library in north London to scroll through the original chronological records.

The most important records are the digitized collections of national newspapers, many of which can be searched by keyword, article type and date range.
The Times
is one of the most prominent of these; its collections are available online from 1785 to the present day. To access the entire collection of
The Times
an InfoTrac database connection is needed, to which most major archives and local library networks provide free access. Your local library may be able to give you a PIN number and instructions about how to use the database for free from home. The
Scotsman
also has an online database of its backdated editions from 1817 to 1950, accessed at http://archive.scotsman.com, and the historic archive of the London, Edinburgh and Belfast
Gazettes
can be searched and viewed for free at www.gazettes-online.co.uk.

Local newspapers tend to be more fruitful when searching for newspaper articles for the majority of our ancestors, but you may be surprised to locate an entry in a national newspaper in the form of criminal reports, court summaries, advertisements, changes of name and address notices, in addition to the many birth, marriage, death and funeral announcements and obituaries they contain. These ever-growing online newspaper archives are so useful to modern genealogists purely because they enable us to find articles about our ancestors by name rather than by searching through months' or even years' worth of original newspaper reports.

There are numerous professional bodies in the field of genealogy that are at hand to aid you in your quest to find as much material as you can about your heritage, and most of the larger organizations attempt to do this as best they can via the web so that they reach the widest group of people. The Federation of Family History Societies (FFHS) has a Research Tips section on its website www.ffhs.org.uk, and the Society of
Genealogists' website www.sog.org.uk has genealogy leaflets that can be downloaded giving general advice about how best to go about tracing your roots. Many of the major archives also have subject-related research guides on their websites that guide you through locating and interpreting documents when at these institutions. One of the best places to find out more about the key resources you'll be using is at www.familyrecords.gov.uk, which describes civil registration indexes, census returns, wills and probate documents and other material.

… make the most of the Internet

If you are not an experienced computer and Internet user, it is probably worth investing in a good guide, like Peter Christian's
The Genealogist's Internet
or
How To Trace Your Family History on the Internet
published by
Reader's Digest.
These books provide detailed explanations of how to research each aspect of family history using online resources and will guide you through the most popular sites. They also suggest a good range of websites for your online research
.

GENUKI is a web-based charitable organization that offers information on all aspects of genealogy in the UK and Ireland. Its database of information and links is organized geographically and by theme on the www.genuki.org.uk website. While this site provides links to many other websites where you can seek help with any problems, the website itself aims to serve its users as a ‘virtual reference library' and is not designed to answer specific research questions. It is supported by the FFHS and its member societies, who collaborate with GENUKI to provide them with much of the information contained on the site. It is therefore extremely useful for locating rare online indexes and transcriptions for records held in local archives that cannot be found on some of the large commercial dataset sites. As soon as you can pin a branch of your ancestors to one particular place, it is definitely worth visiting the GENUKI website because its sophisticated geographic index will show you all the key online tools and organizations that specialize in that area. Its topographical index is just as useful if there is a certain genealogical subject you are struggling with.

Cyndi's List is a web-based directory to help you find websites relevant to all areas of family history. Established by Cyndi Howells in 1996, Cyndi's List is an excellent finding aid for genealogists, giving you links to thousands of useful websites. Go to www.cyndislist.com and search the Categories to find a website for whichever area of your research you need help with.

The benefits of data-sharing websites, where you can upload your family tree and search other researchers' entries to find common ancestors, have been explored in
Chapter 2
, but there are other types of
websites which help you to share and learn from other people's research and expertise by posting messages about a specific ancestor, branch or topic of interest and awaiting responses from other users. Forums and chat rooms are particularly good for this purpose, and you will find that many sites with access to datasets also provide a forum for their members to communicate by.

Forums are great for accessing as many people with a like-minded interest as possible. If there is a family myth that you have been unable to unravel, it is possible that posting a message in a subject-related forum will attract replies from people who may be able to help, either because they have faced a similar scenario in their research, or perhaps because they recognize the names as some of their own ancestors. This way, if a family story has been passed down more than one branch distant cousins may be able to embellish with more detail about what they have heard and you can compare the two versions of events. Place your query in a forum category that best fits the subject of your enquiry, and be as specific as possible, mentioning the names you are interested in finding out more about and any relevant places and dates so that other users will be able to tell straight away if they can help you.

The British Genealogy website has links to forums covering all topics and counties at www.british-genealogy.com/forums, but also you should remember to look out for a forum section on the other websites mentioned in this book. The more forums you post your query in, the more likely you are to get a response.