Tracing Your Roots
How would I start to trace my family tree?
If you wanted to trace your family tree, the first thing you would do is stop, think and write down everything you know about yourself and your immediate family, focusing on their names. That's full names, not pet names or "Aunt Mabel". It has got to be a Christian name, a surname and any middle names as well. Dates of birth, marriage or death and the places where these things happened. That's the immediate thing you need to do first.
Where do I get a copy of my birth certificate from?
At the moment, you can go to the Family Record Center in Islington and apply for a copy of your birth certificate or indeed, any of your relative's birth certificates way back to 1857 when civil registration was first introduced. You can order online at ww.gro.gov.uk. That's the website of the Office of National Statistics and they administer online applications for birth, marriage and death certificates.
My family are all across the world, where do I start?
That's a very common subject, and it's much harder to trace overseas relatives. However, if you want to get some information about how to start, and also where to look for information, you need to go for "Moving here", which is a website that shows you region by region what records are held by Britain and what is held overseas. It also shows you how to go about contacting overseas genealogists who also might be able to help you.
My family are from Scotland, where do I start?
If your family are from Scotland, it's quite lucky, because there is a great online resource that will get you started - 'Scotland's people'. This combines images of birth, marriage and death certificates, all Scottish census returns and old parish registers going back to the 1550's. So in many ways it's a one-stop shop for Scottish genealogy.
My family are from Ireland, where do I start?
My family are Welsh, where do I start?
People who've got Welsh ancestry can actually use the English and Welsh system in London, where you've got birth, marriage, and death records at the Family Records Center. They also have census returns, and also probate material, wills, and other types of thing. But there is also the National Library of Wales that holds a lot of these records, plus original parish registers covering most of Wales, too.
What do I do if I find skeletons in my family history?
Skeletons in the family history are really what make a lot of people get started in the first place, as long as they're far enough back. If you're talking within a generation or two, then obviously you have to confront the fact that it will change the way you view your parents or your grandparents, or even great grandparents if you knew them. And also, you've become the messenger to deliver this information to other members of the family. So think carefully, if you think there is a rather suspect story in your background, do you really want to uncover it? Do you really want to know the truth? And if the answer is yes, be prepared for what you find, because then you've got to tell other people about that.
I've found my family tree, what next?
What is Genetic Genealogy?
Genetic Genealogy is where you look at your makeup through DNA samples, with mitochondria from the female side and various other chromosomal techniques that will allow you to work out whether you are linked to a certain group of people by surname, or a region by place. There are many ways to look at your ethnic background depending on which part of the world your family came from. It's a very new technique but it is becoming more popular. Test kits can be bought not only in the UK but overseas. It costs about 100, 120 pounds or so and it involves a simple swap. Send that off for analysis and you get back a series of results.
How do I find out more about the place I live in?
If you want to find out more about the place you live in, you should really go to your local study center, which is often associated or linked to the main, local library. Alternatively, the county record office will also have a lot of administrative records, but it depends on what period you're looking at and how much detail you want. A lot of places changed dramatically in the 19th century because of the Industrial Revolution, the coming of the railways and the mass population movement. And so what you need to do is start reading all about the back history of your place, where you live now, or where your ancestors came from. So, local study center, main library, county archives – they will have all the books you need to have a look at.
I'm adopted, how do I trace my family tree?
There is this myth that adoption is much harder to trace, and the rules about tracing natural parents have actually been tightened up in the last couple of years. You can go to the National Adoption Register and you can order an adoption certificate from the Family Records Center. Counselling is strongly advised because it is a very emotional search for both the person who is looking for parents and obviously the natural parents themselves. You do have to undertake various steps before these records will be released to you.
What kinds of things can I trace, apart from my family?
You can trace a whole range of aspects of history which are linked to your family, such as the history of an occupation. Many people see patterns emerging throughout time, musical or artistic traits for example. You can also look at big picture history. You can look at, for example, the history of mining through a mining community which your family might have lived, or indeed the cotton mills, which was prevalent in the mid nineteenth century onwards. A lot of people also look at the ancestral home, the place where their family grew up, and that's quite an emotional journey, trying to work out your roots by tracing the various houses in which your family would once have lived in. You'd be quite surprised to compare modern housing with the way we used to live many centuries ago.
