BEGINNERS
TIPS
Tracing your relatives has been made much easier with the vast
increase in genealogical information available on the Internet in national
databases like the census returns or on sites like Essex Family History that
provides very localised information.
Even if all of this
information is available even experience researchers find that they can spend
hours following leads that turn out to be dead ends.
New researchers often
find their first problem is where to look given the many services on offer and
often conflicting advice from experts. Often specific advances take place so
quickly that good advice in one month becomes poor advice a few months
later.
To help newcomers I have
listed a few of the lessons that I have learned since I became involved in
family history research. This advice is specifically aimed at the United Kingdom
but most of the tips would apply to many other countries.
Jargon Buster
As in all hobbies jargon is frequently used by enthusiasts. Newcomers may
think that GEDCOM is an American Politician and that AGRA is a
town in West Africa whereas they both have important meanings in Genealogy
Circles.
To help you deal with the jargon Jungle Essex family History has prepared
a page containing some or the common items of jargon that you may encounter.
Please click the below button to visit the Jargon Buster page.
Top 10 Tips
When the first start Family History Research most people makes lots of mistakes, waste lots of time and find that every lead is a red herring. To assist beginners the site has compiled a top 10 list of tips gather from the bitter experience of researching family history. Given the ever increasing amount of information on the internet most of the tips are internet related.
Your old photos
Photographs are a neglected area of family history. Most families have boxes with old sepia photos of severe looking ancestors that can be treated a valuable source of information or junk. The pages may help you make the most of old photos.
Please click on the links to visit one of the above described sites with infiormation that may help your reasearch
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Census Returns
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How to make the most of Census Returns
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Jargon Busters
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Help with some of those Family History Abbreviations
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Old Photos
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Make the best use of your old family photos
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Top 10 Family History Tips
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10 tips based on personal experience to stop you making the same mistakes
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Books
Essex Family History has it's own bookshop offering books about Eastern Essex as well as books/ CD's on Family History research. Click the below link to visit the bookshop.
Ancestry co uk
The largest collection of UK family history records online
• Most complete UK Census collection available online (1841-1901)
• The Scottish 1841-61 Censuses
• FREE Birth, Marriage & Death indexes from 1837 to the present day
• Over 580+ million records currently online
• Parish and probate records dating back to the 1500’s
Paid membership allows full search of the all the directories while free membership allows basic searches of most databases and a full search of a few although the free birth, marriage and death alone is well worth a visit. Click any of the below three links to visit ancestry.co.uk
FREE - Birth, Marriage & Death Records
Search the UK Census collection
Burkes Peerage
The
definitive historical and genealogical guide to the major British, Irish and
American families.
There are more than 1 million names in our 15,000+ records of British, Irish
and American royalty, the peerage, presidential and other important families.
Each has been meticulously researched by a team of professional genealogists to
ensure the information is accurate, reliable and up-to-date.
The site also maintains records of most of the important houses and castles in the UK.
This is the site to visit if you hope to discover an ancestor who lived above stairs.
To visit the site click on the relevant link below.
