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U3A Family History Group. Developing your Family History Research Part 1 : Births, Marriages & Deaths : Census Data. Developing your Family History Research. Establishing the Basics of Family History Research. Forming a fundamental approach:- Birth, Marriage & Death Certificates
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U3A Family History Group Developing your Family History Research Part 1 : Births, Marriages & Deaths : Census Data
Developing your Family History Research • Establishing the Basics of Family History Research. Forming a fundamental approach:- • Birth, Marriage & Death Certificates • Census Data • Parish Data • International Genealogical Index (IGI) • Church Records • Memorial Stones (Graves) • Land Tax Assessments • Electoral Register • Wills • Accessing Research from Others – Genes & Ancestry • Trade Directories • National / Local Newspapers • Photographs
Typical Birth, Marriage & Death Certificates Birth Marriage Death
Birth, Marriage & Death Certificates • To Obtain a Certificate, you need to accurately identify the District (Parish), Year, Quarter, Volume and Page of the appropriate Index for the person you want • Local County Records Office (CRO); personal search of an individual county’s records on Microfiche • FreeBMD.co.uk website; partially complete records of BMD with good search facility • Ancestry.com website; complete records but poor search facility • To help one find the correct BMD index ref:- • Birth Index data included “Mother’s Maiden Name” from 1912 • Death Index data included “Age” of deceased from 1870 • Death Index data included “Date of Birth” from 1970
Birth, Marriage & Death Certificates • To find BMD index information:- • Use data from other Certificates – • mother’s maiden name from Birth certificates • age at death to determine year born – not always accurate but a good guide • Use the Census data to understand when someone was born and from the age of eldest child possibly determine marriage date. • Use occupation to confirm identity • For Marriages, click on “Page” to see who else was married on that day; compare Christian names.
Birth, Marriage & Death Certificates • You may not be successful because:- • The ages may vary widely from census to census. • Registration may occur up to 3 years afteractual birth • Spelling and juxtaposition of Christian & Middlenames. • The Parish in the census is not the "District" used in the BMD Index • Parish boundaries changed over time; use something like “Phillimore Atlas and Index of Parish Registers” or the “District Description” in FreeBMD (actually points you to GenUKI which is a good source of Parish information) to check changes • You don't get any other info from FreeBMD with which tocheck whether the person you found is correct. • The birth certificate was never raised; it was not compulsory to register birth until 1875.
Birth, Marriage & Death Certificates • Main sources of actual certificates:- • General Records Office (GRO) for England & Wales (1837 onward); “www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/” • General Records Office (GRO) for Scotland (1855 onward); “http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/famrec/bdm.html” or “ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk” • General Records Office (GRO) for Northern Ireland; “http://www.groni.gov.uk/index.htm”. • Cost of Certificates from these sites is normally £7 and take about 5 to 10 days to arrive
Census Data • Census records currently available cover England & Wales over the period 1841 to 1901, at 10yr intervals • Sources of Census information:- • Local County Records Office (CRO); personal search of an individual county’s records • Ancestry.com website; complete records; available on payment basis or free at Thornbury Library • Many other websites; only free one is the 1881 census through the Mormons “FamilySearch.org” website
Census Data • Tips on searching Ancestry.com for the correct person • Enter Surname & Christian name and birthplace (County and Year of Birth) with a range of 1 to 2 years. Expand dates further if not found. • Only enter a Surname together with the Parish and Year of Birth – this will give all the families of that name in that Parish. • Match up family groups when looking for a particular person • Look on the census pages either side of the one you have found to check for other family members living close by.
Census Data • When found - • Save the image on your computer – or e-mail it to yourself, to enable you to re-examine it later • Check the rest of the page and pages either side to see if other members of the family lived close by • Store information on what may be an unrelated person - family history research is a jigsaw puzzle.