A Beginnerâ€™s Guide to Researching and Creating a Family Tree

Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd Beginners’ Guide

© Hannah Baker 2013 pg. 1

A Beginner’s Guide to Researching and Creating a

Family Tree

Hannah Baker

In Association with findmypast.co.uk

Lesson one is available to download, free of charge from the Pharos

website.

The full course starting date is:

1st January 2013 To enrol on the full course, please visit

www.pharostutors.com

Please check the website regularly for information about starting

dates later in 2013.



Lesson One: How to start your Family Tree

Welcome to lesson one of the Beginner’s Guide to researching and creating a Family

Tree. You are about to embark on a fascinating journey back through the history of

your ancestors – ordinary people, who you will find have extraordinary stories to tell.

Genealogy, which is the study of family history, has become an increasingly popular

interest over the past 10 years due to two factors. The power of television has

undoubtedly had an impact with a range of series now illustrating the ease at which

you can research your past. However, the biggest change for genealogy has been

the dramatic increase in the number and range of records which are available via the

Internet, making genealogical research much faster and easier.

Briefly, this course aims to provide you with a solid, beginner’s knowledge of the

hows, wheres and whys of genealogy. The first lesson, will help you to get satisfying

and tangible results in a short space of time. The remaining two weeks of the

course, in which we hope you will choose to participate, will further build on your

skills and knowledge and include interaction with your tutor and with other novice

genealogists, your fellow students.

As part of the class you will have access to the wealth of resources at

findmypast.co.uk, learn how to use several key sources, acquire new computer and

Internet skills, and experience the Pharos style of online learning. Each lesson offers

a mix of information and practical skills. The outlines of all three lessons are given

below :

Lesson One covers four topics:

Create a family tree chart using resources available online

Gain practical experience in starting to trace your paternal and maternal lines of ancestry

Learn about the contents of the censuses and research them online

Participate with confidence in an online forum

Lesson Two covers four topics:

Learn about the contents of civil birth, marriage and death records and search indexes online

Learn about the contents of church registers of baptism, marriage and burial and search them online

Consider the issues surrounding the debate about the use of online transcript and original document research

Develop your skills in using a variety of online searching tools



Lesson Three covers four topics:

Learn how and why sources should be recorded accurately

Evaluate a range of computer packages designed to help your research

Learn research skills that will move your research forward

Participate in an online chat session

If you have not yet enrolled on the full course, please follow this link to the Pharos home site where the enrolment process is easy to follow :

http://www.pharostutors.com/coursedescriptions.php#100 Starting with what you know One of the exciting things about modern day family history research is that is it relatively quick and easy to get some results, so let’s see how far we can get. To begin research you must know three things about any family members you plan to research: names, dates of life events, and locations where they lived and died. You will find from your research that some names are much more common than others (i.e. Smith and Jones) and that you cannot get very far without basic date and location information. If, for example, I search for a John Smith born between 1925 and 1930, without any idea of where he was born, I find 5670 possible candidates! That is one reason why you should not start your research at your computer. Get information from those who have the facts that may focus your searching. Begin initially with the oral records in your own family – asking those with some knowledge of the family what they know. When you begin to ask relatives about their knowledge of the family, it is amazing what little nuggets of information are revealed. You may suddenly discover that a family who you believed to have lived in a particular area for generations originated from somewhere totally different. Even at this stage, it is not too early in your research to think about how you are going to record the information you receive from relatives. Some genealogists believe that it is important to record (via audio or video tape) any conversations that you have with relatives, so that you can refer back to them. This is a very useful way of checking information but don't worry if you don't feel comfortable with this form of information gathering. It is more important to get the information and to make your relative feel at ease. It is just fine to record the details with pen and paper at this stage and you can ask about making a recording if there is another interview.

If you are interested in more formal gathering of oral history, the BBC website provides a great guide for this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/trail/htd_history/oral/recording_oral_hist_01.shtml

http://www.pharostutors.com/coursedescriptions.php%23100

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/trail/htd_history/oral/recording_oral_hist_01.shtml



Caution Part One: Although asking relatives and friends for information is the best starting point, never assume that the information you receive is entirely accurate. It is quite common for ancestors to be known by one name and appear in records under a different name. This is particularly common with middle names being used. Sons were often given the same first name as their father and to avoid confusion, were known by a middle name instead. Where you can, ask what the full name of a person was. Caution Part Two: One of the fringe benefits of tracing your family tree is that you develop a much better understanding of social history (how the lives of people have changed over time). Also with this understanding will come a better appreciation of how moral expectations have changed. Many family trees are touched by some form of illegitimacy. Adoption wasn’t formalised until the 1920s and the options for women who found themselves with an unwanted pregnancy were limited. Bigamy is surprisingly common as divorce before the middle of the 20th century was rare and expensive so when marriages broke down, one party may simply disappear from the locality and start a new married life with a different person elsewhere. Many families kept these sorts of issues private for generations and revelations about an ancestor’s past are not always easy to accept and understand. Therefore, when talking to family members, always exercise a degree of caution if they understand something differently from what your research has revealed. If you are interested in looking at the issues of confidentiality and sensitivity, I would recommend watching some episodes of the BBC programme Heir Hunters where professional genealogists often deal with sensitive family revelations.



Building Foundations By focusing on your own knowledge, and using the oral memories of others you should now have what you need to begin. Let’s see how quickly we can build up the basics of a tree. The best but often overlooked place to start your tree is with yourself. You know all of your own personal details but if your research is going to be a lasting record, it is important that your information is accurate for future generations. Also, if you are going to be using a computer based package to store your research notes (more about this later in the course) you will need to nominate a “home” or “root” person for your tree. By making this person you, the computer will automatically be able to tell you your relationship to others in your tree. You have jotted down what you know and added to that through talking to family members and you are now ready to start tracing your family tree. I will begin with a PATERNAL (male) line and then explain about researching a MATERNAL (female) line. Paternal lines tend to be easier to follow as the surname will probably remain unchanged through the generations. You will need two basic records in order to start your research :

At this point, if you have not already done so, please activate your 14 day FREE

subscription to :

Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths

Census Records



You can do this by visiting the findmypast.co.uk website at

www.findmypast.co.uk Through the findmypast.co.uk website, you will be able to access all of the records that you will need for this course and to begin your research on your family tree. Indexes of Births, Marriages and Deaths Civil registration in England and Wales started in 1837. These records now provide the genealogist with the basic facts about a person’s life. We can only search the indexes online; to get more information about a birth, marriage or death, including the exact dates, you need to buy the actual certificates. We will look at how to buy certificates in lesson two. Start by looking at your own birth register entry (records at findmypast.co.uk range from 1837 to 2006).

On the top blue tab of the findmypast.co.uk home page, you will find the link to “search records”

On the drop down list, click “life events”.(BMD is the standard acronym for Births, Marriages and Deaths. findmypast.co.uk also refers to them as “Life Events”)

Fill in as many of the boxes (known as fields) that you can and the computer will search the records

It may come up with several possibilities but by knowing the location of your birth you should be able to find the correct entry. Click on it and the register entry will be displayed. This is an example of what you should see : BMD Search result details

Civil Registration event: Birth

Name: GARDNER, Helen E

Registration District: Hertford

County: Hertfordshire

Year of Registration: 1961

Quarter of Registration: Jul-Aug-Sep

Mother's Maiden Name: Beachcroft

http://www.findmypast.co.uk/



Volume No: Help 4B

Page No:Help 234

This is a digital transcript of the index (which you could also access through

findmypast.co.uk if you want to check the original).

Name The full name is recorded here

Registration District The county is divided into registration districts, usually one of the main towns in the county so your relative may not have been born in the town but in a neighbouring village.

County This is the county of the registration district

Year of Registration The year of the entry. Take care if you have a birthday towards the end of a year as it may not be registered until the following year (parents currently have 42 days after the birth of a child to register it)

Quarter of Registration Registration records DO NOT provide the actual date of birth. The records cover a three month period referred to as a “quarter”. For this record, the birth could be anywhere between the July and September of that year. In order to get an exact date you would need to refer to the birth certificate itself.

Maiden Name Birth records since September 1911 record the mother’s maiden name (very useful when tracing a maternal line as we shall see later)

Volume / Page number These refer to the actual book where the records are recorded. If you wish to order a copy of the original certificate it is very useful if you have this reference as you will be asked to provide it where possible

Having looked at and understood your own birth record, now try looking at that of your father (or other male relative) and grandfather (if you know it). Starting your basic tree Congratulations ! You should now be familiar with your first set of essential genealogical records. You should also have acquired some factual information which hopefully confirms the oral information you had received earlier to start your tree. However, before you go any further, you need to start recording the information you are acquiring. There are a huge range of digital ways of creating and recording your family tree. For now, at this early stage whilst you are concentrating on finding your way around the records, pencil and paper is the best way to begin. A good starting place is to download a free 4 generation pedigree chart from this web-site.



http://www.freegenealogyuk.co.uk/freefamilytree_pedigreechart.pdf Starting on the left hand side, as you look at the chart, it will ask you to fill in your own details and then those of your parents, grandparents. Have a go at filling in as many births as you can (although remember we are concentrating on the paternal line at the moment). Don’t become overly concerned at this stage if you cannot find an entry for a relative. There are numerous reasons why this can happen which we shall explore later. For now, familiarization with the records is the aim.

Marriage and Death Civil Registration Indexes

You will want to confirm you have the right index entry by looking for the spouse.

Findmypast.co.uk provides a “Marriage Finder” tool. It can look for an entry with the

same reference code and in almost all cases this will be the match you expect. The

marriage certificate, which you will probably order, can confirm this. Now have a go

at finding some of the marriage entries for people in your family.

Marriage Indexes work in a similar way to birth indexes. They give the same basic information of where the marriage took place (the registration area, not the actual building where the marriage took place), the quarter of the year in which it took place and the reference for finding the actual record. Marriage indexes also help particularly when you know a female relative by a married name and not a maiden name. It is very difficult to continue tracing a maternal line, when you don’t know the maiden name.

http://www.freegenealogyuk.co.uk/freefamilytree_pedigreechart.pdf



If you don’t know an exact date of a marriage, a good guess is often useful and

narrows down the search. For example, if you know that Jessica Strong was born in

1890. She was unlikely to have married before her 18th birthday in 1908 or, for first

marriages, after her 40th birthday 1930, so you can begin your search between these

two dates.

Death record indexes are the last in this series of essential civil documents and work in the same way as marriage and birth record indexes. Don’t be afraid again to do some educated guessing as to the date of death. For example if you know that William Cartwright was born in 1910 and you have a picture of him looking in his 60s, there is no point searching for a death before 1970.

PHAROS FORUM

Hopefully at this point you will have traced a Paternal line back through several generations. You will have experienced how to work first hand with transcripts of records and may have come across some difficulties in your research. Now, it is good to start sharing your questions and findings with other genealogists as you will find support from others in invaluable in furthering your own research. As with all Pharos courses, an on-line Forum has been set up specifically for this course which can be accessed through the Pharos website. This forum is available via a password which is known only to the course tutor and your fellow students (so that you can feel comfortable that everyone is of a similar level of experience and interest).

Much genealogical research relies on educated guessing when you

are lacking in information, it is the research which then has to prove or

disprove your thoughts.



EXERCISE : Please access the on-line Forum and post a message about your research so far. What have you found out? Have there been any surprises? Have you come across any difficulties in using the records? How does it feel to have started your research? How do I access the Forum? If you have already paid for the full course, you will have a Student Account with Pharos. Once your account is set up, a link to the forum will appear in your Student Area about 7 days before the course start date. (Then follow with the link) If you have not yet paid for the full course, then you will need to do so now. There are detailed guides to the Forum waiting for you in your Student Area. For the Forum to work really well, please feel free to share your experiences and knowledge in an open and helpful manner. We all have something to learn from each other. Census Records

The idea of a census has been around for a long time with evidence that they were being taken as early as 4000 BC. A census is a population study. At the start of the 19th century, the governments of the time realized that they knew alarmingly little about the population in their jurisdiction making town planning, public health and education very difficult to provide adequately for – so the idea of the modern census was born. From 1841, the census has been taken every 10 years (except in 1941 due to the Second World War). Census records are kept confidential for 100 years so genealogists currently have access to the census records for the following years : 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901 and 1911

Census records are the

genealogists equivalent of

gold dust ! A brief knowledge

of their history should help you

develop confidence in using

them and understand how to

get the best from them.



Over the years, the census has provided more information relevant to genealogists by increasing the range of questions asked. It should however be noted that the 1841 census provides much less information than its successors. You can see this by comparing the 1851 census with the 1911 census 1851 1911

Name x x

Position in Household x x

Marital Status x x

Age x x

Rank or Profession (Job) x x

Place of Birth x x

Known disabilities x x

Years married x

Number of children born alive x

Number of children still living x

Number of children who have died

x

Workplace/Institution x

Looking at the census forms We are now going to look at a particular census form in detail. Although the format varies a little across the census once you have become familiar with one of the years, the others are self explanatory. All of the census records are fully available at findmypast.co.uk. You can access a basic record where someone has copied the information from the original document into a database. You can look at the original pages from the enumerators’ books (called the original census image). The basic records are very useful and quick for gaining information but remember mistakes are easily made, especially when the person copying the information may be trying to decipher a difficult handwriting script, so it is best to check the original wherever possible. On the next page you will see the 1851 census return for : John Smith, born 1771 in Norwich, Norfolk (If you have difficulty looking at the image below, try printing it out or doing a search through findmypast.co.uk using John’s details to have a look at the original document).





Census – Step by Step You are now looking at a page from the Enumerator’s book. The Enumerator was an appointed official, responsible for collecting the information. Each citizen was not responsible for writing the information themselves until 1911 (and in the 1911 records you can actually see your ancestor’s writing and signature). Many people at this time could not write so although the Enumerator would aim to be as accurate as possible there are often discrepancies in spellings particularly with names and place names. Starting at the top of the page, we have the basic geographical information of the Ecclesiastical District and then the City. Some records then give further specific geographical information such as town or village. You can see the names of the individuals listed down the left hand side of the form. Immediately, you can see that we appear to have a list of people with different surnames who are unrelated living at this location. If you look at the heading of the left hand column, you will see that it refers to the “institution” so we know we are not looking at the record for an ordinary home. Moving to the second column, you will see that the heading is “position in the institution” and each individual is listed as an “inmate”. Today, when we talk about “inmates” we would usually think of inmates as prisoners in prison but this doesn’t seem to be the case here as the inmates all have occupations listed (5th column). Therefore, a fair appraisal would now be that we are looking at the record for a work-house and John Smith was living in the Norwich workhouse. Although this is a fair appraisal, further research would need to be done to clarify that this is a work-house. Other information given about John includes his age (John’s specific entry is third from the bottom of the list). He is given as 80 years so from this we can work out an estimated birth year (1851 – 80 = 1771). Although we now have a year, always research several years either side of the year you have calculated to find an accurate birth. The third column refers to the “condition” of the individual. This relates to their marital status. Usually categories here are Mar (married), Unm (unmarried), Widow or Widower. John’s occupation is listed as Gardener. You can also see a whole range of different occupations given on the page. Finally we have the column which tells us where the individuals were born, in John’s case, St Peter per Mountegate (?). When a place name is difficult to decipher, as it is here, an Internet search may find a solution. It would be fair to assume in this case that St. Peter is a part of Norwich as no other geographic area is mentioned in the birth line. In conclusion, although the census has given us lots of information, we have had to make several assumptions about John Smith and further research would be needed to clarify details about him.



Tracing from census to census Having looked at a specific census record in detail, it is time to track an individual back through several successive censuses. William Carter appears in the 1901 census. He was born in Paulton, Somerset, in 1842 and by entering these details into the search tool you can find the 1901 record. It is about 2/3 of the way down the page. You can ignore the series of numbers down the left hand column as they are entry numbers, not house numbers. William's street is given and he is living in New Town. He was married to Hannah and was 59 years of age (approximately). William was head of the household and a coal miner.





We can now have a look at what William was doing 10 years earlier in 1891. Return to the findmypast.co.uk search facility and select the 1891 census this time. Enter the same details as before

Name Relation Condition Sex Age Birth Year

Occupation Disability Where Born

Original census image

CARTER, William Head Married M 50 1841 Coal Miner

Paulton

Somersetshire VIEW

CARTER, Ann M Wife Married F 46 1845

Paulton

Somersetshire VIEW

CARTER, Rhoda Daughter Single F 19 1872

Paulton

Somersetshire VIEW

CARTER, Joseph Son Single M 17 1874 Coalminer Paulton

Somersetshire VIEW

CARTER, Alice Daughter

F 13 1878

Paulton

Somersetshire VIEW

CARTER, Mary Daughter

F 11 1880

Paulton

Somersetshire VIEW

CARTER, Albert Son

M 9 1882

Paulton

Somersetshire VIEW

CARTER, Elizabeth Daughter

F 7 1884

Paulton

Somersetshire VIEW

CARTER, Melinda Daughter

F 5 1886

Paulton

Somersetshire VIEW

CARTER, Florence Daughter

F 3 1888

Paulton

Somersetshire VIEW

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Just by looking at a couple of census records, it is possible to see how the avenues of research are opening up and how one record leads to another. This is the exciting part of genealogy, the research that you can do is almost limitless and you never know what you are going to find out or where the path is leading. Let’s just do one final check on William Carter through the census to see what we find.

Name Relation Condition Sex Age Birth Year

Occupation Disability Where Born

Original census image

CARTER, William

M M 41 1840 Gunner R A

Paulton

Somersetshire VIEW

In 1881 William is actually now serving in the Navy and is at sea at the time of the census. He is listed as married but because he is away from home on the night of the census, his wife is not listed on this document, so it would be worth doing a separate census search for Ann Carter in 1881.

Immediately, we have some differences, the main one being that William appears to have a different wife and a lot more children. Firstly, we need to be as sure as we can that we are looking at the same William Carter. In this case, he has the same approximate birth year, same birth place and the same occupation, so it is likely that we do have the same person. We would need to check the original census image to see the name of William’s wife and it does indeed clearly say Ann. It is possible that Ann has died between the 1891 and 1901 census and that William married Hannah as his second wife. A death record search for Hannah or a marriage record search for William and Ann could confirm this. Another possibility is that Hannah and Ann are the same person. Names do change through the records more frequently than you would first think. My own great grandmother had her birth registered as Hannah and her death registered as Anna (and she was known as Annie). This record is intriguing as to what has happened to all the children. The older children in this census are likely to have grown up and “flown the nest” by 1901 so it is worth completing a search on each of them in the 1901 remembering that the girls may have married and no longer be Carters. It is also worth checking death records if you can’t find them in the census.

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EXERCISE : You should now have the confidence to start searching through the census records yourself. Try looking for William Carter in the 1871, 1861 and 1851 censuses. Keep a note of all of your findings and any problems that you encounter and post these to the Pharos Forum. Here other students and I, your tutor, will be able to access your comments and give you help and advice. If you are interested in finding out about the census in greater detail, I would recommend the Knowledge Base section of the findmypast.co.uk website. http://www.findmypast.co.uk/helpadvice/getting-started/interested-family-history/index.jsp The knowledge base also includes guides to a wide range of other sources and records and is well worth a look.

I really hope you have enjoyed lesson one of this Beginner’s Course and are enjoying exploring the records we have looked at to be able to start forming your tree. There are two further lessons which form part of this Beginner’s course. In them you will be introduced to a wider range of records and to digital means of storing, sharing, and presenting your findings. You will also continue to have access to the Pharos Tutors Forum for this course and will be able to participate in a live on-line chat room with myself and other students to experience how helpful on-line access to expertise can be in your research and further learning. Details of how to purchase the remainder of the course are available on the Pharos Tutor’s website and I look forward to welcoming you back soon. Hannah Baker Tutor

http://www.findmypast.co.uk/helpadvice/getting-started/interested-family-history/index.jsp




Bibliography

BBC Oral Histories http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/trail/htd_history/oral/recording_oral_hist_01.shtml

BBC Productions – Heir Hunters (generally available on BBC iplayer) Free Genealogy Charts http://www.freegenealogyuk.co.uk/freefamilytree_pedigreechart.pdf findmypast.co.uk guides to different sources


http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/trail/htd_history/oral/recording_oral_hist_01.shtml

http://www.freegenealogyuk.co.uk/freefamilytree_pedigreechart.pdf





Pharos Course Links

By the very nature of this beginner's course, it touches only on the basics. You will

want to learn more. At the end of each lesson, a list of other Pharos courses is

provided for your reference, as and when you want to expand your knowledge and

skills. Full details of every course are available on the Pharos website.

www.pharostutors.com.

Remember also that lessons two and three of this Beginner’s course will be

available to you through enrolling on the full course now. Full details are on

the web site.

So You Think you know FamilySearch – a guided tour

4 week course

Victorian Families – Your ancestors in the census

5 week course

Organizing your Genealogy

3 week course

Documents

A Beginnerâ€™s Guide to Researching and Creating a Family Tree