Genealogy & Family History

Urban ArchaeologySession 8: Add-on

Genealogy…

The construction of a family tree through research Family History is…

The writing of a biography of a series of related ancestors of common genealogy

Genealogy & Family History

Society of Genealogists: http://sog.org.uk Genealogy links:

GENUKI Includes details of County Record Offices Cyndi's List LOTS of useful links to software, databases and

resources Genealogy Mailing Lists by John Fuller LookupUK Resource Centre for finding friends or relatives

Genealogy

Gov’t repositories:

General Register Office The National Archives

Libraries: British Library for Family Historians National Library of Scotland National Library of Wales National Library of Ireland

National Repositories: College of Arms National Maritime Museum – PORT. Catalogue of maritime-related resources ArchivesHub - 20,000 archives in UK's universities and colleges ARCHON (Archives On-line). - Managed by the National Archives British History Online - British historical sources, inc. text and information about people, places

and businesses from the 12th century to the present day. Built by the Institute of Historical Research and the History of Parliament

Moving Here – a National Archive initiative of 150,000 free images. Mostly from four communities coming into Britain since 1800s: Jewish, Irish, Caribbean, South Asian

Genealogy

Useful Organisations:

Federation of Family History Societies. Scottish Association of Family History Societies Family History Societies - More Family History Societies indexed

at GENUKI New England Historic Genealogical Society, oldest and largest

genealogical society in the USA Institute of Heraldic & Genealogical Studies The Heraldry Society – covers heraldry, armory, chivalry,

genealogy and allied subjects The Heraldry Society of Scotland AGRA - Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives

Genealogy

Online Databases:

findmypast.com - entire copy of the indexes of Births, Marriages and Deaths for England and Wales from 1837 to 2001 – small charge for copies

Family Search site (LDS Church) - largest collection of free family history, family tree and genealogy records

The Origins Network - 80 million + British and Irish genealogical records Commonwealth War Graves Commission Debt of Honour Register - personal and service details for

the 1.7 million members of the Commonwealth forces who died in the First or Second World Wars Burke's Peerage and Gentry - genealogical records of Britain's titled and landed families throughout

the centuries. Good for terms related to British history, society and tradition The Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum at Caernarfon The Monumental Brass Society - brasses and the MBS's activities Police Orders - police orders of police officers serving in London's Metropolitan Police Service. From

1891-1895 and 1899-1932. Includes joined, resigned, retired, died, transfers and medals. The Bookplate Society Naval Biographical Database - People and ships associated with the Royal Navy since 1660. Charges. Vision of Britain - by Great Britain Historical Geographic Information System (GBH GIS). Uses 200

years of UK Census statistics, assorted historic maps and gazetteers and the observations of travel writers from as early as the 11th century

Genealogy

Costs money. Useful if you’re coming up against Latin

texts! Association of Genealogists Researchers in Archives (AGRA)

has a list of members who will do research, www.agra.org.uk

Get someone to do it for you!

General resources relating to a whole county:

Bibliographies Clergy Histories Maps Newspapers Place Names Record Office Guides Visitations Wills – some online at www.Ancestry.co.uk , then try National

Will Index at www.Britishorigins.com . Most have to be accessed from http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/probate/family-history (can be expensive).

Types of Resources

Local:

Local histories, church guides, etc. Registers:

Births, marriages, deaths, held by General Register Office (1837 onwards). Each certificate costs just under £10. More and more available free through: www.freebmd.org.uk Paid online versions available here: www.findmypast.com, www.ancestry.co.uk, www.bmdindex.co.uk, or www.familyrelatives.com

General indexes such as Boyd’s Marriage Index and the International Genealogical Index. Before the mid-1800s, you can look at parish registers, some go back to 1500s. Many non-conformist registers here: www.bmdregisters.co.uk and www.familysearch.org

There is the International Genealogical Index (IGI) - An index of c.800 million births, baptisms and marriages from around the world, at www.familysearch.org

Name indexes. E.g. Census indexes for England and Wales on The National Archives website, www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/censusrecords.htm Scottish census indexes at Scotland’s People, www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk Irish censuses, www.census.nationalarchives.ie/

Monumental Inscriptions

Types of Resources

Censuses

1911,1901,1891, 1881, 1871,1861 1851, 1841. Often microfilms or microfiche of census returns held by County Record Offices, Local Libraries or the Society of Genealogists. A complete set for England and Wales, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands is free at The National Archives in Kew, www.nationalarchives.gov.uk The Scottish returns for 1841 to 1911 are available at Scotland’s People Centre in Edinburgh, www.scotlandspeoplehub.gov.uk/

Lists: Lists of people living in counties such as Directories and Poll Books (those

who voted in Parliamentary elections, 1690s onwards). Provincial town trade directories – including street lists, such as Kelly’s

Directory. Available from 1770s onwards. National and county trade directories. Available from 1780s onwards.

More details from 1840s onwards.

Types of Resources

Beginners’ Guides:

www.genuki.org.uk www.bbc.co.uk/familyhistory/ Herber, M. 2005. Ancestral Trails, Alan Sutton Barrat, N. 2008. Who Do You Think You Are? Encyclopedia of

Genealogy, Harper Collins Federation of Family History Societies – Has a world index

of Family History societies E.g. The Hampshire Genealogical Society

Family History- Beginners’ guides

Major Websites:

www.ancestry.com www.ancestry.co.uk www.findmypast.co.uk www.familyrelatives.com www.originsnetwork.com National Archives Discovery website

Family History- Major websites

Social Network Sites:

Roots Web Mailing Lists The Guild of One-Name Studies – Register the surnames

you are researching to see if anyone else is doing the same thing!

Family History – Finding support

Data formats:

GENCOM (most common) GedML (XML-based) FamilyML (XML-based)

Don’t worry if you’ve been using a spreadsheet up until now!

Excel2GED – for taking Excel spreadsheets and converting them to GEDCOM file format http://godskingsandheroes.info/software/index.htm#12

Family History – On your computer

GRAMPS – free, but bit of work needed initially to learn

how to use http://gramps-project.org/

FamilyTreeBuilder – free, with paid Premium version (that you can sign up to at any point in using the free version). Easy to use, very popular http://www.myheritage.com/family-tree-builder

GEDitCOM II – free, this software is for Macs http://www.geditcom.com/

Web Family Tree – free, really easy to use http://www.simonward.com/cgi-bin/page.pl?family/tree

Software to build family trees

Geneaquilts – advanced, great for visualising large

genealogy datasets http://www.aviz.fr/geneaquilts

Misbach Enterprises - specialises in making family tree charts. They generally charge for this service, but there are some nice free charts you can download and use http://misbach.org/freecharts.html

Software to visualise family trees

GedView – a way to look through GEDCOM files on your

PC. If you’ve downloaded or been sent any files from other researchers, you can use this software to navigate the data http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tmark

/GedView.html

GedView for iPads, iPhones, etc. – costs £2.49, great to look at your work on a mobile device http://www.ritter.demon.co.uk/Projects/gedview.html

Software to visualise family trees

Websites:

GED-GEN for making websites, works with any GEDCOM files http://www.ged-gen.com/

Software to share family trees