family tree

As mentioned earlier, you can not find everything you need to know about English or Welsh research on the Internet. You're going to have to read some reference books in order to better understand and guide your research efforts. Below are two of the best

Before 1837, it was the responsibility of the established church in England and Wales to record baptisms, marriages, and burials. This was done at the individual parish level and the survival of either the original parish registers or copies varies from place to place. Parish registers are the one of the primary sources for genealogical research before the year 1837.

Working hand-in-hand with Civil Registration records are the next category of records which most researchers approach - the Victorian Census Returns. Of greatest use to the researcher are those censuses taken every ten years from 1841 to 1891. With luck, family groups may be traced across this fifty year period with the censuses providing a "snapshot" of the family every ten years

After obtaining any and all information you can about the family history from sources within your own family, the first place to actively search for records is usually from Civil Registration sources. These records are the government-registered records of births, marriages, and deaths which occurred in England & Wales from 1837 up to the present day

Researchers who new to English & Welsh genealogical research often ask some basic questions about getting started in the hobby. Here is a short list of some of the best "Getting Started" articles available online. These focus on the general steps you should take first when beginning your family history

Now that you have some general ideas about getting started in your research from the above web sites, you will want to learn in more detail about the specifics. There are no better step-by-step instruction guides for beginning research in England & Wales than those provided by the LDS church FamilySearch Resource Guidance. These outlines are available on the Internet and are both straight forward and easy to read. They explain about basic record types and how to find them. Perhaps more importantly, they explain in what order you should approach these records   FamilySearch's Res...

To get start, collect this data

16. Go to your local library, historical society or LDS center. This is where I began my research on my own family line and found many of my ancestors in local history books, resource files and collections of family related material.17. Some other sources to look for might be these records: Adoptions, divorce, emigration, medical, ownership of land, naturalization, school, biographies in history books, wills, etc.   18. Go to Court Houses and check records for your ancestors. Check deeds, probate (wills, estate, intestate), voters records, indenture, marriage, court proceedings, any...

8. Get birth certificates on individuals. These most always show parents and sometimes other valuable information including where the parents were both born, their occupations, etc.9. Get marriage licenses and certificates. These show ages, parents, witnesses and other various pieces information including in some cases where the bride, groom, and parents were born and their occupations, etc.10. Get death certificates. Of course these show death dates, birth dates, parents, who reported the death, where the deceased person was residing and much more info including causes of death, etc   ...

1. Let's begin by learning that you must organizing yourself. For as time goes on you will find yourself with so much paperwork that you will be lost. For each person make a Family Group Sheet, a Research Log of where you obtained your information and Research Questions you might have on this person along with a checklist. Remember to document everything you find on your ancestors. We will discuss each of these in further details below. Also remember that you certainly want to look into purchasing a genealogy software program to store your family data as paperwork can become overwhelming a...