Rootsfinder Tips
Sat, 02 Jun 2007
Sometimes the problem with finding your way through your English ancestors is not understanding the potential and limitations of the major records available. These books should help to bring some more understanding.
category: [/books] permanent link
Thu, 10 May 2007
Sometimes the problem with finding your way through your English ancestors is not understanding the potential and limitations of the major records available. These books should help to bring some more understanding.
category: [/books] permanent link
Sat, 05 May 2007
We are settling in fairly well into our house. We've had a lot of work done in it while we were living here (rewired, new central heating system, new kitchen and new bathroom) and are usually surrounded by chaos! We've had enough now, thank you! It'll be great when it's done, though! category: [/updates] permanent link
Wed, 18 Apr 2007
Here's a book I'd like to read. My dealings with poor law records have so far been fantastic. Poor law records can be such a rich source of family history information. Many family histories overlook them, but I'd encourage everyone to see if their family can be found in the parish poor records, either as an overseer, collector, payer of poor rate, or receiver of poor rate! Removal orders are very fascinating. The Lambeth Parish Overseers of the Poor issued a removal order against my husband's ancestors John and Anne Collins. The order detailed date issued (22 Dec 1822), reason (John was too ill to work), names of wife and children plus their ages, date of removal (3 March 1823) and parish removed to (St Martins in the Fields, just across the Thames River). From there we were able to look in the workhouse records of St Martins in the Fields. We can see that the family entered the poor house and left again that same day. It's just a blip in history, but extremely fascinating if they're your own family!
category: [/books] permanent link
Thu, 01 Feb 2007
I've discovered (on my own!) a handy way of mass deleting sources from a GEDCOM/family file.
I am helping a new client who is also a distant cousin of my husband. Therefore, I started by creating a new family tree database for her, then importing the relevant ancestors into her new database.
Unfortunately, Family Tree Maker pulled in *every* source from my husband's master family tree file. It would have taken too long to delete the sources that weren't pertinent to her tree, so I exported the tree as a GED, to view it in Notepad. Even deleting line by line in Notepad might be slow. But then I noticed that the extra sources weren't there.
So, I imported the GED into a new family tree file. It worked! The extra sources were gone. My RSI-riddles wrists thank me. category: [/tips] permanent link
Mon, 18 Sep 2006
I will be moving to Bristol later this year. My new geographic coverage will be Bristol, Somerset, Gloucester, and Wiltshire. Devon, Hampshire and Worcester research can be conducted by special arrangement. I will update my site when dates are known! category: [/updates] permanent link
Sun, 20 Aug 2006
I am progressing slower than I would like on my IHGS course in Genealogy, but I am learning new things with every lecture. Already I have new ideas how to progress my husband's genealogy research projects, and can put this practice to work in my clients' projects. Next up are Wills and Paleagraphy. I've been wanting to improve my ability to read old documents for a long time now! category: [/updates] permanent link
Mon, 03 Jul 2006
Anyone, client or researcher, should look to the web for the various County Record Office online catalogues. They are wealth of information and research ideas.
As tempting as it is to only search for surnames, try searching for the name of a farm, village, hamlet, or street -- or even a river. You might learn something of the history of the places they lived, which helped broaden your understanding of their time there.
What was your ancestor's occupation? Try searching for his occupation -- you may find there was a local guild which left records. Or a rival firm that left records.
Any other more ideas to add? category: [/tips] permanent link
Fri, 21 Apr 2006
Braishfield Memories
Tue, 18 Apr 2006
If you are researching ancestors who lived in a major city, after 1840 (or so), chances are they have been buried in a non-church cemetery. Some of these cemeteries have wonderfully detailed records. In Portsmouth, Mile End cemetery have recorded the grave numbers and depth for each burial. As I was research Rex records, I decided to look up each Rex burial. You can bet I was glad I did -- I found several Rex individuals buried in Row 6 north, Grave #39. Through this, I discovered I had paired the wrong wife with my husband's ancestor! category: [/tips] permanent link
Mon, 17 Apr 2006
A wonderful resource to accompany your family history research is Old Maps. The UK has changed a lot since the 1950's and these maps (often pre-1900) offer researchers a chance to see how a town or village was laid out in earlier times. So many fields have been swallowed up by car parks, so many old houses have been knocked down, and so many tiny villages are now part of the suburbs.... not to mention the damage to buildings by bombs in WWII. category: [/tips] permanent link
Fri, 14 Apr 2006
A wonderful resource to accompany your family history research is Old Maps. The UK has changed a lot since the 1950's and these maps (often pre-1900) offer researchers a chance to see how a town or village was laid out in earlier times. So many fields have been swallowed up by car parks, so many old houses have been knocked down, and so many tiny villages are now part of the suburbs.... not to mention the damage to buildings by bombs in WWII. category: [/tips] permanent link
I will use this as a chance to post any family history research tips and updates to the site. Many thanks to my husband who helped me set this blog up my site. It was harder than I thought it would be!
The banner at the top of the page was made by me. The texture of old paper was scanned from the memoir written by Sophia Collins, and the letters are from an old map that I scanned. The magnifying glass was one of my early logos that I drew and I've now slotted it into the banner. I may change the banner as time goes on, just for fun. category: [/updates] permanent link
