madison Posted August 20, 2008 Report Share Posted August 20, 2008 When I was first made redundant, I started researching my family tree. I have gone back to the early 1800's on both my dad's and mam's sides of the family. However, there are loads of gaps of information along the way. I have been using Genes Reunited where I have started the family tree. From this, I have managed to find distant relations on both sides of the family who have been a great help in confirming what I had already and giving me new information. Including the fact that my maternal great great great great grandmother came all the way from either Papa Westray or Westray in the Orkneys to get married and live in South Shields! Her daughter in law (my great great great grandmother) came from Aberdeenshire as well to do the same! I am struggling to find information on my maternal grandfather's side and my great grandad as well. Plus, my paternal grandad was from a big family who it seems were all called George or Elizabeth so it is a bit confusing matching the right people up. Can anyone recommend any good sites to go onto to do my research? Could do with some tips on how to do my research properly as I seem to bounce from one side of the family to the other. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melp Posted August 20, 2008 Report Share Posted August 20, 2008 Yantan knows loads about this sort of stuff, hopefully she'll be along shortly to give you some tips Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yantan Posted August 20, 2008 Report Share Posted August 20, 2008 (edited) I am here. I shall just go and get some linkies for you and be right back OK here you go: You have to pay to get info but ANCESTRY is a real mine of information. Church of the latter day saints or the Mormons. But be careful about taking it all as read as their records are all transcriptions from the originals and mistakes have crept in. Still have to say I found it very useful in my early days of research. FIND MY PAST another fee paying site but could be useful - similar to Ancestry but with not quite the amount of info available. FREE BMD some but by no means all birth marriage and death records here for free. GENUKI - this link should take you to the homepage where you will find other links to all sorts of good stuff. They run mailing lists covering all areas of the UK and you may find that by joining a list covering the area you are researching potentially very illuminating. Oh nearly forgot NATIONAL ARCHIVES - great site. PM if you if you like - I love genealogy. Dee (Sherlock Bones) is very up on it too Edited August 20, 2008 by Yantan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madison Posted August 21, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2008 Thanks for that Yantan! I think I have used the Ancestry website as had a free 14 day trial. If I remember, it was very helpful in giving me information about my great grandads and their brothers details during the First World War and included their signing in papers which listed any children and their marriage details. Might start to have another look this afternon, if not tomorrow. Will be pm'ng you for advice no doubt! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greyhound pal Posted August 21, 2008 Report Share Posted August 21, 2008 For any Scottish relatives, check out Scotland's People website and you'll get loads there - my mother has done our tree right back and most of it through that site. As for Orkney (I lived there for a while - you should visit!) contact the parish minister on Papa Westray and ask - they are good for keeping records up there and I'll bet there are loads of people who are distantly related to you still there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madison Posted August 24, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 24, 2008 For any Scottish relatives, check out Scotland's People website and you'll get loads there - my mother has done our tree right back and most of it through that site. As for Orkney (I lived there for a while - you should visit!) contact the parish minister on Papa Westray and ask - they are good for keeping records up there and I'll bet there are loads of people who are distantly related to you still there! Thanks for that. Will try to contact the parish minister as you suggested. Will have a look on that site as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs B Posted February 1, 2009 Report Share Posted February 1, 2009 I've tagged on to the end of this as there's some really helpful websites for me to use. I've had some really basic information re my Father's immediate family for ages, but have never really done very much with it. Now one of my friends has gone on to some of her research sites and has found all sorts of stuff really quickly - and has managed to go back another couple of generations for me. So now I've kind of got the bug - to the extent I sat down yesterday afternoon, and ended up having to go to the chippy for tea otherwise we'd have gone without! Seems that amongst a large family there's twins, not many marriages, even fewer births, and of course the inevitable illegitimacies. My Father's family, fairly conveniently seemed to live, work and die in Accrington - either in the cotton mills, or at Ewbanks (partly a guesstimate, partly memory). I am particularly interested in learning more about the cotton mills in Accrington. Anyone know of any good source material or books? I shall try not to bore everyone! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yantan Posted February 1, 2009 Report Share Posted February 1, 2009 If you search thro the archives of one of the Rootsweb genealogy mailing lists that cover Accrington you might find others have discussed the cotton mills or if not you could join and then ask the other members. You may also find other people researching your family! Mailing lists Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs B Posted February 1, 2009 Report Share Posted February 1, 2009 I suspect that I may have to wait a long long time for anyone to research my family. Looks as if out of 13 (of whom 2 turned out to be grandchildren not children, more in a mo'), and despite most surviving to adulthood if not a very good age, only 3 married - one I'm fairly sure died not long marrying after without children, the oldest I've spotted one child, with another dying in infancy and I've kind of lost his thread - and then my Grandfather had one child. But it's interesting all the same. My first task is going to be to obtain the birth certificates of my Grandfather and his brother - they were supposedly the youngest two children in the family - we've long more than suspected that "the Mother" was not "their" Mother, and as the "Father" was dead by the time they were born it was a fairly safe assumption that the Father was someone else! The 1901 Census actually shows the two brothers as "Grandchildren" to the Head of the Household, who by that time was the "Mother", so I think it is likely one of the unmarried daughters is their Mother (there was, if nothing else, and extremely strong family resemblance between all of them). I really really would like to know what that certificate says ....................... although on the Father's side I bet it says "unknown". After tha I'll start going backwards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
owl Posted February 1, 2009 Report Share Posted February 1, 2009 This was quite a common practice, right up to the 1940's, for children of unmarried women to be passed off as children of the woman's mother. Sometimes the baby would be registered to the correct mother, other times they would be registered to the grandma and no one would be any the wiser, especially when real mum was kept out of sight and gran had a cushion under her dress. The old saying goes that it's a wise child who knows its father. Some kids would have to be pretty smart to know who who their mum is as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
owl Posted February 1, 2009 Report Share Posted February 1, 2009 Thanks for the FreeGen site Yantan. I found free parish records there, and within minutes found the records of my great-great-greats. Have at last come across ancestors with less common surnames, which does make things easier. I knew we had Trollope ancestors, but have encountered names Asher and Key which I never knew about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs B Posted February 5, 2009 Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 Oh dear I think I may be suffering an addiction I've sent off for half a dozen BMDs, been looking at maps of the area they came from, picked up a naval record for a relative (which kept OH occupied all day as he went on a ships hunt), have contemplated when I can make a journey over to Lancashire to look in the Archives ....................................... I am absolutely fascinated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rufus the wonderdog Posted February 5, 2009 Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 Oh dear I think I may be suffering an addiction I've sent off for half a dozen BMDs, been looking at maps of the area they came from, picked up a naval record for a relative (which kept OH occupied all day as he went on a ships hunt), have contemplated when I can make a journey over to Lancashire to look in the Archives ....................................... I am absolutely fascinated. It does get you like that I've learnt to do it in small chunks or I'd never stop The thing I enjoy most is looking at relatives occupations - jobs that no longer exist - fascinating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrackenMc Posted February 6, 2009 Report Share Posted February 6, 2009 http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/ You will need this link to trace the Scottish side of your family. Small amounts of info can be found elsewhere, but mostly it's held here. Beware, it can become addictive and expensive! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suzeanna Posted February 6, 2009 Report Share Posted February 6, 2009 I've come to the conclusion I don't exist! My mother's maiden name is rather unusual...Laddle...but I cant find any record of her marriage, though I have her marriage certificate, her birth, her parents or anything at all. Grr! I doesn't help that as she came from Hull, I imagine her parents were from Yorkshire and the East Yorkshire census records aren't available yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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