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Getting Started with Family History -
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Copyright © 2001-2008
Tel +44 (0) 1704 512966 |
Right - I'm trying to show you a system using a
word-processor to record your family history, so the first thing you need to
do is to get pen and paper!
OK? You have everything you need - so, where do you start?
Think of your family history as a jigsaw puzzle with all the dozens of pieces loose in the box. When doing a jigsaw, you assemble a few pieces together in a group, then another group, and so on, and gradually these groups can be joined together. You assemble your family tree in the same way.
You start with three sources
WHO YOU KNOW
As all family trees are based on surnames, use a separate piece of paper for each surname in the family. Write this surname at the top of the page. Underneath write down the names of every adult you know who is related to you who has that surname.
As far as possible, put brothers and sisters together in a group leaving space to list their children underneath them (if they have any). You can always add later anyone you may have forgotten until you have a complete list of everyone you know including in-laws, uncles, aunts, grandparents, cousins and so on.
WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT THEM
You are trying to find out as much as you can about each one, and if possible your family tree should contain the following information about each person:
When you are talking to your relatives, in addition to entering dates of births etc. if they know other details such as the place these things happened, write this down too. If they know the name of the church where baptism, marriage or the funeral took place, so much the better.
Other things like where they lived, what work they did, etc, any scrap of information might be useful. At this stage you will not know all of this but you will know something.
Now the following looks a little complicated in descriptive text, but if you follow it through by writing down YOUR information, it will very rapidly become obvious
Using a separate sheet for each "family" (or simply print another copy of the "Family Tree Information Sheet" which is supplied with the templates), starting with the father enter his full names and on two lines underneath enter his date of birth, or if you don't know it enter "b..............", and if dead the date of death; if he is alive enter "d. .............." as follows:
Show his marriage as follows, adding his wife's dates too if known:
If you don't know the date of marriage put " = m ............... = "
Underneath the father's name list all their children in order of birth and number them from 1. Twins or triplets are given the same "birth number" but lettered A and B (and C) i.e. 2A, 2B. This avoids confusion later if you see two children shown as born on the same day and wonder if you have made a mistake.
If the father has been married twice, with children from both marriages, show the first wife as (1) and the children from that marriage are numbered 1/1, 1/2, 1/3, etc, After the last child of the first marriage enter the second wife as (2) with her name and dates in the same way as the first wife. If they have any children these are numbered 2/1, 2/2, 2/3, etc.
If the wife brings any stepchildren into the marriage, show these under HER name as (1)1, (1)2, (1)3 etc to indicate that they are from her first marriage. This again saves confusion when trying to sort out "sisters" or "brothers" who are either step- or half-related.
When you have done this for everyone you know, you will be quite surprised to find how much you actually do know about your family, although you will still have several blanks to fill in later.
Above the father's and mother's entries, enter the names and dates and maiden names of their parents (i.e., the children's grandparents.)
As I said, this all sounds a little complicated, but take a look at the Sample Family Tree, (webmaster's note: if you use a PopUpKiller, please disable it) and then write down details of your own immediate family in the same fashion - you'll soon get the idea.
MAIDEN NAMES
The next step is to do the same for the wives, although as the children of the marriage are shown under the father's surname (i.e. her married name) there is no need to show them again under her maiden name. To link the wife to her family, against her married entry write "see (maiden name) tree [ ]" , as follows:
John William Johnson = m 31 Mar 1935 = Mary Robinson - see Robinson tree[ ]
On another page, enter her as the child of her father, with her brothers and sisters if any, in their order of birth, also the details of her marriage and husband against her own name as above together with the husband's "birth number".
If she has had any children, under her name enter "(issue - see Johnson tree)" If any of the wife's brothers and sisters are married enter their husbands and wives too.
As you now know the wife's "birth number" you can enter this in the [ ] on her "married" tree - and when this goes in to your word-processor, you can actually make the contents of [ ] into a hyperlink so that, when at the computer, clicking on it will take you straight to the reference.
Having linked the wife to her family, the next stage is to enter her father and mother, their dates, and mother's maiden name, also her grandparents.
WHERE HAVE WE GOT TO?
By this time you should have several sheets of paper, one for each "family" and one for each maiden name, showing the children, their parents and their grandparents, linked by "birth numbers," and you are beginning to realise how much you know and how to show relationships, and you are ready to expand "backwards."
If you have pages showing fathers and mothers who are also brothers and sisters, using a separate sheet enter these as children in order of birth in the same way you did with the wives above, showing their husbands/wives too.
Enter their fathers, mothers, and grandparents, if known. As you will now have a birth number for the "children", enter this on their own family page by their name.
WHAT THEY KNOW
Having now sorted out in order what you know about everybody you know, you are now ready to start trying to fill in the blanks. The first and most obvious source of information is from those people you've entered on these pages who are still alive, and the next few paragraphs are a guide to doing this.
Normally your wife will know more about her own family than you do, and she will be able to give you some of the answers if, so far, you have been working all alone. The same applies to brothers- and sisters-in-law.
Don't delay going to see elderly relatives - they are often only too happy to talk about the past and their family and can often give you snippets of information which at the time may seem irrelevant, but may link with something else from another source later to be an important clue. However, it is an unavoidable fact that if you delay seeing them, elderly relatives may be gone, and their knowledge with them - virtually everybody I have met researching their Family History has said "If only I had gone to see them sooner".
Whoever you are seeing, take your ring binder with you, and plenty of scrap paper or a notebook for making notes. You will learn far more if you do the writing while letting your "interviewee" just talk. If they have to both think and write at the same time they may forget what they were going to say next and for some, the effort of writing may become an excuse for putting it off - for ever.
FAMILY RECORDS
In addition to what your relatives can tell you, and obvious sources like
birth, marriage and death certificates, most families have "something
somewhere" which is "put away". Unfortunately when an elderly
relative dies and the house has to be emptied, too often someone throws this
out as junk. Always go through this "junk" very carefully. Look at both front and back of old photographs and postcards; check the contents of all envelopes, and look for papers, letters and such slipped between photographs. When faced with emptying a house, the best way is to take some empty cardboard boxes and simply put ALL such material in it, take it home unsorted, and go through it carefully at your leisure. A box of old papers or photographs, an old family bible, wills, certificates, books given as school and Sunday school prizes, prayer and hymn books, old letters and postcard albums are often valuable sources for tracing. A letter of congratulations on the birth of a baby , or of sympathy at a death, even the postmark on the envelope, a date or name on the back of an old photograph, the age and year or class in a school prize - the possibilities are endless.
If you can get people to get out these things, they are well worth a close examination. Even if it doesn't reveal anything, it might have done.
FAMILY "SITUATIONS"
While in these days when divorce and living together are accepted as "normal" and happy (long-lasting!) marriages are somewhat exceptional, it wasn't always so, and some elderly people are still reticent about mentioning "accidents".
If you are aware of the possibility of this, there are two approaches, but NEVER press it. First, you are compiling a historical, NOT a moral record, and second, if you already, know about it, but not the details, say that you know.
Click here to move on to Researching using Guide Books or click one of the links below to move on from this topic.
Introduction
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