Family tree

I did this for years, getting back to the 1500s and 1600s but all my research boils down to hundreds of names and dates on rolls of paper and nobody else is interested.
Can I warn people that memory is very faulty? You hear stories from family which turn out to be wildly inaccurate. Also, the Americans’ records are often wrong, adding on anything with the same name whether relevant or not.

Shandy57 you may find these maps useful for finding exact locations in Wales (or any county really). This one is Denbighshire for example:
www.genuki.org.uk/node/26718/countymap
If you zoom in the map shows the parishes within the county, right down to the exact spot. Some of my ancestors lived close to borders of parishes and counties and this really helped. Search for your county and then county map.

You will find Ancestry uses Google mapping. For places always put the town and county, even for London. The mapping won't recognise London! It wants 'Bethnal Green, Middlesex' or 'Putney, Surrey' and then it locates it.
For London:
North of the Thames is Middlesex or Essex
South of the Thames is Surrey or Kent.

Just to confirm what others have said regarding transcription. If you use Ancestry and their ‘hints’ always look at the original census. There is more info on them than Ancestry gives you plus you can see the original writing and others who live in the house, if any. I’ve also found family next door. You can also look at the relationship to the head. This might give a sister in law and give more clues about the family of the wife etc. Grandchildren also can appear on the census living with relatives.

If in any doubt you can order certs from the General Records Office (GRO). This is by far the best way to get certificates of births, marriages and deaths and can give extra family info, witnesses etc.

I did not start researching until after my parents had died. My mum had given me some snippets of information which helped start me off in search of my great grandparents. Several brick walls later, I cracked it, with the last pieces of that particular jigsaw falling into place when I bought my great grandmother’s death certificate. She had changed her name when she co-habited with someone and he has registered her death as her husband under her false name. The certificate showed that her brother had intervened and had it corrected, but not till after the burial had taken place, so the church burial entry is in the false name! What a mystery! I am rather glad my mother never knew all this, but sad when I found she had first cousins she never knew, living near her.

I have been doing my family history for over 50 years, on and off, amid raising my own four twigs! At the start of lockdown I decided to do my DNA with ancestry in the hope of finding a father for my illegitimate grandmother. With the help of a very kind lady in America I have found him, and managed to fill a big gap in my tree.

Hello there.
Yes it's one of My 2 hobbies..its been a great help...I really enjoy it.I'm researching Butlers,Thackers,Wright,Reardon,Cope,Wilcox..generally starting out in Hackney/Islington London areas .
Its also helping to take off My mind that My Daughter may give birth to My first Grandchild tonight yaaaaa
Who r you researching? ♡

Esspee. My niece married a Bajan and lives in Barbados.. Now has seven grandchildren. when I was able I visited her every year but had to give up when I was in my eighties and arthritis made it impossible.

Thanks Grandmabeach. I think I will go for it and do the DNA test. You never know!

My dad did a lot of research and I’ve carried on a bit more, records are lost for years back but we spread out.
DH and I started his and discovered his parents never married and that he probably has an older half brother - it’s not always things you want to know that you find!!

I would like to start searching my family tree, but the complexity is putting me off. You see I don't understand how it works when its all drawn up to look like the family tree. There's bits branching off here there and everywhere, I can't get to grips with it. I would find it really frustrating, but I wish I could find out more in a way that I could understand.

grannie7

Esspee
Hi I have just gone on Scotland’s People and it’s asking me to pay for credits.
I thought you said it was free [I was researching my Scottish ancestors],but it’s not I initially thought it was a different site from the one I had used a long time ago but couldn’t afford the fees,but it’s the same one.
I am confused are you referring to a different site with a similar name.
I would happily pay for a years subscription but they way they do it’s just too much as in the past my credits have run out before I could use them up.

Scotland’s People has a wealth of information which you can access free of charge, buying credits allows you to view and download documents, I’ve never had credits removed. Yes it’s addictive...Happy hunting everyone.

grannie7. I see Liljan has kindly responded to your question.
There is a wealth of information free on Scotland’s People. If you need to see an actual record you buy credits at £7.50 for 30. A marriage certificate is 6 credits so £1.50 which is extremely reasonable. You have 2 years to use your credits.

Family research can debunk family myths. My mother used to tell me in awestruck tones that she'd heard that she had an unknown relative who lived in Bournemouth, was really wealthy and had a huge house which boasted a music room. In the course of my trawls through records, I stumbled across this tycoon---he was a greengrocer who, yes, lived in Bournemouth, in a 3 bed semi and had a lodger in the front room who was a piano teacher.

My mother never talked about her childhood but have an impression it was pretty grim. Over the last couple of years I have been on Ancestry and together with a cousin have found out all sorts of stuff. Turns out my maternal grandmother was married, had two children and then, somehow, ended up in a Poor House and had two more by ‘unknown father’. She then met my grandfather and had five more. They weren’t married until mum was 12. Mum never mentioned any of this except she told us her father had been married before and widowed. The only problem with searching out family trees is that the more you discover, the more people there are!

I have been researching my family for years. However one thing stands out in my family, they did not talk about death. So wishing I had asked before they died might not have helped.
My Mother told us about her Father, my grand father, who was killed in WW1 on the first day of the battle of the Somme. But what has amazed us was that she never mentioned that she had a brother who died of appendicitis when she was 12. This was long before the advent of the NHS and as he died in hospital they must have had to pay for his treatment. The family all thought she and her sister were the only children of her parents marriage, Also her Father volunteered to serve in the Manchester Pals regiment in December 1914, when the unknown brother was only a month old. Also, due to my grandfathers age, over 30, he could have claimed exemption in the early days of the war.

My grandfather died on the kitchen table during an operation. He left 10 children and I'd love to know how they managed but my mother never talked about her childhood.We did meet a cousin after my aunt's death but he was not friendly as her will was not in his favour.

Yorki

I would like to start searching my family tree, but the complexity is putting me off. You see I don't understand how it works when its all drawn up to look like the family tree. There's bits branching off here there and everywhere, I can't get to grips with it. I would find it really frustrating, but I wish I could find out more in a way that I could understand.

Family history is much more than just a tree when you start looking at the people's lives, the area they lived, their work, where they worshipped etc. But you have to start with a tree. You don't need to draw up your own tree though. Create an Ancestry account (free) and enter yourself, parents and siblings to start with, and it creates the tree for you. Then add grandparents and start searching for records (pay for that). Add new people as you go along and the tree will grow. Just check what you're entering is correct. Your tree is free because Ancestry allows you to enter information, but you have to pay if you want them to give you information.

Yorki you could just start with the family that you know ie. aunt, uncles, cousins etc. And your Grandparents. Try Free BMD at first.
Then go on to find Grt Grandparents, then Grt Grt Grandparents, and so on, my Mum and her Father were the youngest children of huge families and TBH there are just so many relatives that I gave up and just tracked down the information of Grandparents, when I’ve done that ( still so many brick walls and I’m back on some to the early 1700s). I’ll probably go to their brothers and sisters.
It’s kept me busy for years.
However the 1921 Census should be out this year which will be a great help to find more recent relatives.

The 1921 census is not out until next year, 2022.

That’s a blow Cabbie on the other hand because it was delayed until June, both of my parents will be on it, they will be young babies as they were both born in the May.

The 1921 Irish census was destroyed. Why would the English one be delayed?

The same reason that is given for everything today kircubbin2000 - the pandemic.

The 1921 UK census was taken on 19th June 1921 and will be released on Find My Past in January 2022. The population was less than 40 million and now it's 67 million. The 1931 census was destroyed in a fire in 1942 and there was no 1941 census, so the 1921 is probably the last we'll see in our lifetime.
There is a census this year on 21st March, but I've not heard anything about it yet.

Most people will be expected to complete the 2021 census online, though paper copies are going to be available.

Been doing it for a while and wish I'd spoken to my Grandma when she was alive. Mum's side is trickier as there was a re-marriage and , I think, lots more children with second wife of Grandad on that side! DH is even harder as MiL was born abroad as was DH and SiL's!