How do I start?
Using a Family Tree chart template to record your discoveries is a good way to begin. Differently designed generational templates are readily available online both to copy or purchase. Download our Free Blank Family Tree to help you start, from Members Area.
Researching your Family History requires a methodical approach
- Have either a notebook or computer file to document your discoveries and references.
- Start by recording what you know, beginning with yourself, your full name and date of birth.
- Continue recording similar details for your parents and siblings.
- Next, record your parent’s marriage date, and from there discover and record the details for their parents and so forth, working methodically BACKWARDS. Marriage certificates, for example, regularly record paternal names and occupations.
- Engage and communicate with family members. Ask if they have records (certificates, annotated photographs, or other personal items) that will help you get started. Encourage them to write down or record memories and other facts about their lives, their parents, grandparents, or other family members.
- Once you become a member you may consider the Herefordshire Family History Society Facebook group. We also have a X (Formerly Twitter) page.
- You can also submit to the members-only Interests listing.
Births, Marriages and Deaths after 1837
Civil registration of births, marriages and deaths began in England and Wales on 1st July 1837. There are some omissions from the early years. The General Register Office (GRO) holds records of births, deaths, and marriages in England and Wales. Copies of entries from that date to those permitted to be released may be viewed and ordered online.
Not all the information available on current certificates was collected initially. Age at death was added in 1866; Mother’s maiden name on birth certificates came in September 1911.
Herefordshire FHS has, in co-operation with Herefordshire Council, indexed the Herefordshire Registrars marriages and this index is available on CD. See our Publications page.
Records before 1837
The Genealogical Society of Utah (Mormons) have compiled an index called the IGI (International Genealogical Index). This holds records that have taken place in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland since the beginning of record keeping (about 1550) to 1837 when Civil Registration began.
The IGI is free through the online FamilySearch website where users may search by name, birthdate and place. The IGI is available at all Record Offices. Alternately, many family history societies also have compiled indexes of these registers.
Non-Parochial Registers
If you cannot find your ancestor in the Church of England Registers, perhaps they were members of other denominations such as Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists or Catholics. If this is the case, try looking at the Protestant Dissenters’ Registry on the National Archives (TNA) website. This index is sometimes called the Dr. Williams’s Library and was set up in 1742. A similar Metropolitan Registry was set up for Wesleyan Methodists in 1818.
Both these records are indexed and contain births which occurred before the official start dates and contain names of people born countrywide or overseas, covering records 1742-1840 and is found under reference RG4.
Records of Quaker (Society of Friends) birth, marriages and deaths are held at the Public Record Office (TNA) and can be found under reference RG 6.
Records of clandestine Anglican Marriages conducted in and around London during the 17th and 18th century can be found at the Public Record Office under reference RG7.
Britons abroad
Indexes to the Registrar General’s Statutory Returns of births and deaths of Britons at Sea date from July 1837. Consular Returns of births, marriages and death of Britons abroad after July 1849 can be searched at the National Archives. There are also various indexes to Military, Naval and Royal Air Force births, marriages and deaths of personnel and their families, including deaths in the Boer War, First and Second World Wars and civilian aircraft after 1947.
Applications for certified copies of the entries can be made in person at the Overseas Section, Office for National Statistics.
What Census are available?
The Census has been taken every ten years since 1801, although before 1841 they are of little help as they contain only statistics. From 1851 the place of birth was also included. The latest census of 1921 includes details of Full Name, Age, relationship to Head of Household, Occupation, Marital Status and Place of Birth. Census and related records are increasingly online through subscription to organisations such as ‘Ancestry’ and ‘Find My Past’.
Newspapers
Newspapers, national, regional and local are increasingly available online, fully searchable and comprise a wonderful source of information for people (births, marriages, death), their occupations and involvement in events. See for example, by subscription the ‘British Newspaper Archive’, and via ‘Find My Past.’
Publications
There are family history and genealogy monthly publications, available by subscription or from newsagents that are helpful with how to research, resources, and especially how to work with your DNA results.
Is anyone researching my family?
Family History Societies publish all its publications as a Portable Document Format (PDF), booklets and increasingly on-line, lists of names, places, counties and dates, of families currently being researched, with contact details of the contributors. There are many such sources of information.
Many societies provide a Members Interest facility, where members can submit their interests for publication, in the journal and on-line. This facilitates browsers on the internet or locally in libraries and research centres the opportunity of contacting members.
Increasingly people are benefitting from joining commercially run online organizations such as ‘Ancestry’, ‘Find My Past’, ‘WikiTree’, and linking their memberships to having their DNA (Autosomal, Mitochondrial, Paternal) tested by such as ‘FamilyTreeDNA’ and ‘Ancestry’. The resulting “matches” to other testers greatly widens the scope of contacting relatives or proving family associations.
Many groups hold volunteer recording sessions of burials, marriages and gravestones, all of which are enjoyable pastimes. If you can attend local societies, consider offering your help as every little helps.
See Surname Interests for details of surnames being researched by members of the Society.
Join HFHS via our Shop