Genealogy Chat

hi everyone i just wanted to know if anyone has got past finding rellies after 1700s i have only up to 1700s with greatgrand parents and on one side of my line 1800s i seem to be stuck now and cant seem to find anything now if anyone has got past 1700s how and where do you look thankyou kind regards kerry ann

Well Kerry if you have got back to the 18th century you must have been looking for info in parish records already and thats what you continue to do, going backwards, looking out for things like settlement orders and so on. On my most fortunate line I am back to 1550. (I can vaguely lie about another line as they are mentioned in the Domesday book but then there is quite a gap for a couple of hundred years til they turn up in another part of the country). If you get stuck - go back to another part of your tree and spend some time looking up information about them that gives you a real feel for their lives - where they lived, their jobs, newspaper articles, that sort of thing.

Kerry Ann, I am lucky enough to live quite close to the records office (archives) for my county, and also lucky enough to have a branch of my family who came from the same county, and again, thirdly lucky that some of them lived in very small villages! So I have been able to trace some of them back more or less to the start of the parish records for those villages, 16th / 17th century. If you don't actually live near the record office where your ancestors' parish records are kept, you can make a trip there! Or you may be able to order a microfilm copy to your local LDS Church Family History Centre. If your ancestors moved around a lot or came from a large parish and had common surnames it is not so easy, though! Kate.

If you're very lucky your family might have been copyhold tenants of their local manor, in which case there might be records of them in the court rolls at the record office or elsewhere. The manors do not always have the same name as the parish, so best to do a bit of preliminary research. You would have to get to grips with Latin at some point, but there are books on that aimed at researchers. Roger

hi heather and kate thankyou for answering my question the only way i have done my research is though the census and obtaining certs i have never used parish records as i wouldnt know where to begin i have ancestors that come from all over some in sunderland bethnal green shoreditch northampton norfolk ireland somerset wales and probably a few more places i cant remember so i am finding this hard to know where to go from here thanks again kerry ann

Kerry Have you tried the A2A site. I was lucky and found some tax documents listed for an ancestor back in the 1700's and insurance details on another. It's well worth a look around on there. Sheila

Kerry Ann - my advice would be to start with the Norfolk ones if they didn't come from Norwich. There is lots of Norfolk parish records stuff online (on the IGI at www.familysearch.org and on the Norfolk Transcription Archive at www.genealogy.doun.org/transcriptions/index.php). Somerset - there is a lot of stuff on Family History Online at www.familyhistoryonline*co*uk - you do have to pay to use it but it is very cheap. (replace * with .) I would leave Wales till later because the place names can get very confusing. The urban parishes tend to have loads and loads of entries in the parish records so it can take ages to search them, which is why I would suggest starting with small parishes first. And as for Ireland - leave it till last unless you are going on a trip there! Kate.

hi shelia no i havnt looked there what is the site adress so i can take look thankyou for the tip and also thankyou roger as well kerry ann

www . a2a . org . uk but not spaced out :o)

Kerry, the thing to realise is that once you get back to working with PR's only (for BMD's), you suddenly find yourself travelling much slower and each little bit of info can take a while to sort out. A bit like coming of the motorway and being given a pushbike! I have been searching one parish of BMD records (original pages on a CD) for about a year now, but have still not extracted all the entries that might be mine and worked out the jigsaw..... Actually, that's a point - with PR records it seems to be even more important to go sideways and forwards with records, as well as backwards, because it's so very important to have a full picture of what is going on in the parish, or you might end up going down the wrong line (because of the lack of detail in the records - no father's name at marriage, no mum's maiden name on a baptism, often no ages at burial etc etc - you need to know how many cousins there are with the same name and what they are all up to!) Merry

Yes, if you have only used census up to date - you are lucky getting back to 1700! - then you will find things S L O W down terribly. Im still wading through about 400 parishes in Norfolk (after 2 years) looking for one couple. Still, have a go, its THE most amazing kick when you actually find someone! Give us the names of your Norfolk people.

Merry, when I started on family history my searching using BMD's and censuses took ages! Could be because the particular ancestors I started with liked to lie about everything on certificates and censuses, though... still, they are definitely the most interesting of all my ancestors! In comparison, I have got back hundreds of years in a little village in just one or two visits to the records office, and then I can never remember who was who and have to look at my tree to work them all out. By the way, I have finally switched to the d o t c o m version of this site - thanks for the tip about it. No more adverts have been popping up on my screen, touch wood. Kate.

hi everyone thankyou all for your wonderful advice you have been great as always i will see what i can do now thanks all again kerry ann

Hi Kerry Ann, I am curious as to how you got back to 1700's only using on-line resources? Once I have manged to get to 1841 census & earliest available certificates then I run out of on-line research. IGI has some possibilities but also a lot of errors! Sadly none of my ancestors are criminals or very rich so start to get very limited info. Was just curious that you had discovered some secret websites that we haven't.

great grandparents in the 1700's ??? how old are you 150 years old .??

ang norfolk gal i only have used the census and thats it i only have a couple that go back to 1786 if their was any sites i would gladly have shared them with you all and alter ego no am just 36 years old not 150 although i feel it sometimes!!i can tell you kerry ann