Family history - where to start

Family history isn't something that can be done in one afternoon!

• Always start with your present family and work backwards
• Start by talking to your close family, other relatives and family friends
• Check whether anybody else has done any work on your family
• Write down everything you find out and use official documents to confirm it. People's memories can play tricks and you don't want to start out with inaccuracies
• Obtain copies of birth, marriage and death certificates from your local register office, the General Register Office: www.gro.gov.uk or the Family Records Centre: www.familyrecords.gov.uk
• Start a checklist to record which birth, marriage and death certificates you've obtained
• Find out whether there's a family Bible, or whether anybody has newspaper cuttings of significant events
• Create a chart entering dates and places for each person - this helps you to construct your family tree
• Record where you find information and where you have searched.

To find:

• baptisms or marriages use the IGI or parish registers
• burials or deaths use parish registers, or if after 1856 use local burial records
• a birth use the census and some later parish registers
• the occupation use census and trade directories
• the place use census, trade directories or electoral registers.