All family historians start with what they know and work backwards and sideways to what they don’t know. They build up a storyline/timeline, working with written evidence, photographic evidence and oral history evidence e.g. by talking to older people in their families.
Here’s a quick guide to How To Research Family History
Start with yourself
What do you know? Have you access to all your own documentation – birth certificate/school records/health records? If not, look through photos you may have from your childhood. Ask any family members/friends who remember your childhood. Collect the stories they have about you. And (most importantly) write it down, remembering to note sources – who told you what and where you found that information – and dates.
Now, go back one generation
Do you know your parents’ names? Do you know when and where they married? Have you got access to a marriage certificate which will tell you more about them – where they were living at the time, and possibly who were their parents? Have you got a photograph of them? Do you know what they did to earn money? Where did they live? Do you remember any stories from your life with them? Did they tell you stories from their own childhoods? Write down all you find out, especially any dates/places.
Go back another generation
Go back to your grandparents if you can and do the same again. But now you will be building up information about at least 4 more people, and perhaps more than that if people remarried. So, start a diagram – your family tree – which will help you to sort out the different relationships and show you where the gaps are.
Continue to work back through the generations
Work back systematically as far as you can, noting down things which are definite and things which are a bit wobbly – e.g. you have heard a family story, but you haven’t found the evidence for it yet, or your dates are a bit vague. Make notes of all of this because sometimes there’s some truth in the family stories.
Other sources of information
As you can see, a lot of this preparatory research can be done without moving outside your family unit for information. But once you have some of the basic information, you can go on to use some online resources for more help.
Census returns: 1841 – 1921
These are all accessible via sites such as Ancestry and Findmypast. Both are free to access at Leicestershire & Rutland Family History’s Research Centre and at all city/county libraries. Censuses will give you information about where your family lived, how big the family was, what ages everyone was, together with their occupations.
The 1939 Register
This is available via Ancestry and Findmypast. This resource will give you useful information about family members at the outbreak of the Second World War, including, very usefully, dates of birth.
FreeBMD
FreeBMD is a useful website providing names/dates for births, marriages and deaths from September 1837 onwards. Actual certificates can be ordered via the government website gro.gov.uk
Parish records
Available via Findmypast for Leicestershire and Rutland baptisms, marriages and deaths. Ancestry also has information on some counties, but not Leicestershire and Rutland
Electoral registers
Again, accessible via Ancestry and Findmypast. These can fill in gaps between census years, showing you where your family was living, who else lived with them, and who lived next door.
Trade directories
These can give you more information about the trades/occupations of your family as well as where they lived. Some are online, others can be accessed on the shelves the Research Centre and local libraries.
Newspapers
A valuable resource, these might tell you something more about your family ranging from birth announcements, business news, reports of court cases and obituaries through to prizes won in competitions. Again, some are online and can be accessed via the British Newspaper Archive. (Note that if you have a subscription for Findmypast, you can get access to this archive via their website.)
Working with LRFHS
As your research continues, there are many other sources you will want to investigate, such as military records, school records, employment records etc. You will also find help and support from experienced family historians will be invaluable. This is where LRFHS can help. Please contact us for a list of useful websites and for more information about how to take you further in researching your family story.