17th Sept 2008

U3A Family History Group

Developing your Family History Research

Part 1 : Births, Marriages & Deaths : Census Data

17th Sept 2008

Developing your Family History ResearchEstablishing the Basics of Family History Research. Forming a fundamental approach:- • Birth, Marriage & Death Certificates• Census Data• Parish Data

• International Genealogical Index (IGI)• Church Records• Memorial Stones (Graves)• Land Tax Assessments• Electoral Register

• Wills• Accessing Research from Others – Genes & Ancestry• Trade Directories• National / Local Newspapers• Photographs

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Typical Birth, Marriage & Death CertificatesBirth

Marriage

Death

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Birth, Marriage & Death Certificates

• Local County Records Office (CRO); personal search of an individual county’s records on Microfiche

• FreeBMD.co.uk website; partially complete records of BMD with good search facility

• Ancestry.com website; complete records but poor search facility

• Birth Index data included “Mother’s Maiden Name” from 1912• Death Index data included “Age” of deceased from 1870• Death Index data included “Date of Birth” from 1970

To help one find the correct BMD index ref:-

To Obtain a Certificate, you need to accurately identify the District (Parish), Year, Quarter, Volume and Page of the appropriate Index for the person you want

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Birth, Marriage & Death Certificates

• Use data from other Certificates – • mother’s maiden name from Birth certificates • age at death to determine year born – not always accurate but a good guide

• Use the Census data to understand when someone was born and from the age of eldest child possibly determine marriage date. • Use occupation to confirm identity• For Marriages, click on “Page” to see who else was married on that day; compare Christian names.

To find BMD index information:-

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Searching FreeBMD for Marriage Reference

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Birth, Marriage & Death CertificatesYou may not be successful because:-

• The ages may vary widely from census to census.  • Registration may occur up to 3 years after actual birth• Spelling and juxtaposition of Christian & Middle names.  • The Parish in the census is not the "District" used in the BMD Index• Parish boundaries changed over time; use something like

“Phillimore Atlas and Index of Parish Registers” or the “District Description” in FreeBMD (actually points you to GenUKI which is a good source of Parish information) to check changes

• You don't get any other info from FreeBMD with which to check whether the person you found is correct.    • The birth certificate was never raised; it was not compulsory to register birth until 1875.

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FreeBMD Coverage Chart

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Birth, Marriage & Death Certificates

• General Records Office (GRO) for England & Wales (1837 onward);

“www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/”• General Records Office (GRO) for Scotland (1855 onward); “http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/famrec/bdm.html” or “ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk”• General Records Office (GRO) for Northern Ireland; “http://www.groni.gov.uk/index.htm”.• Cost of Certificates from these sites is normally £7 and take about 5 to 10 days to arrive

Main sources of actual certificates:-

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Census Data

• Local County Records Office (CRO); personal search of an individual county’s records

• Ancestry.com website; complete records; available on payment basis or free at Thornbury Library• Many other websites; only free one is the 1881 census through the Mormons “FamilySearch.org” website

• Census records currently available cover England & Wales over the period 1841 to 1901, at 10yr intervals

Sources of Census information:-

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Census Data – a selection

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Census Data

• Enter Surname & Christian name and birthplace (County and Year of Birth) with a range of 1 to 2 years. Expand dates further if not found.• Only enter a Surname together with the Parish and Year of

Birth – this will give all the families of that name in that Parish.

• Match up family groups when looking for a particular person• Look on the census pages either side of the one you have

found to check for other family members living close by.

Tips on searching Ancestry.com for the correct person

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Search using Surname & Parish in 1871 census

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Look on other pages using Prev & Next buttons

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Census Data

• Save the image on your computer – or e-mail it to yourself, to enable you to re-examine it later

• Check the rest of the page and pages either side to see if other members of the family lived close by

• Store information on what may be an unrelated person - family history research is a jigsaw puzzle.

When found -