Geneology: Hints for beginners Email: kayell@cix.co.uk Question. How can I investigate my family tree when I haven't much time and it is very difficult to get to places where records are kept? Answer. Even if you can't get about much, you can do the part of family history which so many of us neglect. The urgency is less in finding out what we don't know, but in documenting what we do know. We tend to forget that with regard to tracking down records - if we can track them, so can our offspring later if we give them all the information we would use. Indeed they will possibly be able to do it more easily as things get more computerised. So whenever you can't do any tracking, write up any facts you do know, for others to follow later. Many of us get hooked into tracing pedigrees, of people of whom we know little or nothing, and largely ignore the treasure we do hold, or we leave it till later, which may end up being too late. What can't be tracked are the personal memories, the anecdotes that fill in the outlines. We have our priorities wrong if we let slide away all the information we already know or can still ask about, for example our grandparents, while searching for our great-great-great-grandparents, who may remain just a name even if we do find them. I realised after my parents' deaths, there were so many things I wish I'd asked them, things they probably thought I knew, and things I thought I knew, but found I only half knew when it came passing it on. And domestic life has changed a great deal even in my children's lifetime, let alone mine, that once mundane things like how we did the washing before washing machines, or what we did pre-TV can be of value and interest. So I've been making notes of anecdotes re my home, memories of relatives, domestic appliances, transport, schools, clothes, food, shops, hobbies, games, the Coventry blitz and evacuation, wartime economies etc. and still have a long way to go. It doesn't have to be structured, or a book, just the funny and sad stories. My children's early years are already chronicled. Because I lived away from my family, I wrote home regularly, so typed the letters and kept a carbon copy, till the advent of the computer. You can make tapes if you don't like writing. Before my father-in-law died at age 93 we used a small cheap tape recorder to get 2 complete tapes by leaving it running unobtrusively, though not secretly, while chatting to him about his childhood, his life as a sailor in WW1 etc, that I was able to transcribe later after his death. So much more had changed during his lifetime. His remembered excitement as a child about gas and electric lighting, and how he would rush out and look at the novelty of a passing car or plane, and the knowledge that he was there at Scapa Flow when the German Fleet scuttled etc, are just as worth saving. If you haven't already, do get round to annotating and if possible dating your photos. It is maddening to have lovely ones that you have no idea who they are of, or the occasion. Father-in-law also spoke enthusiastically about learning to cook bacon crisply while helping with breakfasts while staying with two aunts who had a boarding house at Brighton. There is a photo that could possibly be them outside a likely place, but we'll never know. These are the sort of things you don't get from trees, but bring people to life. But with regard to family trees, Yes you do still have prospects of finding things even if you can't get out. Join a Family History Society. I found it useful to join for the areas where my parents came from - Derby and Notts, as I live in the South East and cannot get there. Other members have been most generous with information. In fact a great deal of my information has been found by other people. Many of the societies offer look up facilities for small fees and can get certificates though that can be an expensive way of tracing families. FHS often have books or microfiches of marriage records, also census records are invaluable once you get back to 1891, etc. This is easier if your family hasn't moved about much. The Family History Societies also have books and leaflets on how to go about the job of tracing records. There are also Internet Web Pages. Most can be accessed from either the Genuki (genealogical societies of UK and Ireland) home page, or its Index page. As yet not many actual resources are on line. But the pages tell you where to find source material. Look at general publications about your area, that may spark memories of what it was like when you were a child. Local newspapers sometimes produce them. The Coventry paper did one of Wartime, and one of the Blitz, and one of Now and Then; the newspaper here did one of the Hurricane, and another of memorable Weather stories of this century. I've made notes where illustrations rouse memories. Eg there are photos of some of the places on the morning after the blitz where we walked as we tried to get out of the city. There's a VE night photo, we're not in it, but we were there and remember the excitement. A book on the town where my mother was born, recommended by a member of the FHS there, has a picture of the beginning of the building of the road where my grandparents lived, a water pump like the one in their kitchen, and the machines in the factory where my grandfather worked. Keep your eyes open in old films, and books, for things that revive memories. We've only ever seen one fridge like the junked antique monster that we were given as our first in the late 1950s - it was in a repeat of a 1932 film! We've no photo of the fridge, but the film is a classic that will be repeated again some day for the grandchildren, or I hope to be ready with the video. Use general history to flesh out backgrounds to people you do find, and in turn family history can bring general history to life. I bought a remaindered "A Social and Economic History of Industrial Britain, John Rowbottom, Longmans, IABN 0 582 22332 6 a clear, simple social history school text book, so that can I add bits about what was happening in the country at large at the time of various family events. If you do turn up relatives with old trades, you can read up about them. The Family History Societies have a series of booklets on many of them. I was mystified at first by my grandmother's family being FWKs. Framework Knitters or stockingers were so common in the region that they were usually abbreviated to FWK on official documents. I'd blithely accepted the general view of Luddites as progress-resisting machine wreckers, till I found it tempered by reading of the desperately grinding poverty of stockingers, that even Lord Byron had urged Parliament to come to their aid. I've even had some memories triggered off by threads in CIX. And my discovery of the FHSs came from answering someone's computer query on Compuserve, which led to the discovery that our family histories had an amazing set of coincidences, and her father was able to answer some of my queries about my family. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Births, Marriages and Deaths Available by mail from the offices below are certificates of birth, marriage and death in England and Wales since 1 July 1837 (including some which took place outside the United Kingdom involving members of the Armed Services and certain other categories), Scotland since 1855 (and many previously) and Northern Ireland since 1864. Prices listed are for one full certificate, inclusive of postage. Payment if mailed should be in the form of an international money order or sterling draft, made out in pounds sterling and payable to Registrar General. (These are usually obtainable from the foreign exchange department of a large bank or a specialist foreign exchange company). The Register Offices can undertake a search if provided with particulars, but will not exceed a period of five years. England & Wales The General Register Office PO Box 2 Southport Merseyside PR8 2JD England Tel: (0151) 471 4524 Fax: (01704) 568 315 Family Records Centre 1 Myddleton Street London EC1R 1UW England Tel: (0171) 233 9233 Scotland Registrar General New Register House Edinburgh EH1 3YT Scotland Tel: (0131) 334 0380 (information) Fax: (0131) 314 4400 Northern Ireland Registrar General Oxford House Chichester Street Belfast BT1 4HL Northern Ireland Tel: (01232) 252000 Records from Northern Ireland for the period 1864-1922 are also kept at: The General Register Office Joyce House 8-11 Lombard Street East Dublin 2 Eire