We can safely say, however, that the John Bishop, Alex Kingston, Annie Lennox, Patrick Stewart, and Gregg Wallace episodes were all enjoyed my many blog readers.

Thanks to everyone who voted.

If you are planning to go with a friend you might want to take advantage of the Family Tree 2 for £25 deal.

I plan to get a three day ticket again, but the big question is which workshops should I book in advance?

The first celebrity to be announced is Greg Wallace, but there are more to come, so if celebrity is your thing you may want to hold off from booking your tickets just yet.

Last year’s experience taught me that it is possible to get tickets for most workshops on the day (if you are quick and organised), and even if you can’t get tickets you can listen in on most workshops from outside the fence. The exceptions are Celebrity Theatre/ SOG Studio 1 events which are closed off.

After a preliminary perusal of the schedule I am tempted by the Keynote Workshop – Using the Internet to Search Abroad with John Hanson and Indentured Servants, Shovelled Paupers & Ten Pound Poms: Researching Ancestors Who Were Paid To Leave Dear Old Blighty with Simon Fowler.

I have just noticed that it is possible to buy extra workshop tickets in advance, is that new this year?

Are you planning to attend WDYTYA? Live 2013? Which workshops have caught your eye? I would love to hear what you think about this year’s show.  If you have seen any special offers please share them here.

I enjoyed this episode, partly due to its relative “ordinaryness”, however I did feel that some assumptions were made that were not backed up by evidence.

William’s grandfather Albert was cast as the villain of the piece, yet little was known about him. Albert was blamed for the separation of his three daughters, but given that William had already discovered that his grandmother, Zillah, was a successful business woman, I am left wondering whether her ambitions could have been a factor? As for Albert, I’m wondering about mental health issues?

The William Roache episode of Who Do You Think You Are? will be available on BBC iplayer for the next month.

Has this episode inspired you to make a start on your own family history?

This post is the latest in a series for beginner family historians researching their English ancestors. I have already covered first steps in family history, obtaining birth, marriage and death certificates,  using the census, parish registers, an introduction to Military Records, and a first step into Wills.

In this episode William was shown a newspaper report featuring his grandfather Albert, who was involved in an altercation in the street and suffered a broken ankle. Snippets like this are fantastic for filling out our ancestors stories, and can often tell us more about their characters and circumstances than any birth certificate.

Task 1 – Visit your local library or archives

If you live in the same area as some of your ancestors, you are likely to be able find archives of your local newspapers.  These make great reading. Although it is unlikely that you will find stories about your ancestors, unless you have specific dates to search for, old newspapers are great for understanding the times in which they lived.

Many libraries have subscriptions to databases of old newspapers, find out what is available and try searching for your ancestors – start with the ones with unusual names!

Task 2 – Search local newspapers on the British Newspaper Archive

I have already enthused about the British Newspaper Archive (BNA) in The British Newspaper Archive – Testing its Potential in Family History Research. Using the BNA I was able to discover numerous newspaper reports relating to my family in minutes, which would have taken many hours of research to find otherwise.

Tip 1 – Watch out for newspapers at Findmypast

If you have a Findmypast subscription, and can bear to wait, they are launching their newspaper collection very soon – expect it to be similar to the BNA.

Links

I explained how newspapers can be a valuable source when researching deaths in Killing Off My Ancestors – Part 2: Newspapers.

If the new series of Who Do You Think You Are? has inspired you to start researching your family history, I would love to hear how you are getting on!

This episode was very entertaining, thanks to Alex Kingston’s good humour. I especially enjoyed her “Poker Poll” voice, and if you have any ancestors listed as Lodging House Keepers in the census, it may well open up new avenues of research.

Read Chris Paton’s review for more.

The Alex Kingston episode of Who Do You Think You Are? will be available on BBC iplayer for the next month.

Has this episode inspired you to make a start on your own family history?

This post is the latest in a series for beginner family historians researching their English ancestors. I have already covered first steps in family history, obtaining birth, marriage and death certificates,  using the census, parish registers, and an introduction to Military Records.

In this episode Alex visited The London Probate Department on Holborn to view the will of one of her ancestors. The will told us a lot, not only about the properties she owned, but also about her character and family circumstances.

The use of Wills in family history is a huge topic so I am just going to suggest one easy task to get you started.

Task 1 – Search for a will in the National Probate Calendar

From 1858 wills have been kept centrally by the Principal Probate Registry. These wills can be located via the National Probate Calendar, which lists wills alphabetically by name within each year (the year probate was granted which may be different to year of death).

To consult the calendar you can visit the London Probate Office in person, consult microform copies of the calendar at libraries and archives, or, easiest of all, consult the calendar on Ancestry.

The Ancestry database covers the period 1858-1966, and there are gaps, but it is easy to search. You can find some valuable information in the calendar itself, which may be useful to confirm a death date. The will itself can be ordered by post from the Probate Service.

Links

An excellent Research Guide to Wills & Probate is provided by the National Archives.

If the new series of Who Do You Think You Are? has inspired you to start researching your family history, I would love to hear how you are getting on!

Focusing on Hugh’s ancestors in WWI, this was thought provoking.

The Hugh Dennis episode of Who Do You Think You Are? will be available on BBC iplayer for the next month.

Has this episode inspired you to make a start on your own family history?

This post is the fifth in a series for beginner family historians researching their English ancestors. I have already covered first steps in family history, obtaining birth, marriage and death certificates,  using the census, and parish registers.

Not long ago researching your military ancestors usually meant a trip to The National Archives (TNA) in Kew, however in recent years TNA has formed partnerships with commercial providers such as Ancestry and Findmypast to digitise key records and make them available online.

World War One records can be found at Ancestry, with older records being found at Findmypast. Some records can be downloaded from TNA, such as war diaries, medal index cards (also on Ancestry) and recommendations for medals.

Task 1 – Search for a WWI service record on Ancestry

WWI service records are available on Ancestry as two record sets described as “Service Records” and “Pension Records”, it is best to search both, they both contain the same types of record. Unfortunately over half the personnel records from WWI no-longer survive, so your search may not be successful.

If you know the regiment that your ancestor served with, or his service number, these will help you locate the correct record.

Task 2 – Search for WWI medal index cards

If an exhaustive search on Ancestry fails to turn up a service record, then look for a medal index card next as these can help you reconstruct a man’s service history. The medal index cards are the most complete record of those who served in WWI.

The medal index cards are available online both on Ancestry and from TNA’s Online Collections (at a cost of £3.36).

I prefer the Ancestry copies as they are in colour and also because the backs of the cards were also photographed and sometimes additional information can be found there.

Task 3- search the London Gazette

The majority of medals issued in WWI are campaign medals for service between particular dates, but some men were also given gallantry awards for acts of courage and these were always included in the London Gazette, including the lowest form of gallantry award a “mention in dispatches”.

The London Gazette site is totally free, so it is well worth a search, of course it will be easier to locate your ancestors if they have an unusual name.

Task 4 – CWGC

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission have a fantastic site which lists all war deaths, including civilians. An entry in their database will usually supply the date of death, place of burial, rank, regiment, and service number. The site is completely free to use and you can use your findings to help you in the search for other records.

Links

The National Archives have a long list of excellent research guides to military records.

If the new series of Who Do You Think You Are? has inspired you to start researching your family history, I would love to hear how you are getting on!

Locating your ancestors in parish registers can be difficult, sometimes taking years of research rather than hours. If you have any problems or questions please get in touch.

If you have Scottish ancestors, this episode should be considered essential viewing. Containing tales of poverty, illegitimacy, and royalty this episode is extremely educational.

The Annie Lennox episode of Who Do You Think You Are? will be available on BBC iplayer for the next month.

Has this episode inspired you to make a start on your own family history?

This post is the fourth in a series for beginner family historians researching their English ancestors. The first covered first steps in family history, the second focused on obtaining birth, marriage and death certificates, and the third looked at using the census.

If you have located the birth, marriage, and death registrations of your ancestors in the GRO indexes, and learnt about their occupations and extended families in the census you may now have a family tree that extends back to the early 1800s. General Registration of births, marriages and deaths was introduced in 1837, and the earliest census for which information has been retained at the household level is 1841 (you may be able to find earlier census records for some areas), so if you want to trace your family back further than this you must seek out other records.

The first place to look for your ancestors before 1837 is the parish registers, where baptisms, marriages and burials were recorded by the church. You may find birth and death dates recorded, but not necessarily.

Parish registers are local records, and have mostly been deposited in local county record offices, although a few registers are still held by the church.

Task 1 – Locate your family in a parish register

Use the birth place information gleaned from the census to help you locate baptism records. If you live in the same area as your ancestors, consider a visit to your local County Record Office. Before your visit use their website to check opening hours, as some are not open every day, and use their online catalogue, if they have one, to check that they have the registers you want and the dates covered.

Many of us live too far away from the relevent record office for a personal trip to be practical, but if you can view images of the original registers, either online or on microfilm at a local library, that is often just as good as you are likely to be restricted to looking at microfilm copies at the record office anyway.

Tip 1 – Some parish registers images are available online

Read my post on Online Parish Registers to learn more. New sources are appearing online all the time, so check Family Search, Ancestry, Findmypast and the website of the relevant County Record Office for new additions regularly.

Tip 2 – Microfilmed registers can be viewed at your local Family History Centre

An enormous number of parish records have been filmed by the LDS church. Search their Family History Library Catalaogue to find out what they hold. If copies of the films you are interested in are not held by your local LDS Family History Centre, you might be able to order them.

Tip 3 – Use indexes to locate the correct parish

One of the great difficulties that arises when trying to locate your family in parish registers is knowing which parishes to search. Fortunately there are indexes and transcripts that can be used to help locate them.

1. The International Genealogical Index (IGI) was compiled by the LDS church and has been used by genealogists for many years to help locate their ancestors, it now makes up part of the Family Search site. The IGI contain mainly baptisms and marriages, with few deaths. The IGI is incomplete, some counties have better coverage than others. The IGI is best treated as a finding aid to allow you to locate the original record. Transcripts and indexes can be incomplete and can contain errors.
2. Boyd’s Marriage Index is held by the Society of Genealogists (SOG) in London, read the description of Boyd’s Marriage Index on the SOG Library page. SOG members can search the Index online, non-members can find it at Findmypast, you may also be able to locate it in libraries and elsewhere on microfiche.
3. Pallot’s Marriage index is held by the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies and can be accessed online at Ancestry. Pallot’s has very comprehensive coverage of the London parishes.

Tip 5 – Use the Phillimore Atlas & Index of Parish Registers

The Phillimore Atlas is a very useful  addition to a genealogist’s bookshelf, alternatively it can often be found in the reference section of libraries. As well as containing maps for each county showing the parish boundaries, it also contains a guide to the coverage by parish of the IGI, Boyd’s Marriage Index, and Pallot’s Marriage Index.

No Task 2 this week as Task 1 is massive!

Links

Read Ancestry’s concise guide to Parish Records.

An excellent Research Guide to Nonconformists is provided by the National Archives.

If the new series of Who Do You Think You Are? has inspired you to start researching your family history, I would love to hear how you are getting on!

Locating your ancestors in parish registers can be difficult, sometimes taking years of research rather than hours. If you have any problems or questions please get in touch.

This week, the reaction to WDYTYA? on twitter has been mixed with most people finding the story interesting, but some missing the element of tracing back through the generations (#WDYTYA).

The Patrick Stewart episode of Who Do You Think You Are? will be available on BBC iplayer for two months. Next week’s episode will feature Annie Lennox.

Has this episode inspired you to make a start on your own family history?

This post is the third in a series, the first covered first steps in family history, the second focused on obtaining birth, marriage and death certificates.

Having begun your family tree using family knowledge, and the records of General Registration, you should now be in a position to make use of census records to extend your family tree.

Census records from 1841,1851,1861,1871,1881,1891,1901,and 1911 are publicly available and provide a listing by household of everyone living in the country on a given date in those years.

When I first started looking for my family in the census records it was very difficult to find them unless you knew where they lived, however in recent years all the census records have been digitised and are searchable by name, often making it the work of minutes to locate several generations of your family!

The great thing about the census is that it gives family relationships within households and occupations as well as some other information.

Task 1 – Locate your family in the 1911 census

As the most recent available census is 1911, this is the place to start. The 1921 census will become available in 2022.

There was great excitement in the genealogical community when the 1911 census was made available as for the first time family historians had access to individual household sheets completed in their ancestor’s own hand. In addition there was some useful additional information compared with previous census – married women had to declare the length of their marriage, the number of children born to the marriage, and the number of those children still living – great stuff for family historians!

Census records often enable you to identify siblings and other members of the extended family – you can add all these to your tree. Don’t forget to take a look at the neighbours, other family members often lived close by.

Tip 1 – the 1911 census is available free on Ancestry until 2nd November 2012

Ancestry.co.uk is offering free access to the 1911 census for the duration of this series of Who Do You Think You Are? You will be required to register for a free account, which only takes a few moments, and does not require your bank details (unlike the 14 day free trial).

Task 2 – search for your family in the 1881 census

The 1881 census was the first to be completely indexed by name and should enable you to take your family tree back another generation.

Tip 2 – transcripts of the 1881 census are available free at Family Search

The 1881 census transcripts are available free at Family Search, alternatively transcripts are available free at Ancestry.co.uk and Findmypast (registration required), in all cases access to images of the original records requires a subscription .

It is always best practice to view the original record due to the possibility of mistranscription or incomplete transcription, but the 1881 transcripts are very useful.

Both Ancestry and Findmypast offer 14 day free trials, these require you to provide your bank details, so it is imperative that you cancel the subscription before the 14 days is up, if you don’t want to continue with the subscription.

Task 3 – fill in the gaps with other census

A committed family historian will undoubtedly search for his/her ancestors in every census to obtain maximum information on the family, occupations, and addresses over time. You may want to do more searching now or leave it for the future.

Tip 3 – free credits at findmypast this weekend

One reason for doing a bit more searching now is that findmypast are currently offering £5 of free credits, this gives you 40 free credits, enough to view 8 census images (excluding 1911). Alternatively, you can claim your free credits now, and as they are valid for three months, save them to view other records, e.g. military.

Tip 4 – Access the census at FreeCen

Part of the same initiative as FreeBMD, FreeCen aims to offer free access to the census transcripts, but is far from complete.

Links

Excellent Research Guide to the census provided by The National Archives.

Commercial websites that offer access to the census include:

findmypast

Ancestry.co.uk

The Genealogist

Genes Reunited

1911census.co.uk

If the new series of Who Do You Think You Are? has inspired you to start researching your family history, I would love to hear how you are getting on!

Locating your family in the census is not always straightforward, if you have any problems or questions please get in touch.

The cemetery is quite substantial with approximately 60,000 burials. Managed by Islington and Camden Cemetery Services, the cemetery is well maintained. It is a charming place to visit, located in the heart of Fortune Green, with plenty of people using the public footpath that bisects it or taking a walk around the cemetery itself.

If you choose to visit the cemetery, be aware that this is some distance from the centre of Hampstead.

My ancestors might be buried in Hampstead Cemetery – how can I find them?

The burial registers for Hampstead cemetery have been digitised and made available online at Deceased Online. Details of the scope of the online records can be found on the Camden page at Deceased Online. Although you must pay to access the detailed burial records on Deceased Online, the initial search is free; I have been very impressed with the site, read more in Deceased Online – Searching for Sibitha.

Extract from the burial register for Hampstead Cemetery showing the entry for Walter Arthur Rider, buried in the Rider Family grave pictured below (Source: Deceased Online)

Are there any interesting memorials at Hampstead Cemetery?

For details of the graves of the famous and interesting memorials in the cemetery and maps to help you find them,  see ‘The Good Grave Guide to Hampstead Cemetery’ by Marianne Colloms and Dick Weindling, published by the Camden History Society (2000, ISBN 0-904491-47-1), the book can be obtained from Camden Local Studies.

I chose to wander the cemetery and make my own discoveries. Here are a few highlights:

Unusual 1901 Grave of the Rider Family

When I researched the Rider grave pictured above, I was fascinated to discover that it is actually Grade II listed , see Tomb of the Rider Family in Hampstead Cemetery. Searching the British Listed Buildings site reveals that the chapels, The Bianchi Monument, and a number of other memorials are also listed, see the full list for the postcode.

The Bianchi Memorial must be the most dramatic in Hampstead Cemetery

The Charles Barritt memorial is in the shape of an organ

Do you have ancestors buried in Hampstead Cemetery? Have you been able to locate their graves? I would also love to hear how others are getting on with Deceased Online.

As in last week’s episode, the death of child from burning was discovered. Family break up was also, again, part of the story. Divorce may be a modern phenomenon, but that doesn’t mean that families didn’t break up in the past.

This week the reaction to WDYTYA? on twitter has been overwhelmingly positive, with many people moved and shocked by the story (#WDYTYA).

The Gregg Wallace episode of Who Do You Think You Are? will be available on BBC iplayer for two months. Next week’s episode will feature Patrick Stewart.

Has this episode inspired you to make a start on your own family history?

Birth, Marriage, and Death certificates are some of the main building blocks of family history research in the 19th and 20th centuries.

We saw certificates put to good use right from the start of the episode, when Gregg visited his mum and she showed him birth certificates of his grandad and siblings, and great-grandfather. Later in the episode the death certificate of the child killed in the fire was revealed, and it was also mentioned that his ancestor died in the asylum, which would probably have been clear from the death certificate.

From 1837 there was a national system of registration of births, marriages and deaths in England & Wales (sorry – I’m not going to cover Scotland). Registration took place locally and copies of the registers where sent to the General Record Office to be compiled into a national register, which is arranged alphabetically each quarter. As a result two sets of indexes exist, the GRO (national) index, and the local index. Certified copies of certificates can be obtained either by application to the GRO or the local registrar.

Your ancestors birth certificate will supply you with their date and place of birth, and importantly the names of the parents, including the mother’s maiden name allowing you to research the previous generation via their marriage certificate. You can also expect to find the father’s occupation.

Marriages certificates, as well as giving details of the couple themselves, will supply their fathers names and occupations helping with the identification of the correct birth record.

Death certificates are sometimes seen as less important for family historians, read some reasons for obtaining them in Killing Off My Ancestors – Part 3.

It is very tempting to economise by not buying certificates, the cost at £9.25 each does soon mount up, however I personally feel that it is important to confirm relationships with certificates and I generally buy birth, marriage and death certificates for all direct ancestors, I usually have to do without their siblings!

Task 1

Look up the references for the birth, marriage and death certificates of your direct ancestors, and order the certificates you need to confirm family relationships or to push back your research to the latest available census (1911).

Tip 1 – use FreeBMD

One of the best free websites for genealogy is FreeBMD. This site makes available the GRO indexes in a searchable form. FreeBMD is free to use because the records have been transcribed by volunteers. The project is not yet complete but the earlier years are more than 99% complete. If you need to look up more recent certificate references that are not yet included in FreeBMD, then you will need to access one of the numerous commercial providers that make the GRO index available, or if the registration would have taken place in your local area, visit your local register office.

FreeBMD is very easy to use, but the ease of your search will depend on how common the names are that you are searching for.

Once you have found the references on FreeBMD you can order the certificates from the General Register Office, they cost £9.25 each. Note that there are commercial websites via which you can order certificates, but this is often at an inflated cost and is unnecessary and should usually be avoided.

Tip 2 – use UKBMD to search local registers

If you are having trouble locating the correct entry in the GRO indexes, try the local indexes. Some areas have made their indexes available online via UKBMD. There are instances where entries have been omitted from, or miss-transcribed in the national indexes, so you may find success with the local indexes where GRO searches have failed. Another good reason for making use of local indexes is that in some cases they contain more information than the GRO index, for example, from September 1911 the mother’s maiden name was included in the GRO birth index. Some local registers on UKBMD include this information for the earlier period.

Tip 3 – learn about registration districts on GENUKI

To help you locate the correct registration references for your ancestors  you should understand that that civil registration was organised by registration district, a guide to registration districts and the places within them is on GENUKI.

Tip 4 – economise on marriage certificate costs by consulting parish marriage records

If the £9.25 for a  marriage certificate is too much for you now, wait until we look at Parish Registers in a couple of weeks time, you may be able to obtain the same marriage information without paying for the certificate.

Task 2 – update your family tree

Certificates from the GRO usually arrive in under a week, update your genealogy software or family tree chart with all the new information.

Links

A useful guide to FreeBMD

Commercial websites that offer access to the GRO indexes include:

findmypast

Ancestry.co.uk

Family Relatives

The Genealogist

Genes Reunited

If the new series of Who Do You Think You Are? has inspired you to start researching your family history, I would love to hear how you are getting on!

If you have any trouble using FreeBMD or ordering certificates ask a question here.

This post follows on from: Inspired by WDYTYA? and Samantha Womack?

You may now like to read Inspired by WDYTYA? and Patrick Stewart?