Family history is one of Britain's fastest growing hobbies. Here are our top tips
for beginning this intriguing research.
1. Talk to the family
Start
by interviewing any relatives about what they remember about their parents,
grandparents, brothers and sisters. Make a note of everything no matter how
strange it seems and who told you the fact. Although everything might not fit
together at first it may later. Memories can play tricks over time so you will
need to check these facts against other records.
2. Find what you already have at home
Look
for any birth, marriage and death certificates you or other family members have.
Do you have a family bible; a photograph album or postcard collection; has anyone
in the family collected newspaper reports; did anyone have any war medals? All
these things can tell you something about your family.
3. Start drawing your family tree
Write
down everything you have already found out making a note if you have any hard
evidence like a marriage certificate. If you aren’t sure of anything put a question
mark next to it, these are the things you will need to search for.
4. Find out what records are available and how to use them
Once
you have collected your information and made a start on writing things down
you should be able to see what information you need to start looking for.
Your
local library will have a number of books on how to research your family tree
that you can borrow. These will help you find out what records are available
to you and what sort of information you can find from them.
Think
about joining your local family history society for a year to meet up with other
people who are interested in family history, they could help with your research.
If your family are not local to this area think about joining a society from
their area instead.
You
could even look to see if there is a beginners class in family history in the
area, this would give you basic help and advice to get you started.
5. Work backwards and check everything
Start
with yourself and work backwards checking with original documents every time
you can rather than relying on other peoples work.
Don’t
make large jumps and assume you will fill in the gap later, you may find you’ve
been barking up the wrong tree.
Don’t
exclude a name because the spelling isn’t the same, as spelling has changed
over time or someone may have written the name as they heard it rather than
asking how to spell it.
6. Organise your paperwork
You
need to make sure that you keep good records by making a note of what information
you have found and where you found it. Things may be easy at first but as time
passes and your files grow you may not be able to remember where something came
from and you might need to recheck your facts. Also you need to keep a record
of what you have looked at so you don’t end up checking things two or even three
times.
More information
If you would like more information about tracing your family history please
contact Carol Longbone at North Lincolnshire Reference Library on 01724 860161
or by email at ref.library@northlincs.gov.uk.