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A look at the Free Research sites listed in the
left column.
These are not sites that just link to
other sites. They have searchable databases covering over 2 billion people.
MyTrees.com*: Census details
for US, Canada (1871 Head of Household List) & Britain (3% of the 1851 British census). Special Collection Archives, Global name search
and more. (Search over 1 billion names).
Family Search: A vast collection of
births, baptisms, marriages & deaths, collected by the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints.
Ellis Island Passenger Search: If your relatives emigrated to America through Ellis Island, New York,
between 1892 - 1924 (22
million did) they
are probably listed here.
FreeBMD: Provides free Internet access to the Civil
Registration index information for England and Wales for the period 1837-1983 (not all the Index
has been transcribed at present).
FreeCen: A free-to-view online
searchable database of the 19th century UK census returns.
FreeReg: Provides
free Internet searches of baptism, marriage, and burial records, which
have been transcribed from parish and non-conformist church registers in
the UK.
Western Australian Convict Ships: The
definitive site for Convict Research on the Web. Plus an
excellent links page to other sites.
Irish Transportation Records:
Transportation of criminals from Ireland to Australia covering the period
1788 to 1868.
WorldConnect: Aiming to provide
a resource which can connect the family trees of everyone in the
world. 320,000000 names.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission: 1.7
million members of the Commonwealth forces who died in the First or Second
World Wars. Plus 60,000 civilians who were killed in the Second
World War is provided without burial details.
The Canadian Virtual War Memorial
Registry of information about the graves and memorials of
116,000 Canadians and Newfoundlanders who served valiantly and gave their
lives for their country.
GeneaNet
A searchable database of 90 million names.
Roots Web
The biggest collection of genealogy links in the world
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Basic
advice.
There are literally thousand of heritage sites that tell you how
to search for your ancestors, so if you need more in-depth advice
see Roots Web or buy a book (above).
Where To Begin
The Learning Centre at OneGreatFamily has a collection of articles
designed to help you get the most out of your Family History search including:
- How to get started with your genealogy.
- A glossary of Genealogy Terms.
- Links to other valuable genealogy sites.
- Articles on finding information about your ancestors.
- Tips on looking at genealogy documents.
- Information about the origin of names.
- Family Connection Ideas.
We recommend you give them a try, it could prove invaluable to your
ongoing search.
Important: Start where you want.
Research who you want. Do it in a way you want. This is
not a test. This is a hobby. This is just one suggested
way to go about it.
Start by collecting information about
yourself. Jot down the important things in your life:
Your date of birth, your place of birth, your date
and place of marriage, where and when you
went to school, college, university and all your qualifications
including the dates you got them, your employment record, again
include dates of all your jobs.
Repeat the above with your spouse, your children
and grandchildren. (If you have any).
Then with your parents, grandparents,
great-grandparents and great-great grandparents. (All 16) See
chart at bottom of this page. This bit is harder than it
sounds. You're not going to find all 16 great-great
grandparents in a weekend. For a start that's 31 people in
your tree just there and that's just your direct descendents, there
will be many hundreds if not thousands of people in your tree by the
time you have your last great-great grandparent written down. It is a slow methodical trawl
through history.
Hunt Out The Paperwork
Find your birth certificate.
Marriage certificate.
Educational achievements.
Any other achievements you may have, (sports, first-aid, employee of
the month, anything
that will be of interest to future family members and sheds light on
the past). Photos of yourself throughout your life. Again repeat for your spouse, children, grandchildren.
And if you can. Repeat for your parents
grandparents, great-grandparents and your great-great-grandparents.
Which Line To Research
Its a common practice to start with the fathers
line because that gave you your surname. However this practice
is not written in stone and indeed a lot of people research a few
lines at a time. Unusual surnames can make for an easier
trace. i.e. your mothers, mother may have a rare and unusual surname
which may make it easier to track.
How Much Detail Is Enough
As little or as much as you want. The basic
information should be, name, age, date and place of birth,
date and place of death. Although for the sake of adding interest for
all your readers you should also add as much relevant information as
you possibly can. (Interesting story's, qualifications,
occupations, etc).
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