Ancestry Research

Introduction to useful sites for family history research So, you are researching your family history! You may be a newcomer to the hobby or you may have already made great progress. One thing is for sure, all of us doing family history research need good sources of information. These days we have the wonderful world wide web and numerous online sources that can prove very useful in our research. Of course, you can cough up a monthly or annual subscription to one of the paid Family History sites such as Ancestry, MyHeritage and FindMyPast (there are several others too). I have used several of these over the years and currently MyHeritage is the one I subscribe too though I have free accounts on others (limited features of course but still useful). However, this post is not about which paid site you should go for (that's a whole topic in and of itself) - maybe the next one). Instead this is to share some of the free sites that I have found useful. First up is Historic UK Historic UK ...

Landguard Point Fort, Felixstowe Welcome to my blog about researching your ancestry ( family history ). I hope to post information that will be of use to anyone researching their family history. As I live in Essex ( UK ) I will be mainly posting about Essex-related matters but I am originally from Lancashire , with family roots going back to Yorkshire as well. So, I intend to include information related to those areas too. As a big fan of computers and the internet I will post about software and sites too that will be useful to anyone searching for more information about the ancestors. Another interest of mine is photography and we all like to have photos of our ancestors. I sometimes buy old postcards and have a small collection of photographs of people unrelated to myself (as far as I know anyway) and will be posting some of these on the site too. Related articles by Zemanta Aussies are branching out into history (news.theage.com.au) Need a source? Canadian Ce...

Image by paparutzi via Flickr FamilySearch .Org is a website provided by  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . You can search your family history for free and as  FamilySearch is the largest genealogy  organisation in the world there are plenty of records for you to explore. Every day millions of people use FamilySearch records, resources, and services to learn more about their family history. They have been collating data now for over 100 years, You can also use any of over 4,500 family history centers in 70 countries to do your research, though many find the web a convenient way to do their research. Check out their site at FamilySearch Related articles New FamilySearch Forum (seattlefhc.com) FamilySearch.org is fostering third party innovation (bloggingdave.wordpress.com) "Super Indexing Sunday" Breaks World Record With 2 Million Records Indexed in a Day (staynalive.com) FamilySearch.org To Discuss Living/Dead Relationship Technolo...

Image via Wikipedia Most of us are happy to discover something about our grand-parents and great- grandparents when researching our family history . When we start to dig deeper in our family history we would probably be over the moon if we discovered details of our family history as far back as the 16th century or even the 15th century . One reason for this is the difficulty of research this far back, with the types of records being available not one you can easily gain access to and also due to the relative paucity of records prior to the early 1800's. Parish records can go back quite a way before this of course but unless you are related to the aristocracy or royalty, chances are the will be few records available for your ancestors . So, how would you feel about tracing your ancestors back 40,000 years? Impossible, you may think. Well, think again. With advances in DNA research it's becoming more common everyday for genetic lines to be followed back further in history. ...

Image via CrunchBase Isn't the web amazing! There is so much stuff out there and new web sites and pages are being added every day by the thousands. According to Netcraft.com , there are over 227 million websites in the world and in September so far another 14 million were added to world wide web. So, chances are that some of those are about genealogy and indeed, a Google search for 'genealogy' produces  almost 43 million hits. Its no surprise then that you will find excellent resources online to help you with your genealogical research . One such site is http://www.geneasearch.com/ Although the look of the site is fairly basic, its very functional and so its relatively easy to navigate. Her's what they say about themselves: "Looking for free genealogy look ups, tips, databases, free searches, photos, links, family newsletters, genealogy freebies, biographies, beginners, and much more to help find your ancestors and surnames? Genealogy research can be gre...

Image via Wikipedia There are a wealth of free resources online used by genealogists - here is a small selection: www.freebmd.org.uk for some birth, marriage and death records in England and Wales . www.familysearch.org for selected parish records . www.rootsweb.com for genealogy chat and all kinds of relevant information. Remember that none of these is going to hold all of the records that you want.Also, at some stage you will eventually need to pay for some things such as birth, marriage and death certificates . Most people use computer software to hold their family tree details and produce nice looking charts. In a forthcoming post I will look at some of the software packages available. In the meantime, why not check out the three sites above as they are an excellent place to start. Related articles by Zemanta Discover Your Roots (lifescript.com) Family Tree Help! Free e-Book Teaches You How to Research and Fill in Your Family Tree Template (prweb.com) Ne...

Image via Wikipedia Colchester has an excellent library and has excellent resources for anyone researching heir family history . If you are unable to visit Colchester and would like me to do research on your behalf I can provide this service at a very reasonable rate of £15/hr. If you wish me to travel to locations in Essex for the purpose of taking photographs and doing research 'in the field' then there would be an additional charge of 45p/mile. I would then email and post to you anywhere in the world free of charge any materials and photographs I had gathered together. If you are interested in this service please email initially at "s.daleATntlworld.com" Steven Related articles by Zemanta Ancestry.com Acquiring iArchives For $27 Million (paidcontent.org) "History & Genealogy: Online Databases: Ancestry.com to Acquire Footnote.com (iArchives)" and related posts (web.resourceshelf.com) No plan to replace towns bus station (chelmsfo...

Cottage in Caton in Littledale where my ancestors the Becks lived I am a Mac user and though there are some very good Family History programs for the Mac, I was attracted by Family Tree Maker 2010 for several reasons. It included a 6-month ancestry.co.uk Essentials Membership as part of the package - a fantastic deal and saving over £65! It's advertised as the No. 1 selling family history software It's a UK version It came with various other deals including 25% off MyCanvas Printed Books and Posters Savings on Arrowfile Genealogy Albums and Acid Free Archival Pages , worth up to £44 It comes with the trusted Ancestry.co.uk branding - hence the free 6-months membership. As I already had a membership with them that had lapsed and was ready to edit my family tree again and see what new leads they had discovered this was what sealed the deal for me. So, it was with great anticipation that I installed the software on my Mac - using Parallels Desktop to run it in Wind...