No, we're not talking about a pair of couples out to dinner - this is all about the worldwide transition from the Julian (Old Style) Calendar to the Gregorian (New Style). This can cause some confusion to the new researcher.
In the Julian Calendar, the year ended on March 25th. The complicated reasons for calendar reform I shall leave to others better qualified, as my concern is to provide the facts as they apply to the family historian.
The Gregorian Calendar was first introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, and it addressed the problem of an imprecise Julian dating system that caused gradual shifts in the calendar - in a nutshell, the vernal (Spring) equinox had shifted from 21st March in the year 325 to around the 11th March by 1582, shifting Easter along with it. Along with more complex leap year rules to ensure that a calendar year, on average, ran parallel to the lunar year, the change from Julian to Gregorian calendar also included the removal of 10 days from the calendar to re-align the dates to the original spring equinox.
Many Catholic European countries adopted the Gregorian Calendar throughout the latter part of 1582, but protestants resisted change and it occurred very gradually throughout protestant countries and their colonies.
The British government adopted the Gregorian calendar at home and in her colonies (including America) in 1752, by which point the time shift had increased to 11 days, so Wednesday 2nd September 1752 (Julian) was followed by Thursday 14th September.
From the first introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1582 until its adoption in Britain, it was very common for scribes to record a date falling between 1st January and 25th March with both years, so you will often see dates recorded as 1st January 1730/1 or similar. This is what we refer to as double-dating.
The British tax system never changed to adjust for the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, which is why your tax year still starts in early April.
One of the key issues for the family researcher is the fact that an event recorded in February 1730 actually occurred before one in December of the same year. I can't count the number of times, during my learning curve, that I discounted a child of a family because a legitimate birth appeared to happen some months before the wedding or I missed a child's death because it seemed to occur before the birth.
You will also find that some family tree software will ring automated alarm bells if you say a child was born in December 1730 and died in February 1730, telling you this can't possibly be right.
This brings about the next problem - do you record the events as they were recorded at the time, or do you translate them to the new style calendar to ensure your family tree software can apply its own logic? I haven't found a definitive answer for this, but I would always recommend making a decision to do one or the other from the outset and stick to that decision. It is also useful to ensure that you make it clear in the notes which calendar you have used, including the double-date. You don't want to find yourself with a tree containing a few thousand people where you've used a mixture of Julian and Gregorian dates and trying to correct them later.
Owing to the limitations of family tree programmes, my advice would be to record all dates in the Gregorian calendar and comment on each record where this has occurred. I hope one day that software will be developed with this problem accounted for, and the programme will be able to cope with double-dates.
Friday, 12 July 2013
Monday, 8 July 2013
Forenames in Modern History
Understanding a bit about naming trends over the last 400 years or so can be very useful to the family history researcher, as this can often help to separate two families of the same period headed by couples of the same names.
Until the 19th century, the British public were not particularly creative when it came to naming their children, a very high proportion of people carried one of a small choice of very common names and certain traditions were expected to be observed.
Once you trace your tree back to around the mid 19th century, especially if they were ordinary labouring folk, you will find the following names cropping up almost exclusively:
Males: William, Thomas, John, James, Peter, Richard, Robert - less frequently- Henry, Edward, Hugh, Gilbert, Miles. Roger was common up to the 17th century, but seemed to fall out of fashion. Even when monarchs of a particular name came to the throne, families stuck to the tried and tested (there are few Georges around throughout the entire Georgian period)
Females: Mary, Ann, Elizabeth, Alice, Margaret, Martha, Ellen, Margery, Jennet/Jane/Jenny, Sarah, Catherine - Dorothy was also common up to the 17th century.
Presumably a strong reason for the failure of new names to be introduced was the naming rules that most families adhered to where couples were expected to name their children after existing family members. With so many people to name their children after, there was little opportunity to introduce a name simply because they liked it:
Firstborn son - named after his paternal grandfather
Firstborn daughter - named after her paternal grandmother
Secondborn son - named after his maternal grandfather
Secondborn daughter - named after her maternal grandmother
Third born of each gender - usually named after the parents (unless they shared a name with one already used)
Subsequent children were usually named after the parents' siblings - that sibling would more often than not have been a godparent, but Godparents are rarely recorded in Anglican baptisms.
A further important rule to be aware of is that, if a child died, the next child born of the same gender would almost always take the name of the dead sibling. This seems strange to us, as our culture would balk at the apparent replacement of a lost child, but the naming rules were important to most people (and a dead firstborn son would create a vacancy for a child bearing his paternal grandfather's name). It should also be remembered that, though still a dreadful experience, losing a child was by no means unexpected. Most families had a large number of children, and those that lost none of them were the exception rather than the rule. Even a brief glance through a few families in the 1911 census (which records the number of children born and died in a marriage) will demonstrate how many families buried at least one child.
The duplicate naming after a child that died is important to keep in mind. If you find a family that, according to the rules, should have firstborns named John and Mary, yet you find a group of children with a younger child named John who has older brothers, you might rule them out - don't - check for deaths of a child of that name from the date of the next youngest son to the date of little John's birth. The eldest son, John, may have lived through the births of various brothers who were suitably named according to the rule. Then John died and the next baby was named after him.
If you already know the parents of the man of the family, and haven't yet identified his wife's surname or family, this naming pattern can help enormously. If Thomas' parents were John and Mary and you know Thomas and his wife, Ellen, have named their first two children John and Mary, you can be quietly confident that the next two were named after Mary's parents. The only likely exception would be if Ellen's parents were also named John or Mary (in which case child #1 would of course be named after both grandparents). However, if this is the case, the second born would then take his or her parent's name. If they don't, you can be confident there was no name duplication amongst the grandparents. If Thomas and Ellen's second born children of each gender were named William and Ann, we know that it is more than likely that Ellen's parents were William and Ann.
The above example is from a real family in my tree:
Thomas, born 1794 to John & Mary married Ellen, born illegitimately in 1795 to William and Ann
Children:
Mary 1817 (after Thomas' mother)
Ann 1819 (after Ellen's mother)
John 1821 (after Thomas' father)
Martha 1825
Ellen 1827 (after mother, Ellen) died a few weeks old
William 1828 (after Ellen's father)
Thomas c1830 (after father, Thomas)
Edward c1833 (name match to Ellen's grandfather and brother)
Henry 1836
Had there been another daughter after 1827, she would almost certainly have been named Ellen, after her mother and dead sister. As Thomas had only one brother, named John, there were no further male names in the paternal family to use. Edward appears in Ellen's family, and her grandfather, Edward, had left the family some land in 1826, so it's no surprise to see him honoured amongst the children's names.
The only exception to the rule for the first three of each gender is Martha, and there is no obvious reason for this, but the naming after the grandparents first has been strictly followed before they broke the rules. Henry is the only other child without an obvious namesake, but as the youngest, with no known uncles left to name him after, it's possible this child was named simply based on preference of the parents.
Occasionally couples might dispense with naming after themselves (as there was no-one to offend by doing so). Occasions when the naming after grandparents broke with tradition usually come with an obvious reason:
When couples lived with the wife's parents, especially when the husband's parents were from another town, first children sometimes took the maternal grandparents names first. Clearly couples wished to honour the parents on whom they were more dependant.
Equally, if the wife's family was significantly better off than the husband's, the couple may name after them before the paternal side. It was always wise to ensure you ingratiated yourself at the earliest opportunity - you wouldn't want to miss an opportunity to name your first son after his wealthy grandfather, as you might find you have no more male children on whom you can bestow the name.
Frustratingly for the researcher, there were some families who ignored the accepted naming rules, but the majority who did make our task a lot easier.
The Victorian period brought about a very gradual shift away from the old names and traditions. It by no means changed in one generation, and despite Victoria and Albert choosing quite creative names for their children, the public were very slow to follow suit. Perhaps the public embraced the change gradually as they slowly warmed to Victoria and Albert, who were not an instant hit with the general population.
By the end of the 19th century, change was well underway. Many families had broken with the naming traditions and were choosing names based on fashion. Equally, middle names gradually increase in popularity throughout the century. By 1900, an array of new names were commonplace alongside the traditional ones.
As middle names grew in popularity, some families started to include family surnames. Occasionally, this would work alongside the tradition of naming after grandparents, so if a mother was named Smith, her child might be named Thomas Smith Hughes. If only one child had this middle name, chances are the maternal grandfather was called Thomas Smith and the child was given both of his names. In this way, one family might include 3 different surnames as middle names after the maternal grandfather and both grandmothers.
Other families might include one family surname as a middle name for all the children, usually the mother's maiden name - a gift for the family historian.
Though traditions of naming children after grandparents still persisted to a degree - and still does, it was no longer expected by most people. Sometimes the family names would survive as middle names and the child got a new, fashionable first name.
Popular late Victorian names include:
Albert, Alfred, Ernest, Reginald, Norman, Frederick, Timothy, Percy, Wilfred, Lawrence, Geoffrey, Eric, Harold, Walter, Stanley
Gertrude, Emma, Beatrice, Emily, Emma, Winifred, Ada, Constance, Edith, Clara, Eva, Lily, Gladys, Joyce
With a wide choice of first and middle names to choose from, even those with common surnames would often have a fairly unique full name, making it relatively easy for the family historian to trace their family back to the mid 19th century, at which point we can rely on most families following naming rules to assist us in tracing them further back.
.
Until the 19th century, the British public were not particularly creative when it came to naming their children, a very high proportion of people carried one of a small choice of very common names and certain traditions were expected to be observed.
Once you trace your tree back to around the mid 19th century, especially if they were ordinary labouring folk, you will find the following names cropping up almost exclusively:
Males: William, Thomas, John, James, Peter, Richard, Robert - less frequently- Henry, Edward, Hugh, Gilbert, Miles. Roger was common up to the 17th century, but seemed to fall out of fashion. Even when monarchs of a particular name came to the throne, families stuck to the tried and tested (there are few Georges around throughout the entire Georgian period)
Females: Mary, Ann, Elizabeth, Alice, Margaret, Martha, Ellen, Margery, Jennet/Jane/Jenny, Sarah, Catherine - Dorothy was also common up to the 17th century.
Presumably a strong reason for the failure of new names to be introduced was the naming rules that most families adhered to where couples were expected to name their children after existing family members. With so many people to name their children after, there was little opportunity to introduce a name simply because they liked it:
Firstborn son - named after his paternal grandfather
Firstborn daughter - named after her paternal grandmother
Secondborn son - named after his maternal grandfather
Secondborn daughter - named after her maternal grandmother
Third born of each gender - usually named after the parents (unless they shared a name with one already used)
Subsequent children were usually named after the parents' siblings - that sibling would more often than not have been a godparent, but Godparents are rarely recorded in Anglican baptisms.
A further important rule to be aware of is that, if a child died, the next child born of the same gender would almost always take the name of the dead sibling. This seems strange to us, as our culture would balk at the apparent replacement of a lost child, but the naming rules were important to most people (and a dead firstborn son would create a vacancy for a child bearing his paternal grandfather's name). It should also be remembered that, though still a dreadful experience, losing a child was by no means unexpected. Most families had a large number of children, and those that lost none of them were the exception rather than the rule. Even a brief glance through a few families in the 1911 census (which records the number of children born and died in a marriage) will demonstrate how many families buried at least one child.
The duplicate naming after a child that died is important to keep in mind. If you find a family that, according to the rules, should have firstborns named John and Mary, yet you find a group of children with a younger child named John who has older brothers, you might rule them out - don't - check for deaths of a child of that name from the date of the next youngest son to the date of little John's birth. The eldest son, John, may have lived through the births of various brothers who were suitably named according to the rule. Then John died and the next baby was named after him.
If you already know the parents of the man of the family, and haven't yet identified his wife's surname or family, this naming pattern can help enormously. If Thomas' parents were John and Mary and you know Thomas and his wife, Ellen, have named their first two children John and Mary, you can be quietly confident that the next two were named after Mary's parents. The only likely exception would be if Ellen's parents were also named John or Mary (in which case child #1 would of course be named after both grandparents). However, if this is the case, the second born would then take his or her parent's name. If they don't, you can be confident there was no name duplication amongst the grandparents. If Thomas and Ellen's second born children of each gender were named William and Ann, we know that it is more than likely that Ellen's parents were William and Ann.
The above example is from a real family in my tree:
Thomas, born 1794 to John & Mary married Ellen, born illegitimately in 1795 to William and Ann
Children:
Mary 1817 (after Thomas' mother)
Ann 1819 (after Ellen's mother)
John 1821 (after Thomas' father)
Martha 1825
Ellen 1827 (after mother, Ellen) died a few weeks old
William 1828 (after Ellen's father)
Thomas c1830 (after father, Thomas)
Edward c1833 (name match to Ellen's grandfather and brother)
Henry 1836
Had there been another daughter after 1827, she would almost certainly have been named Ellen, after her mother and dead sister. As Thomas had only one brother, named John, there were no further male names in the paternal family to use. Edward appears in Ellen's family, and her grandfather, Edward, had left the family some land in 1826, so it's no surprise to see him honoured amongst the children's names.
The only exception to the rule for the first three of each gender is Martha, and there is no obvious reason for this, but the naming after the grandparents first has been strictly followed before they broke the rules. Henry is the only other child without an obvious namesake, but as the youngest, with no known uncles left to name him after, it's possible this child was named simply based on preference of the parents.
Occasionally couples might dispense with naming after themselves (as there was no-one to offend by doing so). Occasions when the naming after grandparents broke with tradition usually come with an obvious reason:
When couples lived with the wife's parents, especially when the husband's parents were from another town, first children sometimes took the maternal grandparents names first. Clearly couples wished to honour the parents on whom they were more dependant.
Equally, if the wife's family was significantly better off than the husband's, the couple may name after them before the paternal side. It was always wise to ensure you ingratiated yourself at the earliest opportunity - you wouldn't want to miss an opportunity to name your first son after his wealthy grandfather, as you might find you have no more male children on whom you can bestow the name.
Frustratingly for the researcher, there were some families who ignored the accepted naming rules, but the majority who did make our task a lot easier.
The Victorian period brought about a very gradual shift away from the old names and traditions. It by no means changed in one generation, and despite Victoria and Albert choosing quite creative names for their children, the public were very slow to follow suit. Perhaps the public embraced the change gradually as they slowly warmed to Victoria and Albert, who were not an instant hit with the general population.
By the end of the 19th century, change was well underway. Many families had broken with the naming traditions and were choosing names based on fashion. Equally, middle names gradually increase in popularity throughout the century. By 1900, an array of new names were commonplace alongside the traditional ones.
As middle names grew in popularity, some families started to include family surnames. Occasionally, this would work alongside the tradition of naming after grandparents, so if a mother was named Smith, her child might be named Thomas Smith Hughes. If only one child had this middle name, chances are the maternal grandfather was called Thomas Smith and the child was given both of his names. In this way, one family might include 3 different surnames as middle names after the maternal grandfather and both grandmothers.
Other families might include one family surname as a middle name for all the children, usually the mother's maiden name - a gift for the family historian.
Though traditions of naming children after grandparents still persisted to a degree - and still does, it was no longer expected by most people. Sometimes the family names would survive as middle names and the child got a new, fashionable first name.
Popular late Victorian names include:
Albert, Alfred, Ernest, Reginald, Norman, Frederick, Timothy, Percy, Wilfred, Lawrence, Geoffrey, Eric, Harold, Walter, Stanley
Gertrude, Emma, Beatrice, Emily, Emma, Winifred, Ada, Constance, Edith, Clara, Eva, Lily, Gladys, Joyce
With a wide choice of first and middle names to choose from, even those with common surnames would often have a fairly unique full name, making it relatively easy for the family historian to trace their family back to the mid 19th century, at which point we can rely on most families following naming rules to assist us in tracing them further back.
.
Saturday, 6 July 2013
Primary Genealogy Links
When I started my own tree in 2002, I had very limited resources, so avoided paying for anything if at all possible. My one luxury was a premium UK and Irish subscription to Ancestry. Although a fairly substantial investment, if it's a hobby you expect to pursue at some length, I find it's a worthwhile purchase - currently an annual subscription runs at just over £100 so, at a couple of quid a week, it's not an extortionate amount to pay for such a rewarding pastime.
I do now also hold a subscription for Find My Past. Though I don't find this search facility as user-friendly, I admit to being much more familiar with Ancestry's interface, but it also permits a range of cross-record search options, such as family members, and the keyword search is an absolute Godsend, allowing a basic name and county or town search. Find My Past permits very little in the general search across all records, which means the results are often too numerous. There is the option to refine the search in specific database results, but it's still very limited. The newspaper refined search option does allow keywords, but I would be much happier to see a keyword option in the primary search page.
The two sites double-up on a lot of databases, though Find My Past's census transcriptions do seem more accurate, I can usually find what I need in Ancestry, and will try Find My Past on the rare occasions I draw a blank on Ancestry after employing my usual tricks to bypass mistranscriptions.. What I use Find My Past for most at present is the Merchant Sailors' records, which Ancestry doesn't hold. Ancestry is also excellent for its Lancashire & Yorkshire records, especially Liverpool church records (including the previously elusive Catholic events). They also hold good London church records. Find My Past specialises on other datasets from other counties. Though these have proven less useful to me, it's worth researching what they hold if you're planning to choose one, as your area of interest and which site holds more of them could strongly influence your decision.
The two sites double-up on a lot of databases, though Find My Past's census transcriptions do seem more accurate, I can usually find what I need in Ancestry, and will try Find My Past on the rare occasions I draw a blank on Ancestry after employing my usual tricks to bypass mistranscriptions.. What I use Find My Past for most at present is the Merchant Sailors' records, which Ancestry doesn't hold. Ancestry is also excellent for its Lancashire & Yorkshire records, especially Liverpool church records (including the previously elusive Catholic events). They also hold good London church records. Find My Past specialises on other datasets from other counties. Though these have proven less useful to me, it's worth researching what they hold if you're planning to choose one, as your area of interest and which site holds more of them could strongly influence your decision.
Both sites have a range of outbound and inbound passengers which are useful, and I have no reason to doubt that the coverage of these will further improve over the coming years. They also both have armed forces records, with Find My Past winning on the time periods covered. Find My Past also has some wonderful early probate summaries, including some full original wills and an ever-increasing collection of British newspapers. Ancestry offers scans of more recent probate records that provides death dates, addresses and names of executors (usually close relatives).
With a subscription to at least one of the above sites and a list of useful free sites, you have what you need to make good progress. When you meet brick walls, persistence with what you currently have often pays dividends, but you may occasionally have to resort to buying copies of certificates - as an indication of how often, I should share that in a tree of just over 13,000 people, I have probably bought less than 10 certificates - though often I have used Liverpool Record Office to obtain the same information, so I did invest some time and effort to avoid the certificate fee.
There are so many free records out there that are invaluable to the family historian, it would be impossible for me to get round to them all in one sitting, so I will add to this list as I go along, but here are the main ones I use on a regular basis (due to my areas of interest, you'll note a strong leaning to the excellent range of Lancashire resources, but I'll prioritise the general UK sites):
FreeBMD - This site is amongst the first offering really useful free information. It took some years for the volunteer contributors to complete the database, but it now holds the full national Birth, Marriage and Death indices for the UK from their introduction in July 1837 to the early 20th century. Though not entirely complete for later records, a great many run into the mid part of last century. This resource is invaluable for narrowing down event dates to a three month period (but be aware that a birth or death record occurring very close to the end of one quarter may have been recorded in the next, so a child born in late March may have been registered in the April-June quarter. In BMD records, the month listed refers to the 3 month period ending with that month, so the June Quarter covers events registered April 1st - June 30th.
FamilySearch - The original free genealogical resource. This is built upon the enormous database developed many years before the web by the Church of Latterday Saints called the IGI (International Genealogical Index). This contains mostly church records from across the globe, and covers a huge proportion of protestant records. Most church records don't survive (or weren't effectively kept in the first place) much before 1600 - in Britain, it wasn't until later in the reign of Elizabeth I that there was any effort by the state to ensure that family events were accurately recorded. the IGI has transcribed many of these. In addition, over recent years, the LDS site has added other types of records, anjd includes references to many census returns and other records. The only disadvantage is the there are standard details transcribed (family members named in the record and date & place of event), but many additional details are not transcribed, so where an address or father's occupation is also included in the original record, this won't show on the IGI. However, it's an excellent place to start, and will provide the church and date which will enable you to seek out the original for further information (from the local record office or one of the many LDS libraries around the world).
UKBMD - This site is searchable by county and provides information on what, if any, local BMD indeces are available online. Some UK counties are signed up to the UKBMD project and have their own searchable sites (LancashireBMD being one of them). I find the Lancashire site useful for searching marriages alongside the FreeBMD record. LancashireBMD provides only the year of the event, and rarely includes middle names (FreeBMD provides middle names for most years and the quarter year of the event). However, if the event took place in the established church, LancashireBMD will provide this (the statement "register office or registrar attended" means a civil ceremony or a place of worship where a registrar was required to issue the licence - such as a Catholic Church). The information from the two sites combined enables you to visit the local record office armed with a church and three month period to easily track down the church register, which includes the same information as the certificate.
Rootschat - This is a remarkable site which can be a lifeline for the foundering researcher, especially those new to the pastime. Here you can ask for help making sense of the records or ask for an occasional lookup (someone to check out resources you don't have access to). It's a voluntary cooperative of fellow researchers, and you'll find some very helpful people willing to offer their assistance for free. As a result, I would advise being prepared to return the favour. Though people will look up census returns through their subscriptions, if you know you'll want a lot, you may need to invest in a subscription yourself, rather than rely on the investment of others. I have often assisted others on this site, and those with Worldwide Ancestry membership have helped me out with non-UK records. As your skills and resources develop, I strongly recommend helping others out to return the favour and put something back into this wonderful community.
Google - I have to include the basic Google search (or other search engine of your choice) as a great way of getting past a hump in the road. When stuck, Googling a name and town can often turn up some interesting and informative results. Doing this has resulted in countless small, personal sites that contain parish transcriptions and even once threw up a book written about an ancestor, which opened a door to Scottish Kings, William the Conqueror and beyond.
Lancashire Online Parish Clerk Project - OK, here's where I indulge my Lancashire-centric leanings. This is a wonderful project and those of us with a plethora of Lancashire folk in our trees are incredibly lucky to have this resource. It's an ongoing project to transcribe (mostly) church records in the county. It's very easy to use and is absolutely free!
Should anyone require information or help on a particular resource, leave a comment and I'll work on a guide/tutorial.
Lancashire Online Parish Clerk Project - OK, here's where I indulge my Lancashire-centric leanings. This is a wonderful project and those of us with a plethora of Lancashire folk in our trees are incredibly lucky to have this resource. It's an ongoing project to transcribe (mostly) church records in the county. It's very easy to use and is absolutely free!
Should anyone require information or help on a particular resource, leave a comment and I'll work on a guide/tutorial.
Essential Resources - The Census
The other primary source any researcher will need to access is the census. Though you can dabble in the early stages with free access to the 1881 census through Family Search and Ancestry, I'm afraid this is one resource you will either need to invest money or time into, as the only way of accessing all censuses for free is by getting on your bike and accessing a Family History Centre (provided by the Church of Latterday Saints) or your local library.
If you're serious about researching your family pretty thoroughly, you will need to pay for these records, but I feel this is a cost worth weathering for the extra resources you'll have at your disposal. Subscriptions (the most cost effective means of accessing paid-for resources if you're using them on a regular basis) are currently just over £100 per year from Ancestry and Find My Past, with the latter usually offering 10% discounts for new and renewal customers. Though the outlay seems high, you can manage with only one (as both offer the basic resources you'll need), and the subscription will cost less than £10 per month - a couple of quid per week - which isn't too bad compared to other pastimes. Though my income was low in my first few years, I did indulge in an Ancestry subscription from the outset. I now have a subscription for both, as each have their own special collections that are useful when you start to dig a little deeper into your ancestor's lives.
I'll work on the assumption that you can access all census returns through some means.
The census Act was passed in 1800, and a regular census was first introduced in the UK in 1801, though the first few are of limited use to the family historian, as they gathered very little personal information and they are not included in the subscriptions mentioned above. The census was taken in England, Wales and Scotland and, from 1821-1911, included the whole of Ireland, though very few Irish censuses before 1901 survive. Each census was taken as a snapshot of the population on a given night of the year. With the exception of 1941, a full census has been taken every 10 years since 1801.
Dates of UK censuses:
1801 - Tuesday, 10 March
1811 - Monday, 27 May
1821 - Monday, 28 May
1831 - Monday, 30 May
1841 - Sunday, 6 June
1851 - Sunday, 30 March
1861 - Sunday, 7 April
1871 - Sunday, 2 April
1881 - Sunday, 3 April
1891 - Sunday, 5 April
1901 - Sunday, 31 March
1911 - Sunday, 2 April
Later censuses are not yet available to the public.
The censuses 1801-1831, mostly carried out by local overseers of the poor, were only concerned with the numbers of people, households, occupations and church records to provide a summary of the number of people and how fast the population was increasing. Generally, the individual records used to gather this information was destroyed, and only the summaries survive. In my research, I have only found one case of individual household data being preserved (for a village in Norfolk in 1831), and this only records the name of the head of the household and how many males and females therein.
The population act of 1840 allowed for greater detail in the information gathered, and was implemented in the census of the following year. From hereon in, the census was administered on a national level. Forms were delivered to households a few days before the census, to be completed by the householder. Enumerators would assist the illiterate to complete them. It is from this point that census returns become useful to the researcher. The 1841 census recorded the names and occupations of the occupants and their ages rounded DOWN to the nearest multiple of 5 - so anyone aged 45-49 would be recorded as 45 years old. Only children under 15 were recorded with their exact age. Each individual was also recorded with a "Y" or "N" to indicate whether or not they were born in the county in which they currently resided. The only exceptions to this were: "I" (Ireland), "S" (Scotland) and "F" (Foreign Parts). Occasionally more exact details were recorded, sometimes crossed out later.
From 1851, the census recorded names, exact age, marital status, relationship to the head of the family, occupation, birthplace and any recorded disabilities. The information contained in the returns remained largely unchanged until 1911, when the number of rooms in the household were included and, for a wife, the number of years married, how many children born to the marriage, how many of these died and how many still alive.
The 1881 census has been available on www.familysearch.org for many years free of charge, and is duplicated as a free transcription on Ancestry.
Not only are censuses an obvious means to leap back a generation, when you trace backwards until you find an ancestor with his or her parents, but other family members living with or visiting the family can help sort out difficulties when you need to distinguish between two people of the same name from the same area (not uncommon if you come from a family who have lived in the same town for centuries).
If you're serious about researching your family pretty thoroughly, you will need to pay for these records, but I feel this is a cost worth weathering for the extra resources you'll have at your disposal. Subscriptions (the most cost effective means of accessing paid-for resources if you're using them on a regular basis) are currently just over £100 per year from Ancestry and Find My Past, with the latter usually offering 10% discounts for new and renewal customers. Though the outlay seems high, you can manage with only one (as both offer the basic resources you'll need), and the subscription will cost less than £10 per month - a couple of quid per week - which isn't too bad compared to other pastimes. Though my income was low in my first few years, I did indulge in an Ancestry subscription from the outset. I now have a subscription for both, as each have their own special collections that are useful when you start to dig a little deeper into your ancestor's lives.
I'll work on the assumption that you can access all census returns through some means.
The census Act was passed in 1800, and a regular census was first introduced in the UK in 1801, though the first few are of limited use to the family historian, as they gathered very little personal information and they are not included in the subscriptions mentioned above. The census was taken in England, Wales and Scotland and, from 1821-1911, included the whole of Ireland, though very few Irish censuses before 1901 survive. Each census was taken as a snapshot of the population on a given night of the year. With the exception of 1941, a full census has been taken every 10 years since 1801.
Dates of UK censuses:
1801 - Tuesday, 10 March
1811 - Monday, 27 May
1821 - Monday, 28 May
1831 - Monday, 30 May
1841 - Sunday, 6 June
1851 - Sunday, 30 March
1861 - Sunday, 7 April
1871 - Sunday, 2 April
1881 - Sunday, 3 April
1891 - Sunday, 5 April
1901 - Sunday, 31 March
1911 - Sunday, 2 April
Later censuses are not yet available to the public.
The censuses 1801-1831, mostly carried out by local overseers of the poor, were only concerned with the numbers of people, households, occupations and church records to provide a summary of the number of people and how fast the population was increasing. Generally, the individual records used to gather this information was destroyed, and only the summaries survive. In my research, I have only found one case of individual household data being preserved (for a village in Norfolk in 1831), and this only records the name of the head of the household and how many males and females therein.
The population act of 1840 allowed for greater detail in the information gathered, and was implemented in the census of the following year. From hereon in, the census was administered on a national level. Forms were delivered to households a few days before the census, to be completed by the householder. Enumerators would assist the illiterate to complete them. It is from this point that census returns become useful to the researcher. The 1841 census recorded the names and occupations of the occupants and their ages rounded DOWN to the nearest multiple of 5 - so anyone aged 45-49 would be recorded as 45 years old. Only children under 15 were recorded with their exact age. Each individual was also recorded with a "Y" or "N" to indicate whether or not they were born in the county in which they currently resided. The only exceptions to this were: "I" (Ireland), "S" (Scotland) and "F" (Foreign Parts). Occasionally more exact details were recorded, sometimes crossed out later.
From 1851, the census recorded names, exact age, marital status, relationship to the head of the family, occupation, birthplace and any recorded disabilities. The information contained in the returns remained largely unchanged until 1911, when the number of rooms in the household were included and, for a wife, the number of years married, how many children born to the marriage, how many of these died and how many still alive.
The 1881 census has been available on www.familysearch.org for many years free of charge, and is duplicated as a free transcription on Ancestry.
Not only are censuses an obvious means to leap back a generation, when you trace backwards until you find an ancestor with his or her parents, but other family members living with or visiting the family can help sort out difficulties when you need to distinguish between two people of the same name from the same area (not uncommon if you come from a family who have lived in the same town for centuries).
Essential Resources - The BMD
Before I move on to the process of accessing and making sense of the records out there, I'll go through some of the resources available and what you just can't manage without - starting with the Births, Marriages and Deaths index.
Once you've identified the earliest of the family members who can be remembered, you'll be moving into the official records. Even if you think you know the parents and siblings of your grandparents, it's always useful to support this information with the available records. You may find that there were siblings that died in childhood, or born illegitimately before a marriage, and weren't spoken of in the family.
The essential English and Welsh records you'll be using most in the initial stages are the Birth, Marriage and Death index (BMD) and the census returns. FreeBMD (http://www.freebmd.org.uk ) is a wonderful gift to the genealogist, offering practically full coverage of every birth, marriage and death registered from July 1837. The records now reach well into the 20th century, and are continually updated. Records up to the early 20th century are the most complete and should serve your needs on most searches.
The only thing that should be remembered is that the public was initially suspicious of the "Big Brother" approach of recording all our events (despite the fact that people had usually done so within the church), and registration was not compulsory under legislation until 1875. However, most of the public complied with the new system and few events went unregistered (all marriages were registered from the outset, as a registrar had to be in attendance to complete this).
Registration is listed in the index in year quarters and will be seen as March (1st Jan-31st March), June (1st April-30th June), September (1st July-30th Sept) or December (1st Oct-31st Dec). This means the REGISTRATION fell in this period. Some births and deaths that occurred late in the quarter may have been registered in the following quarter (births were/are to be registered within 42 days of the event. Deaths had to be registered within 8 days up to 1875, when it was reduced to 5 days)
A summary of the BMDs
Births:
Once you've identified the earliest of the family members who can be remembered, you'll be moving into the official records. Even if you think you know the parents and siblings of your grandparents, it's always useful to support this information with the available records. You may find that there were siblings that died in childhood, or born illegitimately before a marriage, and weren't spoken of in the family.
The essential English and Welsh records you'll be using most in the initial stages are the Birth, Marriage and Death index (BMD) and the census returns. FreeBMD (http://www.freebmd.org.uk ) is a wonderful gift to the genealogist, offering practically full coverage of every birth, marriage and death registered from July 1837. The records now reach well into the 20th century, and are continually updated. Records up to the early 20th century are the most complete and should serve your needs on most searches.
The only thing that should be remembered is that the public was initially suspicious of the "Big Brother" approach of recording all our events (despite the fact that people had usually done so within the church), and registration was not compulsory under legislation until 1875. However, most of the public complied with the new system and few events went unregistered (all marriages were registered from the outset, as a registrar had to be in attendance to complete this).
Registration is listed in the index in year quarters and will be seen as March (1st Jan-31st March), June (1st April-30th June), September (1st July-30th Sept) or December (1st Oct-31st Dec). This means the REGISTRATION fell in this period. Some births and deaths that occurred late in the quarter may have been registered in the following quarter (births were/are to be registered within 42 days of the event. Deaths had to be registered within 8 days up to 1875, when it was reduced to 5 days)
A summary of the BMDs
Births:
- 1837 to 1874 - Approximately 6-10% of births went unregistered
- 1875 - enforcement of compulsory registration
- September quarter 1837 to June quarter 1911 - first two full forenames, any subsequent initials, registration district and reference number
- September quarter 1911 to present - only first forename, subsequent initials, registration district and number but also includes mother's maiden surname.
- September quarter 1837 - December quarter 1911 - first two full forenames, subsequent initials, registration district and reference number
- March quarter 1912 to September quarter 1962 - if female was previously married, index shows married name (maiden name usually listed in county BMD index)
- March quarter 1912 to present day - surname of spouse added
Deaths:
- September quarter 1837 - December quarter 1865 - no age given
- 1875 enforcement of compulsory registration
- September quarter 1837 to June quarter 1911 - first two full forenames, subsequent initials, registration district and reference number
- September quarter 1911 onwards - only first forename, subsequent initials, registration district and number
- March quarter 1866 to March quarter 1969 - age at death given
- June quarter 1969 to present - exact date of birth provided
Local record office indices are often also available. These sometimes lack some of the information held in the national index (e.g. year quarter or middle names), but may include other useful information, such as the church in which a marriage took place (up to 1898, this only applied to Anglican marriages, with non-conformist churches included after this date).
Many local BMD indices are available through the UK BMD network, local council web pages or other volunteer projects. The simplest means of finding these is to check out the UK BMD network list at http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/local_bmd.
The General Record Office (GRO) BMD index provides a volume number and page number.
Up to the early 1850s, each page of the marriage index was shared by 8 people (4 couples), so you can narrow the possible spouse of your ancestor down to one of 4 people. Other records will often help to narrow this further (if you know your ancestor's wife was Mary, then you can eliminate any woman on the page not named Mary). After this time, the number of people on the page was reduced to 4 (2 couples), which makes the process even simpler.
Though you may wish to use the information contained in the BMD to purchase certificates to provide further information (and occasionally you might need the extra information), you will find that they often offer enough to take you further back without having to part with any cash.
As a final note, the more recent death index (1969 onwards) provides a birthdate of the deceased. This can be exceptionally useful when you first embark on your research, as it will give you a precise period to search for a birth record, which will then provide you with a registration district of their birth and enable you to identify a person in the census. These recent BDM indices are only available through subscription or pay-per-view sites, but they can be accessed for free through local libraries and Family History Centres.
Friday, 5 July 2013
The Genealogy Bug
Genealogy (building a family tree) has exploded as a hobby over recent
years. The internet, and the ever increasing availability of useful information
and documents, has clearly fuelled the drive that so many people, young and
old, are setting out to find out who and where they came from.
Generally, the book (and associated series) Roots is seen as the catalyst for the modern fascination in family history, and there’s no disputing that it inspired many people, especially those of African descent, but dig through any local library (or sometimes even your own extended family papers), and you'll find the fascination in family history dates much further back. When I started my own research back in 2002, I quickly made contact with a distant relative who had a significant body of work carried out in the 1930s. If you find something such as this, you don't just have a helping hand to start you off (remember, they didn't have the luxury of census returns and often made a few mistakes), but you have a window into the lives of their family elders who helped them in their research.
This information provided stories told by a man born in 1860, who remembered his grandparents born in the 1790s (my great, great, great grandparents) and the stories they told him before their deaths in 1869 and 1870. This gave us an insight into their lives no amount of census returns, church records or wills could offer, and I will always be grateful to the man who decided to research my family 80 years ago - and of course his daughter in law who shared it with me.
Another ancestor had a brother who kept a diary for a few years from 1849, recording the family events and pieces of news that touched their lives at the time. In my research, I found this man's descendant, who generously sent me a copy.
Wherever possible, your journey should start at home. You should find out what your family members know. What little anecdotes have circulated the older generations (even the ones no-one really believed) - the most outlandish often have a grain of truth (even if they've been embellished a little over the years). My partner's uncle was laughed at all his life for claiming they were descended from royalty - it turned out to be absolutely true!
Ideally, record conversations with everyone who knew people and places you didn't. Not only will your parents and grandparents and their siblings have experiences from their own lifetime that will fill out the details of the recent family history, but they may also have the stories told to them by their grandparents, who may have been born in the mid 19th century.
When you discover that your grandfather’s grandfather was the son of a man who was born in the 1790s, you realise how recent, and how closely linked, you are to the people and times you once thought of as far distant.
Another wonderful and absorbing early task is to trawl through every old photograph and document you can lay your hands on. Ask other branches of the family what they have in the attic, especially the descendants of any eldest children (especially eldest sons), or those who remained in the original family home or business. If your family doesn’t have much in the way of archives, think logically about which members of the family would have been most likely to have retained these items. Once family archives pass to another generation, they often become much more valued than they were by the original owner. A postcard might have survived by chance by the individual who received it, but once they’re gone, their children and grandchildren regard these to be irreplaceable mementos of their lives, and they become valuable keepsakes.
If a grandparent had elder siblings or a sibling who lived with their parents at the end of their lives, this is probably the person who took guardianship of the family documents. Try to find out from the people still around who their children were and see if you can track them down and ask for copies.
You may not be able to identify every photograph in the early stages, but as you dig deeper and make more contacts with distant family members, you may be able to start putting names to faces.
If you’re lucky, a family bible still exists. In the 18th and 19th century, couples were often given one as a wedding gift and in the front, or between the testaments, there would be a few pages for them to record their marriage and the births, marriages and deaths of the immediate family. Often three or four generations will be recorded here, sometimes with additional information you would struggle to obtain elsewhere.
So your starting tasks are to speak to as many other family members as you can. Make records of every piece of information they share, you never know when that seemingly irrelevant item might just help you fit a piece into the puzzle.
Root out any old documents you can lay your hands on, and try to trace any others that might be out there.
Then summarise what you know, and keep any information or names you can't yet place - they will probably soon make sense.
The next step will be turning to the online resources... don't expect this hobby to run its course in a few weeks
Generally, the book (and associated series) Roots is seen as the catalyst for the modern fascination in family history, and there’s no disputing that it inspired many people, especially those of African descent, but dig through any local library (or sometimes even your own extended family papers), and you'll find the fascination in family history dates much further back. When I started my own research back in 2002, I quickly made contact with a distant relative who had a significant body of work carried out in the 1930s. If you find something such as this, you don't just have a helping hand to start you off (remember, they didn't have the luxury of census returns and often made a few mistakes), but you have a window into the lives of their family elders who helped them in their research.
This information provided stories told by a man born in 1860, who remembered his grandparents born in the 1790s (my great, great, great grandparents) and the stories they told him before their deaths in 1869 and 1870. This gave us an insight into their lives no amount of census returns, church records or wills could offer, and I will always be grateful to the man who decided to research my family 80 years ago - and of course his daughter in law who shared it with me.
Another ancestor had a brother who kept a diary for a few years from 1849, recording the family events and pieces of news that touched their lives at the time. In my research, I found this man's descendant, who generously sent me a copy.
Wherever possible, your journey should start at home. You should find out what your family members know. What little anecdotes have circulated the older generations (even the ones no-one really believed) - the most outlandish often have a grain of truth (even if they've been embellished a little over the years). My partner's uncle was laughed at all his life for claiming they were descended from royalty - it turned out to be absolutely true!
Ideally, record conversations with everyone who knew people and places you didn't. Not only will your parents and grandparents and their siblings have experiences from their own lifetime that will fill out the details of the recent family history, but they may also have the stories told to them by their grandparents, who may have been born in the mid 19th century.
When you discover that your grandfather’s grandfather was the son of a man who was born in the 1790s, you realise how recent, and how closely linked, you are to the people and times you once thought of as far distant.
Another wonderful and absorbing early task is to trawl through every old photograph and document you can lay your hands on. Ask other branches of the family what they have in the attic, especially the descendants of any eldest children (especially eldest sons), or those who remained in the original family home or business. If your family doesn’t have much in the way of archives, think logically about which members of the family would have been most likely to have retained these items. Once family archives pass to another generation, they often become much more valued than they were by the original owner. A postcard might have survived by chance by the individual who received it, but once they’re gone, their children and grandchildren regard these to be irreplaceable mementos of their lives, and they become valuable keepsakes.
If a grandparent had elder siblings or a sibling who lived with their parents at the end of their lives, this is probably the person who took guardianship of the family documents. Try to find out from the people still around who their children were and see if you can track them down and ask for copies.
You may not be able to identify every photograph in the early stages, but as you dig deeper and make more contacts with distant family members, you may be able to start putting names to faces.
If you’re lucky, a family bible still exists. In the 18th and 19th century, couples were often given one as a wedding gift and in the front, or between the testaments, there would be a few pages for them to record their marriage and the births, marriages and deaths of the immediate family. Often three or four generations will be recorded here, sometimes with additional information you would struggle to obtain elsewhere.
So your starting tasks are to speak to as many other family members as you can. Make records of every piece of information they share, you never know when that seemingly irrelevant item might just help you fit a piece into the puzzle.
Root out any old documents you can lay your hands on, and try to trace any others that might be out there.
Then summarise what you know, and keep any information or names you can't yet place - they will probably soon make sense.
The next step will be turning to the online resources... don't expect this hobby to run its course in a few weeks
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