Just wondering if we could start a thread where we can share our special, genealogy hints, tips and cheats, something above and beyond the norm, a little piece of your expert advise. Especially tips on all the big genealogy sites.
I will start you off;
I didn't know until recently that those Ancestry Hints that we all see every day, well they are only based on approximately 10% of their record collection. So if an Ancestor has no hints, it doesn't mean that Ancestry doesn't have a stack of records hiding for them in the background somewhere.
We welcome any query on Who When Where. If you have previously posted it on another forum (including the old WDYTYA forum), please state this in your opening post - this will save people redoing the research which has been done before: they can look at it and possibly go further with it.
Genealogy hints, tips, and cheats
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Mick Loney
- Posts: 376
- Joined: 15 Jun 2020, 07:27
Re: Genealogy hints, tips, and cheats
When searching on Ancestry for census returns, they don’t always list all the results immediately.
Search for good old Freg Bloggs, born 1869 Warrington, and you may get only 1 result, for 1891.
However, when you look at that result, you’ll suddenly see suggestions for 1881 and 1901! If you then look at the 1901 entry, you may get a further suggestion for 1911!
Why these extra results can’t appear with the original result I don’t know, but well worth knowing.
Search for good old Freg Bloggs, born 1869 Warrington, and you may get only 1 result, for 1891.
However, when you look at that result, you’ll suddenly see suggestions for 1881 and 1901! If you then look at the 1901 entry, you may get a further suggestion for 1911!
Why these extra results can’t appear with the original result I don’t know, but well worth knowing.
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Mick Loney
- Posts: 376
- Joined: 15 Jun 2020, 07:27
Re: Genealogy hints, tips, and cheats
When you find a PR or BT entry for a Birth, Marriage or Burial without an image, look for other results from same site. Some of their recordsets are transcriptions only, but these entries may be duplicated in another recordset that also includes images.
Re: Genealogy hints, tips, and cheats
Great tips Mick, didn't know either of those, thanks
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Mick Loney
- Posts: 376
- Joined: 15 Jun 2020, 07:27
Re: Genealogy hints, tips, and cheats
When you find a Marriage on Freebmd, don’t assume the brides surname shown is her maiden name. It may be her married name if she was a widow at time of marriage. Some things to help you decide if this is the case:
1. Find Parish Register Marriage entry, and check fathers surname is same as the brides.
2. If they have children, get their mother’s maiden name from their GRO entries..
3. Get a copy of marriage certificate.
Likewise, if a single man marries between censuses, don’t assume all the children shown on later census are result of the same marriage, check GRO for their births to confirm same mother for all children, because
1. Bride may be a widow, and some of the children may belong to her first marriage, but shown with new husbands surname on census.
2. The man may have married twice between the censuses, with some children as a result of his first marriage, the other coming from his second marriage. ( had this happen to me only today, first marriage only lasted 2 years when wife died! He then remarried, and new census showed his second wife)
1. Find Parish Register Marriage entry, and check fathers surname is same as the brides.
2. If they have children, get their mother’s maiden name from their GRO entries..
3. Get a copy of marriage certificate.
Likewise, if a single man marries between censuses, don’t assume all the children shown on later census are result of the same marriage, check GRO for their births to confirm same mother for all children, because
1. Bride may be a widow, and some of the children may belong to her first marriage, but shown with new husbands surname on census.
2. The man may have married twice between the censuses, with some children as a result of his first marriage, the other coming from his second marriage. ( had this happen to me only today, first marriage only lasted 2 years when wife died! He then remarried, and new census showed his second wife)
Re: Genealogy hints, tips, and cheats
That is truly great tip Mick, how easy it would be to completely dismiss the correct person
Re: Genealogy hints, tips, and cheats
Another tip for FreeBMD.
If you have birth, marriage or death certificate add the details from it to the entry on FreeBMD.
That way others can benefit without having to purchase the certificate. Very useful if you are only trying to confirm a small piece of information that purchasing a certificate may be hard to justify, especially if you need to buy half a dozen certificates.
If enough people do this we may all benefit sooner or later.
If you have birth, marriage or death certificate add the details from it to the entry on FreeBMD.
That way others can benefit without having to purchase the certificate. Very useful if you are only trying to confirm a small piece of information that purchasing a certificate may be hard to justify, especially if you need to buy half a dozen certificates.
If enough people do this we may all benefit sooner or later.
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Jethro Tull
- Posts: 37
- Joined: 13 Jun 2020, 21:14
- Location: East Anglia
Re: Genealogy hints, tips, and cheats
Hello all,
Im quite a keen collector of militaria and the military history of both my own family and the collection I am gaining is an important part of my hobby.
One tip/cheat/hint I have used is to just do a plain old Google search for the person, home town and the words church roll of honour. Or if I know the local church use the name as well.
Best result I had was for a chap I was looking in to who I thought possibly came from a small village in Norfolk but could not prove the medals I have were to him with certainty and that I was on to the right guy or family.
Searching like this lead me to the local church website that has a roll of honour/memorial for all of the men from the village listed, along with the regiment and in some cases the service number too! This has let me confirm this chap and found some brothers I knew nothing about, also found some good leads using this method for other trees I'm building.
Its a fairly simple, basic search but one that is probably overooked for military ancestors.
Cheers
Dan
Im quite a keen collector of militaria and the military history of both my own family and the collection I am gaining is an important part of my hobby.
One tip/cheat/hint I have used is to just do a plain old Google search for the person, home town and the words church roll of honour. Or if I know the local church use the name as well.
Best result I had was for a chap I was looking in to who I thought possibly came from a small village in Norfolk but could not prove the medals I have were to him with certainty and that I was on to the right guy or family.
Searching like this lead me to the local church website that has a roll of honour/memorial for all of the men from the village listed, along with the regiment and in some cases the service number too! This has let me confirm this chap and found some brothers I knew nothing about, also found some good leads using this method for other trees I'm building.
Its a fairly simple, basic search but one that is probably overooked for military ancestors.
Cheers
Dan
"So many ancestors; so little time"