Genealogy Chat

Hello fellow genes reunited members!!!! I am new to this so be gentle!! I have manged to trace my family tree back to 1804 (with the help of the 1861 census onwards) but where do i go from here? Was there any census before this time? is it available online? I have been on Ancestry.com...could any of you recommend any other good sites? Thanks a million and good luck!!

Kim Pre 1841 there were censuses taken from 1801-1831 every 10 years, but these were rough headcounts and many don't survive. As far as I know hardly anything is online. You need to consult baptism, marriage and burials registers, poor law settlement documents, Wills etc. Many of these can be found in the relevant county records office. Some extracts from parish registers are online at www.familysearch.org - if you google 'Hugh Wallis batch numbers' you will be taken to a site that tells you which parishes are covered for which years and you can then search directly. There are also various databases on www familyhistoryonline com, which is a pay-per-view site. You can check which counties are covered when and for what before you pay. You may find some relatives on a2a, which is like a big index to archives in England. But you will need to get to the county records office(s) eventually. nell

A note of warning about familysearch. It contains both extracts from parish registers and data submitted by members. Data submitted by members should be treated with caution and always verified with other sources. Data from registers is fairly reliable, but subject to transcription errors.

Helen, What are poor law settlements? Sue...........

Pre-welfare state people who were destitute/poor/unmarried mums/disabled and otherwise unable to provide for themselves could get support from their parish. You needed to be settled in a parish to apply. Sometimes different parishes disputed who was supposed to keep someone. My own gt gt gt grandfather Robert Chowns was in a court case as he had moved to Stoke Poges and they sent him and his wife and children to Aston Rowant, where he was born. The court decided he could stay in Stoke P. I found this out as his name was indexed as a witness on A2A [google to find it - its a website like a big index to all kinds of documents in English archives]. Documents relating to settlements can give lots of details. I found from Robert's examination statement how he kept pigs, sold fruit, the ceiling of his cottage fell in, how he'd lived with his father-in-law for a bit, who his father-in-law worked for, how much rent he paid, etc etc. So you can find out often more about how your relatives lived than from a census! nell

Another thing about the Hugh Wallis site. It is really useful, particularly if you have a common surname to research but know where they should be. But do watch out - there are (occasionally) some missing batch numbers from the Hugh Wallis page. Sometimes you can guess what tnumber they should be and overwrite the selection with yours. I've managed to pick up some useful things that way. As has been said, the main IGI risk is from non-Register entries which range from accurate to myth/fairy-tale, with no easy way of identifying which you've found. So those should be regarded as no more than a possible line of enquiry. The Registers are also subject to error - transcriptions are sometimes wide of the mark - but at least the flexible-spelling system means that you can pick up surname variants easily. As for earlier census transcriptions - there are a few about, but only for specific areas. I think there's a thread about just that specific topic somewhere. I'm sure someone will nudge it for you if I can't track it down. FreeCEN has some 1841 & 1851. You can also pick up a lot of Cornish stuff. Googling will sometimes throw up some extras. Christine