Genealogy Chat

Hi everyone, My name is Janet and I have just started to research my family tree. To be honest I am at a bit of a loss as to the best way to go about things! I have entered all the details I know at present onto the site but what is the best way to go on from here? Any tips would be greatly appreciated! Thanks Janet

Hi Janet.. It really depends how far you have got back to at the moment,and what if any certificates you have of births /deaths /marriages,and which side you want to start on first;;and what dates you have ;;you could give brief summary on here and see if you cant be helped ...to gather more..information,, Kay.

I see you have 61 people in your tree so have started quite well. Most people start with themselves and add parents, gt gd.parents either side then their parents. Once you get back to 1901 you can usually find out quite a bit of information from the census, then continue tracing back 1881 to 1841 census, you will need to purchase copies of birth, marriage and death certificates to help you find dates,names, addresses of your ancestors. Sometimes you can find family members on the family search site with IGI. There is lots of information available but I always think it wise to confirm the details you find with copies of the certificates. Good Luck Irene

Thanks for the tips! I've put a few messages on trying to find board looking for info on my granny, grandad and dad. Hopefully they may throw up a few leads for me. Thanks again Janet

Janet.. Do you have Grandparen's marriage??.the certificate will give you some information to go backwards>>also their birth certs will ,as you will get mothers name's and their maiden names. and you can gather more information by census searching...as you go further back..

See the 'Getting started' section by scrolling down on the homepage. nell

Thanks for all the replies. I have managed to trace my maternal grandfathers side back to 1800 thanks to the advice given here! Am still hunting!! Thanks again Janet

Janet That's pretty good for a beginner!! I've been doing this for over 2 years and only got back that far on one branch. Lyn

Have you also read the tips on the home page for the all the sites worth looking at. Joining ancestry was the real breakthrough when I started.

I've managed to find most of my information on Scotlandspeople.gov