| 26 Genealogy Tips!
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1. Talk to your parents,
A. find out where they grew up,(town, county, state)
B. Birth & death dates of both their mother and father
C. Your parents marriage date and location of marriage(might see if they have a copy)
D. Ask them about where their parents, or grandparents are buried(locations, cemeteries name, county, state)
E. Ask if there are any of your Aunts, Uncles or other relatives have previously done any genealogy research.
F. Find out who is their oldest living relatives(then make plans to visit them and record your conversation with them)
1. Ask questions about what they know about the family
2. Ask where relatives are buried
3. Ask if they know any dates for birth , death, and marriage
4. Ask if they know any stories about the family
5. Ask if they know any other living relatives(visit them and do the same thing with them)
G. Search the internet for the surnames that you have found(mothers maiden name, grandmothers maiden name, etc) This will possibly find others doing research on the same lines of genealogy you are wanting.
H. Your local library should be able to point you in the right direction to research areas that you have found from your interviews and census records.
I. U.S. Government Federal records center have all census records from 1790-1920 These can be searched for grandparents and grt grandparents.(also SS records exist after 1935 that can be sent for) Also several local libraries have these microfilms.
J. Find if any of your relatives were in any wars, a lot of information is available at the Federal Government level(National Archives) to send for their records for a small charge.
K. Visit cemeteries that your relatives are buried, some good information is sometimes on the gravestones(birth death)
L. Visit the Everton Genealogy Web page and signup for a subscription to the Genealogical Helper magazine(you can submit queries and search for others doing the same) Sometimes your local library will have copies of this book the you can look at if you can't afford to get the subscription.
M. Send for copies of Birth, death, and marriage records for those relatives you know or find(they usually have names of mother and father, etc)
N. Gather pictures of older relatives while making your visits.(if distance prevents the visit write letters or call, remember record them)
O. Visit your local LDS church, most have a library that you can send to Salt Lake and have microfilm sent back to the church for you to view. These records are extensive and probably the best available.
P. Take a course in searching your relatives from your local library or historical society(usually every state or county has one)
Q. You can hire a professional genealogist, before doing this make sure that you have good references from others that are familiar with this persons work.(I have done this when searching in an area that I am not familiar with and know that the researcher can gain access to records that I would spend many hours looking for)
R. Join your local Genealogy or Historical Society, State Societies can also be a lot of help in your research.
S. Visit the internet GenWeb Project for your area. You can search the internet for their web sites, usually have good hints for searching in that area.
T. Visit Used books stores looking for genealogical books, you will be surprised to find some great older books that have "how to" information in them.
U. YOU need to dedicate yourself to doing this. That means spend the time do all the steps and you will start gathering information.
V. Save the information in an orderly way as to preserve the information you have gathered(future generations will appreciate it and you will to when searching for information quickly) I use plastic sheet protectors on all of my documents (keeping dirty fingers off of them)
W. Search the internet phone directories and email directories, drop these folk a note asking about your family with direct, not general questions. You will be surprised by receiving good area to search or names of others doing research.
X. Take a camera with you and take pictures of those pictures that others won't let you have. Even if you just want to run down the street to have a copy made most people will NOT let you leave with their original pictures.(don't be upset about this, just think if it was some stranger coming to your door wanting to "borrow" your treasured pictures for a few minutes. Would you??)
Y. Let the other members of your family know that you are doing genealogy research on your family and ask for any old pictures they have, here again you may be stuck with taking a picture of their picture for reasons mentioned above.
Z. Be considerate of others and their privacy, record and views. You are asking for help treat them with all the respect that you would also want. You will find some have information, but are unwilling to share it with you. Try to find out why there is this feeling and do your best to set their minds at rest.
Compiled by Robert Bikham
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| TRACING YOUR ANCESTORS BY SHERI COOPER
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Tracing my family tree had never been more fun than when I started to trace my husband’s family whom I knew nothing about, apart from the knowledge that they came from Battersea in London. Or did they? And how do you trace your family line back through the centuries?
 I hope that my experience and tips will help you trace your family line as far back as you want to go, with helpful web links and information at the bottom of this page to help you on your way, no matter who you may be looking for!
As far as I knew, the Cooper family were born and bred within Battersea, so why was it so difficult to find the Cooper’s on any of the census’s before 1901? Why were they such a mystery?
I had to start at the very beginning by finding the birth certificate of my husbands Grandfather to find out who his parents were which gave me the full names of the parents, including the mothers maiden name, and eventually managed to trace his Great Grandparents on the 1891 census. From there on I was completely baffled!!
The children were born all over the South of England, Sussex, Berkshire, Surrey, the Father was born in Hampshire and the Mother was born in Devon? But there didn’t appear to be any birth certificates and very few marriage certificates. And the addresses on each census were, well, “strange” to say the least! What sort of address is “on the bridge” or “the back of the Turks Inn” or even “in the yard of the Red Lion Pub” to name but a few?? The Father was a Hawker and a General Dealer and later the Mother appeared to be a Hawker too, but what was a Hawker? The description in the dictionary was “someone who travels about selling his wares (as on the streets or at carnivals)” but time and time again the same word appeared when I searched for information about Hawkers – Gypsy!
 During the 1800’s you couldn’t just jump into a shiny new car and zoom off down the nearest motorway to get to your destination, travel was very difficult and took a long time, usually by horse and cart which could take days to cover any great distance, so families tended to stay within the same area that they were born until the day they died. There are always exceptions to the rule of course, someone could travel from Portsmouth to Liverpool to work and live, but there they would remain unless they decided to return to their hometown. So why were the Cooper’s born all over the South of England?
So the facts were that they clearly travelled great distances, there were virtually no birth certificates, no marriage certificates, and they were Hawkers living at some very strange addresses.
And then the penny dropped! Were they Gypsies??
Only when I started to question the family further did I find out that the Cooper’s had 18 horses and carts and sold their wares around the streets of Battersea. My Father in Law was taken hop picking in Kent when he was 6 years old to “cure” him of an illness and he remembers sitting around the bonfires under the arches at Lavender Hill with his aunts and uncles waiting for the horse and carts to return to the stables at the end of the day, and when I suggested that perhaps the Cooper’s may have been Gypsies he just smiled knowingly and said “were they?”
 Where do I start?
When you make the decision to trace your family tree, always start with what you know. Ask your family members for any information that they can remember about the individuals. Our elders like nothing more than talk about the “old days” And if you are lucky enough to have old photographs then this a great source of information. The year that the photograph was taken can very often be guessed by the dress code. Old photo’s can often show the year that photo was taken and the place such as the town.
Birth, Marriage and Death Certificates
Certificates can reveal a lot more than you think, for instance, a birth certificate will tell you where the child was born such as an address, the date they were born and who the parents were, including the Mother’s maiden name Once you know the parents full names you can then find the marriage certificate which will tell you who the Fathers of the couple were and even their occupations.
 From 1837, birth certificates for illegitimate children very rarely show the father’s name, you would see a blank or a line struck through where you should normally see the Father’s name. If the Mother was married, then the name would be written as her married name followed by her maiden name, i.e. “formerly Smith”. The Father of an illegitimate child could be added to the certificate but only if he went along to the register office with the Mother on the day of registration.
However, some parents who were not married would pretend that they were married, particularly in the larger towns or cities such as London, Portsmouth, Liverpool, and Birmingham to name but a few. Parents tended to think that they couldn’t get away with claiming they were married in the smaller rural areas or villages because someone would probably let an official know.
To order a certificate, it is necessary to quote the date i.e. the quarter and the year the event was registered, name and registration district. The volume and page number on the indexes, which are needed to identify the entry in the full index. You can find the district, volume and page number etc. either at the local records office of where the event took place or at
National Archives,
Kew, Richmond,
Surrey,
TW9 4DU.
Alternatively, you can also find the indexes online at
Ancestry.comor 1837 Online both are pay as you view.
Free BMD is a free site for Birth, Marriage and Death certificate references searchable by name, town or district by year. Fo more information click here
How do I order a Birth, Marriage or Death certificate?
Or order by telephone at the General Records Office – 0207 533 6402
How much does it cost? - £7 per certificate.
To order on line or for further information click here
 Census Records
Census records are an invaluable source of information, they can tell you the approximate year that the individual was born, where they were born, what their occupation was, the person that they were married to and where they were born, any children that they may have had and the address of where they were living at the time of the census.
The Census records are available are for years between 1851 & 1901. All of the census records are available on the Ancestry UK site The 1841 census will be available Spring 2006 on the Ancestry.
Baptisms and Marriages – FREE Site.
An excellent source of information can be found on the Latter Day Saints website. For further information click here
Over 5 million Baptisms, Marriages and Burials have been entered onto this site by volunteers.
You will also be able to search the British 1881 census, U.S 1880 census and Canadian 1881 census completely free!
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