Vague i know, but trying to learn about my history

[WorldWanderer]

My nana passed recently, yorkshire lass. She has links to a singer from the 70's called Richard, but that's all i know.

Anyone got and hints, tips or links?

I don't have much family, history or stories and i'm trying to build a picture of connections we have 

 

Thank you!

[lobster]

A Bit more information would help - ages,  places etc

[sadbrewer]

On 09/09/2024 at 23:54, WorldWanderer said:

My nana passed recently, yorkshire lass. She has links to a singer from the 70's called Richard, but that's all i know.

Anyone got and hints, tips or links?

I don't have much family, history or stories and i'm trying to build a picture of connections we have 

 

Thank you!

I wrote a beginners guide to help a newbie get started...

If anyone has useful tips or other sources I'd be pleased to add them...feel free.
 

     
 

    1) To get anywhere you need to pay subscription fees to a genealogy website, you can’t get far FOC.
 

    The main two I use are Ancestry at £13.99 per month and Findmypast...which is a bit cheaper, but 
    better in some ways for UK genealogy.They both have pluses and minuses, but to be honest you need 
    both. 
        Annual subscriptions are much cheaper and both sites have some good offers on occasionally. 
    There are others, but I’ve never paid for them. It can be worth creating a free account on Geni.com or MyHeritage (plus others) sometimes they will send notification that someone on your tree matches one of their subscribers.
 

      Before you start, ask family for everything they know, find out who keeps the shoebox with the family BMD certificates in, that will be a great help. Write it all down and draw out the draft tree on paper. Try and copy any photos they have, including what may be written on the back.
 

      Once you have surnames for married couples, use Freebmd.org (free as the name suggests) input the names and it will give you all their children (that were born after 1911 but before 1983)..much easier if one party at least has an unusual surname. 
   Https://www.freereg.org.uk/open/...also has similar, very useful records.
 

    Pay for a month on one genealogy site and cancel the subscription straight away or they will automatically rebill you at the month end.. Unless you’re happy to have another month of course. 
       Do as much as you can in the month and then try a month on the other....as a new customer to the genealogy sites they often offer a free trial period that gives you chance to get an idea of things.
 

       Don't trust birth dates shown in census records, they are often out by several years....Birth, Marriage and Death certificates are far more reliable. 
    Don't order Birth or death certs through the genealogy sites as they stick a hefty premium on...order them to come as Pdf's from the GRO at £8.00.,,,postal copies at £12-50...sometimes you can view the certificate entry for as little as £3. 
   https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/Login.asp
 

    Don't take the census transcription from Ancestry/Findmpast etc  as fact, sometimes the compilers get it wrong...look at the actual census return image and double check.
 

    If you hit brick walls, try mis-spelling names and places as they often change over time...bear in mind that in Victorian times people were mostly illiterate, so the name or place written would be the Curate's take on your ancestors pronunciation...e.g. my Grandmother was called Jewsbury...in the records it comes up as Joesbury, Jewsbery, Jewsbury, Goosberry, Dewsbury, Dewsberry etc. My G Grandfather  was from Greenwick In the East Riding of Yorkshire, the census return says Greenwich, London.
 

    If you find a record always screenshot or note It...just occasionally they can be hard to find again.
 

       When you’ve made progress on your paper tree... transfer it to a publisher type program on the PC, I use Coreldraw,....start off with A4 page setup, when it starts to get full save it and copy the info to a new file with A3 setup....and so on.
 

    If you do the above, you'll really get somewhere in just two months subs...for free sites Freebmd is great, Wikitree sometimes pays off and try Google...you never know what you'll find....if your ancestors are from West Yorks, Malcolm Bull's Calderdale Companion is good. If you are looking at Scottish ancestors the Census returns are on a site called Scotland’s People...which I think is subscription only. If your interest is in Sheffield, the Sheffield Indexers site and the two Sheffield History forums are excellent. Other towns and cities have similar forums...google them to check, they can be very helpful.
 

     
 

    2)
 

       Findmypast can also give you access to The British Newspaper Archive ( If you pay for the extra subscription)...no Kings or Queens, but I've found thieves, body snatchers, wife deserters...all sorts of things, through this Archive. 
        This is one real score for FMP...I found much crucial info in the papers that doesn't come up in the usual records...We had a 1908 photo of a family wedding, only a few people were named and no otherclues...FMP's Newspapers carried a report that told us where it was held...who hosted it, the Best man and Matron of Honour,...plus many other guests...wedding presents...description of the dresses etc...wonderful stuff you could find nowhere else. It also carries Irish newspapers and Welsh language newspapers. The BNA can be accessed as a standalone service at £14.99 for a 1 month subscription, £8.34 per month  if you sign up for a year.
 

    America has Newspapers.com....not as good as the BNA in my opinion, but they do occasionally have free access offers for limited periods.
 

    If your relatives are Australian, Trove is a free Australian newspaper archive, New Zealand also has one,the name of which I can’t just recall. 
      If your relative may have been a WW1 Anzac Soldier , their records are free from the Australian Govt websites.
 

        Ancestry can be awesome at times as it's been established longer, although it leans heavily towards US  subscribers and throws up connections to people of the same name that you're searching for in US records  which can be a pain. It has an excellent feature that allows you too look at the trees of other people who  you share ancestors with...from that it has a 'hints' system that allows you effectively to copy and paste  their work into yours....if someone else is researching your line it can be a very fast way of building a tree... the snag is that often they are wrong, sometimes badly wrong so you need to double check everything  they've done. 
    Findmypast is years behind with this facility but they are trying to catch up.
 

    The DNA side can be great, I sent my test off and 6 weeks later the results dropped into my inbox showing I had 199 cousins of varying degrees ( it stands at 450 now) all over the world using the site...from that you can look at their results and tree to find the shared ancestor....not always much use as often people  have very little detail in the tree or are obsessives who might have added 80 or 90 thousand very distant people. but if the info comes up as first, second or third cousin you're really in with shout of making the connection....4th cousin and beyond can often be a waste of time. We did find that my Mum's Grandfather had sired another child to a girlfriend, when the descendants results popped up very closely related in my results....again, Findmypast is playing catch up.
 

    Just a word of warning, Ancestry/FMP Tv ads give the impression you buy the test and everything is sorted, that is not the case...you need to put the research in to make sense of it.
 

    Findmypast is UK based and is simply better for purely UK results...more reliable on census and BMD returns, it also has the edge on UK WW1 and before military records...Ancestry does have other useful military bits but they make you pay extra through a sister site called Fold 3 which is annoying.
 

       WW1  Service records can be invaluable, unfortunately  66 % were lost in the WW2 Blitz so you have 34 % chance of finding your relatives record. There are though a couple of sites that can 
    often come up trumps. 
      If your ancestor’s service record is lost, look for the Absent Voters List for the relevant area, they often give rank, unit, and Regimental number...some are online, some are available from Council Local History services and some are unfortunately lost.
 

    One site that can be a major disappointment is Forces War Records, promises a lot but doesn’t usually have more than you can get elsewhere. ( since I originally wrote this, Forces War Records has improved)
 

     If your ancestor was in the forces after WW1 you can order their Service Record from The Ministry of Defence for a fee. There is currently a very long waiting time.
 

     
 

    3)
 

    WW1 Pension records can be useful ...Fold 3 have them as does The Western Front Association, againfor a fee.
 

    If you’ve done all the above and need to know more, try a post on Thegreatwarforum.org...it’s free to join. 
    Read the rules and give the helpful volunteers as much as you know. If it’s WW1 aviation TheAerodrome.com is the first place to try. 
      If your interest is WW2 , try WW2Talk...also try the Newspaper Archives, there are often letters home that tell a story. 
    Some Squadron records are online,,,try Google and RAF Association groups. 
    There are also a few Facebook sites that cover similar subjects but in my experience don’t generally have as much in depth knowledge...still worth a try though.
 

    Don't neglect local history sites or Facebook pages and remember that not everything is online, local libraries and family history societies often have good local and family History information. 
    City, Town and County Archives often hold Electoral rolls, old Phone books and trade directories, most of which are not available online. 
     Finding other descendants  is amongst the most rewarding things to be found.
 

    Both Ancestry and FMP have online forums, they are worth a try.
 

    Gravestones can give useful information, besides using family knowledge, and Council records, there are sites like Billiongraves, Deceased Online, and Findagrave...all paysites however.
 

    Tracking down other relatives can be very useful... if you are looking at unusual names it can often be surprisingly easy. 
    To track.. ie after 1911and before 1983, a Great Uncle/Aunt’s children input their surname and spouse’s surname into FreeBmd or FreeReg and click ‘births’, that will show all births to those two names, repeat the process on the children, try and find the children’s marriages and repeat the process until you find people who may well still be alive. 
      With their names go to Findmypast and search that name using the filter 2010 + or - 10yrs. That will show Electoral Register and Company Director Registrations with addresses. 
    They may be local and only require a knock on the door, further afield a letter may be necessary. 192.com ( or similar) can be searched and may have a phone number or email address available for a small fee. 
       If the record looks as though it could be out of date...check the address on Zoopla, if it hasn’t been sold in the intervening period your relatives may still be there.
 

      The final thing is to keep an open mind, you may well find things that don't fit the family narrative, I have found some family stories to be absolute fantasies...however sometimes the truth reveals incredible unknown stories... just accept genealogy is warts 'n' all.
 

    Warning...Genealogy can be very addictive and lead you to spend a lot of money.
 

     
 

    Edit...I haven't included how important Will's can be...there are a couple of sources where condensed versions can be found, they have often told an interesting tale.
 

    It's quite a few years sinced I searched a Will and at this time of night just can't pull them to mind...if anyone can help it would be appreciated.
 

     
 
https://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/topic/491675-whats-in-your-past/?do=findComment&comment=8844941

[WorldWanderer]

On 10/09/2024 at 02:21, lobster said:

A Bit more information would help - ages,  places etc

Unfortunately, that's all i have. Nan was born in 43 in skipton, spent a lot of time in Todmorden.

I know it's super vague, and a long shot, just though it was worth a try

[Bellatrix]

10 hours ago, WorldWanderer said:

Unfortunately, that's all i have. Nan was born in 43 in skipton, spent a lot of time in Todmorden.

I know it's super vague, and a long shot, just though it was worth a try

You need to tell us her name. and ideally any other names you can think of that are connected to her.

Edited September 12 by Bellatrix

[Heartshome]

On 11/09/2024 at 20:33, WorldWanderer said:

Unfortunately, that's all i have. Nan was born in 43 in skipton, spent a lot of time in Todmorden.

I know it's super vague, and a long shot, just though it was worth a try

Hello there. If you are a member of your Library, you can go on their Computer ANCESTRY LIBRARY,

this will allow you FREE ECCESS for an hour, or more if you request it.

This may be most useful for you! the Library staff are usually very helpful with advise on getting started.

Another good site to join is FAMILY SEARCH, they often show other people researching on your Family Tree.

                  Regards Heartshome.

[Longcol]

On 11/09/2024 at 21:33, WorldWanderer said:

Unfortunately, that's all i have. Nan was born in 43 in skipton, spent a lot of time in Todmorden.

I know it's super vague, and a long shot, just though it was worth a try

 

You'd be better off trying any forums / facebook / local history groups for  Skipton / North Yorkshire or Todmorden/Calderdale, if any exist.

[sadbrewer]

Unless he knows a name, and is going to share it, it's a complete waste of anyone's time as far as I can see.

[Heartshome]

On 09/09/2024 at 23:54, WorldWanderer said:

My nana passed recently, yorkshire lass. She has links to a singer from the 70's called Richard, but that's all i know.

Anyone got and hints, tips or links?

I don't have much family, history or stories and i'm trying to build a picture of connections we have 

 

Thank you!

GO TO YOUR MESSAGES BOX ok Heartshome

[WorldWanderer]

First name barbara, i think her surname back then was Cammack (possibly spelt with one m)