Family History

A few hints

There are a great many books available giving details of how to go about researching your family tree and your family history – take a look at your local library

If you are just beginning to take an interest in family history, this Foldout gives a few basic tips to get you started

• Work backwards, starting with your own birth certificate, then your own parents, then grandparents, and so on

• Talk to your elderly relatives – grandparents and aunts are a good source of material

  Write down and follow up any stories and anecdotes about past family members

• Look through the family bible

  Many of these record births, deaths and other family events

• Look through family photograph albums

• Look through cupboards, drawers and boxes of family papers for ...

  • Diaries

  • Military service memorabilia

  • Academic awards

  • Sporting awards and trophies

  • Trades Union and club membership documents

• Write down all the facts and dates that you discover – and make a note of where you found the information

  You can download charts for doing this, or you might prefer to buy a software package that will help you to record your findings

  Take at look at the free Personal Ancestral File software from FamilySearch

• Join a local history society

• Read the local history articles in the local newspapers

• Subscribe to one of the local history magazines

• Send a letter with your questions to a local newspaper or a local history magazine

• Attend any local history / family history classes at your local education centre

• Visit the local reference library and consult their archives

• Use the Internet to find for other people researching their own surname

  Searching for

  GENEALOGY RESEARCH YORKSHIRE
  

  can produce hundreds of possible sites

  Narrow the search down to your own surname or district

• When you search the Internet, look for topics around your subject. For example, if you are studying a particular individual, look for information on

  • His/her business life and associates

  • The churches and other institutions with which he/she was associated

  • The political and social climate at the time that he/she lived

• As you proceed with your research, publish your own results on the Internet

  This will help others, and will also invite contributions and help from others who may be researching a different part of the same family tree

Above all, you must be prepared for a lot of painstaking and hard work

.. and please, don't expect me or anyone else to do the work for you ... unless you are prepared to pay a lot of money.

Note especially that – even thought I wish that I had the time to do so – I am unable to conduct research, to pop into Halifax Reference Library, or to photocopy some local resource, on behalf of readers.

When you do seek help from anyone, remember

• Tell them where you live – if you live in Australia, the resources are different from those available to you if you live in Halifax

• Tell them what you know already – it's rather discouraging for your researcher to go to a lot of trouble only to be told

  Oh yes, I knew that already

• It's your family history, not theirs – so don't expect them to get as obsessed or as involved as you are about your gt-gt-gt-grandfather

Archiving your material Billion Graves Borthwick Institute for Archives Bradford Family History Society Calderdale Family History Research Calderdale Family History Society Conservation of documents Family History Books FreeBMD FreeCEN FreeREG GENUKI Huddersfield & District Family History Society Livery company Local Newspapers & Events Index [1830s-1950s] Manchester & Lancashire Family History Society National Burial Index Railway Genealogy ROOTSCHAT.COM RootsWeb.com The Scrivener WHARFEGEN Yorkshire Ancestors.com

Page Ref: HINTSFH

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