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 [ Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes 1837-2004 ]

Updated 21/06/2010

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Welcome.

I have written these pages in the hope of making it a little easier for you to search, there are many links throughout this section that will be of help to you in your research.

I do hope that you find this section of our Ward Family Website useful, and please try to spare a moment to sign our guestbook, as I welcome feedback from you, and your comments help me in deciding how to make the site even better.

Now we have Genealogy which is the study of our ancestors, usually through lineage, commonly the male line. Then we have Family history which is about our recent past, the olden days, how our ancestors lived, worked and played. Genealogy on its own, for some, can become monotonous, but combined with family history it will give you an insight into how your ancestors lived. Using old family photographs can also provide useful clues. The quest for your past can be fascinating and rewarding. As a hobby, researching genealogy and family history can be fun, rewarding and compelling.

As you can tell from our Ward family website pages, we really enjoy the Family History side.

Before you begin, decide what your aim is. Do you want to trace the male or female line only in your family? or do you want to build your tree with ancestors as far back as you can go? or perhaps you might just want to study the recent past of your family history?

Here are a few questions that I hope to be able to help you with, they are all hyperlinked to the relevant section on this page.

Where do I start?

How do I record the information that I get?

Free Research Forms

Where can I search various records, (Including the internet) to help find my ancestors?

How do I find Birth, Marriage and Death details?

How do I find Birth, Marriage and Death details, Pre 1837?

How do I Make My Family Tree?

Relationship terms?

How do I obtain Military records of my ancestors?

How can I search for records of ancestors who were killed in the wars?

Abbreviations that have become standard practice in recording genealogy.

List of Some Register Office’s.

To start researching your family tree, you first need to write down your immediate family names, such as your Parents, Brothers & Sisters, Grandparents, Aunties & Uncles, as well as your Cousins, Then add as much as you can about them, such as dates of births, marriages and deaths. Interview your relatives and make sure you write down all the information gathered, or better still try to record the interview, you will end up with a great deal of notes, so please try and keep these well organised. Talk to older family members as well. Here are a few good questions that you could ask them - 

1. Ask them their full names including any nicknames they have or may have had in their past.
2. Ask them for their birth date, marriage date and locations of each and if they have any certificates that you could photocopy.
3. Ask them for their parents' names and their grandparents' names. Also ask about any nicknames they may have had in the past.
4. Ask them for their birth, marriage dates and locations of each.
5. What was it like for you growing up in such and such time period?
6. Where did you grow up?
7. Did your family move often and if so where, and what time periods?
8. What is your fondest memory (of whom ever you are wanting to know about)?   

9. What kind of house did you live in when you were a child?

10. Did your parents or grandparents come to this town or county from another town or county?

11. When did they move to this town /county?

12. What were their occupations? and ask them about the working conditions.

You can then enter all the information that you get, onto a Family Group Chart.

 Get all your old family photo's and get one of your relatives to identify all of your relatives, take the time at that moment to make a note of their names and any other information that they can give you. Try to find documents, birth/marriage/death certificates, as these can give you plenty of information, don't forget to let ALL your Relatives know that you are doing a Family Tree, and ask them if they have any old photo's and/or documents that you may copy.

 Do not try to research too many surnames at once. Start with one and work through, when you get stuck on a name (commonly known as 'hitting a brick wall'), then try starting a new branch in your tree. Don’t forget to take photocopies of original documentation and give back the originals to members of the family who may have lent them to you.

Keeping Records

A system is vital for storing all this information, I personally use envelope folders, and have a folder for each Surname (this sometimes requires more than one folder, depending on how large the family is, If this is the case, label each folder into years, i.e. - WARD 1780 - 1850, then next folder WARD 1850 - 1900, and so on.) I find this system works well for me, you could also use box files, try to keep each family together, here I use paper clips.

For each family, you should have a Family Group Chart, also try to make copies of important documents, such as Census Images, Certificates, etc. and keep these together with the relevant family. I store my envelope files in these handy filing cases that are now on the market at fairly reasonable prices.

Using a computer is a very popular way to store your genealogical information. As your research details can be filed, sorted, added to and printed out in a variety of forms. You can even scan certificates, census images, to incorporate them in your files. You can also build family tree charts, there are some good ones on the market now, and you can even download free ones to use on your computer, I have given you a link to these at the end of this section.

Spreadsheets provide an ideal medium for compiling and sorting lists of names, dates and places, and are particularly useful for one-name collectors. Any Word Processing system, such as Excel, WordPerfect can be used for storing and adapting family history information.

Some Useful Free Research Forms

Family Trees

There are many programs for building your Family Tree on your computer,

You can download Family Tree makers free from some places online, and you can even create your own layout by using Word or Excel.

Legacy 5.0 Family Tree Free Download

Legacy 5.0 is a full-featured professional genealogy program that helps you track, organize, print, and share your family history. Includes sourcing, reports, merging, To Do list, slide shows, multimedia, Web pages, spell checking, import and export.

Here are some useful links that will help you

http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/  

http://www.rootsweb.com/~maillist   - Mailing Lists

http://www.cyndislist.com/

http://www.genuki.org.uk/

http://www.pro.gov.uk/

Search over 500 million names at Genes Reunited.co.uk

War deaths are accessible at Family Records Centre in separate registers to civil deaths. Most of the records relating to military service are held at the Public Records Office. Various archives are held covering the Home Office, Foreign Office, War Office, Army, Royal Navy, merchant navy, Royal Air Force, etc. The Imperial War Museum has a department of documents that include British private papers and captured German documents. The War Museum is at Lambeth Road, London, England, SE1

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission was set up to identify and maintain the graves of Commonwealth forces killed in World Wars I and II. Records are also kept of those who have no known graves. In late 1998 the Commission put its records online on the Internet. This is a phenomenal, and free, fully searchable archive for those researchers fortunate enough to own a PC with access to the World Wide Web. For those many researchers not online, information including photographs of known graves can be obtained from the Commission at 2 Marlow Road, Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, SL6 7DX. http://www.cwgc.org/cwgcinternet/search.aspx

If you wish to obtain any military records of any of your ancestors that served in the services these two site will give you all the details you need to obtain these records -

Genealogy Research in Military Records

Army Service Records

GENUKI also provides what is in effect a 19th century gazetteer of England and Wales. This is the alphabetical Index to Places in England and Wales covered by the Local Registration Offices. This index is at: http://www.fhsc.org.uk/genuki/places/

There is a page listing all the UK and Ireland counties which you can use to find out whether there is a Surnames List (i.e. list of who is researching what names, where) for  a given county. This page is at: http://www.genuki.org.uk/indexes/SurnamesLists.html

The 1881 census is available to search Free at http://www.familysearch.org/ click  on Search, then on Census's, on the drop down menu go to 1881 British Census, I have found so much information on some of our ancestors families from searching the 1881 Census here, and once you find a family household, you can view the neighbours, which can be interesting, as sometimes you can find other relatives that lived in the same street.

www.GenesReunited.co.uk This is a great site that now has over 7 million members, you can also Search over 500 million names. It is a brilliant place to start your Family Tree and also make contact with others who are researching the same family names as you are. Well worth a visit.

The 1901 census is also available online at the official site http://www.1901census.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.html. (The index is free,everything else is pay per view.)  

Study Ancestors provides free expert Genealogy advice. Use our step-by-step guide to get your Family Tree started and learn what genealogical sources are available and how they can be acquired. www.studyancestors.com

We really do hope that this section of our website has been of use to you, and we wish you well in your research into your ancestors.

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