I am sure you will agree that the history of your family is straightforward in as much as your parents had parents, and their parents had parents, taking you back to the beginning of time, or at least until we were humanised, or not as the case might be. But locating historical information about your forebears might prove a little more difficult in reality. If you have read my first book, you will understand exactly what I mean if embarking on this journey as a complete novice. But with the benefit of hindsight I can now show you how to create your first pedigree chart following a logical process using only the resources of the Internet and working more efficiently and productively than I did in my earlier research.

For the benefit of this exercise I am going to start from scratch, as if just beginning my research, and trace the pedigree of my father-in-law, Albert William Marelli, the inspiration behind my first book, using only the resources of the Internet. At his death we inherited various documents containing family information, including Bert’s (Albert William) birth certificate.

Step 1 – Acquire a birth certificate of a parent or grandparent

• 1.If you have only a marriage certificate, see Chapter 2, Step 1.
• 2.If you have only a death certificate, it will give you their age at death or the date of birth on later certificates. See the Tips section at the end of this chapter and Chapter 4, Step 1.
• 3.If you don’t have a birth certificate (or any other certificate) of a close relative such as parent or grandparent then ask family members. If the relative is deceased someone somewhere will have a copy either of the birth or of the death certificate, usually the eldest child. Ask for a photocopy or at least the information recorded on the certificate.

• 4.If you don’t have any way of obtaining documented evidence of an ancestor then see the Tips section at the end of this chapter.

Birth certificate for Albert William Marelli

What information does a birth certificate give us?

• 1.The names of the person’s parents.
• 2.The address where s/he was born.
• 3.The address of the parents at the time of birth.
• 4.Father’s occupation.
• 5.Mother’s maiden name.

But what else should we pay attention to on birth certificates?

Birth certificates in more detail

The top of the birth certificate gives the district name and this information is important when searching indexes. It is important to remember that boundaries were constantly changing, including not only counties but parishes. For instance, I knew that an ancestor died in Brixton but the registration district in the indexes is Lambeth. Also villages in rural areas such as Devon could share the registration district of the nearest large town, even though situated some distance away. This can be very misleading and it is always worth looking up registration districts in Genuki (http://www.fhsc.org.uk/genuki/reg/).

First column on your birth certificate is the GRO reference

Numbered 1 to 500 the GRO reference is for a complete page in a register. Twins on the same page will have the same reference number, but if the twins were the last entry on one page and the first on the next they will have consecutive reference numbers. Another point to remember is that some families may have two births that appear as if they are twins when in fact they could be cousins or not even related.

Column 1: Date and place of birth

The date of birth is not always accurate, for a number of reasons, including:

• Parents were not above telling lies when registering a child outside the six-week rule of registration.
• Parents often became confused about the various dates of birth for their children as you will find on the Census (for example, you sometimes find brothers’ and sisters’ ages switched in error).

The place of birth can be helpful during later registrations, but in earlier ones you will find that in some instances only the name of the village is given, as with earlier Censuses.

When finding a full address a useful check is to see if the mother or father has registered the birth and given the same address as the place of birth for the child. It is important to remember some women went home to their mother’s to give birth, but even if a child was born in an institution, there could be a clue to the location of the family if the address of the informant is listed. If there is no address other than the institution then the area itself could be a clue or an old map might show the nearest institution to where the family resided, although this could be many miles from the family home.

Column 2: Forenames/given name

The forename or names are in this column. A child can be registered without a first name due to the fact that the child died before registration, or because they do not as yet have a name, or because the child was abandoned, born into poverty or going to be adopted.

Where there are no father’s details in the register you might be lucky enough to find two Christian names with the latter proving to be the surname of the father.

Remember that a person might be registered with a given name, as with one of my ancestors Alice Amy Plummer, who was known as Amy throughout her life. Or perhaps they were known by a nickname bearing no resemblance to their given name.

Column 3: Sex

Mistakes have been made in recording the sex of the child when a name can be used for either sex, such as Francis and Frances if spelt incorrectly. Unusual names also get recorded incorrectly. Another ancestor of mine, Stephen, had two baptism registrations, one for Stephen in FamilySearch.com and one for Stephanie in the National Burial Index. At first I thought they were twins as both were christened at the same time but further investigation at the original church records at the Surrey History Centre proved there was a mistake made in the transcription in the National Burial Index and Stephanie was in fact Stephen. Always allow for human error!

Column 4: Father’s name

At the beginning of Civil Registration, 1837, the rules of registration were open to interpretation. They stated that a birth should be registered within 42 days, but it wasn’t necessary to record the name of the fathers of bastard children. This meant that some registrars recorded the names of both parents even if not married and others recorded only the mother if the parents were unmarried. This situation was clarified in the mid 1800s with clear instructions for registrars and stated that if parents were not married, the father’s name should be left blank. Towards the third quarter of the 19th century the father of illegitimate children could be added if both parents were in agreement.

Even when the name of the father is recorded on a birth certificate it is open to question when a couple are not married. This can also cause problems when no father is named on a birth certificate and can carry on for generations.

My five times great grandfather, Frederick, after the death of his first wife, became involved in a second relationship, so far no record of a marriage has been found. He inherited two children by the surname Webber, neither child had the name of the father on their birth certificates, but I am aware this does not mean that Frederick was not the father of her earlier children. Both of her children used the name Pudvine and when the boy married he actually named his children Pudvine when they should have been know as Webber. The name Pudvine continues in that family to this day.

Column 5: Mother’s name

Column 5 gives the mother’s name and will also include previous names if married. For instance, I found one birth certificate with the mother’s married surname as Garbett, late Burnett, formerly Clarke, as she had been previously-married.

In later records it is possible to find a mother registered a birth with the name she has adopted, when unmarried. My great grandmother, Azor Zoar, is shown on the birth certificates of her children as Azor Zoar Brown, formerly Walker, although she never married the father of her children. Again it is important to remember that, as with the stepson of my five times great grandfather, a female could also record herself formally by her previous name if married previously.

Column 6: Father’s occupation

Sometimes this can be blank either because the informant did not know the occupation of the father, or the father was unemployed, i.e. not in paid employment. Sometimes the occupation may be listed as a labourer, but there were many forms of labourers. My husband’s great grandfather is recorded as being a carman on one birth certificate, an ice merchant on the next, then back to carman on the next. His occupation was a carman delivering ice.

Column 7: Signature, description and residence of the informant

Once the entry has been checked by the informant, s/he signs Column 7 with their usual signature. If the informant can’t write, they will put their mark, usually an X, and the registrar will add ‘the mark of …’. When you see that the informant cannot write, it probably means they cannot read, so they are relying on the registrar to record everything correctly, which can cause problems. The first wife of Martino Marelli, my husband’s great grandfather, could not write and one of her children was recorded as Ellen Morrelli, and in my early days of research this caused me great trouble. Because I searched, understandably, under the surname Marelli but had no luck, I had to try Morelli, Merelli, Murelli, and so on, back and forth, again and again. Finally I thought of another variant of the surname, Morrelli! I cannot express enough how important it is not to give up looking for an ancestor until you have explored every spelling variant you can think of. It is also worth remembering that a signature is not always proof that they were literate as many people learnt to write their names but that was as far as their education went.

Informants can be the mother, the father if married to the mother, both parents if not married to each other (this came into being in the last quarter of 1800s), someone present at the birth (grandparents, aunt, midwife etc.), or the owner or occupier of a property or institution, such as a master at a workhouse, or a person with responsibility for a child, a relative or family friend, or the master of an institution if the mother died in childbirth.

Addresses given can be misleading especially if the mother goes to the home of a friend or relative to have her child. You could also have the address where the child was born recorded as the same as the residence of informant, and you think you have the correct address for the family, but the mother might be recording her residence at the time of the birth. Also, when someone else is registering the birth, the address will be that of the informant and the place of birth could be the address where the child was born and not the family address. The address given could also be many miles away from the true family residence.

Column 8: Date of registration

The date of registration is important as this will be the date recorded in the indexes and not the date of birth. My own mother was born on the 28 February 1929 but her birth was not registered until 16 April 1929 so when searching for a copy of her birth certificate we found her not in the March quarter but in the June quarter of the indexes.

If the child was not registered within the given period required by the law, it is possible the child was never registered at all, as with my husband’s maternal grandmother. Sometimes a birth was registered up to a year later, or longer if there was acceptable proof of birth from relatives, doctors etc. We must not forget, a parent may give an incorrect date of birth in order to escape paying penalties for late registrations.

Column 9: Signature of registrar

The registrar’s signature is of little genealogical benefit unless of course the registrar bears the same family name meaning there could be a family connection.

Column 10: Name given after initial registration

You might find a correction of the given name in this column if the name is changed at baptism. Usually a child would be baptised after Civil Registration which could cause problems searching the indexes if the Christian name/s were changed and not corrected on the birth certificate.

So, as you can see, there is a lot more to be considered when analysing birth certificates.

At this stage I can choose my next step. I could estimate the ages of both of Albert’s parents and start a search for their birth certificates or I could estimate the year of his parents’ marriage based on the birth date of Albert Marelli.

• To estimate a birth, remember that either parent could be as young as 18 or younger and as old as 40 years of age or older when Albert was born, giving me a search period of 22 years or more, i.e. the years from 1875 to 1897. I personally would assume they married young and choose 1897 to begin my search and work backwards.
• To estimate this second marriage, I would start at the date of their first child born in 1915 and work backwards.

I have chosen to find the marriage certificate of Albert and Lilian next as the information on this document will give me further clues to finding their individual birth certificates as I will show you.

• Remember that BMD registers are split into four quarters per year, March, June, September and December, and the registers began in the September quarter of 1837.

As Bert was born in November 1915, I am going to start searching from this year as they could quite easily have married shortly before his birth. But don’t forget they could also have married later.

Step 2 – Choose an Internet site to source BMD

My favourite sites that provide access to the Civil Registration Index for BMDs housed at the Family Record Centre (FRC) are as follows:

FreeBMD	http://www.freebmd.rootsweb.com
Ancestry.co.uk	http://www.ancestry.co.uk
Find my Past	http://www.findmypast.com

FreeBMD

FreeBMD is exactly what name implies, a free resource for finding transcriptions of the Civil Registration Index for births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales housed in total at the FRC, or in part at local history centres, libraries and so on. This site is easy to use and provides you with a transcription of the index you will need to obtain your certificate and it also allows you to view a scanned copy of the original register, if scanned into the FreeBMD site, in a variety of formats. The only drawback is that this wonderful store of information is not yet complete.

FreeBMD is always my initial port of call because first, it is free and second, you can search more specifically by name which is of particular use when looking for that elusive ancestor without having to scrawl through pages of registers.

Anchestry.co.uk

Another great source and one I use constantly, is Ancestry.co.uk. Although this site is chargeable it offers true value for money. What it costs me per year to use this site, I could easily spend over a weekend travelling to family history archive centres, so it is definitely worth it. This site now includes the 1841 Census.

Ancestry.co.uk offers:

UK Census records
1901 England	1901 Wales
1891 England	1891 Wales
1881 England	1881 Wales
1871 England	1871 Wales
1861 England	1861 Wales	1861 Scotland*
1851 England	1851 Wales	1851 Scotland*
1841 England*	1841 Wales*	1841 Scotland*
*new

UK and Ireland Parish and Probate Records
England and Wales, BMD Index (Beta)
Pallot Marriage Index
Irish Immigrants: New York Port Arrival

For a further charge you can access a variety of other records from such places the USA, Canada and Ireland.

The cost of using Ancestry.co.uk, as of April 2006

12 months UK Deluxe Membership is £69.95.
12 months World Deluxe Membership is £199.95.
You can trial World Deluxe for a month for £24.99.
You can also choose Pay-Per-View which costs £4.95 for 10 records over 14 days.

Find my Past

Findmypast.com formerly 1837 online, proved to be a real lifesaver for me; my first experience accessing BMDs on the Internet. Again findmypast.com is a very straightforward, easy to use website constantly requesting feedback from its users for ideas for improvement, which they achieve on a regular basis. Findmypast.com is another excellent resource offering a flexible payment plan to suit everyone’s pocket.

Findmypast.com offers the following:

Births, marriages and deaths

Births	1837–1983	1984–2004
Marriages	1837–1983	1984–2004
Deaths	1837–1983	1984–2004	(Also BMDs overseas)

Census records

1861 Census
1891 Census

Military Records

WW1 soldiers died
War deaths WW1, WW2, Boer War

Living relatives

Person, address and business search

‘Living Relatives’ is a premium database available only to subscribers who have purchased a price plan of £25 or more.

The cost of using Findmypast.com as of April 2006

Subscription (Changes in price ongoing)

1 year’s subscription for unlimited access to BMD indexes for England and Wales is £50.00.

3 years’ subscription for unlimited access to BMD indexes for England and Wales is £125.00.

BMD and Census subscriptions

Unlimited BMD and Census access for 1 year is £65.
Unlimited BMD access for 3 years is £160.

Unit Plan

90–day plan	(50 units @ 10 pence)	£5.00.
120–day plan	(176 units @ 8.5 pence)	£15.00.
365–day plan	(313 units @ 8 pence)	£25.00.
365–day plan	(810 units @ 7.5 pence)	£60.00.
365–day plan	(2400 units @ 5 pence)	£120.00.
365–day plan	(4800 units @ 5 pence)	£240.00.

Step 3 – Search for your ancestor

As FreeBMD is free, I am going to search their facility for the marriage certificate for Lilian Chappell and Albert Marelli before I log into a paying site. If I was going to use Ancestry.co.uk or findmypast.com as Albert was born in 1915, my first search would take in 1915 and the preceding 5 years, as you will see later in this book. For this search I will be using FreeBMD and will search by name; a very convenient way to search.

Go to FreeBMD website: http://www.freebmd.rootsweb.com then select ‘search’.

Fantastic, I have found the marriage details for Albert Marelli, spouse Chappell, married in Wandsworth in the September Quarter, Vol. Id, Page 1567. At this stage print the details below or record the information you will need to purchase a copy of the marriage certificate. Look at the information at the bottom. The ‘spectacles’ symbol means that on this particular search FreeBMD has the facility for me to view the original Register of Marriages for this particular record. Click your mouse on the spectacles.

You now have the facility to view the original register and choose the format you prefer to view the document. This time, I decided on jpeg to view the original.

This is what I received. When viewing online you can choose to enlarge the view and print a copy for your records. Below is the enlarged view of the information I require.

In later registers you will find the page records the ‘event’ (B, M or D), quarter and year. If you are printing off an early record it does not record the information on the page so remember to write event (B, M or D), year and quarter on the top of the page otherwise you will not have enough data to enable you to order the original certificate.

Step 4 – Ordering certificates online

I now want to order the original certificate and to do this I am going to access the GRO (General Register Office) online: www.gro.gov.uk. Select ‘ordering certificates online’.

Recap

• 1.Acquire a birth certificate for a parent or grandparent.
• 2.Estimate the approximate year of your parent’s or grandparent’s marriage (if born in 1912 then search the preceding years working backwards from the date on the certificate).
• 3.If unsuccessful after searching backward for a sensible time-frame, then work forward from the birth-date.
• 4.Select the Internet source you will use to find the index details or a copy of the original register for ordering your certificate from the GRO.
• 5.Search for ancestor and GRO index.
• 6.Print a copy of your sourced register, then print or write down the GRO index.

  Name	Event	Year	Quarter	Vol.	Page
  A. Marelli	Marriage	1912	September	1d	1567

• 7.Register or log in to the GRO website and order your certificate.
• 8.Using FreeBMD is economical. The cost so far for a marriage certificate for Albert Marelli and Lilian Chappell would be £7.00.

The copy inherited below is quite different in appearance from a copy purchased from the GRO.

Step 5 – Your first family tree

You will soon be able to start building your family tree. The above tree was produced using Family Tree Maker, more of this later in the book.

 Tips

• 1.If you have no information about a grandparent or great grandparent move forward a generation and follow the actions above.
  • aStart with yourself if necessary.
  • bStart with the birth year of an older sibling to assess the marriage year of a parent.

• 2.Refer back to living memory.
  • aWhen was the last time you or a relative can remember the person you are looking for was living?
  • bCan anyone remember roughly a death-date or age at death?
  • cIf you have a death-date you could start by acquiring a death certificate (age at death will give you a birth-date).
  • dCan you remember a big family event of the relative, such as a milestone birthday, wedding, anniversary?

• 3.Was the person living at the time the 1901 Census was taken?
  • aThe 1901 Census is accessible online, see Chapter 2, Step 4.

• 4.Has anyone in the family stored old letters, postcards, photographs with dates, newspaper cuttings, bills etc. that could provide you with clues?
• 5.It is always preferable to work backwards in family research, although sometimes not always possible.
• 6.Remember to try variations in the spellings of names.
• 7.Find the right payment method for acquiring information on the Internet. Read through the first few chapters of this book before committing to paying for Internet resources.
• 8.When working with various sites open a new browser for each website, this way you can switch between sites without forever logging in and out.