Genealogy Chat

Can anyone tell me what do you do after you have found family in all the census up to 1901. After that how do you trace them?? I just don't know where to go next. Betty

I have trawled through parish records to find them. You can also search for possible GRO entries on the Beta, births, marriages and deaths lists on Ancestry... not easy if it's a common surname in an area. The advantage of parish records,especially marriages, is that you can more easily identify the family as you will have a certificate type entry to view. Another thing about parish records is finding other people of another surname of interest, when you scroll through, rather than just one name searching.... eg. I've found married daughters from another parish bringing their children to be baptised at her parent's family church. Gwyn

Tracing forward after 1901 is very difficult unless you have something definite to go on. The BBC program Who do you think you are? managed to do this for Vic Reeves but did say at the time it was not that easy. If it is a common name you are looking for then it is virtually impossible. The main problem is not having any definite dates to go on Ok so you find a birth that looks promising but the only way to be certain is to send for the certificate as you can't check on the next census When working backwards, you always have a date to focus on, albeit with a window of a few years. Good luck, anyway

Hi Betty, If you're talking about Scottish records, you can, but you need to search yourself at GROS. Liz

You have to use every bit of information possible to narrow down the search. I have been trying to find my Taid's second marriage. I have found him with his wife on the electoral roll in 1930 and no he left the first wife around 1923 so I have narrowed down the search to 7 years. Though still not found the marriage but I have a suspicion that he did not actually marry! Similarly I have recently found my mother's sister's family - GRO TRACELINE could not find her but said they would not be able to find if she married before NHS records started in WWII. So I searched from when she turned 16 to the start of the war and found the marriage. MB

Hi everyone, Thanks for all your messages, I just can't find anyone from the family after 1901 and some of the females would have married therefore have a different surname. I think I will just have to hope I get some information from family members to help with this. Thanks for all your help. Betty

You need to search for births, marriages and deaths in the indexes. You can also go to archives nearest where they were living in 1901 and check electoral registers, street directories. If you have the occupations from the census, you could try trade/commercial/business directories, associations, unions etc. nell

rather than trying to come forward from 1901,the best way now is to try and go backto then. .I presume this is your family so starting with yourself you should go backwards thro both sides of your mum and dad then their parents etc. If its not your direct family then its trickier as you do need a starting point of ref. Shirley

Hi Nell and Shirley, Thanks for your reply's. I can't go back Shirley, have already done that and they came from Ireland. Nell can't go to records office as it's Durham and Yorkshire area, I am in Scotland. Betty