Genealogy Chat

What's the best way to continue my research? I'm looking for my g.g.grandfather James Field. On his son William's marriage certificate he is described as a shopkeeper. The marriage of William to Jane Elizabeth Ann Swetman took place in 1849, at St Dunstans Church, Stepney, Middx. He is listed as father of the groom and is also a witness. I believe he married an Elizabeth but so did plenty of other James Fields - all in the right area and at the right time. How do I find out which Elizabeth is the right one. Although I have William, born 1830, on the 61,71,81,81 and 1901 cenus results there is no sign of James or Elizabeth the parents. Could both be dead I suppose - and by the way William and family were Hatters in the Bethnal Green area from 1861 onwards. Any help would be most appreciated.

Don't know if you've seen these as part of the Essential hints and tips topic on the Records Office Board but thought if I copied them you might find them useful.

SEARCHES BEFORE 1837 In the second half of 1837 general registration of births, marriages and deaths began in England and Wales. Before this point your only source of birth, marriage and death information is from parish records. Lookups in parish records can be quite difficult sometimes as some villages did not have their own church but travelled to the nearest one which could be anyone of 5 in different directions. Larger towns and cities often had more than one church and so pinpointing which the family might have used is difficult. Access to parish records is much more limited in comparison to the BMD registrations. Parish records are usually held in county record offices with some libraries around the country holding films of their local parish records. The LDS church can order films they hold for you to use in their centres too. There are very few online transcriptions of parish records. Beause of the difficulty in searching for parish records, its unlikely that your lookup requests will be answered. All you can do is 1) Contact the county record office of the area and find out if they do searches, how much it will cost etc. 2) Find out if there is a library near to (or in) the place that you're looking at that has films of parish records and see if they will do a search 3) Find the time to visit the County Record Office or library with the films to do the research yourself 4) Find out where the nearest LDS family history centre is to you and if you can order the film you want and use it. Their list of worldwide centres is at http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHC/frameset_fhc.asp and their catalogue of films is at http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHLC/frameset_fhlc.asp They also hold films of a lot of different things so its well worth a search round their catalogue for a place to see what it throws up :)

The IGI can be found at http://www.familysearc(h.)org (remove brackets). Heres some advice about using it. IGI - Although the familysearch.org webiste is an incredibly useful website, users should be aware of one or two things. First of all it is NOT a complete database of parish records. It holds no parish burial records and some churches have withheld their records from the Mormon church who set up this website. Not only that but not all parish records that they do have have been transcribed. Watch out for patron submissions! These are not always accurate (they don't need to be for the purposes they were made). Always check the source of the record you're interested in so you can check it up or mark it as suspect. To do this click the word 'Source' at the bottom of the record and read what it says.

Ask for an 1841 Lookup ?