Starting out with family genealogy

wellboss

Hi All

Just looking for some information on the best ways to start looking into my family genealogy. Any hints and tips on where to start, best places to get birth/death certificates and other possible records. Do people use some of the family genealogy websites or do they search themselves in old archives. I have a unique surname of Reape that is only found in the north Mayo/Sligo regions and I would be very keen to gather some information on the name

I am aware that we have access to the 1901 and 1911 census and I have looked at these in the past but that was as far as I ever went. Would I be correct in saying that the previous 40 years of census records were destroyed in a fire?. How do people go about finding information that dates back into the late 1800?

Apologies if these questions are daft but just thought this would be the best place to get information and I don't want to give up so easily this time as I am keen to find more history on my family name and origins.

Hope somebody can help

L1011

1861/71 were destroyed around the time they were taken, 1881/91 were pulped in the first world war. Its the ones before that that were burnt.

Birth/marriage/death records exist nationwide to the 1860s, marriage earlier for non-Catholics. Best and cheapest way to get these is try to isolate the records you want via Familysearch.org and get the real certs from the GRO for €4 a go. The stickies here are a good place to learn about what records exist.

Its generally not hugely hard to track back to 1860s records and often get people who were born a significant period before that from marriage or death records. Going beyond that will cost you more and can be frustrating and error-prone but there's still enough of us on here who try. For instance, church records exist in some places to the late 1700s and often further for non-Catholics, but most of them are either not accessible online or are only available through the IFHF, which is very dear for digital.

shanew

The 1861 & 1871 records were officially destroyed once the statistics were extracted; the 1881 and 1891 records were ‘pulped’, probably during WW1, and the Census records for 1831, 1841, 1851 went up in flames in the Four Courts in 1922.

see the stickies at the top of this section....

Civil records should take you back to 1864, or slightly earlier if the line were non-Catholic. For dates before this you need to check for church records, so depends on the parish, denomination etc. Transcripts of many parishes are available for a fee on RootsIreland, some areas (Dublin city, Co. Kerry, RC records for parts of Co. Cork etc) are free to access on IrishGenealogy etc...

Have you found a likely household on the 1911 and 1901 census ?
These are often the best place to start as they give counties of birth, ages, occupation etc

wellboss

Cheers guys, that's great that there is a good possibility to go back to quite far. I haven't identified a household yet from the records but I do know my grandfather who is 92 has his birth certificate with his parents names, although I know my great grandfathers name it is not appearing so need to get a look at that certificate and maybe search my great grandmother.

Thanks for your help I will have a look at the stickies and hopefully that will point me in the right direction

L1011

Certain occupations result in people being unfindable on the census - police and military mainly. Also beware of poor transcriptions, if you know the area they lived in you can browse by area to look for them and look for an obvious typo.

shanew

if you are ok with posting (or sending by pm) the names of your grandfather's parents it might be possible to locate a likely marriage for you from the BMD Index. If references can be found, you can order a research cert from the GRO, which would give you more details (father's name, places of residence for the bride & groom etc), all of which would get you started on the right trail and help find the previous generation..

wellboss

I should be able to get the names by tomorrow or thursday, need to chat with my grandfather but unfortunately the memory isn't the best these days so fingers crossed.

Pardon my ignorance but i haven't had time to read the stickies yet but what does GRO stand for?

L1011

General Register Office.

http://www.groireland.ie/

Enda63

Just to let you all know that the GRO is re-locating from the Irish Life Centre to Werburgh Street, Dublin 2. The new facility will open to the public on Monday 30th September 2013. To facilitate the move the Research facility in the Irish Life Centre will be closed to the public Wednesday 25th to Friday 27th September inclusive.

Normal service will resume in the new location at Werburgh Street on Monday 30th September 2013. The telephone number of the new office is: 01-8940080.

keryl

It's wise to take on what has been handed down but also be cautious of some of the families origins, for my name I've had people with the same surname giving pretty out there theories...

findmypast has some gems, well worth a look

Jellybaby1

wellboss wrote: »

I should be able to get the names by tomorrow or thursday, need to chat with my grandfather but unfortunately the memory isn't the best these days so fingers crossed..

Great to still have him to talk to. I understand memories may fade, but I have found people in my family in their 80's and they have been spot on with addresses and names, and even dates of birth. In their day they memorised all this stuff naturally, a gift which I don't have myself unfortunately.

mflood

There's an advisory service in the National Library, Kildare Street where you can also get a booklet showing you how to start

shanew

The IrishGenealogy website has nice short 'getting started' guide - the key phrase to accurate research is in the last paragraph '..start from what you know and use it to find out more..'

see : Starting your family history

Waitsian

I've found Claire Santry's 'Toolkit' website invaluable, would recommend it to anyone.

http://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/

wellboss

Thanks for all the previous posts, iv been able to make a start and I think I have located my great grandmother and her parents as its the location my grandfather told me but when I check the 1911 census the person that appears to have married my great grandfather is only 8 years older, I have noticed this 8 year gap in another person of the same name, should it not be a 10 year gap. Is it possible that there were mistakes like this back then? could it have been possible that the census was done in 1919 but not published till 1921.

Iv also noticed some larger increases in age over the 10 years. Would this be down to misreadings from the original census papers?

shanew

The ages are those reported by whoever filled in the census form on census nights in 1901 or 1911 - usually the head of household. As with death certs etc ages are not always accurate, so dont worry about these providing the other details match up.... e.g. location, occupation, family members, county of birth etc

You can view the actual census returns that the details are transcribed from - see the Form As

L1011

Many people didn't accurately know their age and vanity also came in to play - I've seen someone's wife 'age' 4 years between the two. There was no census in either 1919 or 1921.

The original images are viewable on the website, if you want

wellboss

Thanks guys,

sorry meant to write 1909/1911 instead of 1919/1921. But yeah it appears that the ages are out but the rest seems to match up.

L1011

1911 census was taken the last weekend of April 1911 from memory

Hermy

MYOB wrote: »

...from memory

:eek:

shanew

date from the top of the Form A's - 31st March 1901 & 2nd April 1911. both Sundays..

L1011

Wrong end of the month! Oh well

Coolnabacky1873

wellboss wrote: »

I have noticed this 8 year gap in another person of the same name, should it not be a 10 year gap. Is it possible that there were mistakes like this back then?..........Iv also noticed some larger increases in age over the 10 years. Would this be down to misreadings from the original census papers?

So much to learn, young grasshopper!

Enda63

Hi Wellboss,

it's not a misreading from the original census. There are a lot of unusual age differences between both census. Some people didn't really know their exact age and other ages were entered by the enumerator.

wellboss

Hi,


I am slowly getting there bit by bit using all info on this site and others, its a slow process as expected but im getting more and more info as I go. One quick ( possibly stupid) question, while looking through the BDM register on familysearch I noticed that the film numbers and the Digital film number were linked when searching for my grandfathers siblings, they progressed in increments of one as I worked from the oldest down, I have found two people of the same name which I am hoping that one is from my family but they both have numbers that fit into this sequence. Is this freak randomness or are families in this database grouped together?

Any help would be much appreciated

shanew

wellboss wrote: »

Hi,
....BDM register on familysearch I noticed that the film numbers and the Digital film number were linked when searching for my grandfathers siblings, they progressed in increments of one as I worked from the oldest down...

dont worry about the film numbers and the Digital film numbers, these are internal FamilySearch references and are not present in the original index books.