Family Trees and UKICensus.com
Family Tree Search
A family tree is generally the totality of one's ancestors, or specifically, a chart used in genealogy to show the family connections between individuals, consisting of the individuals' names (usually accompanied by dates, and often also places and occupations) connected by various types of line representing marriages, extra-marital unions, and progeniture. Some use the term only for charts showing strict patrilineal descent, although in common usage the term is used much more generally.
Family Tree Software
As you find out more about your family history - you will find yourself gathering more and more pieces of information. It will help immensely if you organise this information systematically from an early point in your research. Although this can be done manually using notebooks, files and card indexes, computers can really help you not only to store information but also to view and print out that information in many different ways without retyping it.
It is possible to use existing programs on your computer (such as word processors and spreadsheets) to store information, but it can be much more straightforward to use a package specifically designed for managing your family tree. Such a package will not only store pieces of information about individuals but can also track their relationships to one another. They also give you many different tools for presenting your information - from reports and colourful charts to fully coded web pages in some cases.
Introduction
FamilyRecords.gov.uk asked a keen genealogist to look at a few software programs. We hope that you will add your comments or send in your reviews of other products so that this can be a really useful shared resource. To add your comments or submit a review of a program you find useful, use the feedback form on the contact page. Please read this important legal information before doing so.
Criteria used for peer reviews
The family tree packages covered here all meet certain basic requirements. They can all record the sort of information that you will find about your ancestors in UK archives and also record where you found it - although some allow you more flexibility to do so than others.
The focus of the review is on their overall ease of use, flexibility of data entry, multimedia features, charts, reports, web page production and help and support and have given each program a rating out of five for each of these features. All have their strengths and weaknesses, so your understanding of what is important to you will help you make a choice between them.
GEDCOM
They can also all import and export data in GEDCOM files. (GEDCOM is a standard format for genealogical computer data which allows you to move information from one software package to another).
Installation
In addition, they are straightforward to install, all following standard Windows procedures.
Demo copies
It is worth obtaining demo copies, where available, of the programs, or downloading those which are free, to try them out for yourself. Once you familiarise yourself with what they can do, you will have a better understanding of which aspects are particularly important to the way you do your research.
UK Specific
There are certain features which are specific to family historians tracing their roots in the UK. For example, before the introduction of the civil registration (in 1837 in England and Wales, 1855 in Scotland and 1864 in Ireland) few records of births and deaths are available. Instead, records of baptism and burial may be all that is available. Some programs will automatically use these dates to determine a person's life-span. Flexibility with recording names can also be useful with Welsh patronymic naming patterns, for example.
Also, UK users are familiar with family trees produced in dropline format, i.e. an ancestor appears at the top of the page and all descendants branch off vertically beneath him or her. These trees are much less common in North America where most family tree software programs are developed so some of the packages reviewed here do not produce them.
Family Tree Research
With more than 1.4 billion websites on the world wide web it can be hard knowing where to start.
Start with reputable sites that have built up a good reputation in the genealogical community - the FamilyRecords.gov.uk links page lists some of the best family history sites.
Subscribe to a mailing list - these will allow you to find genealogical information from all over the world and correspond with researchers anywhere. For example look at Rootsweb.
Use search engines to find family history information that may not be found on a genealogical website.
Primary Resources
Perhaps we should call this "near primary sources" as the original documents are paper - or possibly even velum. In this guide, when we refer to "primary sources" available on the world wide web we are referring to photographic images of original documents.
There are very few original documents online, so most of the information comes from secondary sources. This means that the original, which may be faded, damaged or illegible, has been read by someone and copied out, perhaps several times, before reaching you in a list or index. It may not be accurate. It can therefore only be used as a clue or a signpost. You must evaluate the information and check original sources whenever you can. Many archives and record offices are able to send you photocopies of the original documents for only a small charge, and you can often use the Internet to order by e-mail.
Where primary material is available, it usually has to be paid for because of the cost of digitising the original documents, and transcribing their contents to provide an index. Documents available online include: census, birth, death
and marriage information for Scotland at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk, census information for England and Wales at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/census; wills proved by the prerogative court of Canterbury at www.documentsonline.nationalarchives.gov.uk and Scottish wills are available at www.scottishdocuments.com. Researchers with ancestors who migrated from the United Kingdom to the United States, might find their ancestors name on a passenger list at the Ellis Island website www.ellisisland.org this website offers free access to the original images of records. If your ancestors came to the UK from Eastern Europe, Asia or the West Indies, you will find a wealth of material on www.movinghere.org.uk - access to the digitised images is free. You can also access a digital archive of The London Gazette - this lists recipients of medals, aliens granted naturalization, changes of name by deed poll and much more. You can use a simple key word search - it is worth trying spelling variations etc. It is free to search and view the PDF files www.gazettes-online.co.uk
Catalogues
Even when images of original material are not available online, you can still do some research using the online catalogue of the archive or library. The catalogue will tell you what documents are available and you will be able to find out how to order copies of records, or pre-order documents if you are going to visit an archive in person.
The Catalogue, the online catalogue of The National Archives, is available at www.catalogue.nationalarchives.gov.uk. If it is your first time using The Catalogue, it is recommended that you use a guided search.
A2A (Access to Archives) is a database containing catalogues of archives held across England. If you know which region your ancestors come from you could search using the name of their village, or even just enter the surname of the person you are looking for. You will find references to all kinds of records held by local archives, from the official such as court sessions to personal diaries etc. www.a2a.nationalarchives.gov.uk
A similar website is being set up to access Scottish archives. The online catalogue is not up yet but you can view examples of the type of material that will be available at www.scan.org.uk
The National Library of Wales offers online access to several catalogues on its website www.llgc.org.uk
You can search the Moving Here catalogue of digitised resources at www.movinghere.org.uk to find items of interest to those whose ancestors migrated to the UK from Eastern Europe, Asia and the West Indies.
Genealogy websites
Genealogy websites range from online databases which you normally have to pay to access e.g.www.ancestry.co.uk, www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk, or the 1881, 1891 & 1901 census websites to the websites of individual family historians who have posted information about their family history online.
Some websites offer free access to databases, for example freeBMD allows you to search for UK birth, marriage and death records. The website www.familysearch.org run by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints allows you to search for ancestors world-wide. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission website www.cwgc.org has a database which you can search to find details of an ancestor who served and fell in the first or second world wars, information given might include the name of the spouse and parents.
One of the most useful websites for genealogists is "Cyndi's List of Genealogy sites on the internet" at www.cyndislist.com. Cyndi's website has more than 130,000 links organised by topic and alphabetically.
Other sites that have lots of useful information and links for people researching UK ancestry are Genuki at www.genuki.org.uk and Familia at www.familia.org.uk.
To find an individual's website on a particular family, try looking at the "freepages" on Rootsweb or use a search engine.
Search Engines
There are several search engines on the world wide web - you probably have a favourite one already. They work in slightly different ways so you might want to try the same query in several search engines. Many people get started in family history by typing their surname into a search engine - this probably won't get you very far, but you might find other people researching the same name, or come across some of the websites mentioned on the previous page.
These search engines will only search text in a web page, they cannot look inside a database such as the ones holding census or birth, marriage and death records. To search a database you have to go to the site where the database is (e.g. FreeBMD, Scotland's People, FamilySearch, 1901 Census).
Google www.google.com
Altavista uk.altavista.com
MSN search.msn.co.uk
Lycos www.lycos.co.uk
"Ask Jeeves" www.ask.co.uk
Yahoo uk.yahoo.com
Freesearch www.freesearch.co.uk
Your Website
Once you have created your family tree going back a few generations and found out some interesting facts about your ancestors, you might want to create a website about your family's history.
Some of the software reviewed in the software peer review can help you do this or look at the list of software on Cyndi's List. Of course you could learn how to create web pages yourself - all you need is a program like Notepad - and a good book or online tutorial. For straight forward advice and tutorials, try the "HTML basics" section on Webmonkey www.webmonkey.com
Most ISPs (Internet Service Providers) will offer you some free web space with you email/internet access account. Good luck!
Ireland Family Trees
Searching for Ancestors in Ireland Using Ancestry
Ancestry provides a growing and exclusive collection of Irish records as well as a wealth of community and research tools to help you successfully find your ancestors. Below is a brief description of those tools to help you get started.
Step 1 - Search the Irish databases.
The easiest way to start your Irish research on Ancestry is to type in the given and surname of an ancestor in our advanced search box. Then select Ireland for the country option. Both Ireland and Northern Ireland counties will be searched. If you are sure of a specific county in Ireland, you may also select a county to narrowly focus your search.
You should also try to search an individual database by clicking on the database name. This link will take you to an advanced search box that is built specifically for that database and provides the greatest accuracy when searching.
The best databases for getting started are the Irish Parish and Probate Records, the Irish Famine Immigration Index , and the Irish Records Index. In addition, the Ancestry World Tree has linked family trees of thousands of Irish families.
Step 2 – Post a query on the Ancestry Message Boards
Ancestry.co.uk have created a community of millions of family historians from all over the world that are very willing to help you. With thousands of posts per day, the message boards can be viewed by locality or surname and will help you tap into the family history community for the area of Ireland that you are researching.
One of the most useful places to post your questions is in the Locality section of the messages boards. Here you can focus on the areas where you believe your ancestor lived. If you don’t know which county they lived in, post to the general Ireland message board.
Remember to post all the information you have about the individual. Instead of saying "I am searching for William Anderson in Ireland," you should list birth, death, marriage information, specific place names, and any known family members.
Step 3 – Record what you find.
Record your information in Ancestry’s Online Family Tree, a free service that allows you to record, preserve, and share your family tree on the Internet without any additional software.
Additional Resources
For information about specific Irish research strategies and sources, Ancestry has many resources to help you in your quest.
You can click on the Sources tab above to get specific information about where to go to find certain record types in Ireland.
The Maps tab will lead you to our map centre for interesting historical maps.
For those that prefer professional tutors to help them through their family history, an Ancestry Online Genealogy Training Class for Ireland may be available. Enrollment schedules and availability of these classes varies based on interest, so don't forget to look up and see when the next class starts.
If you are interested in sharing your genealogical finds with your family on a private and secure family web site, check out our sister site, MyFamily.com.
Ancestry has created a wealth of tools, products, and services that are all geared toward making your family history research successful. We wish you the best of luck in your adventure to find your roots.
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