Do you know your family history?

My father's family lineage came to Canada from Yorkshire, England as part of the Yorkshire migration to Nova Scotia that took place between 1772 and 1775. I was lucky, in that most of that family history has been passed from generation to generation including dates and occupations.

That history has been traced all the way back to Stephen Read who was born in 1734 in Yorkshire, England. He went on to become a Colonel in the British Army prior to moving to Nova Scotia in the 1770's.

But Ruth's family history had a lot of question marks, and so a few years ago it was a hobby of mine to find out more.

Both of her parents were born in England, and it turns out that England has made it fairly easy to get the details of your family history. I'm pretty sure that many of our readers have their roots in the United Kingdom, so perhaps this info will benefit anyone who is curious about their history from that area.

I was able to go back to 1820 with Ruth's family.

The GRO (General Registry Office) in Britain keeps all birth, marriage, and death records dating back to 1837. Provided you know some of the more recent names and dates, once you get started you can often get right back to the mid 1800's.

And that's exactly what I did with Ruth's family. She knew very little of her family history, and thankfully I was able to get some more details from her father (who is now 81) to get me started.

Once you find the registry listing, you can then take that listing and order a copy of the actual certificate...birth, marriage, or death. That certificate costs money (currently £9.25, about $18 CAD each) but it will give you details such as the parents full names and occupations, cause of death, occupation, address...all kind of info!

I spent about $300 to get Ruth's family details, so it's not cheap but it's a hobby so I did it over the course of a year a long time ago.

https://www.gov.uk/research-family-history

It's free to get the index numbers themselves...

http://www.freebmd.org.uk/

The National Census Records also tell you a lot of info, and they are also free...

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/census-records/

You need to start slowly or you'll get frustrated. And, you need a place to keep track of the info that you find.

I use the free software at http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/ ...just click where it says Standard Edition Free Download. There's a bit of a learning curve, but once you input yourself and your spouse you simply go on to inputting your parents...your spouse's parents and whatever other info you have. Then when you start to draw blanks, you need to start the research.

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