Tips On Research

Before I tell you just exactly how I traced Johnny A and his connection to our family, here are some tips for all you budding family historians out there.

1.  Always begin with yourself, your partner, children etc. and enter all details.

2.  Then your parents if living.  If they are not ask any brothers of sisters of theirs for any information they might have, any names they remember, any places and even family stories. It is important to talk to people, elderly aunts or uncles.  Do not leave it until it is too late as I did. It only makes the work harder and longer.  Jot down any place names that are mentioned because it does help to know where people lived and better still, where they originally came from.

3.  Contact any cousins, find out details of them, their families, their parents.  Anything you can ascertain from them like wedding dates and death dates.

4.  When applying for certificates, especially marriage certificates always read and note the full details.  Often witnesses to marriages were family members so that will give you more names.

5.  Acquire any family photographs that you can. Often they will have a date on the back and if you are lucky, the names of the people. If relatives are unwilling to give you photographs then state that you will photocopy and return the originals. I have obtained many photographs and documents this way.

6.  Use the internet.  There is new information coming on line all the time.  The Latter Day Saints site has millions or records worldwide and you can also access the American and British Census records on there, at least the British one for 1881. Free BMD are putting online all English, Scottish and Welsh records since registration began.  It is being done by voluntary transcribers (I transcribed thousands of pages myself for them).  They enter new data every week.

8.  There are many message boards on Geneology sites where you can post a message about family you are seeking.  I put one on the South African message board and had a wonderful response that led me to lots more information and finding cousins I did not know existed.

9.  Above all, do not be discouraged.  You have to have patience.  Sometimes a letter written will not be answered for weeks.  I can give you an example. I wrote to the Record Office on Malta to ask if they could tell me anything about the burial of a relative.  A reply came back that they could not.  Unknown to me, they held my query on file and just this year, three years after my original request, I got an e-mail out of the blue telling me they had now acquired new information and giving me the exact details of where the grave was. So patience, patience. Even if you appear to reach a dead end, you will be surprised that things can still turn up.

10.  Be aware that once you start, it becomes very addictive and I mean very.  You might even find yourself getting books out of the library to read about the history of the time your ancestors lived.  It improves your knowledge greatly.  Every piece of information is like gold dust and you feel so elated and then cannot wait to move on.

Good luck to all who start research.  You will never be sorry you did.  It is a wonderful and very rewarding hobby.