Add-on to session 8 of Urban Archaeology Lifelong Learning Module. Delivered 22nd November 2012.

1. Urban Archaeology
Session 8: Add-on

2. Genealogy & Family History

 Genealogy…
 The construction of a family tree through research
 Family History is…
 The writing of a biography of a series of related ancestors
of common genealogy

3. Genealogy

 Society of Genealogists: http://sog.org.uk
 Genealogy links:
 GENUKI Includes details of County Record Offices
 Cyndi's List LOTS of useful links to software, databases and
resources
 Genealogy Mailing Lists by John Fuller
 LookupUK Resource Centre for finding friends or relatives

4. Genealogy

 Gov’t repositories:
 General Register Office
 The National Archives
 Libraries:
 British Library for Family Historians
 National Library of Scotland
 National Library of Wales
 National Library of Ireland
 National Repositories:
 College of Arms
 National Maritime Museum – PORT. Catalogue of maritime-related resources
 ArchivesHub - 20,000 archives in UK's universities and colleges
 ARCHON (Archives On-line). - Managed by the National Archives
 British History Online - British historical sources, inc. text and information about people,
places and businesses from the 12th century to the present day. Built by the Institute of
Historical Research and the History of Parliament
 Moving Here – a National Archive initiative of 150,000 free images. Mostly from four
communities coming into Britain since 1800s: Jewish, Irish, Caribbean, South Asian

5. Genealogy

 Useful Organisations:
 Federation of Family History Societies.
 Scottish Association of Family History Societies
 Family History Societies - More Family History Societies indexed
at GENUKI
 New England Historic Genealogical Society, oldest and largest
genealogical society in the USA
 Institute of Heraldic & Genealogical Studies
 The Heraldry Society – covers heraldry, armory, chivalry,
genealogy and allied subjects
 The Heraldry Society of Scotland
 AGRA - Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives

6. Genealogy

 Online Databases:
 findmypast.com - entire copy of the indexes of Births, Marriages and Deaths for England and Wales from
1837 to 2001 – small charge for copies
 Family Search site (LDS Church) - largest collection of free family history, family tree and genealogy records
 The Origins Network - 80 million + British and Irish genealogical records
 Commonwealth War Graves Commission Debt of Honour Register - personal and service details for the 1.7
million members of the Commonwealth forces who died in the First or Second World Wars
 Burke's Peerage and Gentry - genealogical records of Britain's titled and landed families throughout the
centuries. Good for terms related to British history, society and tradition
 The Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum at Caernarfon
 The Monumental Brass Society - brasses and the MBS's activities
 Police Orders - police orders of police officers serving in London's Metropolitan Police Service. From 1891-
1895 and 1899-1932. Includes joined, resigned, retired, died, transfers and medals.
 The Bookplate Society
 Naval Biographical Database - People and ships associated with the Royal Navy since 1660. Charges.
 Vision of Britain - by Great Britain Historical Geographic Information System (GBH GIS). Uses 200 years of UK
Census statistics, assorted historic maps and gazetteers and the observations of travel writers from as early as
the 11th century

7. Get someone to do it for you!

 Costs money. Useful if you’re coming up against Latin
texts!
 Association of Genealogists Researchers in Archives (AGRA)
has a list of members who will do research,
www.agra.org.uk

8. Types of Resources

 General resources relating to a whole county:
 Bibliographies
 Clergy
 Histories
 Maps
 Newspapers
 Place Names
 Record Office Guides
 Visitations
 Wills – some online at www.Ancestry.co.uk , then try National
Will Index at www.Britishorigins.com . Most have to be accessed
from http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/probate/family-history
(can be expensive).

9. Types of Resources

 Local:
 Local histories, church guides, etc.
 Registers:
 Births, marriages, deaths, held by General Register Office (1837 onwards). Each
certificate costs just under £10. More and more available free through:
www.freebmd.org.uk Paid online versions available here: www.findmypast.com,
www.ancestry.co.uk, www.bmdindex.co.uk, or www.familyrelatives.com
 General indexes such as Boyd’s Marriage Index and the International Genealogical
Index. Before the mid-1800s, you can look at parish registers, some go back to 1500s.
Many non-conformist registers here: www.bmdregisters.co.uk and
www.familysearch.org
 There is the International Genealogical Index (IGI) - An index of c.800 million births,
baptisms and marriages from around the world, at www.familysearch.org
 Name indexes. E.g. Census indexes for England and Wales on The National Archives
website, www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/censusrecords.htm Scottish census
indexes at Scotland’s People, www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk Irish censuses,
www.census.nationalarchives.ie/
 Monumental Inscriptions

10. Types of Resources

 Censuses
 1911,1901,1891, 1881, 1871,1861 1851, 1841. Often microfilms or
microfiche of census returns held by County Record Offices, Local
Libraries or the Society of Genealogists. A complete set for England
and Wales, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands is free at The
National Archives in Kew, www.nationalarchives.gov.uk The Scottish
returns for 1841 to 1911 are available at Scotland’s People Centre in
Edinburgh, www.scotlandspeoplehub.gov.uk/
 Lists:
 Lists of people living in counties such as Directories and Poll Books
(those who voted in Parliamentary elections, 1690s onwards).
 Provincial town trade directories – including street lists, such as
Kelly’s Directory. Available from 1770s onwards.
 National and county trade directories. Available from 1780s onwards.
More details from 1840s onwards.

11. Family History
- Beginners’ guides

 Beginners’ Guides:
 www.genuki.org.uk
 www.bbc.co.uk/familyhistory/
 Herber, M. 2005. Ancestral Trails, Alan Sutton
 Barrat, N. 2008. Who Do You Think You Are? Encyclopedia of
Genealogy, Harper Collins
 Federation of Family History Societies – Has a world index
of Family History societies
 E.g. The Hampshire Genealogical Society

12. Family History
- Major websites

 Major Websites:
 www.ancestry.com
 www.ancestry.co.uk
 www.findmypast.co.uk
 www.familyrelatives.com
 www.originsnetwork.com
 National Archives Discovery website

13. Family History
– Finding support

 Social Network Sites:
 Roots Web Mailing Lists
 The Guild of One-Name Studies – Register the surnames
you are researching to see if anyone else is doing the same
thing!

14. Family History
– On your computer

 Data formats:
 GENCOM (most common)
 GedML (XML-based)
 FamilyML (XML-based)
Don’t worry if you’ve been using a spreadsheet
up until now!
 Excel2GED – for taking Excel spreadsheets and converting
them to GEDCOM file format
 http://godskingsandheroes.info/software/index.htm#12

15. Software to build family trees

 GRAMPS – free, but bit of work needed initially to learn
how to use
 http://gramps-project.org/
 FamilyTreeBuilder – free, with paid Premium version (that
you can sign up to at any point in using the free version).
Easy to use, very popular
 http://www.myheritage.com/family-tree-builder
 GEDitCOM II – free, this software is for Macs
 http://www.geditcom.com/
 Web Family Tree – free, really easy to use
 http://www.simonward.com/cgi-bin/page.pl?family/tree

16. Software to visualise family trees

 Geneaquilts – advanced, great for visualising large
genealogy datasets
 http://www.aviz.fr/geneaquilts
 Misbach Enterprises - specialises in making family tree
charts. They generally charge for this service, but there
are some nice free charts you can download and use
 http://misbach.org/freecharts.html

17. Software to visualise family trees

 GedView – a way to look through GEDCOM files on your
PC. If you’ve downloaded or been sent any files from
other researchers, you can use this software to navigate
the data
 http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tmark
/GedView.html
 GedView for iPads, iPhones, etc. – costs £2.49, great to
look at your work on a mobile device
 http://www.ritter.demon.co.uk/Projects/gedview.html

18. Software to share family trees

 Websites:
 GED-GEN for making websites, works with any GEDCOM
files
 http://www.ged-gen.com/