Starting to trace your Family History - Family Talk
Oral History - Genealogy by talking.
Talk to your family, particularly older generations who, if you are lucky, may have information allowing you to build a family tree going back to ancestors who lived over a hundred years ago.This type of research, when recorded on a tape recorder or MP3 player, often given the name of Oral History and is a great source of free family history information! .
A word of warning: Don’t believe everything people say about their British ancestors! Over the years memory will become distorted and in many cases completely wrong. Without older living relatives you will be relying on what they told their descendants, or maybe you, many years ago and memory can sometimes play tricks!
If possible set up a time when both you and the relative will be able to have an hour alone and without interruptions. It's hard to remember things when you are constantly interrupted and what you are trying to do is get your relatives to remember things that may have happened many years ago.
It's good if you can get a recording if possible. Some people may be hard to convince that it is a good idea to record their memories and, if they really object strongly, you will have to respect their views. If, however, you can get a recording this will allow you to review what has been said later (and not rely on your own memory and notes) and also be a valuable addition to the family archive for future generations to listen to. I often think how wonderful it would be if I could listen to the voices and thoughts of my relatives who lived in the distant past and I am sure future generation will think the same.
The purpose of these meetings is to get as much information as possible which will help you find your ancestry in the census and BMD records. It's usually best if you ask some open ended questions like: "tell me about your parents or grandparents" to get people started and then to ask specific questions about their angestors names and where they lived at the end if this information is not given.
You can then start to fill in your family tree by listing the ancestors in order starting with yourself. There is a link to a family tree template here Ideally, but not essentially, you need an approximate date of birth and death, for those who have died, together with marriage information. Hopefully, you will now have enough information to allow you to search for your first ancestor using Census or BMD (birth, marriages and death) records.
Don't get disheartened if it is difficult to find one ancestor as sometimes ancestors just seem to disappear! There are a number of reasons for this: they could have died and the record has been lost, they could have changed their name or their name could have a misspelling (quite common in an era when not everyone was well educated), they could have moved to another part of the country or another country or, if it is a woman or child, a marriage could have resulted in a change of name. Often researching other members of the family will provide a clue to what happened so it pays not to give up.
More information about find Census information is shown here
More information about find BMD information is shown here
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