Ever thought of taking up a new hobby? – Family History

[chenrezig]

Ever thought of taking up a new hobby? – Family History

I have been tracing my family history for a number of years now and got back as far as 1794 on Dad’s side and 1808 on Mum’s.  While it might be expensive taking out subscriptions to family tree website or purchasing birth, marriage and death certificates there are ways of cutting down on costs, or even doing it for free!

To learn the basics, the BBC website has an excellent course on how to get started …

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/0/23493076
“If you're tackling archives for the first time in a search for your family's past, this guide will help you get organised, and direct you towards further help and the incredible resources available on the internet.”

There are three free websites where you can check for BMD’s (births, marriages, and deaths) and for census entries, and parish registers.

http://www.freebmd.org.uk/
You can check for BMD’s here – the indexes are not complete as this is done by volunteers

http://www.freecen.org.uk/
Where you can check the census returns, again this is done by volunteers so not yet complete

http://www.freereg.org.uk/cgi/Search.pl
And a more recent one where parish registers are being added

It is also worth checking out your library as some libraries have subscriptions to online commercial tree websites that you can access for free if you are a library member (In Norfolk we have access in the libraries only, for one hour for free to Ancestry.co.uk)

Happy “Hunting” ……………….

[daisy]

Well done Liz - I have often thought of doing family history as it would be fascinating insight to how our forbears lived.  Some day I hope to be motivated enough to make a start. 

go90    tha22222

[annie]

I would love to do that but have been put off as it is extremely time consuming and can be expensive. Our library now offer a free service for this