Channel 4's guide to genealogy
Working parties in a mine crater at Beaumont Hamel, at the Somme, November
1916. Could your ancester be among them?
Imperial War Museum (Q2005)
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With more than 90 years having passed since the start of the First World War, it now falls to us, the descendants of the Lost Generation, to keep their memory alive.
This guide to researching your family history has particular sections on tracing ancestors from the Commonwealth and tracking the stories of relatives who were in the services and may have died in combat.
Starting out
First of all, contact all your living relatives, especially the elderly ones – they are your most valuable resource, and will probably appreciate a visit. Collect copies of birth, marriage and death certificates – they all contain valuable information – plus as much biographical information as you can extract. In addition, collect and copy any service records, examination certificates, diplomas, awards, newspaper cuttings – anything that contains names, dates and places. Check family Bibles – they are often handed down through the generations and may be inscribed with the names of your ancestors in some sort of order. And while you're at it, get your older relatives to index/annotate old photographs – your granny may know who the people in the photos are, but when she's gone, will you?
Next, make out an index card, sheet of paper or proprietary prepared form for each person in your family. Write down:
- full name (including married women's maiden names)
- date of birth and/or baptism
- names of parents
- place of origin (town, village or parish)
- date of marriage
- name of spouse
- names of children
- date of death and/or burial.
To verify this information and fill in the gaps, there are several resources available. The main ones are birth, marriage and death certificates and census returns, discussed later, but also documents such as wills, street directories and service records, as well as the new technology of DNA testing.
Work backwards methodically, generation by generation, starting with your parents, then your parent's parents and so on. With luck and time, you may get back to the 1700s.
As you go further back into your ancestry, sources of information become much more sparse, as well as more difficult to read. You may find that some records have not survived. Surnames may also be spelt differently as, before the 19th century, many people couldn't write and had to rely on scribes, priests and officials to try get it right.
Using a computer
Software packages are available to make sense of all this data – for example, Family Tree Maker (for PCs) and Reunion or MacFamily Tree (for Macs). After you have entered all the details you have been able to discover, you will be able to print out various charts and family trees. You can even publish your results on the internet.
Most people start by tracing back their father's ancestors (the direct male line), as this is usually the easiest to do, there being only one surname to concentrate on. The maternal line (your mother, her mother, and so on), however, is more pure – there is always the possibility that a child was fathered by someone other than the mother's husband! Genes Reunited is a good place to start a surname search.
The UK government's familyrecords.gov.uk website and The National Archives website give a good overview of the resources available to the family historian. Familia is the starting point for taking advantage of family history resources and expertise in public libraries in the UK.
If you need help and support, you can find your local family history society through the Federation of Family History Societies.
If you get stuck and need professional help, you can find a genealogist through the Society of Genealogists or, in Scotland, The Association of Scottish Genealogists and Researchers in Archives.