Family Tree??

Nyla

Hi
i really want to try and trace my family roots i really don't know much, i know my grandfathers name and thats really about it, i was wondering if anyone knows how i'd start? If it is easy enough to do myself? or what sort of money and who the best company is to go with!
Any nformation would be greatly appriciated!
Thanks!

jos28

You could have a go at doing it yourself. Its not that difficult , its much easier if your Grandad had an unusual surname. Was he born in Ireland ? If so you could spend a day at the General Records Office in Lombard Street. You could start by getting a copy of your Grandad's birth cert and take it from there. The GRO have records back to the 1860s (1840s for some Church of Ireland records). Have you checked the 1911 on line census? A friend of mine was lucky and got 3 generations of his family on one census form. Not all counties are on line yet but its worth a try.
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/

pinkypinky

Before you spend any money, talk to the oldest members of your family (even if that's your parents). Find out what they know about their parents, grandparents. Most people will at least know their grandparents' names. Sometimes they'll know much more. If there's any eldery aunts/uncles without children, they often know much more because their minds never got cluttered up with children!!

Also, if there are any graves of grandparents, the dates will be reasonably accurate. Other things to consider that you might not have thought of: family papers in your parents house may have grandparents deaths/births certs. Memorial cards will have some useful information too.

When you do know names, you can start searching on the Mormon www.pilot.familysearch.org site. This contains the indexes to the births, deaths and marriages since 1864. The site takes a little getting used to but is a wonderful resource and will save massively on time and money in the GRO (once you have the reference, you can just order the certs).

Feel free to PM if you need more specific help - I spend far too much time working on my own tree!

Tableman

Hi
i really want to try and trace my family roots i really don't know much, i know my grandfathers name and thats really about it, i was wondering if anyone knows how i'd start? If it is easy enough to do myself? or what sort of money and who the best company is to go with!
Any nformation would be greatly appriciated!
Thanks!

1. Dont waste any money on getting someone else to do it - It is easy enought to do it yourself

2. As pinkypinky said, talk to the oldest members of your family and find out everything you can about your grandfather - where he was born and his age

3. If you get the above details, you should check the 1901/1911 census.

4. If you find infirmation in the census, the next step is to consult parish records in the national library - Visit their website www.nli.ie where they explain how to do this

5. If you get information from the parish registers, then you should be able to consult griffiths valuation at the natioanl library, or if your ancestirs lived on a farm then the valuation office contains records that may be useful

pinkypinky

Tableman wrote: »

1.

4. If you find infirmation in the census, the next step is to consult parish records in the national library - Visit their website www.nli.ie where they explain how to do this

I have to disagree with this suggestion. A lot of the registers are in latin and handwriting can be really varied. People in cities moved around a lot and there'd be a lot of registers to check. Once you've got census information, in conjunction with the Mormon site, you should be able to spend a small amount (€20) in the GRO and get some good results.

Parish registers are only really useful before the start of civil registration or to get mothers' names when you already have the fathers from a marriage cert.

Tableman

I have to disagree with this suggestion. A lot of the registers are in latin and handwriting can be really varied. People in cities moved around a lot and there'd be a lot of registers to check. Once you've got census information, in conjunction with the Mormon site, you should be able to spend a small amount (€20) in the GRO and get some good results.

Parish registers are only really useful before the start of civil registration or to get mothers' names when you already have the fathers from a marriage cert.

I have only ever researched people from a rural area so dont know much about researching people in a city.

However, if you are looking for ancestors in a rural area, then it is not difficult to research the information in the national library. The handwriting is mostly fairly good - if you have patience you get used to it fairly quickly.
I also agree that parish registers are mostly useful before civil registration. However, depending on the part of the country, some people did not bother with civil registration after it was introduced. I have come across many instances of people born in the 1890's who did not have a civil bith cert and I had to rely on parish registers.