Mrs CW has just retired, as a first project she has decided to revisit family history. At the minute all we have of previous research is on index cards. She had used Ancestry and Findmypast, but to give some idea of how long ago, records were based on My Brothers Keeper and stored on floppy disc. Essentially it means start again.
Any thoughts on research facilities and then tree building software gratefully received. Neither of us is an IT genius, so simple comes first.
A cousin of mine suggested I do a DNA blood test thing that can be done these days as he did it himself and it provided a lot of ancestral information for him. I considered it, but after speaking with others about it, I decided to give it a pass. Apparently, it’s not a good idea to have your DNA floating around out there and it can be used against you in harmful ways, again, apparently.
I thought I should mention it as it may come up in this discussion.
Just FYI …
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One would like to stay out of as much as possible databases.
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Mrs A just uses Ancestry.com these days.
Although the Family Tree Maker files are backed up in case we ever need to recover something…
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Mrs CW is very anti things cloud based, accepting that to do research means entering places like Ancestry, freeBMD, she very much wants to build her records af home.
There are a a couple of known family “broken” links, a couple of milk orphans and and a divorce with an absolute block on contact that DNA might help, but yes, apparently there can be repercussions.
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30 years or so ago my mother and separately her brother did quite a bit of research on the maternal side of my family history. They did it by going to Somerset House, where central records were then, and visiting places cross the length and breadth of the British Isles, looking at church records of births, marriages and deaths, looking at gravestones, and in some cases consulting local newspaper records. I imagine that how good the modern databases and services are will be highly variable, depending on individual family histories.
look at this webpage , might help you with options
I use Ancestry but it is ÂŁ19.99 a month so not cheap !!!
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I imagine there are services that can extract data from such disks for you, avoiding losing all.
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I use Ancestry for a month at a time when I have time to do a bit more research but then download the GED file into Roots Magic so I can look at the family tree at any other time without paying. GED files are fairly easily transportable between different Geneology software
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I am sure that you are related by blood to the mighty Merlin himself.
You could take your rightful place by contest as the king of England no less.
Thank you for recognising my true lineage! But you seem to assume I have not already taken my rightful place…
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My family tree gets me eventually to Wild bill hickok and Abraham Lincoln.
That makes me heir to the presidency surely.
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I use Ancestry World Wide for £179.99 pa. I’ve also got DNA. The T&C allow you to withdraw your results.
Most research is about getting back to the 1911 census which is free. From there the census data takes you back to 1841. It important to look for consistency in the census data to ensure you have the right family rather than people with the same name.
The DNA is very useful. I have about 100 matches where I understand the connection. It is quite possible to find common ancestors going back 300 years.
I have helped several people figure out illegitimacy going back a hundred years. There are techniques if people provide a tree for building the missing bits working forward and backwards.
Phil
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If you are really lucky you may find that you are related to Trump…
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My dad grew up in a village of 3 houses (spread across a mile or so) on the West Coast of Ireland. Two of the families including mine had the same surname. My brother in law has tried to chase the family tree, but it seems that both families alternated calling their two eldest sons Patrick and Michael in one generation and then Michael and Patrick in the next. So Patrick son of Michael (or vice versa) from Pulathomas described two families in each generation, and it became impossible to see which was our line and which was our cousins.
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@Trumpjug. Lol
I use this software to keep track of things. It’s free and it seems to work well enough. It is, I believe, the work of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, so that might influence your choice.
They also have a searchable website, which, unlike Ancestry, is free.
There are various forums dedicated to areas and counties within the UK which might be useful. Here is a list I use regularly
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We could have a special relationship…
I’m the same as a few others there’s no way I’m freely giving my DNA to some corporation and paying them for the privilege.
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