Genealogy Chat

So many people on here just itching to help others...which is Absolutely Fabulous!

But I quite agree...letting them know where and how you found the info that they were looking for..... is important.

They might want to 'have ago' at searching for themselves as this gives them a greater understanding of things and is a great learning curve.

There is nothing more satisfying than finding out things for yourself...even if get some things wrong to start off with! We've all been there at one stage or another.

I know when I first started to trace my family tree I was given a lot of information and had to reply and ask what do you mean? What do I do with this?

All the genealogy terms were like a foreign language to me!

IGI. LDS etc.,

Here they are on the census living at xxxxx. mothers name Mary.

Mary Smith & John Bloggs were married in 1880, Oct-Dec, Dist: Guildford , Vol: XII P. 321

Birth Reg: Michael Bloggs 1889, Jan-Mar, Edmonton, Vol XI P. 123 and so on.

New researchers get so excited at the thought of tracing their famiy tree that they forget to read all the information that is available one here that tells them how to go about it... it probably doesn't make that much sense to them to start with.... and they probably find it a bit daunting.

Like everything else, it's easy when you know how!

I still need some help sometimes myself...and this is the best place to get it as not everybody subscribes to every website that holds genealogy information.

Where would we be without everybody's contribution?
Stumped, I reckon!

n

nudge again

Not me! I *always* tell how it was found. Just a natural born schoolmarm.

Also worth mentioning, when asked for info we tend just to find & supply.

If one of those illusive mistranscribed relations have been found you are always welcome to ask how it was done.

"Some town names have been used more than once, so please supply county of birth"

Not just that -- some of us are complete foreigners, and it saves me toggling back and forth to Google Maps to get a clue when someone names some obscure hamlet where someone was born in 1752 and gives no hint where it is. I can often help out with tricky searches, but I hate having to figure out first whether we're even talking about England ...


Another request: PROOFREAD. Five-digit years of birth, people with names spelled two or three different ways in a single post -- why wait until someone asks you to correct them? What if nobody bothers to ask?

And lines and paragraphs -- take a breath and hit that ENTER key between thoughts. Make it possible to follow the story. One big run-on mass of words with no punctuation makes people want to click on by. If the words are all in capital letters, the urge becomes overwhelming.


For helpers: every time you give someone info from FreeBMD or the IGI, give the URL for the site so newbies learn how to fish for themselves. And suggest that they do it, rather than just serving up a birth or marriage that appears like manna from heaven for them, but doesn't help them for next time.


There can never be too many posting advice threads -- as long as the site management refuses to organize the site rationally and provide people with actually useful posting tips.

n

n

n

Some one recently asked for help with tree on these pages and I offered she has now sent me her tree ( potty and others told her not to give tree info ) but no mention of who she is looking for. tree goes back to 1841 both sides so can't help her go back futher. she is in Australia I'd like to help but not going to randomly pick a name and look for on census have asked her to be more specific heres hoping .. Trish

great thread Claire


sylvia

Hi clair, Im curious ive searched for thosenames through ancestry and put in the new details and i cant find anyhing what am i doing wrong?

Good advice Claire.
And thanks to you I think I have my Grandfather's family after 2 yrs hunting.

Thanks again

Paul

Nudge for Roy

Please feel free to add anything that I've missed

From time to time we all hit a "brick wall" & need to ask for help. It would make this job easier for members to provide that help if you could give the following-

Some town names have been used more than once, so please supply county of birth

If Granny was born 1920 but had 2 older siblings please say as this will help find her parents marriage date

If you have a year & place of death please post the details. The death registration should show the person's approx age & more recently date of birth.

Later lookups require a 1/4 by 1/4 search of each year as there is no index, therefore this is VERY time consuming especially if your name is common

To save duplicated work, please only post your query once

Once your query is resolved, when adding your thanks, please remember to amend your thread to say "SORTED"

Remember if your relation is living they may not wish for their details to be posted on here.

Please also include these details when requesting census lookups

You will probably find that a reply comes back quickly so in case there's a query, it's a good idea to keep checking the board