Geneology research

[Radio_Shack]

I never really took much interest in geneology, ie. who is my great grand parents etc. but my Dad asked me the other day to find out as much info as I could about his family. They originally came from London England area.

Is there any free databases or search tools anyone has been using that could fill in some family history?

 

[alexmst]

I have a relative who has spent 20 years as a hobby researching the family tree in England - he has it back to about 1575 now. He did it himself through birth records, research, libraries, etc. Not sure his methods exactly.

There are general name history sites online - if you have a popular name, they have pre-done a history for that name - eg: Smith, Jones, Richardson, etc. The problem with those databases are they might not be "Your" specific relatives, just one main family branch of a popular name. What my relative did was get the specific names of each generation going back, look up their career, marriage records, birth records, etc, and keep going back until he reached the point where records ceased to be available (around the 16th century). That is much more personal than a generic search of the Smith family tree.

Good luck with your efforts - it is an interesting endeavour to attempt.

 

[hans4u]

Try the church on Rathburn west of West Mall in Etobicoke.
I think its a 7th Day Adventist but they have a microfiche data base
for searching family genelogies.
It's been around for years.

 

[spankingman]

I tried ANCESTRY .CA and found when where my Grandparents and my mom uncles arrived in Canada including the NAME of the ship that brought them over.Brought tears to my eyes when I could see the ACTUAL MANIFEST with their names on it.!!! I highly recomend it.

 

[Radio_Shack]

I tried ANCESTRY .CA and found when where my Grandparents and my mom uncles arrived in Canada including the NAME of the ship that brought them over.Brought tears to my eyes when I could see the ACTUAL MANIFEST with their names on it.!!! I highly recomend it.

Was trying to find free DB but I guess you get what you pay for.. ancestry . ca :

WORLD DELUXE MEMBERSHIP
Annual $24.95/month
Three Month $27.95/month
Monthly $29.95/month

A little pricey for now..

 

[Radio_Shack]

Try the church on Rathburn west of West Mall in Etobicoke.
I think its a 7th Day Adventist but they have a microfiche data base
for searching family genelogies.
It's been around for years.

Hoping for internet solution so I don't have to find clean underpants and leave the house

 

[Aardvark154]

Radio_Shack, it depends upon when they emigrated from G.B., however, the British Census from 1841 up to 1911 are available online http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/census searching is I believe free, however, retrieving the records involves $.

 

[Aardvark154]

Latter Day Saints has the largest database in the world for researching family trees and is avail online.

However, one has to be careful in using their resources. Some of their “canned genealogies” are great for getting leads - but, always, always check the information yourself using microfilm/microfiche of original documents - their records contain a great deal of garbage (for instance people born in places that didn't exist at the time, or with titles of rank that are complete balderdash) amongst which are scattered a few pearls.

 

[Aardvark154]

I have a relative who has spent 20 years as a hobby researching the family tree in England - he has it back to about 1575 now.

That's about as far as most of us - unless you have noble or royal ancestry - can get it (English ancestry), and for many people it hits a dead end a good half century before that. But some of this isn't as unusual as one might believe - there are hundreds of thousands of legitimate descendants of King Edward III in the U.S. and Canada.

 

[basketcase]

Forget the pay services unless you have no other choice.

http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp is a place to start.

Canadian census and other information is available as well. Not all of it is searchable by name yet but if you know where they lived at the time of the census, you can find other information such as date of birth and year of immigration.
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/archivianet/index-e.html

You can also search the various church records in Canada, listings from cemeteries where they are buried, or go through the city directories in the public library archives.
http://www.torontofamilyhistory.org/otherpubs.html

Making the jump over to Merry Old is a bit tougher though due to names being common within the same family, especially in the working classes.

This will also depend on when your family came over, the later, the easier to find information.

Other resources
http://www.censusfinder.com/index.htm

 

[lonecoxxman]

That's about as far as most of us - unless you have noble or royal ancestry - can get it (English ancestry), and for many people it hits a dead end a good half century before that. But some of this isn't as unusual as one might believe - there are hundreds of thousands of legitimate descendants of King Edward III in the U.S. and Canada.

I'm glad you pointed this out! This late aunt of mine was fond of pointing out that we were descended from english royalty. It would then annoy her when I told her that a large fraction of the english populace could trace their ancestry to King Edward III alone.

 

[buttercup]

You'll have no trouble tracing your ancestors right back to the beginning of the Radio_Shack family.