HELP and FAQ’s: FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH
Family History is an interesting and often absorbing activity that can often lead to unexpected revelations about your family's past.
The best place to start is with your own immediate family members, where possible, especially the older members. It is surprising how little we sometimes know about our own families. Do you know the given names of your parents' grandparents for instance? Have you ever asked them if they know what they were called apart from Grandma and Grandpa?
Names of course, form the basis of all family research and with the ever increasing amount of data coming on-line it is becoming easier than ever to trace your family history than ever before.
Census records provide a valuable way of researching family history and often reveal other clues to tracing your ancestors through their occupations, where they lived and their household circumstances.
It sometimes requires supposition and theoretical ideas on your part that you may have to corroborate against other information sources, but this is all part of the interest and 'detective work' of family history research.
Technology has played an important tool in family history research and there are many software packages that allow you to collate every detail of your findings.
Contrary to stereotype, family history research is no longer the domain of 'people of a certain age'. School curricula about history now focuses on the 19th and 20th century in greater depth; to give children a clearer understanding about the world we live in and how it became so.
A very good point to start exploring the tools and techniques is given on the BBC web site in conjunction with the programme "Who Do You Think You Are?".
Select the link 'Getting Started' from the menu on the left.
