Family History Talk - 2006/09/14 20:08Last night I attended a talk in the Half Moon Cafe about Family History. It was organised by the Friends of Robert's Park for the Saltaire Festival. I found out about the talk by using the calendar on this website.
The talk was for those who were just starting out on a Family History quest. The popularity of this has increased recently because of the BBC TV program Who Do You Think You Are?
I have been involved in research of the Marfell family history for a number of years. I have a genealogy section on my website. I also use an on-line application called phpGedView that allows me to have my Family Tree on the internet. One of the great things about phpGedView is that you can grant others Edit access to certain areas of the information. In that way you can allow other family members to input information when they find new pieces of the puzzle. I have people in America, Australia and New Zealand who can update the family tree.
More and more information is appearing on the internet. As the more recent census information becomes available to the public it is made available in an electronic format. Older census information had at some stage been put on to microfilm. Organisations are taking these microfilms and making it available in an electronic format. Some are also going through the images and creating indexes of the data. At its simplest this will allow people to find a particular location based on area and street. More sophisticated indexing will allow people to search for particular names. The transcription of these records to allow searching in this way is a mammoth task and has made genealogy research in this area available to almost all, not just those who were prepared to travel to the libraries or archives in the relevant locations. Does anyone know if the information for Baildon - census and/or parish registers has been transcribed? Is this information readily available? Have local church people got any information that is readily available? Have details of grave stones been recorded?
When I have been working with information on my computer I have used a Genealogy database system called Personal Ancestral File (PAF) that is free from the Church of the Latter Day Saints. The church has a website for Family Search. If you are interested in their genealogy database software then you can download it from here. Use the Family History - Software Downloads - Free link to find it. This PAF system will produce reports in several formats and can create files that can be uploaded to websites.
This system, and many others, can work with a standard file format called GEDCOM. This enables you to exchange information. It is possible to export sections of your database as GEDCOM files. Others can then import this information into their systems without having to type all the information themselves. There can be problems with duplications but the system usually has tools to track these down and helps you correct the problem. This GEDCOM file format has also allowed me to move the online system from one host to another.
If Baildon people are interested in having an online family tree then please get in touch.
We were given a sheet with several website addresses of interest to genealogists. They are reproduced here: -
GENUKI A web site covering all counties in the United Kingdom – free to use with a great search engine. FAMILYSEARCH A fantastic online search facility, free to use. Site covers the 1881 census, IGI, Ancestral file, pedigree resource file. 1901 Census National Archives Government run site free to search but subscription needed to view details. Ancestry.com Another subscription site with huge amounts of information, some searches can be done for free, to view details and original images you can subscribe yearly, monthly or a one off pay per view. Access is available to all census from 1841 through 1901 (remember the 1881 is free at Family Search). www.1837online.com A government ran site with searchable births, marriages and deaths, certificates can be ordered through them. Subscription needed – very useful site. www.ukbmd.org This site covers Birth, Marriage and Death details from England and Wales, its free to use but if you can’t find an ancestor on it – don’t panic! Not all years and areas have been entered yet! Pick a county to search, some are very well covered. www.genesreunited.co.uk This site is about entering what information you have so far and comparing notes with others, you need to create a username and password to enter but you only need to subscribe if you’d like to swap notes with any of the other members. I’d say a good rule about these sites is not to give any really personal info away, try not to enter any names of living relatives (unless you’ve got their permission) As we keep being warned – not everyone online is who they seem and care should be taken. www.freecen.rootsweb.com This site is interesting – it carries a lot of census information but the coverage is patchy, it is updated fairly often so its always worth a look. Free to use. There is a link to give you an idea of the years and areas covered. www.genforum.genealogy.com A site that can be used on a subscription basis, but the forums for the surnames can be very interesting. You can look to see if people are looking for the same names as you (even better in the same place) they also have forums for counties. www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk For those of you with ancestors from Scotland, this is the official site from the Government. It has all the census years, a lot of old parish registers, Births 1855-1905, Marriages 1855-1930 and Deaths 1855-1955. A lot of the data appears as scans from the originals, this is of course a pay per view site but the charges are very reasonable for what is available. www.a2a.org.uk This site deals with archive material not specifically genealogical but has over 10 million records deposited between 408 records offices around the country. The public has access to a large percentage of these items – but of course you have to know where to look! A bit tricky to navigate this site but you’d be amazed at what’s been kept at the archives…..
Post edited by: pmarfell, at: 2006/09/18 07:12
Post edited by: pmarfell, at: 2006/09/29 17:51
| | The administrator has disabled public write access.
Tricia
Re:Family History Talk - 2006/10/03 08:56I discovered, only relatively recently, that one of my 'Welsh' ancestors was actually born in Baildon, Yorkshire, in 1791 or thereabouts.
He married an Ann Jones, who was indeed Welsh, and they settled in South Wales where they had a number of children: Mary-Ann, Eliza, William, James, Thomas, John.
I don't know if his was a Baildon family, or if he was only born there by chance.
I had no idea that there were any Yorkshire connections in my family tree, but now that my son is studying in York, maybe I'll set off to explore my roots when I visit him.
Any advice on checking out 18th century Thorntons in Baildon would be much appreciated, by the way. Thank you!
| | The administrator has disabled public write access.
Tricia
Re:Family History Talk - 2006/10/03 09:03I'll re-post my message in the Family History section.
| | The administrator has disabled public write access.
Home 
Discussion Board 
