Looking for general advice

[beejay]

My wife, who is originally from Accrington, has recently decided to look into the family history of her mothers’ side, which she knows less about than her fathers’ side.

We’ve made a start and sent away for two certificates so far, but we have nothing to store the information in. Is there such a thing as a free on-line family tree system that we can use to keep family tree details in?

We used to live in Nelson, but due to my wife’s poor health, we moved to my home county of Hampshire, and travel up each year to see family.

beejay

[PanBiker]

Welcome to the site beejay.

I think most of the free Family tree programs will be stand alone, you normally will have to pay some kind of subscription to use anything that connects to the internet and searches for you. "Ancestry" offer a free 14 day trial to their software but continued use would require a subscription or a pay as you go type arrangement which can work out quite expensive.

Ancestry UK Site

Of the free downloadable stand alone systems you could take a look at this site which compares and reviews a few of the freebies around.

Best Free Genealogy or Family Tree Software

We have a number of Genealogist on the site who use or have used a few different applications. I'm fairly sure they will pop in here and advise at some point.

[Doc]

Clicking thisLINK will take you to download.com where it is showing 108 family tree programs, some paid for some free., have a browse

[beejay]

Thanks Ian

We're gonna have a good read through them and do some pondering before we make up our minds as to the way forward.

Beejay

[Gloria]

Hi,
I use PAF which can be downloaded free from www.familysearch.org you will find it on the home page. If you have any problems just shout.
Gloria

[PanBiker]

Keep your eye on the thread beejay I have messaged three of our ladies on the site who have a lot of experience with Family research etc. Just seen Gloria's post, you are in good hands.

Post your family name on here as well and who you are researching we get a lot of hits and you never know who else has been researching the same line.

[Bodger]

BeeJay, once you get going into you research, agood forum site is http://www.rootschat.com/
On there people will do look ups, and if you post details of the people , ie. date of birth, marriage, death, location, county, city, town, village etc. members will reply with what they find.
note, you cannot look for, or post details of living persons. i use the Family Search Personal Ancestry File
Happy Hunting, bodger

[Sue]

I don't use the PAF on Familysearch.org, but I have exchnged information with people who do. It seems to be an efficient programme. I find Genes Reunited is a good site, and not too expensive. It is a site where people share their research, but you are advised to check out information you obtain. We all make mistakes in our research

[Gloria]

Sue,
I put my tree on genes for a while and then found people had "pinched" part of it and added it to their tree without even mentioning it to me. I have even had people contact me who have been given this info by the other party claiming it was their own. I think they were a bit stumped when I told them the info originally came from me. I really didn't like that.
Mini rant over.

[Belle]

I have a tree on Genes reunited, it is the most basic one they do so costs only £9 a year, but like Gloria i have found that it is best to keep it closed so that people have to contact you if they want to know anything. I also have a tree on Ancestry and because I pay more than I do for the genes one, I can look up their records for free, but to have access to all of them costs quite a bit. This tree is completely private. My reasons for keeping things private is that once you have shared info it can get very distorted, many of the "shared resources" online have people form all over the world using them, they find it hard to distinguish from Halifax Yorkshire, and Halifax Nova Scotia, the americans in particular tend to make sweeping assumptions and are very keen to get their line back to British Royality, I have seen my gt grandfather buried on the wrong continent, the family crest fabricated, a link to the Earls of somewhere that doesn't exist and because this info is easily shared it is soon replicated in thousands of trees. What happens then is might triumphs over right! I do try and contact those with wrong info but they are loathe to believe it and often it is very difficult to remove.
Right now I could do with some help myself, I am trying to get my tree off Ancestry as a Gedcom file, so that I can have all the details on my PC. Does the free PDF offered by Family search accomodate GEdcom files, or are the two things separate?

[Gloria]

Belle,
I think it does. I only use the one from familysearch and I have transferred bits / whole of that with no probs. Melteaser has talked me through a lot of it so it might be worth sending her a pm. I am sure she would know.

[Moh]

I use Family Tree Maker which I find quite easy to use and can link direct to Ancestry on the net. It is upgraded every year, I used the 2005 when I began but now use the 2011 version which I got free with a subscription to Your Family Tree magazine which I find very useful. It gives sites I did not know about. I also have a tree on Ancestry which is private, but anyone can request info. from it (if not private as the other girls say people 'pinch' the details and do not bother to check for themselves - it may not be the same family. I also have a tree on Rootsweb.

[Sue]

Sue,
I put my tree on genes for a while and then found people had "pinched" part of it and added it to their tree without even mentioning it to me. I have even had people contact me who have been given this info by the other party claiming it was their own. I think they were a bit stumped when I told them the info originally came from me. I really didn't like that.
Mini rant over.

Gloria I didn't think people could access your tree unless you gave them permission

[Gloria]

It was a while ago, and I probably did, but I still think it was wrong for him to add it to his tree and then pass it on as all his own work. Bearing in mind some of these people were not related to him at all.
Rant over.

[Sue]

Yes I do agree with you about that Gloria

[beejay]

Hi all

Thanks for all the advice and interest.

We have signed up with a program called ‘Family Tree Builder 6’ - run by ‘MyHeritage.com’ – there’s a free version that suits us just fine - for now, and an up-graded version that asks for a fee.

We’ve learned how to order certificates on-line from London as the tree seems to be spreading into Derbyshire.

My wife’s quite got the bug now, and she is keen to take it another level up - and to try and explore the census information.

We are visiting the area in March for a week so we are gathering up addresses to look up in Accrington Library while we're there.

Beejay

[Gloria]

Beejay, perhaps we should have warned you---this hobby of ours is really addictive, bordering on an obsession occasionally.

[beejay]

Thanks, Gloria.

I'll bear that in mind for the future.

Beejay

[Stanley]

Gloria, surely not!!

[beejay]

On the subject of using the census records for family history purposes; all I know on this subject is that they were produced every ten years from 1841 onwards.

The key to finding relevant information from them seems to be arming yourself with postal addresses but where to go to see a census is a bit confusing.

I understand that the Church Of Latter Day Saints have made a complete inventory of the 1881 census which can be viewed in any Mormon Church with a Family History Centre. Presumably, the nearest to Barnoldswick is the one at Haslingden.

I also have the feeling that Central Libraries hold records of local census details only. That’s all the free stuff, I think?

The 1901 and 1911 censuses are only available by paying to look on line and the 1921 census is not yet available. Also, I’m sure I read somewhere that the 1941 census didn’t take place because of the Second World War and the 1931 census was destroyed by order of the war-time government to stop them falling into enemy hands.

How right all this is I’m really not sure because I haven’t done any research for over 20 years and my memory’s not so good nowadays. So, any corrections or new relevant information would be much appreciated.

Beejay

[Gloria]

I am pretty sure all libraries have ancestry on line, that has most of what you will want at the moment----all the census, bmd's to be going on with.
Gloria

[EileenDavid]

The 1881 census is free to view on all sites but if you want to see the original you have to pay. However you are correct all libraries have ancestry library addition with all the censuses. I use the library a lot as you can check to ensure you have the correct one before printing it off. Spent lots on ancestry, genes and find my past until I found the library. Ours charges 20p per copy but some charge up to 70p as there computers are set so the staff have to print them off. Cheapest one I have used is Ashton at 10p a copy. They even have the 1911 census now at the same price which is a huge bonus.

I have problems on the LDS of downloading the gedfile but I have emailed them and they have sent it to me as an attachment. They have a chat facility which is useful. I haven't put my tree on any site but have it on an excel spreadsheet. Also been into the LDS people extremely friendly.

If it's for information in Barlick this is a great site lots of nice people.

Rootschat is also helpful I have had lots of info from it. I looked for someone for 2 years from 1833 and rootschat found him for me. I have used all message boards ancestry, genforum etc all good in there own way

Happy hunting

Eileen

[Whyperion]

I use Microsoft Excel to Hold all my data , and hand write the trees as easier than getting printer to stict it all together. Far too many dotted lines in mine with birth and marriage not always in the expected order ( or maybe is ! ) , and many 2nd+ marriages. Lots of Irish ancestors so again difficult to get the chronolgy right , Sons names William , John , James ( repeat and mix ad-infinitum ) . Father's mothers surname May , so nearly impossible to trace. Details on certificates not always the truth, transcription errors throughout IGI records in my case as well on the very uncommon name of mine , when I first started - Longhand at St Katherine's House then Portugal Street for the Census fiches trying to get the indexes, needed to be done as growth of internet meant I could identify the false items. Also used a lot of trade directories in Bishopsgate Library, and newspaper Library Colindale for reports (strange deaths did they jump or were they pushed ) . Best time to research was when most info was at family history centre near Islington and I worked in Moorgate , London, now original records are at National Archives , Kew not been there for a while. One bit of Family Folklore was that an ancestor was on board the Bellerophon the prision ship that re-captured Napoleon, I could not find a surname I recognised but fascinating to read the captains Logs from the South of France to Plymouth, I have the 2003 Book but yet to read it through. Same with WO records and earlier with muster rolls for regiment of Foot serving in Quebec and the Caribbean in the earlier C18th wars with France - Read one ancestors slow and low rise through the ranks , most died of disease in the Caribbean in the end. Often I found that expected National Archives records mis-filed or wrongly indexed so a bit hit and miss. Mothers side - Great Grandma was one of 22 so not really bothering with them. Back to Paternal surname , one Came over from Ulster eventually joined the Lancashire Constabulary in Liverpool area early 1830s , dismissed ( after relatively long service ) for drunkeness , later Census put him in one of the Workhouses - actually reading the census he was the Night Watchman there and was recorded on the same census at his home address to , his young daughter helped out at the Workhouse - which appears to have been a Dickensian privatley run institution but the family in charge appears fairly well disposed to the in workers with fairly good reported conditions. Other named relatives have been circus managers ,( for Hengler's ) but I can find no record of them in the fairground and circus records that exist. So in all for me a bit of a machine gun approach to the research , have done for a couple of others a little more conventional work back from family knowns , written records but I have always learnt to get back to the most original source for the best verification. [ Have another surname relative whom unfortunatley was on the last page of the enumerators book in 1851 so the the whole of Saluation Place , Woolwich is missing due to destruction of that page before the fiches were created , as a Saddler and Harness maker I suspect he would have worked for the Army , but I can find no record so could have been independent - more uses for horses in Kent/London at that time than just the military ]

[Jamie]

This is excellent for Lancashire and copies of certificates are slightly cheaper and quicker than GRO http://www.lancashirebmd.org.uk/

Jamie

[Jamie]

The other site for Lancashire is here http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/ sorry I missed it off first time round

Jamie