Acknowledgements

Why?

Guides to family history research list some reasons for finding out more about our ancestors.  These range from curiosity to the detection of genetic predispositions to disease.  The Chinese still practise ancestral worship; others believe that the minds/souls of the dead exist in some disincarnate form with their memories.  Even if you do not share these beliefs, you may find that you develop an inexplicable affection for past lives, pride in their achievements and sympathy and admiration for their ability to cope with poverty, trauma and uncertainty when life was a great deal more challenging.  Many find the exercise educational and humbling; even grown men have found themselves weeping.  

I would like to add the following. Our recall of past lives gives them renewed meaning.  Places and buildings often acquire emotive significance.  The process can change our appreciation of our own lives.  It can spark deeper bonds and meaningful conversation with elderly relatives and friends, who tend to remember the past better than the present.  They are made to feel relevant and important since they may often be the only ones still alive with memories of aspects of our past.  It can help them regain and retain memories to cherish and mull over in their sunset years, which may have become boring and lonely.
 

General Notes

Tracing your family tree can be fun.  You are likely to meet many interesting people and acquire much knowledge and skills on the way.  If you make proper records of your findings, you will find it much easier to publish your family history should you wish to do so at a later date.  There are many books and websites on this subject.  Click here for links to guidance notes provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  The online sources can seem overwhelming at first but you will soon learn how they work.  I found some resources easier to start with.  So, here is an account of an enjoyable two weeks in February 2006 tracing the family history of our friend, Pollie, who was then aged 101.  Appendix 0 gives an indication of the progress which can be made in just two weeks.

When I started, I only had a vague idea of sources of information and no clear mental model of how they related to each other.  So, I hope that this overview is helpful.  Where there are documents on life events, such as births, marriages and deaths (bmd for short), they are immensely helpful in drawing up the family tree, getting accurate dates for events and tracing the changing names, residences and occupations of parents.  When certificates are missing, as they often are, we need to start by looking at other sources; online records of bmd events and/or parish registers of these events may give the information needed to order copies of certificates at a price.  However, often it is necessary to double-check that the bmd events relate to the target person.  I decided to use only some freely available resources in the first two weeks, namely a) freebmd (explained later); b) census data which give the relationship between people living in dwellings; and c) miscellaneous  items in the library and on the internet.  So, I did not undertake a systematic search through parish registers for bmd events nor through monumental inscriptions.  I hoped that I would find enough in the first two weeks to outline the family history.

Also, when I started, I did not realise that anecdotal information provided by the family must be double checked.  It is very easy to get things confused and sometimes there is a tendency to suppress information.  Equally, data on life events, such as births, marriages and deaths and census records are not always complete nor correct.  Not only is there a possibility of transcription errors, but there are often variations in the spelling of names and the recorded dates may be inaccurate.  I provide some examples which came up even within the first two weeks of search.

This website

This website was originally designed to supplement a film entitled "A two-week search for Pollie's Ancestors".  It has since been re-shaped to serve as an independent resource. Although the information pertaining to the local library is specific to Chesterfield, UK, much of the information provided here is more general. 

If you are using this website for the first time, please note that the links given below establish the main storyline.  The contents page to the left enables you to return directly to pages of interest.  Some of the appendices contain sample searches.  You need to be online - i.e. connected to the internet - to view links with a yellow background as shown here.  This web will open some of the pages in a separate window for you so that my instructions are visible when you come to try out the internet resources.  You can choose to open any link in a new window by right clicking the mouse and selecting the Open in New Window browser option.