Tracing English Immigrants From Abroad: Difference between revisions

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Genealogical research in England’s large cities and towns requires knowing the specific locale, town, borough or parish within the big city in order to determine in which original records to begin research. That your ancestor was “born in Manchester” or that he was “of London“, is insufficient information. It requires obtaining the specific name of the town or parish in Greater “London” or “Manchester, etc., in order to know specific records to use to build your family’s pedigree connections further back in time.  

So what’s the standard technique that helps researchers to discover an ancestors’ specific birth place or place of residence in England?  

The steps below reveal how to best identify and prove ancestry in the rich genealogical records of England—including civil registration, parish registers and other records.  

Search home records by thoroughly seeking for and searching in “home” sources and compiled family histories. This is a fundamental, preliminary exercise that will usually pay huge dividends in providing precise birth data from the outset of your search. It may not always be correct data, but it is a beginning and will help in narrowing down to the specific place of your ancestor’s nativity or residence in a large city or township in England.  

Once you have gleaned as much information as possible from home sources, but still lack a specific birth place or residence then proceed to Step 2. If you succeeded in obtaining the specific township or parish in which your immigrant ancestor was born or resided before emigrating, then proceed to search in records of the specific England locale mentioned in Step 4.  

Commencing your emigrant ancestor's research in original records, you must, like a research scientist, thoroughly seek for and study the research compilations of other researchers. The research scientist first seeks out every possible compiled source pertaining to the narrowed field of study so as not to duplicate or re-do research previously performed by other researchers. To do otherwise means the likely loss of critical funding or financial sponsorship for research! Why? Because why would the private funding sponsor or government provide funds for research already uncovered by another scientific researcher!  

<br>Learning what critical databases and/or indexes are available allows you to more quickly find helpful details of your ancestor. Then you can gain access, via in-house staff or a record agent/searcher; or, through the services of a local volunteer to provide you with the critical search or lookup services. Contact the local archives or repository/library via e-mail for their fees, or for a list of searchers to get the lookup service you want. Here are some helpful websites for finding local volunteers to do a free “lookup” service:  

1. http://www.raogk.org/ - Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness  

2. http://www.usgenweb.com - U.S. GenWeb network  

1. http://www.curiousfox.org.uk/  

6. http://www.genuki.org.uk/indexes/MailingLists.html - subscribe then request help  

1. Most countries (the counties, or province/states within countries) have volunteers or for-hire agents; ‘google’ to find them  

[https://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Family_History_Library •Family History Library&nbsp;]search the Ancestral File, Pedigree Resource file and in the future, the forthcoming new.FamilySearch.org databases  

Another research aid for assisting researchers to find family genealogical compilations is the social network websites with genealogical intent and content. These sites can have far-reaching capabilities for finding living relatives who are working on or who have already compiled data on in-common family lines and genealogies. They can be a wonderful and a welcome resource. Such websites are great tools for finding distant relatives with an interest in in-common ancestry and with whom you may work cooperatively to identify, share and/or prove in-common ancestral connections. It can further ignite enthusiasm and motivation in the discovery of many more generations of ancestors! Most of the following sites are United Kingdom-based, including:  

===== 3.&nbsp; Parish&nbsp;church registers  =====

===== 4.&nbsp;Probate records:  =====

===== 5.&nbsp;&nbsp;Occupational records:  =====

===== 6.&nbsp;Newspapers, etc.:  =====

'''7.&nbsp;&nbsp;Land Registry of Deeds '''– Middlesex from 1708 to 1988: at the London Metropolitan Archives and Library; visit: www.cityofLondon.gov.uk; email: ask.lma@cityoflondon.gov.uk; or call (tel): 020 7332 3820