Tracing English Immigrants From Abroad: Difference between revisions

=== Tracing London and Other Large City Immigrants From Abroad  ===

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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.  

*Naturalization papers: from three to as many as five different papers; one or more may indicate specific locale within an England city

*Interview or correspond with—the more elderly members of extended family members and distant relatives which can prove very effective in obtaining clarifying information on specific locales for in-common ancestry and for obtaining assistance in collaborative research efforts

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:  

===== '''United Kingdom'''  =====

3. http://www.britishislesgenweb.org/englandmail.html  

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:  

10• http://www.famillion.com/ - a good database worth checking for compiled data  

Also, the following published sources can help you identify relatives who have or are currently tracing in-common family lines in England’s large cities:  

• The Genealogical Research Directory, published annually by Keith Johnson 929.1025 G286grd, vols. 1983-2006.  

Before proceeding to Step 3, here is a consideration: When you are researching an uncommon surname (as the above case), or someone with a very unusual first given name, such as Sebastian, or Provis, or Pleasance, etc., it’s quite possible to skip steps 1 to 3 outlined in this study and proceed directly to Step 4 and obtain a copy of an actual baptismal record or birth certificate, etc., in the original records of England.  

Example of an Uncommon Surname - Example 1: Let’s say that Florence Beatrice Bradsell Dunn, came to the United States in the year 1946 but all that’s known is that she was born in “London" but it’s not known precisely where in London. Let’s also suppose you’ve just searched through your family records, and those of extended family members but your searches provide no solution to the precise place of birth. As you search your list of compiled sources, you discover in the www.FamilySearch.org website an entry from one of the databases called Ancestral File, possible clues suggesting her birth could have occurred at Hampstead in the year 1884. With an open mind and using this tidbit of birth data, you directly focus your research now in England’s civil registration indexes and certificates for a possible birth for Florence in the years roughly 1875 to 1895. With such an uncommon surname, you find only one likely birth registered—in the whole of England in the 4th Quarter of 1884 and order her birth certificate. The certificate is hers and it reveals and confirms that Hampstead was in fact her place of birth. The names of parents match that which was already known among living descendants and that which appeared in the compiled source. Thus, this single birthplace clue from compiled sources in the country of settlement (i.e. a source within www.familysearch.org), led your search directly to not only a “London” birth entry, but it helped you verify and confirm her precise birthplace in primary records, and narrowed your search from the whole of “London” with its 28-plus registration districts which comprise Greater London—and quickly helped you locate her precise birth place, birth date and parentage.  

==== Step 3: Search Indexes: Key to Finding Immigrants' Specific Place of Birth  ====

<br>Here are some ways to access extant surname indexes to various and important genealogical records for England’s large cities:  

c. The Family History Library’s Patron Desktop “Favorites” web links available at [http://www.fhlfavorites.info/ www.fhlfavorites.info ]to download free data-rich sites. Search billions of names using many websites at no—or low—cost! Search “England/[name of] County/[Name of] Parish or Subject Heading—i.e. ‘Church records’  

Nationally throughout Australia, in New Zealand, South Africa, most provinces in Canada and now, in a majority of U.S. states, the availability of online indexes makes searching much easier, more convenient and quick. Thus via the state of Utah’s online deaths index, Florence’s death entry is found and her certificate of death obtained for the year 1950 (see below). Her certificate indicates her birth in “Hampstead, London, England” in the year 1884, with the added bonus that it includes the names of both her parents—“Thomas Bradsell” and Catherine Harriet—including her mother’s maiden surname of “Brock”! You’re now ready to search other important records in England in order to confirm this data and for discovering the next generation back. The birth data on death certificates must always be considered secondary source information only and thus used with considerable caution.  

==== Step 4: Researching in England’s Records to Determine and Prove Place of Birth  ====