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.  

*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

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

Here’s a short list of websites (‘archives’) which have thus far posted family histories, pedigrees or genealogies—at little or no cost—online:  

[[Family_History_Library|Family History Library]] 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:  

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:  

This is very possible to do when you have the benefit of researching an ancestor with an unusual or uncommon surname; it can save you the time necessary to search in any or all sources in any country-- indexed records or not!  

Proceed to find compiled indexes to primary sources in the host-country of settlement to step no. 4 (researching in the national and city records of England),be certain to search the records of the country of settlement. If you are researching strictly in England and if your ancestor came from outside an English city or large township, or from England’s countryside into a city, be sure to search the following records for further clues about your ancestor's birthplace.  

b. church registers  

<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’  

f. County Family History Societies  

h. “Google” name of county and the word “index”; Note: numerous free online county-wide indexes exist  

Search all of these in order to locate available indexes covering large cities. Indexes may be available for just about any genealogical record type. Numerous indexes have been published and many have been made available solely at archives and libraries. Many are also now posted online including indexes to church records, civil registration of births, marriages and deaths, and census. Indexes to wills, cemeteries, land ownership, military or militia lists may also be available, to a limited extent, and etc.  

The next step of the task is to obtain a copy of Florence’s birth certificate for the year 1884. Her certificate of birth will provide and confirm her birth date, birthplace, and parents’ names.

The challenge of researching in England’s large cities is in dealing with the large task of searching in huge population bases. Along with large populations comes the challenge of searching through bloated records—i.e. church registers often containing tens of thousands of entries for not just one single parish, but sometimes numerous parishes. Add to this already daunting task, the task of researching in several additional genealogical record types! The sheer number of inhabitants in Greater London and other large cities in England places fact-finding into slow-motion and it becomes the biggest source of frustration, and challenges the very best of researchers. Thus, availability of complete data-bases or “indexes” then, is incredibly helpful and is an enormous boon to genealogists when researching in especially big cities because indexes help you find next-generation ancestry in a mere fraction of the time, versus normal research the ‘old fashioned way’—parish by parish, by parish, and etc.!  

Big city research in England is greatly facilitated when you know or learn what available quick-finding resources (i.e. indexes) there are for England and its large cities. Locate and then search, or, arrange for someone to search on your behalf, all extant indexes or databases for large cities in which you need to conduct research. If you choose not to use available indexes to key primary sources of vital, church and other records, your genealogical research will expend considerable time and in today’s economy will likely fast become an extremely pricey endeavor—especially when researching from abroad.  

A valuable list is in order, then, which provides researchers with as current a standard list as is remotely possible, of data-rich indexes, databases, calendars or other resources (usually compiled sources) of which you can search to help you to more quickly find possible ancestry in the civil vital or other records of England. Always check against the original primary sources in order to validate what you find in these and all indexes. Recourse must always be taken by looking at original record source[s] when an entry from an index or a compiled source appears to likely be that of your ancestor.  

*Church registers 1538-present: registers of the Church of England and nonconformist church registers provide vital information and must be used to compile family pedigrees during this period; are at county record offices, sometimes at the local parish church, or many online indexes and transcribed records are available for roughly 60% of the ancient parishes of England. You can (and should) also Google the following three (or more) terms in order to find names of ancestors in church registers:

*City Directories – identify occupations, addresses, tenure of residence

*Land Registry of Deeds – Middlesex from 1708 to 1988

In identifying the above crucial resources to help prove and to build family pedigrees (above) in big cities, now let’s identify some of the most outstanding indexes to the above records—available either online or at specific locations and which should be searched, first:  

*Google on the words--“place-name” and “census”, or census “year” and the word “index”

*FindMyPast.com – nearly 70 million online parish and church register database (£)

*County Record offices – i.e. London Metropolitan Archives and Library. Some big city County Record Offices have transcriptions and indexes to many parish registers and other records, as well as the original records in their collections

*Federation Family History Societies – great resources offered by county societies; most produce long and significant lists of transcribed parish registers (£)

*“Google” name of county and the word “index” and by name of record type, i,e, “marriages”; [Note: there are numerous free online county-wide and/or&nbsp;parish&nbsp;indexes depending on the county; search parish by parish and county by county]

*Atlas & Index of Parish Registers by Phillimore; Co. publishers (£) – see county section in back for church and census indexes and addresses

*The Family History Library’s Patron Desktop collection of approximately 7,000 data-rich England Internet links; visit [http://www.fhlfavorites.info www.fhlfavorites.info]&nbsp;and search under county name; then i.e. “Church records” links to numerous free, countrywide, county-wide and parish by parish database transcriptions online

*Family History Library – has thousands of in-house indexes/databases

*See or purchase booklet: Marriage and census indexes for family historians by Hampson; Gibson

*[http://www.fhlfavorites.info/ www.fhlfavorites.info/] under “England”, then [Name of] “county”, then “Probate”; most England counties now have extensive online indexes!

*Google the following words: 1) [name of] “county”/big city; 2) “probate”; 3) “index”

*Family History Library thousands of microfilm holdings for “occupations”

*FHL - [Name of] “County” or [Name of] “City - Occupations” - order; search films at FHCs worldwide

'''Additional Helps:'''  

• University and other academic libraries and their archives’ collections  

• British Library - ([http://www.bl.uk/ www.bl.uk/]) – also little used and under-recognized—for family history and biography!  

• [[Main Page|Wiki Main Page]] - FamilySearch.org’s new family history wiki-pedia; calling all volunteers!  

'''WHERE TO FIND COMPILED SOURCES: A STANDARD HANDLIST FOR RESEARCHERS'''  

3. Family Bibles  

5. Extended family members  

6. Interview distant relatives  

10. Family data deposited or published  

*'''Online family genealogy sites, pedigrees, history sites:'''

6. [http://www.fhlfavorites.info www.fhlfavorites.info] – see “England/General/Book search” or England/General/Genealogy”  

*'''Repositories and libraries with published family genealogies, biographies and other compiled source databases; here are their online website addresses:'''

2. FamilySearch Catalog