Tracing English Immigrants From Abroad: Difference between revisions

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 in the beginning of your search. It may not always be correct, but it is a foundation and will help in narrowing down to the specific place of your ancestor’s nativity or residence in a large city or town in England.  

Once you have gleaned as much information as possible from home sources, but still lack a specific birthplace or residence then proceed to Step 2. If you succeeded in obtaining the specific town 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.  

===Step 2: Search Compiled Sources – Family Histories at Archives & Libraries===

**Examples: Newberry Library (Chicago, IL), Allen Co. IN Public Library, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Society of Genealogists, London, Genealogical Research Library, Bampton, Ontario, Society Genealogists in both Australia & New Zealand

 

*Library of Congress, Washington DC,

 

*National Libraries, i.e. New Zealand, Australia & Canada

 

*British Library, London

 

*City [public] libraries with genealogical sections: ie. Houston, or Dallas TX public libraries, Birmingham, Manchester Central Libraries

 

 

*Societies: Archaeological, local history societies or local studies reading rooms

 

<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:  

====North America====

====United Kingdom====

*[http://www.iukgenweb.org/ www.iukgenweb.org]  

====Other Countries====

*[http://www.worldgenweb.org/ www.worldgenweb.org]  

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

*[http://www.archive.org/index.php www.archive.org] - Internet Archives  

*[http://www.lib.byu.edu/fhc/index.php www.lib.byu.edu] - Family History Archives 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:

*[http://www.kindredkonnections.com/ www.kindredkonnections.com] - good offerings for numerous genealogies

*[http://www.oneworldtree.com www.oneworldtree.com] – huge family collections  

*[http://www.famillion.com/ www.famillion.com] - a good database worth checking for compiled data

*[http://www.kindredtrails.com www.kindredtrails.com] – a very significant source of compiled lineages <br>

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.  

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!