Tracing English Immigrants From Abroad: Difference between revisions

Before proceeding to Step 3, here is a consideration: When you are researching an uncommon surname or someone with a very unusual first given name (i.e. Sebastian, Provis, Pleasance) it’s quite possible to skip steps 1 to 3 outlined in this study and proceed directly to Step 4 and to find and obtain birth/baptism information or a record.   

Let’s say that Florence Beatrice Bradsell Dunn, came to the United States in the year 1946 but all that is 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.