Who Do You Think You Are? Encyclopedia of Genealogy: The definitive reference guide to tracing your family history. Nick Barratt
the Izzard surname is listed, so if you suspect you have a connection to Eddie Izzard, you can visit the site, click on the link and learn more about the origins of the surname and its derivatives, as well as how often it appears in historical documents through time.
The website provides a useful profile for some of the registered One-Name Studies, including their aims and the data that has been gathered so far, along with contact details for the Guild member who posted the information. You can contact that member if you have a specific question you would like to ask about their findings. The Guild supports projects designed for experienced researchers, so if a surname you are interested in is not registered with the Guild, it is wise to research your own family tree first and then build up a portfolio of information about that particular name before registering the surname and starting a study. There are guidelines about how to begin a one-name study on the website.
SUMMARY
Check the following to see if some of your proposed research has already been done:
• The records of the Society of Genealogists
• Burke’s and Debrett’s Peerage and Baronetage, and The Records and Collections of the College of Arms
• Indexes of published pedigrees
• Genealogy websites
• The Guild of One-Name Studies, for a particular surname (especially if it is unusual)
Remember … Check the Evidence
It is imperative that you find out the sources of any research undertaken by other people before you even consider incorporating this data into your own family tree – it is vital that you can double-check their accuracy. Even if somebody else’s research has been published, their work is still liable to human error and it is not unusual to find a pedigree published in two books that has different dates of birth or death cited in each version. Therefore, check as many editions as you can for each published pedigree so that you can compare the information they contain, and then follow up the document references in the footnotes and examine the original sources.
Just as you did when you were collecting information from relatives, you should treat all second-hand evidence as merely a guideline to follow, rather than gospel truth. Use it as a short cut to the records that will allow you to verify the information, rather than taking the data at face value as proof of the past. Family trees published on the web are even less reliable simply because anybody can add to genealogy websites without needing to authenticate their entries. If you do contact another researcher who has seemingly investigated one of your family branches, do not be afraid to ask them how they came to their conclusions and what sources they have used. You can then follow up these sources yourself to see if you find them convincing as evidence.
‘Treat all second-hand evidence as merely a guideline to follow, rather than gospel truth.’
Despite these words of warning, family tree sharing facilities are fantastic genealogical tools, particularly the online versions that enable researchers to share ideas and learn from each other’s work. Once you have completed your research you should consider making it into a book, perhaps using one of the family tree software packages suggested in Chapter 2 – many of which include a publishing suite – so that you can deposit your work at the Society of Genealogists or your local record office for other researchers to benefit from.
Researching Your Genealogy Online
Genealogy as a pastime is at its most popular in the twenty-first century, partly thanks to the wealth of resources that have been made available online to millions of people at the click of a mouse. Whereas family history was once the domain of the upper classes who had access to (or were keen to prove) their pedigrees, and die-hard genealogists prepared to spend hours scouring reels of microfilm in search of each new name on their family tree, now anybody with a vague interest in their roots, regardless of status or origin, can start investigating. Because there is such an enormous interest in the subject, there will always be somebody online who can be of assistance if you are struggling with your research.
There are literally millions of genealogy websites out there – just try typing ‘family history’ into Google and see how many hits you receive! This can make it difficult to know where to begin, so here we’ll de-mystify the process and highlight the most useful sites you’ll need to visit. Basically, the core resources you will be working from can be broken down into the following categories:
• Commercial or institutional websites supplying access to datasets, images of records, or indexes to documents (‘dataset’ websites)
• Websites of genealogical organizations that provide advice, or links to other resources (‘portal’ websites)
• Websites where you can link with other users and join social networks (‘network’ websites)
Dataset Websites
Commercial Sites
There are many commercial websites that have worked in conjunction with archives to provide reliable historical material online. For example, The National Archives at Kew have teamed up with commercial companies such as Ancestry and Find My Past to enable online access to census returns, military records, ships passenger lists and more, whilst the National Archives of Scotland have established a partnership with the Scottish General Register Office and the Court of the Lord Lyon to create an official website – www.scotlands people.gov.uk – where Scottish parish registers, civil registration, probate and census records are available to those unable to travel to the archives.
‘Datasets are digital collections of particular records that can be searched using a name-based index or search engine.’
As a result, there are many commercial subscription-based websites that offer access to datasets, namely digital collections of particular records that can be searched using a name-based index or search engine, and you will often find more than one website offering access to the same records – civil registration indexes and census returns being prime examples (the relevant resources are listed in Chapters 5 and 6 respectively). The differences between the various websites are usually the type of search engine they offer and the cost of accessing the records. For instance, you may find two websites that will give you online access to census records, but one is better for finding ancestors by name and one is more useful for locating addresses on the census if you cannot find an ancestor by name. Equally, one website may offer a better deal for pay-per-view subscriptions and one a better deal on yearly subscriptions, so shop around and work out which ones better suit your needs.
Archives
In addition to the commercial organizations, major archives around the British Isles also give online access to digital copies of some of the documents in their holdings – though of course hard copies can still be ordered if you prefer. Therefore if you cannot get to these archives very easily you may be able to access some material from home. The types of records available from each archive’s website varies widely; for example, The National Archives’ website has a Documents Online area where you can pay to view copies of wills from medieval times to the mid-nineteenth century, as well as many military and naval documents, and you can order images of specific document references that are emailed to you using the online Digital Express facility. In contrast, the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland does not yet enable any access to its holdings over the Internet. It is worth checking the websites of both the national and local archives that cover the regions your family were from to see if they have digital collections of any of their holdings, though this should not be considered a substitute to visiting