Research Tips

• Look out for variable and phonetic spellings by partially literate scribes, small places of the same name in neighbouring counties (e.g. Brocton occurs six times in Shropshire and the Staffs border area), old county borders (outlying and detached areas belonging to one country within another county, especially prior to the Act of Parliament in 1844), actual place names versus registration districts (e.g. some places in Shropshire may be part of a Welsh registration district and some border villages in Derbyshire appear in Nottinghamshire districts), and incorrect county on census returns.

• The place where the ancestor recalls growing up my not be the place of birth or where the records are eventually found! Many families have been very mobile over greater distances as well as between neighbouring villages.

• Build a local geographical knowledge. Use Google Maps and the OS Old Map websites for places long since disappeared or integrated within large C20th/C21st conurbations. Old records may contain references to Middle Age villages that have ceased to exist due to disease, war or famine. If a place name is unclear, try to locate it. Wikipedia's lists of villages in various counties is also a useful resource.

• In general, there is a good likelihood that the parish of a birth for a girl is the place she marries (unless 'sent abroad' as a servant), and that the place of residence for a man is where he is buried; consider also neighbouring parishes. The only period where this is less reliable is during the Industrial Revolution when many families moved long distances in search of work. A girl may have been a recent arrival as part of a family of coalminers, for example. The industrialising West Midlands attracted people from all over the UK.

2. Occupations
Can be partly right. Many unskilled ancestors had a variety of jobs depending on the season and local trade requirements. Occasionally skilled trades pass from father to son. 

• Census returns may contain some embellishment from Labourer to Mason, or from Journeyman to Master Craftsman. Workmen no longer fit for their primary trade often have less glamorous jobs later in life, or may end up in the Victorian Workhouses. Orphaned children may also be found in the Workhouse. Multiple jobs are not uncommon.

• Look out for old or unfamiliar local occupations that may cause confusion if poorly legible - an ostler (a keeper of horses) and a hostler (an innkeeper) can be confused. Someone who is bizarrely "an ironer of rabbit burrows" turned out to be an ironer in the old Bristol area of Rabbit Burrows.

• Several trades have regional preferences, for e.g. shoemaker or cordwainer, and many apparently obscure jobs are part of a larger trade community such as wool, watchmaking, framework knitting or gunmaking.

3. Surnames
At least correct if viewed phonetically! Some surnames can be spelled a multitude of way by partially illiterate ancestors or scribes. The further you go back, the more bizarre the variations you will encounter:

• Some names become interchangeable between married and maiden names, and previous husbands names. 

• Some names are not always obvious (MORDECAI interchangeable with MORT, and SHILVOCK interchangeable with SHELVOCK or SHILBURN), whereas other variants are common, such as SANDERS & SAUNDERS. Scottish/Irish names can be difficult: my MCDONALD / MacDONALD family also appears as McDONNER, MCDONNELL or just MACK. Traditional Welsh naming patterns of X ap Y, for the son of, will change every generation.

• Confusion can result from using step-parents or adopted parents names, as well as a woman using her lover's name. Common-law marriages were still common in Victorian times even though this type of legally recognised informal marriage was abolished in 1753, so records of a marriage simply may not exist.

• Do not be surprised to find that keeping more than one family is more common than you think, through bigamy, the common-law relationship, or a kept lover.

• Children of unwed daughters may be incorrectly (either unintentionally or deliberately disguised) as offspring of the parents, and may have other surnames.

What Genealogical Facts Can You Believe?

Here are some tips for the less experienced researcher based on my 34+ years of experience, in order of decreasing reliability: Place Names, Occupations, Surnames, First Names, Dates.

Also included are some other pieces of useful information on: Literacy Levels, How to Calculate a Family Relationship, When People Could Marry in the UK, and Final Words of Caution.

While I hope you find these useful, don't forget that when you are looking around your family tree beware of fallen branches, snarled old roots and more than the odd coconut.

Happy sleuthing!

• Pet names or nicknames are very common - Beth, Lizzie or Betty is common for Elizabeth, which can be confused with Eliza (often a separate name). Patty has been used as a diminutive form for Martha. There is also Amy used each for Alice, Nancy & Ann, and Polly for a number of girls names including Mary Ann and Elizabeth. Teresa, Theresa & Thirza are interchangeable. Girls names are generally the most confusing.

• Boys names can also interchange: Jack for John & Jonathan, also Joseph & Josiah, Edward & Edwin, etc.

• The use of middle names in life is more common than you may think - very often names appear in reverse order on a wide range of documents.

• The same name can also be given to several children, often the result of an earlier child dying young, however this is not always the case! You may conclude that there is both a John senior and John junior alive at the same time.

• It is also common to confuse relatives (father and son, nephew & uncle, stepchildren, wives of sons, etc.) and family groups. Like me, you will find a period in time where everyone seems to be a child of a couple named William & Mary or Samuel & Ann, with several couples of the name living in the district you're researching, all with children named with the most popular names of the times! 

• The sex of some names is not always clear. In my family tree: Treasure turns out to be male. For a long time I was very confused by a marriage of a Frances (who turned out to be actually a male, i.e. "Francis") to an Eli (turned out actually to be female, i.e. Elly or Ellie).

5. Dates
The general rule is to never trust a date! Accurate dates of birth may be given for modern registrations and in a few church records at baptism.

• Family bibles may be a help, but can be written from memory long after the event - beware of the same ink and handwriting for all entries; a sure sign the dates were written at the same time and therefore will be less reliable. Sometimes only the day and month is given and not the year - not helpful if only initials are used!

• Women will commonly reduce their age on marriage, and perhaps those under "full age" may increase their age upon marriage or joining the armed forces.

• Census returns are notoriously unreliable, particularly when looking for a date for a husband's death. If the woman is at home while the husband is away, she could be given as Head of household or assumed a widow. She may be separated or abandoned, her husband may be in prison or serving with the armed forces. 1841 dates are rounded down to the nearest five years, and as the first official census in the UK is unreliable and difficult to transcribe. 1841 is more reliable once other census have established the location and older members of the family.

• Dates around birth may be confused between birth and baptism. Some families wait 3-5 years or more before baptising children, and adult baptisms are not uncommon. Trees on Ancestry are particularly bad as most researchers record baptismal dates as birth dates, 

• Both birth and marriage dates can be adjusted to cover for pre-wedding pregnancies. It is very common for the first child to be born before or within a few months of a marriage and perhaps baptised in the mother's name if before, later adopting the father's name after marriage. The father's name can also be used even if no marriage has occurred. 

• In 1752 the 25th March became 1st January, so two dates and years may appear around this time. The 24th of March 1751/52 occurred before the 1st of January 1751/52!

LITERACY LEVELS

In 1841 33% of men & 44% of women signed marriage certificates with their mark. Only in 1870 was Primary Education made available for all in Britain.

HOW TO WORK OUT A FAMILY RELATIONSHIP

Between two people, where Ga is the person who is nearest to common ancestor (by no. of generations) and Gb, the one furthest away.   

Ga - 1 = C
Gb - Ga = R

 Answer =   x C y R   (xth Cousin, y Removed)

WHEN PEOPLE COULD MARRY IN THE UK

Before 1929 a girl could get married at 12 and a boy at 14 but only with their parents consent. The age for marriage without consent was always 21 until recent times when it was reduced to 18. Prior to 1753 there was no minimum age except during the 1650s when it was 14 and 16 respectively.

The Act for amending the Laws respecting the Solemnization of Marriages in England of 18th July 1823 directed that consent be obtained, although a marriage that had taken place without it was neither void or voidable, however any property of the under age party did not pass to the elder party. In effect from 1823 the ages at which a couple could undergo a valid marriage, even without parental consent reverted to 14 for boys and 12 for girls.

In the case of apparent children born to under-aged parents, while biologically possible one should also bear in mind that puberty did not commence as early as in well-nourished modern times, particularly in poor, underweight children who often were performing hard labour, so children borne by young teens is relatively rare, however if the data fits one should not rule it out. Be aware that children illegitimately born to older daughters were often integrated as late "younger children" of the parents.

Final Words of Caution!

Family history research is a very rewarding hobby, however it is clear that research should not be conducted with today's morals and standards in mind, otherwise key data will be overlooked. I have enjoyed finding out what real life was like in the past 400 years, discovering plenty of family 'scandals', illegitimate children, lovers and second families, as well as being able to put these families in their social and political contexts. To some, these revelations can be considered 'shocking', 'immoral' and personally embarrassing even after many generations have passed. Often family stories have no basis in fact and may have been embellished or manufactured to cover some 'unpleasant truth'. Statistics from family historians show that more than 1/3 of family have some kind of secret so you can expect to find a few.

Recent medical research on deaths in Victorian times shows that up to 10% of families carried syphilis, the sexual transmitted disease. It was so prevalent in the times that many people carried it without showing symptoms, and their children were even born with it, showing manifestations later in life (including blindness). If you note a 6-8 year gap for surviving children in families (a lot of young child deaths), when you normally expect a child either every year, or every other year, this may be due to syphilis within the family. Syphilis in the mother often resulted in miscarriages, then premature births, sickly children who died, then sickly children who survived, before bearing healthy children. This cycle typically took 6-8 years. [Reference: 2009 BBC series of "Who Do You Think You Are?" - the Martin Freeman episode].