What's in a Name

Family History

Taking notes

Most people have at least some knowledge of their family in the past, even if they cannot go back very far. Before visiting the nearest library or record office it is helpful to assemble this information in a notebook or file. The need to record everything that one has learnt and to make a careful note of the source of that information is a lesson that should be borne constantly in mind. Interviewing one’s relatives, especially the older ones before it is too late, is clearly an early task. Very often the information is muddled and sometimes downright misleading. It is common to find a belief that the family has had a romantic past, that they are descended from someone important (perhaps in an illegitimate line), or that vast sums of money wait to be inherited if only a firm link could be proved. But amidst all this dross are usually a few nuggets of priceless information about where a family came from, who was related to whom, what they did for a living, why they moved home, and so on. There is often enough to provide a firm lead in the right direction.

The pooled resources of a family usually supply a varied collection of old photographs (nearly always unlabelled), newspaper cuttings, birth, marriage, and death certificates, and other mementoes. These help to stimulate interest and are useful props to take when talking to old people whose memories are often stirred by such things. Write everything down, remain sceptical about claims that the family are descended from King Canute, the Duke of Marlborough, Huguenot refugees, Border cattle-rustlers, or all of these people, and follow the leads that promise to point the way back to the unknown. Do not start with some famous person who had the same surname as yours back in the 15th century. The golden rule is to work backwards from the known to the unknown. The records of civil registration (outlined below), the census returns of the 19th century, and parish registers are the basic sources for the beginner. It is very common to find that one can quickly get back to the beginning of Victoria’s reign. It is then that the real problems begin.

Seeking the help and company of fellow enthusiasts is a natural step to take as one gets started. Adult education departments often provide courses for the beginner and few parts of Britain are now without a local family history society. The national Federation of Family History Societies keeps them all in contact, publishes cheap and useful guides, and has its own magazine, Family History News and Digest. Regular programmes of lectures, conferences, and visits offer instruction and a friendly forum of advice. Most societies produce their own journal and many of them publish editions of local records, such as census returns, hearth tax returns, and indexes of parish registers. Making careful surveys of the tombstones in local churchyards – monumental inscriptions, or MIs, for short – is a particularly useful task that is often carried out by society members.

Armed with the oral information that can be obtained from relatives, the family historian may usefully decide to try to find his ancestors’ gravestones. This is another job that should not be delayed because many tombstones are deteriorating badly and others are being removed. In rural areas the graveyard attached to the parish church may still be in use. The oldest tombstones date from the 17th century and are found nearest the church, normally to the south, for the north was once regarded as the devil’s side where excommunicates, suicides, and unbaptized parishioners were buried. The memorials of the richer inhabitants will be found inside the church. As churchyards became full and the earlier practice of reusing old graves was prevented by the erection of sturdy tombstones, local authorities had to provide alternative arrangements. The first public cemetery was opened in London at Kensal Green in 1827; soon, other towns and cities followed suit. In 1850 an Act of Parliament authorized the General Board of Health to close old churchyards and establish cemeteries. The records of these cemeteries have sometimes been deposited at the appropriate local record office, many may still be consulted at the office on the site. They normally record the name, address, age, and occupation of the deceased, the date of death and burial, and the place of the grave. However, this information is filed in chronological order and is not indexed alphabetically, so it helps to have a previous idea of the approximate date of death.

The family historian quickly learns not to take all his evidence at face value. Tombstones may be as inaccurate as any other record, especially if they were erected long after the death of the first person to be named. The recorded age must be regarded with caution. It was common, for instance, to think of someone aged 84 as being in his eighty-fifth year and to note the age as 85. On the other hand, tombstones often convey information, e.g. about a relationship, that the researcher did not know. Write it all down and note the exact position of the tombstone for future reference.

Many of us do not proceed in a systematic way at the beginning, but the sooner the decision is made to organize our material the better. Separate notebooks or files for each branch of the family are obviously desirable, but each individual will develop his own methods to suit his temperament, facilities, and enthusiasm. A computer database helps but is not essential! At all stages of research it will be necessary to construct family trees, however tentative they may be. Do not try to put everybody on the same tree but use different sheets for each side of the family. Some sheets can be used to include everyone on a particular branch within a particular period, others need to give the barest of outlines so that a clear line of descent can quickly be perceived. It is difficult to give general advice on how to display these trees as the number of children varies so much from one family to another and from generation to generation. Other people’s methods may not be suited to your requirements because no two families are alike. It helps to keep people of the same generation at the same level, with husband and wife side by side, and to use the standard genealogical abbreviations:

b. born dau. daughter

d. died div. divorced

* From the Latin decessit sine prole.

There is no standard or best way of arranging one’s material. One learns from experience and adapts as one goes along. The trees need to be updated regularly, so it does not matter too much if early attempts look amateurish.

The whereabouts of the relevant record office can be discovered from a telephone directory or from a local library. In most cases admission is free and professional archivists will offer advice. They are more inclined to help those who have already made some progress and have at least some idea of what they are looking for than to assist those who think that others are going to do all the work for them. Most people will start with parish registers, census returns, and the records.

The documents of the last two hundred years are not usually difficult to read, unless the scribe has an idiosyncratic style. Words are normally the same way as at present and letters are formed in a recognizable manner. The family historian who gets back to the 16th or 17th century, however, is faced with real problems of interpretation. The script is likely to be radically different from modern styles and much of it may be in Latin. The beginner has every reason to feel daunted by the sheer difficulty of reading a document, let alone understanding the information that it contains.

These are difficulties which must be admitted and faced honestly. There is no easy way out of the problem. Nevertheless, all hope should not be abandoned immediately. What seems impossible to read at first might be transcribed with practice. The trick is to recognize strange forms of letters in words which are obvious and to try these in the words that are proving difficult. Do not be embarrassed to ask for help; a fresh eye can often see the answer immediately.

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