Genealogy is one of the fastest growing hobbies as many people ask who am I? Where are my roots? For many those roots lie in the United Kingdom and the countries of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
Huge numbers of people can trace their family tree back to an immigrant who once made the perilous journey across the Atlantic to the New World. 9.2 million US citizens of Scottish ancestry and 30million of Irish ancestry, or the half million Australians of Scottish descent. But how can you go about finding your roots in the United Kingdom.
The first port of call is always what we KNOW already; this may be a grandparentÂ’s birth certificate but could very well be your own birth certificate. Its best to start from a point which you know – as it makes the job considerably easier and you can verify your findings as you go further and further into the past. Too many people start by looking for James Smith from Kirkcaldy in the 1880’s and to be frank its almost impossible to pin down exactly the right person from such vague information.
The next step is to look into the statutory records. After 1855 in the United Kingdom it became compulsory to report every birth death and marriage. As such the statutory index is compiled in the main from the paper indexes to the civil registers of births implemented in 1855 under the Births, Deaths & Marriages (Scotland) Act, 1854. The General Register Office for Scotland in Edinburgh holds a complete set of statutory birth registers for all the registration districts in Scotland since 1855. Each birth index entry includes: year of registration, surname, forename(s) and sex of the child, district and county of registration and the GROS references (see below).
Every death index entry reports the year of registration, surname, forename(s), sex and age (see below) of the deceased, the maiden surname of the deceased, the surname of the deceasedÂ’s mother (1855-1858 see below), district and county in which the death was registered and the GROS references
and finally every marriage index includes details of year of registration, surname and forename(s) of the male, surname and forename(s) of the female, district and county where the marriage was registered and the GROS references.
BUT these can only get you so far. Sadly this is about as far back as you can be guaranteed to get back (beware services which guarantee going further back into your ancestry than this). It may, and is often possible to go farther back into your familyÂ’s genealogy using old parish registers (kept by the local churches about the people within their area), Wills and testaments (and the Scottish general record office website http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk carries some of these going back to 1513).
Websites like those of Family Research ( http://www.lineages.co.uk ) and British-Genealogy.com ( http://www.british-genealogy.com/ ) feature forums and articles which can be used to find and share information and should be used frequently. In addition the visitors to these sites can often help with advice and help.
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