If you have British genealogy but you don’t live in the UK, then you have probably used the internet to carry out your family history research at least back to the early 19th century. Perhaps you have taken out a subscription to websites such as Ancestry.co.uk or Find My Past to search for census records, births, marriages and deaths and other documents that are available online. You may even have found that someone else researching your family line has published a tree online.
However, while more and more documents are becoming available online, many necessary records before the 19th century – and some records after – are only accessible by visiting local archives. If you have found your ancestors in the birth, marriage and death indexes from 1837, it can be extremely expensive to order copies of the certificates from outside of the UK.
Even if you have discovered that someone else has done research on your line, you should never trust that the person publishing the tree has done their research properly. I have seen countless mistakes on these trees – and not infrequently a lot of wishful thinking!
The trouble is that when people are not able to access the original sources, such as parish registers, they tend to rely on sources such as the International Genealogical Index. Now, this is a wonderful source which is extremely useful. However, as it is not complete, and is not always accurate, it is very possible to make errors when using it, and go climbing up the wrong family tree. The IGI should only ever be used as a search tool to find probable or possible register entries, and it should always be backed up by searches of the original records before going further up the tree.
This is a problem if the parish registers you need are not yet online. Other documents, such as wills, may help – and many of these are indexed online, and some are even downloadable, or at least orderable via the internet – but many wills are only to be found at local record offices. In other words, if you are only using the internet, you cannot be sure that you are getting all the sources you need.
So, while the internet is a boon for non-UK residents searching their British genealogy, it is also very frustrating when the essential records you need are only accessible locally.
A very good search engine is one provided by The National Archives. This is called Access to Archives, and you can use it to search for documents that mention your ancestors. The list of results will tell you in which repository the document is held – so at least you will know which archive you need.
You may be able to contact the relevant archive and request a photocopy of the document, for which there will be a fee.
But it is very likely that there will be lots of records you need in different parts of the country. Parish registers that need intense searching, documents to be copied or photographed, or lists of wills to be perused. To try and organise such searches individually in each area would be extremely time-consuming and ultimately expensive.
The ideal alternative would be to hire a UK genealogist who can ‘oversee’ your UK searches, carry out searches in local archives, or sub-hire other genealogists in other parts of the country. A genealogist in the UK will have expert knowledge about the history and geography of their area, and can therefore often find sources or archives that you may not have known about. They will understand the historical background of British ancestors; how people lived and why they may have moved house or emigrated.
UK genealogists very often have extra services, such as photography or family history writing services, backed up by their knowledge of British and local history.
My own British genealogy service covers the whole of the UK. I am based in Warwickshire in the Midlands, but I use a pool of trusted genealogists across the country who will undertake searches at local county record offices that are outside of my area. I can therefore take your British ancestry and research it from scratch.
AND… for the month of December 2011, I am offering a huge 20% discount for all new clients ordering British genealogy research. My usual hourly charge is £20 – but for this month it will be £16 only – and this will continue into the new year AS LONG AS you order your research before 31st December. Just email me at info@tracingancestors-uk.com with December Discount in the subject box, and give me the details of what you are looking for.
