Starting genealogical research - English & Welsh ancestors

Baptismal register for St Stephen's Church, Norwich

Once you have started with writing down everything you and your family know, you should have the start of a family tree but it will likely be one with lots of question marks and gaps.

How do you make the next step into genealogical research and go back further?

The general principle is to work your way back - start with what you know and go backwards in time. Genealogists use a variety of records to gather information on their ancestor to give them clues as to where an ancestor was born and who their parents/family were. This gives you enough information to go back a generation, and then repeat the process on that older generation to find out where they were born, who their family were, and so on and so forth.

Key records

There are a wide variety of records a researcher can consult but the main ones to get you started for English and Welsh ancestors are:

• Birth, death and marriage certificates (civil registration)

• Church records (baptismal, marriage and burial records)

• Census records

• Wills

Civil registration

Civil registration is the system whereby people were required to register vital events (births, deaths and marriages) with the government. In England and Wales, civil registration began 1 July 1837.

This means that you should be able to find a birth certificate, marriage certificate or death certificate for any event after that date.

These certificates provide a variety of information, with some certificates being more useful for genealogical research than others.

Where to find them

Certificates for England and Wales are purchased from the General Register Office. You will need to know the year and quarter that the event was registered in. For baptisms and burials, you can search the indexes on the GRO website. For marriages, you can search free indexes at FreeBDM (you can also use this site to search for baptisms and burials as well).

The advantage of searching for the birth indexes on the GRO website, is that the mother's maiden name is listed on the index entry.

The GRO can provide birth and death certificates digitally by email (this is a cheaper, quicker option) but marriage certificates can only currently be delivered by post as a hardcopy certificate.

Birth certificates

These provide the following information:

• Date and place of birth of child

• Name and sex of child

• Name of father

• Quality/trade/profession (i.e. occupation) of father

• Name and maiden name of mother

• Name and location/address of the informant (the person who provided the information for the certificate)

• When and where the birth was registered

Birth certificates are therefore very useful for telling you who your ancestor's parents were, allowing you to go a generation further back. It is also useful to note the address of the family (either where the child was born, or the address of the informant if it was one of the parents) and occupation of the father. These details may help you to identify the correct family in other records, such as the census. A person's occupation also gives you an indication of what your family's circumstances were like. For example, if someone was working as a cotton weaver - what did that mean? What kind of work did they do? How well paid was it as a job? What does it mean for the kind of life your ancestor lived?

Marriage certificates

These provide the following information:

• Date and place of marriage

• Name of bride and groom

• Age of bride and groom (sometimes you'll get their exact age, sometimes you might just see that they were of 'Full Age' i.e. 21 years or older)

• Quality/trade/profession (i.e. occupation) of bride and groom

• Residence of bride and groom

• Name of bride and groom's father

• Quality/trade/profession (i.e. occupation) of bride and groom's father

• Signature of bride and groom

• Signature of at least 2 witnesses to the marriage

Marriage certificates are useful in helping you go back a generation as it confirms who the bride and groom's father was. It is also useful to note:

• Whether the bride and groom were able to sign their names - if it was signed with an 'x', that indicates they were illiterate

• Who the witnesses were - they are often (but not always!) family members and you may find them useful to help prove a connection to a family

Death certificates

These provide the following information:

• Date and place of death

• Name and sex of deceased

• Rank or profession (i.e. occupation) of deceased

• Cause of death - there may be multiple causes given and often the certificate will state how long the person had that condition prior to death. 'Certified' means the cause of death was certified by a doctor (often the doctor's name will be given)

• Informant - the name and address/location of the person who provided the details for the certificate. In later certificates, the relationship of the informant to the deceased will be given

• Date and place of the registration of the death

Death certificates are of less use to find out anything about your ancestor's family as no parents names are given. However, they can be useful for genealogical research:

• Cause of death - this often provides lots of interesting information, particularly if an ancestor died young

• Informant - it is worth noting who this is as it may provide a link to help you prove a connection to a family, if the informant is a family member

Church records

Prior to civil registration, you will need to rely on church records to go further back. Church records are comprised of baptismal records, marriage records and burial records.

The official religion in England and Wales was the Church of England, however if your ancestors were Catholic, Jewish or members of a dissenting religion, they may have been baptised or buried at the relevant church for their religion. However, prior to Act for Marriages in England in 1836, all marriages had to be performed by the Church of England, Jews or Quakers.

When looking for an ancestors' records, you may by surprised - our ancestors often travelled far more than we realise. They may not have always been baptised or buried where you think. There may have been more than one church equally distant to your ancestor's family, or simply preferred by them, so always look at nearby parishes where your ancestor was born.

The information below relates to Church of England records. Other religions may record more or less information.

Where to find them

Ancestry and FindMyPast both provide scans of original parish registers, however each site does not offer 100% coverage so which site you use will depend on what registers you're looking for. For example, Ancestry has good records for regions such as London and Lancashire. FindMyPast has good records for Kent. I would recommend going to both sites and checking what parishes/areas they have original records for. Not all parish registers are available but both sites add to their collections on a regular basis.

FreeREG provides transcriptions of parish registers for free. Coverage is not 100% but is added to by volunteers regularly. While one should always refer to original registers, transcriptions are useful if the original register is not available.

Baptismal records

Children were generally baptised within the first 12 months but it is also possible to see children baptised years after they were born.

Baptismal records were kept from 1538, following a mandate issued by Henry VIII. Information that was kept by the parish priest varied. In earlier records (which were typically written in Latin), it is common to only see the name of the child, the name of the father and the date the child was baptised.

However, some parish priests were far more helpful to the genealogist and I have seen baptismal records that recorded the mother's name and maiden name, the father's occupation and the baby's date of birth. It really is the luck of the draw!

After 31 December 1812, books provided by the King's printer were supplied to parishes for the purpose of recording baptisms, burials and marriages. From this date onwards, the standard information that was captured was:

• Name of child

• Date of baptism

• Name of father

• Name of mother (first name only)

• Address/residence of the family at the time of the baptism

• The father's occupation

• Name of the minister who performed the baptism

You will often see priests recording the date of birth as well (although that is not guaranteed) and occasionally you might be lucky and a priest might have recorded the mother's maiden name, although this is less common.

Marriage records

As for baptisms, marriage records were kept from 1538. Generally, the only information that was captured was the full names of the bride and groom and the date they were married.

After 31 December 1812, when parishes were using printed register books, the standard information that was captured was:

• Full name of groom

• Full name of bride

• 'Condition' of the bride and groom (whether they were a bachelor/spinster or widowed)

• Parish the bride and groom were from (this doesn't necessarily equate to where they were born, although it might do. It could only mean a parish they were currently living in)

• Date of marriage

• Name of minister who performed the ceremony

• Signature of the bride and groom (with the 'x' being marked if they were illiterate)

• Signature / x mark of two witnesses

Witnesses were often - but not always - family members, so are always worth noting as they might give you clues to the bride and groom's family.

Burial records

As for baptisms, burial records were kept from 1538. Information captured for burials did vary in early registers - usually, only the name and date of burial was recorded. However, priests did often (particularly in later registers) capture other information, such as the age of the person or other identifying information (e.g. Sarah, the widow of John; William the Elder, etc).

After 31 December 1812, when parishes were using printed register books, the standard information that was captured was:

• Name of the deceased

• Date of burial

• Age of the deceased

• Address/residence of the deceased

• Name of minister who performed the ceremony

Cause of death was never routinely recorded for deaths prior to civil registration, however, sometimes was captured by ministers in special circumstances.

Census records

In England and Wales, censuses were taken every 10 years since 1801. However, only censuses from 1841 hold any genealogical value. The first four censuses (1801–1831) were mainly headcounts, with virtually no personal information.

Census records are wonderful for tracking a family through time. They can be used to confirm where a person was born, which will give you a starting point as to where to find their birth/baptismal record. You'll often find family members living with your ancestors (e.g. a grandparent, a grandchild, a maiden aunt/bachelor uncle), which can be incredibly useful to prove connections to a family. Looking at the occupations of your ancestor and their family members can also give you a unique insight into the nature of their lives.

Where to find them

Ancestry and FindMyPast both provide digital copies of the original 1841-1911 censuses and 1939 register. Currently, the 1921 census is only available on FindMyPast. Censuses are subject to privacy laws, which requires 100 years to have passed before a census is publicly released, making the 1921 census the most recent census available, with the exception of the 1939 Register, which was not a full census due to the war.

Information available in 1841 census

This census captured the following information:

• Address of household

• Name of householder

• Age of householder - ages for over 15 years old were rounded to the nearest 5, with ages of those 15 or under having their age exactly recorded. However, this was not universally observed - some census enumerators wrote exact ages for everyone, some rounded children's ages to the nearest 5 as well

• Occupation of householder

• Whether the householder was born in their county of residence

Relationships between householders were not recorded, so may need to do a little guesswork (supported by other evidence where possible) as to how people in the household were related to each other.

Information available in 1851-1901 censuses

Information captured in this census:

• Address of household

• Name of householder

• Relationship of householder to the head of household

• Age of householder

• Marital status of householder

• Occupation of householder

• Place of birth of householder

The 1911 census also additionally records:

• How many rooms the house had

• If married, for how long and how many children born living and who have died

• Whether householder was employed

• Industry/service that the householder worked in (in addition to their occupation)

• Nationality of householder

• Whether householder had any infirmity

Information available in 1921 census

Information captured in this census:

• Address of household

• Name of householder

• Gender of householder

• Relationship of householder to head of household

• Age of householder

• Marital status of householder

• Birthplace of householder

• Nationality of householder

• Whether householder attended school in that year

• Occupation of householder

• Name of householder's employer (if working)

• Place of work for householder (if working)

• Whether householder had any infirmity

Information available in 1939 register

Information captured in this register:

• Address of household

• Name of householder

• Gender of householder

• Birth date of householder

• Marital status of householder

• Occupation of householder

Relationships between householders were not recorded. Records for those who are living will also be redacted from the digital register.

Wills

Wills can be a wealth of information but it can be a little hit-or-miss. Where wills have the most potential is where the deceased wills items in their estate to family members. Wills can therefore be very useful to prove family connections, particularly if the deceased has willed items to grandchildren or other family members.

Unmarried members of the family who left wills can be particularly useful as they will often leave their estate to nephews/nieces and wider members of the family so it is always worthwhile searching for wills for unmarried family members of your ancestors.

Where to find them

For wills 1858 onwards, go to the UK government website for probate here.

For wills prior to 1858, where you'll go will depend on where the will was proved.

• Prerogative Court of Canterbury: the National Archives and Ancestry have digitised copies of all PCC wills. The PCC was the highest church court in England and Wales and is a good place to start.

• Everywhere else: you'll need to consult the local Archives centre for the area where the person deceased to see if a will was proved in a local court.