gooddeal2000-ga,
Thanks for your question...and your patience.
A great resource to start with is the FamilySearch site which is quite
comprehensive, and has the wonderful added advantage of being free as
well as fairly easy to use. Their main page is here:
http://www.familysearch.org/
The largest collection of free family history, family tree and
genealogy records in the world.
though I suggest you start off with their Advanced Search, instead:
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp
Searching is by name, so enter a name of interest (real or invented)
to see what pops up.
For instance, I ran a search for [ John Smith ] and entered the last
name of [ James ] as the mother's maiden name.
My results looked like this:
=====
You searched for: John Smith
Mother: James
Exact Spelling: Off
Matches: All Sources - 128
=====
followed by a long list of records for assorted John Smith's.
The very first John Smith on the list happens to be an Englishman born
around 1795, according to records from a source called the Ancestral
File:
=====
Ancestral File
1. John SMITH - Ancestral File
Gender: M Birth/Christening: Abt Jan 1795 Midsomer Norton, Som, Eng
=====
Clicking on his name pulls up a lot of additional information:
=====
John SMITH (AFN: 8JH3-C7)
Sex: M Family
Event(s):
Birth: Abt Jan 1795
Midsomer Norton, Som, Eng
Christening: 18 Jan 1795
Midsomer Norton, Som, Eng
Parents:
Father: Thomas SMITH
Mother: Sarah JAMES
=====
On the right hand side of the page is some hypertext for "Pedigree".
Clicking on this will take you to a large family-tree style chart for
John Smith.
You can also click on the text that reads "Family" for a lot of
additional information on this particular John smith:
Family Group Record FamilySearch? Ancestral File v4.19
Husband's Name
Thomas SMITH
Born: Abt 1770 Place: Eng
Died: 11 Jan 1835 Place: Midsomer Norton, Som, Eng
Buried: 16 Jan 1835 Place: Midsomer Norton, Som, Eng
Married: 24 Mar 1791 Place: Midsomer Norton, Som, Eng
Father: John SMITH (AFN:8JH5-1R) Family
Mother: Ann PARSONS (AFN:8JH5-2X)
Wife's Name
Sarah JAMES (AFN:8JH3-9V) Pedigree
Born: Abt Apr 1773 Place: Midsomer Norton, Som, Eng
Christened: 26 Apr 1773 Place: Midsomer Norton, Som, Eng
Died: 14 Dec 1835 Place: Midsomer Norton, Som, Eng
Buried: 18 Dec 1835 Place: Midsomer Norton, Som, Eng
Married: 24 Mar 1791 Place: Midsomer Norton, Som, Eng
Father: Charles JAMES (AFN:8JH5-34) Family
Mother: Ann SAVAGE (AFN:8JH5-49)
Children
1. Sex Name
M John SMITH (AFN:8JH3-C7) Pedigree
Born: Abt Jan 1795 Place: Midsomer Norton, Som, Eng
Christened: 18 Jan 1795 Place: Midsomer Norton, Som, Eng
2. Sex Name
M William James SMITH (AFN:8JH3-DD) Pedigree
Born: Abt Oct 1796 Place: Midsomer Norton, Som, Eng
Christened: 16 Oct 1796 Place: Midsomer Norton, Som, Eng
3. Sex Name
F Elizabeth SMITH (AFN:8JGS-MD) Pedigree
Born: Abt Jun 1793 Place: Midsomer Norton, Som, Eng
Christened: 16 Jun 1793 Place: Midsomer Norton, Som, Eng
Died: 2 Sep 1859 Place: South Stoke, Som, Eng
Buried: 7 Sep 1859 Place: South Stoke, Som, Eng
4. Sex Name
F Ann SMITH (AFN:8JH3-B2) Pedigree
Born: Abt Sep 1791 Place: Midsomer Norton, Som, Eng
Christened: 11 Sep 1791 Place: Midsomer Norton, Som, Eng
===============
As you can see, there's a lot here. Not all records will include that
much family history, but it takes some digging around to see what's
available.
As you continue down the list on the initial results page, you'll
notice right away that not all the results are from the UK...many are
from the US.
Still, I find that it's better to peruse a larger list like this, than
to try and narrow down the results at the outset by choosing, e.g., [
England ] in your search parameters, since this omits Scotland,
Ireland and other areas of possible interest to you.
Skip over the "1880 US Census" results, and head for the "1881 British
Census" results, to click on some more John Smiths. Because the
Census is a different source of information, it has some different
sorts of details available.
For instance, the first few names on the list are:
Census - 1881 British Census
29. John SMITH - 1881 British Census / Anglesey
Son Gender: Male Birth: <1873> Town, Caernarvon, Wales
30. John SMITH - 1881 British Census / Anglesey
Head Gender: Male Birth: <1847> Liverpool
31. Johan SMITH - 1881 British Census / Bedford
Head Gender: Male Birth: <1841> Lt Staughton, Bedford, England
32. John SMITH - 1881 British Census / Bedford
Father Gender: Male Birth: <1814> Eaton Socon, Bedford, England
33. John SMITH - 1881 British Census / Bedford
Lodger Gender: Male Birth: <1853> Colthingham, Northampton, England
Clicking on the first one yields not only the usual family
information, but also information on Occupation:
=====
John SMITH
Male
Other Information:
Birth Year <1873>
Birthplace Town, Caernarvon, Wales
Age 8
Occupation Scholar
Marital Status
Head of Household William SMITH
Relation Son
Household:
Name Relation Marital Status Gender Age Birthplace
Occupation Disability
William SMITH Head M Male 39 Llangeinwen, Anglesey,
Wales Tailor
Jane SMITH Wife M Female 42 Llangeinwen, Anglesey,
Wales Tailors Wife
Cathrine Jane SMITH Daur Female 11 Town, Caernarvon, Wales Scholar
John SMITH Son Male 8 Town, Caernarvon, Wales Scholar
Thomas SMITH Son Male 6 Town, Caernarvon, Wales Scholar
Elizabeth Mary SMITH Daur Female 5 Town, Caernarvon, Wales Scholar
Ceinwen Magie SMITH Daur Female 3 Town, Caernarvon, Wales
==============
Further down the page on the initial results list, are records from
yet another source of information:
International Genealogical Index - British Isles
79. JOHN SMITH - International Genealogical Index / BI
Gender: Male Birth: 09 APR 1811 Aylestone, Leicester, England
80. John Smith - International Genealogical Index / BI
Gender: Male Christening: 13 AUG 1637 Oldlands, , Gloucester, England
81. John Smith - International Genealogical Index / BI
Gender: Male Christening: 13 AUG 1637 Oldlands, , Gloucester, England
and so on.
Spend a lot of time at the Family Search site...it is an excellent resource.
But it's not the only one. Here are some others to have a look at:
http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl
FreeBMD
FreeBMD (births, marriages, deaths) is a good site for genealogical
records, but it was experienceing technical difficulties during my
research. Still, you should visit it, and play around here as well.
==========
The Origins Network is another useful site:
http://www.originsnetwork.com/
Searching here is free, but you'll have to pay a subscription fee to
see the actual records from your search results. Because they include
records from so many different sources, you just need to experiment a
bit to find out which sources include the type of information that is
of most interest to you.
==========
Lastly, there is probably the most famous genealogical research site
on the interet, Ancestry.com, which has a UK-oriented search site at:
http://www.ancestry.co.uk/
Here you can search through four billion names
Once again, searching is free, but you'll need to subscribe to the
service in order to see the actual records. NOTE, however, that at
the top of the page on the right-hand side (in red type) is an offer
for a Free Trial to the service. You might want to take advantage of
this in order to fully explore the site.
These are the main databases that I am aware of that contain the sort
of family history and occupational information that you are seeking.
I trust this information fully answers your question.
However, please don't rate this answer until you have everything you
need. If you would like any additional information, just post a
Request for Clarification to let me know how I can assist you further,
and I'm at your service.
All the best,
pafalafa-ga
search strategy -- Used bookmarked sites for UK genealogy. |
