Researching Family History.

Access to the census from 1841 onwards will give you lots of family history information. But the best rule is to work backwards and get details from relatives whilst they're still here. 

I made some notes one afternoon when Mum and Dad were staying with us, they came out with a few surprises, including a possible murder somewhere.😲 Mum has Alzheimer’s now, not too advanced, but she occasionally comes out with a memory we haven’t heard before about someone not previously mentioned. We will be piggybacking onto research other family members have done previously as well. It’s should be interesting. Dad had dozens of Kelly’s Directories, they are great for tracking down a lot of things. He traced all the previous occupants of our old house back for us, including their occupations. He was a regular down at our Library’s Archives section.

One minor problem to be aware of is that of name changes which 2-300yrs ago could well be put down to the local pronunciation of names and or poor writing being misinterpreted.

Good luck and enjoy your new hobby.

Thank you !

County record offices are a great source of information as are local libraries.  Personally I have never paid to search information and have managed to source info on 3 branches of my family going back to the 17th century.

Yes spelling isn't rigid even in this day and age! 

You're right Oneputt about not paying, but that does restrict you to opening hours - sadly Essex has reduced it's hours from 50.5 per week to less than 30 most weeks and only one Saturday a month rather than every 😢. But the resources are fantastic and knowledgeable staff, who don't need to know the details of your personal family history 😉😉, are worth their weight in gold 😂😂😂. 

I have a friend whose family were quite scattered so he often used his UK holidays to visit various county record offices, it's an interesting hobby. I've had to do long distance research so I've occasionally paid a record office search fee to look up something for me. Locally I had a "ticket" to enter (you take identification and obtain a search ticket.) A few years ago I used a morning on a rally holiday on Jersey to search the Record Offices there. I was pounced on by an incredible person who rushed around finding all the things I wanted as time was limited, thanks to him I came out with copies of wills, lists of births etc. People who enjoy searches can be so helpful.

One of the free sites I have used a lot is this one GENUKI LINK.

Thanks brue, I used that one yesterday. Came up against the 100 years restriction on something I was looking for, but it’s very addictive, you just can’t help wanting to know more.

Absolutely right, My Grandmothers family name in the mid 1800's was Probyn but in the late 1800's it was suddenly changed to Brobyn all due to lack of literacy. 

Its an excellent but addictive hobby .Be wary when checking early census'' for children's ages ,they tended to be blocked into 0-5 ,5-10 yrs which can confuse matters .But hard work does pay off .After a number of years my wife has traced her direct lineage back to 1066, it took some doing ,and quite a few wrong turns .😁.Above all enjoy.