Research Resources

There was no official registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths required in England and Wales prior to 1837 and in Scotland prior to 1855, so those records which are available are mainly from Old Parish Registers and may have errors and miss spellings, in fact partial, or non existent records can be common place.

Bear in mind that in those days very few people could read or write, so e.g. if you went to your local church to register a birth, often the “scribe” would spell the surname phonetically (his way!!) Hence one of the reasons why the spelling of names changed over the years!!

Therefore, although this does not concern us, before we undertake any research for you, we will always tell you if we think, either the research would take too long, or the further back we go, the more elusive the records become !!

Since the last available census is 1901 where families can be identified it means that during the course of compiling your Family Tree, we are unlikely to find anyone born after 1901, so if you have parents and grandparents who have siblings born after that time you need to request that we add them to your Tree BEFORE it is printed out.

Sometimes when someone is born between 1901 (last available Census) and 1911 (when the mothers maiden name was added to the birth indexes) the only way to identify their parents is to send for the birth certificate. When the 1911 Census is available this will no longer be necessary, as the 10 year gap which exists now, will not pose the same problem.

Clients need to be aware that the 1841 Census (the first full Census available) is not like the following census in that this one shows only the names ages and occupation of the Head of the Household. There is no relationship to the Head shown, no birth place and rarely an address. It should also be noted that the ages of the children were rounded down to the nearest 5 years on this census and ages are very often wrong!

If you have a family birth certificate in your possession which does not show a fathers name, there is no way of finding that information out, unless it is known by a family member.

We will consult you every step of the way, by sending you frequent reports and checking with you on costs etc. When we give you reports we will always let you know the source of the information, and whether the information is proven or not.

Certificates

If Birth Marriage or Death certificates are required, it takes a week to 10 days to arrive from the General Register Office for England and Wales, whereas most Scottish certificates can be obtained very quickly on-line. we will always ask your permission prior to ordering any certificates.

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