WONNACOTT GENEALOGY

A Guide to Discovering your own Family History

Don't be too eager and dive in to your ancestry some generations back. Start with yourself , your immediate family and then slowly work outwards as well as backwards. Importantly do not forget the women and the role they have played. They are often a source of more information than the menfolk. The female details are just as important although they may have either entered or exit the family via marriage and so changed name. This is often less easy to track later. Tabulate all details such as recorded on Birth Certificates, Marriage Certificates, Divorce Papers and Death Certificates etc for all your nearest relations.
An individual Birth Certificate will indicate parents names including maiden names of mothers etc. Copies can be obtained when required. Genealogists and agents usually charge more than double the cost than if you DIY (Do it Yourself) and for mutiple certificates this can work out a little expensive to use these services.

Help fill in those gaps by talking to your family. Who is the family "sage"? That is usually a good point to start. Pay special attention to the eldest members of the family. Even if absent minded about the recent years many of these elders have good memories of the distant past and childhood. Even small comments and stories are worth recording as these can be used as good points to initiate further research . Share and compare with other people in your family stories of the same events. Often these bring out dormant memories which may reinforce or add value to the original story. Particular points of interest would be attendance or involvement in Church activities, Sunday Schools or Organisations such as Boy Scouts, Girl Guides etc which may concievably be able to provide some records of those activities. These can be fairly important especially if the residential locale varies during that generations lifetime.

You can try and source for items such as a family bible, old letters ( although some of these may be fairly personal and the owner may not wish to divulge ), newspaper clippings, old diaries, address books, school reports, tarnished little cups & shields etc in granny's cupboard and even receipts for the furniture etc with dates and delivery address etc and the like. It is quite surprising what many people hoard without realising the later potential value to family records. If you copy these or photograph them you can use this later as part of your records or even as "props" to stimulate or initiate further discussions with close elders.

It is worth remembering that in the UK the government did not have a central record of B.D.M prior to the 1830's. Before that, all records where stored locally such as parish churches. To pursue this avenue you need to be aware of the location and then find out if the records are still retained at source or at the local records office for the area. Some diocese charge for the services of opening up the church records for inspection, however many who do not charge would rightfully expect a small donation. Nowadays some parish churches are locked unless an appointment is made as vandalism can be a problem when an unattended church is left open. Often a visit to the graveyard can turn up some leads and our website does publish headstones when they have been submitted.
Most main County Libraries should have some information such as census records but local records offices sometimes can be a good source of microfiche records with more detail.

Most families will at some time find they have a "skeleton in the cupboard" so as to speak. Please remember that although you would not want to upset someone through publication of blunt facts, the primary concern should be to record an accurate history without distorting the facts or sanitising the formal records. Add all neccesary comments into the records. For instance a male may have had a relationship out of wedlock which results in children. He may have married the mother later or not at all. The children would normally carry the mothers surname and not the fathers if the pair have not married. The children may even have been formally adopted by an individual family member, sometimes the actual father or an uncle etc.
A female member may have been " promiscuous " and have children from multiple fathers , who is either named or unnamed. Once again please ensure that all possible details and evidence is recorded accurately and not sanitised in an attempt to "preserve the family reputation" .
Please ensure all events are recorded as accurately as possible with evidential references where possible. These children and their offspring still have a right to be part of the family tree and should not be disregarded.

You may consider joining a Family History Society for the county in which your family appears to have originated or resided in numbers for some period of time.

You will of course consider keeping your records in logical form on your PC. It is advisable to use use a special genealogy software programme which allows you to record many details, produce outline descendant trees etc ( as seen on this site), GEDCOM import/export allows you to import files from other sources to merge into your own file or export your file ( or just sections) to send to others.

It is important your consider sharing information with others studying your family surname as this can often bring about great reward in finding large sections of your lineage whilst the other person gets to add your family to his records.
Wonnacott.org also urges all Wonnacotts and related names to forward your information to us for publication as the resource for all Wonnacott related genealogy. We have been very successful in re-uniting Wonnacotts throughout the world who have lost the family contacts as well as being able to publish major family trees.We also encourage you to publish your own family tree on your own Home Page/ Website. Wonnacott.org stores records using Family Tree Maker Software from Broderbund. We can then either accept submission through our page at http://www.wonnacott.org/submit1.htm or by emailed files.

IMPORTANT NOTE:
Wonnacott.org is a website run as not for profit and is entirely the voluntary work of Paul R Wonnacott and our many contributors. As such you may use any of the information contained to further your own research. You are not to re-publish any of our pages or copyright content. You are however encouraged to copy and publish your own personal Family Tree on your own website if you wish. No published content may be used for any commercial purposes whatsoever. You are encouraged to provide a link to http://www.wonnacott.org on any Home Page/Website you operate.

May we wish you success in your endeavours to discover your family roots.

LINKS

Cyndi's List
Beginning Genealogical Research for England & Wales
http://www.familyrecords.gov.uk/default.htm
http://www.census.pro.gov.uk
http://www.genuki.org.uk
http://www.familysearch.org
Cornwall Family History Society
Devon Family History Society
Devon Records Office
The UK and Ireland's guide to genealogical resources in public libraries
National Archives of Canada- Genealogy Research
Immigration to USA through Ellis Island
LDS Personal Ancestral File Software ( Free - requires registration)
Get a Free GEDCOM Viewer Here
GenealogyGuide.Org
Here is an autoconvertor for publishing on the Web directly from Gedcom.
Here are some useful forms you can print out to help notate your family details

Please be aware that if you complete some of the "online forms" advertised by some websites you may in fact be sending details to a commercial company. Where free on line forms and free genealogy webspace is provided please understand that in many cases you are providing FOC your hardwon details directly to a commercial enterprise who will be able to sell your info which is re-packaged into their memebrship database, CDs. etc.
Genuine genealogists and researchers only forward accurate GEDCOM files to the LDS Records as the definitive and trustworthy source.

SOFTWARE

If you do not have genealogy software you can download a free copy of "Legacy 6" HERE . It does have some limitations until you upgrade to De-Luxe.

Wonnacott.org stores all its records and compilations in Family Tree Maker software. A guided tour of its features are available on line

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