company name and address on photos, so you can trace this in trade directories to establish when that studio was in business, and to work out the rough geographical location where the person in the photo was living.
Do not be scared to take a photo out of its frame to ensure that there are no names or other written details hidden on the back. If the picture does not have any names or a date written on it, show it to as many elderly relatives as you can to see if anybody recognizes the faces or location. It might also be a good idea to make copies of photographs you find in relatives’ houses, either by scanning them or taking digital photographs of the images – having obtained permission first. This way you can write on the back of your copies each time you identify a new face. Carry the pictures around with you so that you can keep adding to them as you show more relatives. You can also find out about how to preserve old photographs, or restore fading images, from local archives and specialist companies who now offer fairly cheap methods of storage and restoration techniques.
‘Do not be scared to take a photo out of its frame to ensure that there are no names or other written details hidden on the back.’
Preserve Your Past for the Future
Whilst talking to your extended family and delving into the family treasures they have hoarded, it will become apparent just how important it is to preserve your own family photos and mementos for future generations. Your children, nieces, nephews or grandchildren may not seem interested in their past while you are enthusiastically hunting away in the archives, but there will more than likely come a time when they will be curious to flick through old photo albums, read old family letters, and learn more about a past era that seems so different from today, but that their parents and grandparents were a part of.
The fantastic thing about genealogy is its educational element. Whilst finding out the names, dates and places of each person on your family tree, it is essential to put their lives into a social context, to find out what the major political and social events were that would have shaped their lives and affected their standard of living. Might they have visited the Great Exhibition when it opened in Hyde Park in 1851? Did they fight in the Boer War at the turn of the last century? Would they have been shocked to hear news of the Titanic’s sinking in April 1912? Placing your family history into a wider national and international historical context brings textbook history to life. These people you are related to really did exist, and while the name ‘John Briggs’ on a census return may not seem immediately exciting, when you look at the bigger picture and learn more about what life was like for him living in a Victorian slum, his existence gains meaning and our combined national past seems closer. As you find out more about each ancestor and can pin major historical events to their lives, you can help the children in your family to understand their history.
SUMMARY
• What is the aim of my research?
• What do I know about my ancestors?
• What do my relatives know about our ancestry?
• Are there any family mysteries to clear up?
• Are there any family heirlooms to give me some clues?
• What information do I need to verify?
Genealogy is not just about the past; it is also about preserving the present for the future. So why not keep hold of a few items that may seem inconsequential today but will help to illustrate some of the defining events of your life in the future. Just as you write down the names of the faces you learn about on old photos you find, make the same effort with your own photos so that people will be able to identify you and your loved ones. The following chapter will explore ways of storing your research and organizing your findings so that the whole family can enjoy your hard work, but remember – it’s all too easy to concentrate on the past at the expense of the present. Make sure that you are at the heart of your research, so don’t forget to leave behind an impression of what you were like. After all, you have just become the chronicler for your family, and future generations will want to know all about you!
By now you will have spent many hours writing down what you know about your family, talking to relatives and looking for physical clues and objects that have accumulated over the years. The next stage is to organize this information into a family tree, and use this to choose which path then to follow – verifying information you are uncertain of; searching for new ancestors; or pursuing an interesting relative or family story in more detail.
Creating a Family Tree
A family tree is a diagram that shows at a glance how your relatives and ancestors are related to one another. This will become the foundation of your future work, a growing document that incorporates all the biographical information you uncover as you hunt for documentation in archives, libraries and museums. The importance of building a family tree from the instant you start your research at home has already been touched upon in Chapter 1, but you will learn here just how vital it is to keep updating your tree after every discovery so that you can see at a glance what your next research step should be.
People can get quite confused about drawing up a family tree, assuming it is a more complicated process than it really is. There are many software packages on the market that promise you an all-singing, all-dancing family tree with generational reports, photo uploads and print-outs. But if this is your first attempt to put a family tree together, it’s probably best to go back to basics until you’re more familiar with the procedure, and simply use a large piece of paper and a pencil.
‘A family tree shows how your ancestors are related to one another – and to you.’
This section will show you the various methods of writing family trees and the abbreviations and genealogical terminology used. Some of this may be familiar. If you’ve watched Who Do You Think You Are? regular graphics appear on screen to show you how, for example, John Hurt is related to Walter Lord Browne. Or you may have seen pedigrees published in books or newspapers that relate to the royal family or members of the aristocracy. Even though you may not have such distinguished roots, the principle behind a family tree’s construction remains the same.
However, before attempting to build your first family tree, it’s important to have a basic grasp of some of the terminology used, since you’ll need to describe how members of your family are related to one another.
Understanding Family Relationships
In essence, this will be your family tree, so anything you produce should start with you, with your name placed right at the centre of the blank piece of paper. Everyone else is therefore described in terms of their relationship to you. On this embryonic family tree, your parents’ names will be written above you; your brothers and sisters – known as your siblings – will be either side of you, also underneath your parents; and the names of any children you have will be written below you, with their children – your grandchildren – below them. Above each of your parents will be their parents – your four grandparents – and alongside each of your parents
