What To Expect From Baptism Records

Baptism records can be very useful when conducting family history research, but what kind of information can you expect them to contain?

• Full names. This includes given names, middle names and surnames. It isn't uncommon to find that the name by which your ancestor was known was actually his or her middle name, so don't automatically assume a baptism entry is not relevant if other information ties in.


• Date of baptism. The date on which the child was baptised will be included, and some baptism registers will have the date of birth next to this (sometimes in the margin). Baptisms often took place months or even years after the birth so it is a good idea to look at the entries for several years after the birth if you cannot find the right entry in the birth year.


• Parents names. This will usually be included, but you will often find that only the first names of the parents are given. Because of this, baptism records are not the best way to find the maiden surname of the child's mother.


• Abode. The place of baptism (church) will usually be found on the front of the baptism register but the abode of the family may be included. This tends to just be the town or village in which the family were living at the time of the baptism rather than the actual adddress of the house.

Finding Where Your Ancestors Are Buried

As part of my family history research, I have trying to find where my ancestors are buried. Perhaps rather naively, I had assumed that I would take a trip down to the graveyard in the village in which they lived and find their graves. How wrong was I! Despite the fact that the two branches of my family tree that I was focusing on both lived in relatively small villages for generations, I only found a grand total of two graves (out of a possible twenty-five). Clearly I needed to rethink my plans. If you run into similar problems, how can you track down your ancestors' final resting places?

Find their burial records: The main problem with burials is that you must be completely sure where your ancestors would have been buried. In my case, several branches of my family seem to have been buried in cemetaries, rather than churchyards, which I wasn't expecting. In addition, they were poor and could not afford to buy a plot in a churchyard or have headstones. This meant that they were usually put in unmarked graves with people who were no relation to them buried above or below.

This obviously makes them difficult to find if you are wandering around a churchyard looking for headstones, as there clearly won't be any. Despite this, it is still more than possible to find your ancestors, but it will take some extra effort.

The best place to start is a local records office or family history society. On my visit to the latter, I was able to manually search through the microfiches for the years in question to find the folio numbers for my ancestors' burials. From this, I could then view the accompanying burial index (on the same microfiche) to find the date of the burial, the address at which he or she was living at when they died, and the all-important plot number. On another microfiche, it is possible to see who is buried in the same plot and whether it was a bought grave or not. For my family, I discovered that most of them were buried apart in unmarked graves, although one or two were buried together (not in bought plots).

To do this, it helps if you are certain of the year in which your ancestor(s) would have been buried, and which cemetary or churchyard. If this is unknown, it is a case of going through multiple years and burial grounds, which is obviously a very time-consuming process. Try searching for possible deaths on the BMD (Births, Marriages and Deaths) index (which is available at www.freebmd.org.uk) to find possible death dates. This will also give you the district in which the death was registered, which can narrow down the area to a certain extent. You can use the census to narrow it down further. For example, if you find a possible death in 1868, you can check the 1861 and 1871 census returns to see whether your ancestor was indeed alive in 1861 but dead by 1871. While this isn't a foolproof way to narrow things down, it can be useful if you have little or no information to go on.

For burials before 1837 (when compulsory registration was introduced in the UK), you will need to see parish records. These can be viewed at the church(es) in question but you will need to liase with the vicar to do this and he/she will probably expect some payment for doing so. As this can be expensive if you have lots of burials to find, try a local records office. They will often have either the original parish records or have transferred them to microfiche. It's best to make an appointment as there will usually be few microfiche readers on offer and they may already be in use at the time that you want to go.

Can't Find Your Ancestors In The Census?

As you expand your family history research, it is likely that you will experience problems finding your ancestors in the census returns. This is quite common as a result of mistranscriptions and the fact that old writing can be difficult to read. What methods can you employ to track them down?

Try different spellings: It will often be the case that your ancestors were entered using a different spelling. For example, my "Curzon" ancestors have appeared in the census as "Curson". It may only be one letter difference, but trying out various alternative spellings can help to find elusive ancestors. This also applies to first names too. For example, one of my ancestors appeared in one census as "Anabella" rather than "Arabella". Names may also be shortened too. For example, Lillian may have been entered as Lily or Lilly; and Arabella may turn up as Bella.

Look for other members of the household: If the above doesn't work, it is worth trying to track down other members of the household if you know their names. This can include siblings, parents or even grandparents (who sometimes moved back in with one of their children after their spouse died).

Use a broader approach:This worked for me when I failed to track down my "Tivey" family. Having tried various alternative spellings and searching for other household members, I had all but given up on finding the family. In desperation, I eventually tracked them down by searching for the family who were living next door in the 1881 census. I searched for this family in the 1891 census and found my own family next door (as before). It quickly became apparent that the reason I could not find them in the searches was because their surname had been crossed out and nothing had been written as a replacement.

Wildcard searches: If you are searching the 1911 census, you can employ a wildcard search. This usually involves incorporating an asterisk (*) into the search terms to get wider results. For example, if you are not sure whether your ancestors may have been entered as "Curzon" or "Curson", typing in Cur* into the wildcard box will bring up all surnames that include CUR at the start of the name. Of course, this will bring up a lot of results, but it can be a useful option if you are struggling to find ancestors otherwise.