Frequently Asked Questions

• What Happens to The information collected, is it safe?
  • All of the information gathered during your research project will never be disclosed, we will never divulge any of the gathered information to any third party without your express permission. In accordance with the UK Data Protection Act. Any Research desktop or archive is held in the strictest of confidence by A Family Tree For Me.
• How does A Family Tree For Me Conduct its research?
  • The initial starting point in any research is to look at the information given by you the client, for example you may have the Birth, Marriage and Death certificates of some of your family. From these we will then cross reference with the official registers an and other proprietary sources of information such as The main sources for research are the Birth Marriage and Death indexes England and Wales and, Census returns and Parish registers. In Scotland the official source of information is the general register office in Edinburgh where a wealth of information including that mentioned above and a lot more can be obtained.
  • Because of the wealth of information available for genealogical researchers, we may be able to include some of the following information sources, such as poor law records, education records, Service records; Occupational sources and land records etc.
• We want to trace our family as far back as possible. How far back can you research our family?
  • Within England and Wales the majority of families can be traced back to the start of civil registration, Which was introduced On 1 July 1837 a civil registration system for births, marriages and deaths was introduced in England and Wales. Registration was undertaken by civil registrars who reported to the Registrar General at the General Register Office (GRO) in London, now part of the Office for National Statistics (ONS).”
  • Within Scotland the majority of Families can be traced back to the start of civil registration, which was introduced in 1855 for the statutory registration of Birth, Marriage and Death.  
  •   Prior to 1837 and 1855 we would look at the next source of information and that would be the start of parish registers in 1538, this we would normally use in conjunction with the data from the LDS.
• How long will the research take?
  • This depends on several things as a complete family research package can be from 4 weeks to several months to complete, every family is unique. We will always endeavour to complete a client’s research as soon as we possibly can but sometimes external factors – e.g. waiting for official certificates from the government – play a significant part in how long the process will take.
• What information is required to trace my ancestry?
  • At the start of any project we like to gather as much information from you the client about yourself and your family, we will ask that you try to give us as much factual information about your family, this could be in the form of documents, for example something that will could be a birth certificate, marriage certificate, and death certificate.  
  • As in many families we become oblivious to the information that we have around us, some of these sources of information can come from living family such as aunts, uncles, parents and grandparents.
  • Some have even been working on their family tree themselves and have come to us with a specific problem. You DO NOT have to fully complete the Family Tree Chart on our Enquiries page but, whatever information you have, it is vital to provide all that is known to you – however insignificant it may appear to be. In this way you will prevent us from duplicating information that you already know and, more importantly, wasting your money.
• What Are the sources of information that we might have
  • Listed below are typical family documents. Most families will not have every item, but almost all families will have at least one.
    • The Family Bibles
      we find that in the older type of family bibles, there can be a wealth of family details contained between the covers. This can be particularly useful for providing details on births, deaths and marriages, also giving clues to where events happened and the dates including who was involved. In Britain up until the mid-1900, newly married couples customarily received Bibles as wedding presents. These Bibles had blank pages for recording marriages, births and baptisms of children, deaths, and other important family rites. If your family has a family Bible, you will likely have a great head start on your genealogical research.
    • Personal writings from diaries or letters
      understanding the family letters and diaries can often be another valuable source of information, but can also give an in-depth aspect to the writer’s personal aspects and their life at that time. These are excellent sources and should not be disregarded because it is someone’s personal thoughts. Many letters, therefore, contained descriptions of family members, especially younger children who had never been seen. Diaries and letters also give us information on daily life and our ancestors’ opinions on topics of the day. The handwriting itself reveals something about the writer.
    • Scrapbooks
      A scrapbook is usually a great abundance of family documents: letters, postcards, party invitations, birthday cards, wedding and birth announcements, newspaper clippings, certificates and awards, photographs, ticket stubs, grammar school report cards, programs from plays or recitals, maybe even a lock of baby hair!
    • Photographs and Home Movies
      When we look at the photographs that are contained within family albums we can sometimes find some tantalising clues to the subject, location and time of the photograph. But what we find is normally the case I s that the photographs have no markings and we have to rely on other peoples recollections of what a photograph is. In the 1800s and early 1900s, photographers mounted photographs on postcards, the reverse side of the postcard would normally contain the details of the photographer and the studios that they used at that time.
    • Family Papers
      Families keep various papers for various reasons. These papers include Birth Marriage Death Certificates, deeds, wills, marriage licenses, voter registration cards, immigration papers, National Insurance cards and receipts, military discharge papers, and membership cards from professional and social organizations
    • Memoirs and Autobiographies
      Memoirs and autobiographies, like letters and diaries, are good sources of family information. They paint mental pictures of particular people at a particular time. Unlike letters and diaries, these documents were intended to be read by many people.
• Are you able to research further afield?
  • We can conduct research in many countries throughout the world. However, as different countries have different record keeping systems, the success of research is varied. If we can’t carry out the research due to the lack of available records then you will be informed and a full refund will be provided where applicable.
• I was adopted can you help me trace my family?
  • In England and Wales, a formal Register of Adoption has been kept since 1927. The Children’s Act of 1975 allows an adopted person, if over 18, to apply for their original birth certificate. No one else can do this for them. The certificate enables research to begin on tracing the birth family.
  • In Scotland, adoption has been legally recognised since 1930 and information is supplied to the adopted person, if over 17.
  • The above information is only applicable if the birth name is unknown. If the birth name is known then we can apply for a certificate.
• How far back will you go back?
  • This I find one of the hardest questions to answer when people ask, and the reason for that is that every family history research project that is undertaken is unique to that family. And to try and give a definite TimeLine of how far we can trace them back is very difficult to answer.
  • What we try to say to our clients is a guideline for research purposes, and because of the sources of information that are available we would expect to at least uncover three or four further generations. There may be some circumstances that change with a family: that could be that with the advent of modern machinery and changes in the working practices that families moved away from the counties / parish  that had been home to their family for  generations.