New Forest Family Tree Tips
Help for history and genealogy searches

New Forest family tree tips hopes to give you genealogy and history tips to help trace your ancestors. Whenever possible, we'll suggest free tips to find the births, deaths and marriage records and census history of Who you are.

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Hopefully my New Forest family tree tips can cut out some of the donkey work for you - it is from my life in the forest after all!
Here's what we've found out about my husbands family.
We've gone back to 1568! Many members of his family have never, ever lived outside or moved from Hampshire, a great help in a search.
We've found 2 half brothers he didn't know he had so be prepared to be surprised about some info you may find!
He had a Tudor relative called Jerome ..... which I think is a lovely name. And ofcourse they were all serfs and villeins. Not a sign of royal blood ..yet!
Here's a good offer to get you started!

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How to get started using my New Forest family tree tips.

• Do you search your fathers or mothers name?
  I decided because I adored my maternal grandfather, and because he was such a fantastic character I would search his family tree
• Look out old photos, ask living relatives for stories and ask as many family members as you can find what they have as heirlooms, cuttings etc, and what they remember - my grandfather went over to Dunkirk during WW2 and rescued our servicemen off the beaches. He was awarded a medal and paperwork and was featured in the local press.
  One quirk of his personality was that he was very casual about some things - he had these important documents etc in his wallet and one day lost the lot!
• Find a structure which appeals - to me a Family Tree which combines with a Mindmap is essential
• Build a Family Tree - there are many Family Tree Builders available. We used My Heritage which is free.
  You will need to upload a GEDCOM (Genealogical Data Communications) file format which is an easy way to store your family tree.

New Forest family tree tips
What did we do?

• We were given all the birth, marriage and death certificates of my maternal grandfathers family. This was a great start.


• We questioned all living relatives to see what they remembered and asked to copy any photos they had


• We looked into, what we felt, was an easy to use and free "Family Tree Builder" program and decided on the MyHeritage free software. New Forest family tree tips My Heritage Family Tree Builder and just hit Download


• We started to add the information we had to hand onto the family tree builder. This kept the information easier to read and refer to.


• New Forest family tree tip As novices we made mistakes and went on the wrong genealogy trail. This programme meant we could easily rectify our mistakes!
• Once all the information was added we knew it would be best to sign up to one of the pay Family Tree searches.
  We looked at Find My Past they are offering videos to help you get started and also you may be able to get a 14 day free trial.
  


Special Promotion 13 Feb to 26 Feb 10% off if you subscribe and use Promo code: GRFEB10


• We then looked at Genes Reunited which offers free access to trace names initially, then you can join by a fee or just buy credits. This means you buy 50 credits but maybe charged 5 credits to look at one particular item. We started this and found the money soon goes so perhaps signing for a year may save you money?
• We eventually settled for Ancestry for a broader overall scope
  

  

• All search companies we have used charge for copies of original documents should you require them. They all offer Census records back to 1841 but for anything earlier you need to search Parish Records. Some are available on these software programmes.
• We have now gone back to a great, great, great, great grandfather who was born in 1797. Most were agricultural farmworkers but there were a few exceptions. We have discovered ancestors that were glass blowers, publicans and railway workers.
• One grandmother, going back 170 years, who could not hold her drink (we assume), was out on the town with friends and finished up appearing in front of a judge at the local assizes, charged with assaulting an Officer of the Peace!
• Another relative decided to leave England and moved to the US (in 1897) where he married and had 12 children!
• In the early 1800's some of the reported deaths we found, were "natural decay", and "found dead in bed, no signs of violence" which were very interesting to find out!

Custom Search

• We then needed to see if we could find out anything from newpaper articles and used British Newpaper Archives to look for a relative who had committed suicide by drowning. The disadvantage to this site is that not every newspaper or area is covered, but you might get lucky for your seach. The advantage is that they do an at a glance decade reference of major events. If you're looking for a military person it may help you discover which wars or skirmishes were going on.

• Deceased Online shows burial records and has a data of headstone scripts and cemetery records which is helpful.
• For more worldwide searches Family Search can cover most of the globe!
• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission holds details of Commonwealth forces who died during the two world wars and the 23,000 cemeteries, memorials and other locations worldwide where they are commemorated. It also has extensive civilian data of those who fell as a result of WW2.
• Curious Fox is forum based allowing you to ask questions to others. It offers a database for you to search villages and towns by surname match. Also for the US.
• Forces War Records can help you find military genealogy records from WW2, WW1, Boer War, Crimean War and beyond.
• Be careful. We've just asked for a search on one military archive and been quoted £75 (3hours research fee) to trace just one name. You need to tot up each website and see who will give you the best overall value for your own individual search. We used Ancestry because it would take up hours of winter time when we'd only be watching TV and hopefully we wouldn't need to keep requesting chargeable ad ons like some sites offer

Special Promotion 13 Feb to 26 Feb 10% off if you subscribe and use Promo code: GRFEB10

My husband has spent many hours pouring over our ancestry and we've only found a few very sad information. We've laughed out loud at one distant relative passing off 3 illegitimate children as her late husbands, only to be arrested for drunkenly assaulting an officer of the peace! We all have skeletons in our cupboards, so no point worrying. We found we were curious about aspects of history we had never thought about previously.

I hope my New Forest Family Tree tips will help you find out all about your family and your ancestors too!

GOOD LUCK!