15 Dec 2010

Module 2 - Family Records & Personal Documents

In our second week we have been asked to put some meat on the bones of the pedigree tree by filling out "Family Group Record" sheets and listing what documents we had to start with.


Family Group Records


I found that using the "Family Group Record" sheet did not record enough information for my liking. I found not being able to add second spouse information frustrating as it would mean duplicating sheets in order to record both spouses. Going forward I will be using the "Family Group Sheet" however I need to copy a lot more!


As I have been researching for a while I didn't find anything surprising going back to my great grandparents. 


List of Personal Documents

  • Christening Certificates for my brother and I. 
  • Short birth certificates for my brother and I; I had to order the full ones!!
  • Birth and Marriage Certificates for my paternal great grandparents.
  • Newspaper clippings detailing deaths / funerals of various family members on my paternal side.
From these documents I was able to get the various birth, christening, marriage, death and burial dates. See how people relate to each other. Go back a generation. Get information about occupations and locations. The newspapers also threw up a few names that were unfamiliar so they were put to one side until they could be put correctly into the family.