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FIRST, an explanation of why in the headline I put genealogy and family history. Aren't they the same thing? newcomers may ask. Answer - NO! There is a difference between the two, and unless you understand this you will not get the maximum satisfaction out of your research. GENEALOGY in its strictest sense is the study of blood lines of descent from a particular ancestor or ancestors, with no attempt to examine or reconstruct the lives of those concerned. This is the fundamental building block, the foundations, leading on to..... FAMILY HISTORY which covers a far wider spectrum and entails what might be called "putting flesh on the bones". Family history covers not just genealogical descents but the relating of your ancestors and their lives to the social and economic history of the times in which they lived. Thus, anything at all which impinged on the lives of your ancestors can be said to be legitimate family history. This includes how they lived, the kind of houses they lived in, the clothes they wore, the food they ate, the jobs they did, how they brought up their children, where they went to church, the shops they shopped at, what kind of things they bought, the hours they worked, how they spent their leisure time, etc, etc, etc - and a million other things which all help to build up a practice and realistic picture of your ancestors' lives. Now to some more practical advice... These names are all luminaries of the UK family history world and their books are (or normally should be) all available from the Society of Genealogists bookshop <sales@sog.org.uk> It is not chauvinism if I recommend you seek out these British authors, but purely because they really do know their facts better than anyone outside the UK. However, a good American book for those who cannot obtain the books I recommend above is: "In Search of Your British and Irish Roots" by Angus Baxter, pub. by the Genealogical Publishing Co. Inc, of 1001 N.Calvert St, Baltimore MD ISBN 0 8063 1611 X. 2) If you live in a remote place and really do not have access to a library or bookshop to track down good books on genealogy and family history, then spend some time trawling genealogical sites on the Internet - especially GENUKI, the umbrella site for research in Britain and Ireland. This contains a vast amount of material and should answer many of those basic questions that get asked here. The site is divided county by county, and the Yorkshire pages maintained by Colin Hinson are a treasure trove of material on our great county. 3) Do NOT make the newbie's No 1 mistake of thinking you can log on to the Internet and have your family tree back to William the Conqueror by tea-time. You can't! Most of we more experienced family historians have been in this business for years and if you can get back beyond 1600 you are doing well. The Internet is a wonderful tool but it is only an adjunct to the main event. Researching your family history - and, more importantly, getting it accurate - still involves many hours of basic research the old-fashioned way - and that means tracking down original records, whether in Record Offices or at Mormon Family History Centres. 4) NEVER think you can just build a family tree from the IGI on the FamilySearch site - that way lie major pitfalls and you will probably end up with somebody else's family tree altogether. Equally, don't believe the pedigrees you find on the World Family Tree Project CDs or in Ancestral File (the Mormon website) - or indeed anywhere on the Internet - without checking them yourself. Some are a combination of fiction and wishful thinking. 5) Familiarize yourself very fully with the area you intend to research. Find out exactly where it is and try to obtain some decent maps or a gazetteer. These are widely available either via mail order or online and so are guides to Yorkshire (again, look at Colin Hinson's Yorkshire pages in GENUKI, which includes a comprehensive guide to just about everywhere in the county). Do understand that Yorkshire is a huge county, its geographical area covering approximately one-eighth of the land area of England. Moreover, at any one time it has always held around 10% of the entire population of Britain, so it is not an easy county in which to research. 6) If you are a member of an Internet genealogy mailing list covering Yorkshire, or part of the county, "lurk" for a while and get the feel of the list before asking questions. Just by reading the messages you will begin to develop a knowledge of Yorkshire, its geography, its character and its people. When asking questions, be as precise and detailed as possible. Asking for a look-up of your gt-grandfather, believed born "somewhere in Yorkshire" will not make you too popular! 7) Consider joining one of the numerous Yorkshire family history societies covering the area your ancestors came from. It will probably be the best step you can take, since you will receive a regular journal and be able to buy publications from the society which will help your research; also you will have access to a list of Members' Interests with contact addresses to write to or e-mail for exchange of information. A word of caution, though - whereas most counties have only one, and occasionally two, family history societies, Yorkshire has SEVENTEEN and FOURTEEN of them are in the West Riding! Also, some overlap in their areas of coverage. I can supply details of secretaries and of which society covers which area (my e-mail address is at the end of this file). 8) When we talk about the Ridings we mean the historic, traditional divisions of Yorkshire - the North, East and West Ridings - that existed for centuries before the 1974 county and local government reorganization. Genealogical research in Yorkshire is largely based on these historic regions and not on modern administrative boundaries. The word Riding derives from an old Danish
word thriding, meaning a "third part". The Ridings were further sub-divided into areas called wapentakes. The best possible guide to what's what in Yorkshire is a splendid little booklet called "Basic Facts About Researching in Yorkshire" by Pauline Litton, one of the great luminaries of Yorkshire genealogy and a regular columnist in Family Tree Magazine. "Never ask a man if he comes from Yorkshire. If he does he will tell you. If he does not, why humiliate him?" - Canon Sydney Smith (scholar and humorist 1771-1845) |
