You are about to embark on a process that will probably take the
rest of your lifetime and is highly addictive. Before doing
anything else please take a few minutes to read the guidelines
below. They are designed to help you get started and to assist you
in reaching the middle of the maze without hitting too many brick
walls!
Get all the information you can from your own family. Ask them
if they know the names of any ancestors and relatives,
their relationships to each other (whose children or parents
they were); their dates of birth, marriage and
death, where they lived and what jobs they did. Some of
this may later be proved to be inaccurate but it might help point
you in the right direction:
- decide how you're going to collate the information you will
amass, whether a manual system or using a computer program designed
for the purpose. Collate all the details you have to date. If
possible, draw up a family tree. Even if it does not go back very
far, it will help you to organise your research;
- you can now begin using the resources of the Suffolk
Record Office, please bring any notes and family trees you have.
Our staff are trained to advise you which records to use. If your
ancestors lived in Suffolk, we may have a number of sources for you
to use. For non-Suffolk ancestors, we have fewer sources, but can
advise you how to continue your research elsewhere:
-
- on your first visit, please bring some official identification
which gives your current address (such as a driving licence,
medical card, new-style passport, or Suffolk County Council library
ticket). We can then issue a
County Archives Research Network (CARN) ticket, which is
valid for four years;
- if you
contact us before visiting, we can make sure that a microfiche
or microfilm machine is reserved for you if necessary;
- if you do not have time to visit us, our expert staff can
carry out research for you for a fee, under our
research service ;
- we have a wide range of books on different aspects of family
history. There are copies for reference and for sale. If you find
you are doing a lot of research on Suffolk families, our
Guide to Genealogical Sources may be helpful;
- try and find out if anyone else has done work on your
particular family or name. The easiest way to do this is either
through a local Family History Society, such as the
Suffolk Family History
Society or the Guild of One
Name Studies ;
- work out which part of your family you are going to trace
first, rather than going off in several different directions at
once.
On your quest please bear in mind the following:
- always keep a record of the source of each
item of information and details of those searched without success
as you go along. Otherwise you could find yourself doing the same
work twice;
- at certain times people have lied about their age, or couldn't
remember when they were born. Perhaps they lied to join the Army or
get married?
- due to the large number of illiterate people registering events
the spelling of a name could be recorded differently. The Registrar
would write down what they thought was the correct spelling of a
name but of course the informant would not have known any
different. Local accents can create some strange variations, for
example you could have Wolf, Woolf, Wolfe and Woulfe;
- for various reasons families may have baptised several children
at the same time. Therefore the date of baptism is just an
indicator to the year of birth - the child could be anything from a
few days old to a teenager;
- for whatever reason people re-create the truth on occasion,
either deliberately or because they can't actually remember any
different. A good example would be an illegitimate child registered
at birth with the mother's surname but brought up by their mother
and step-father and so used his surname, although no formal change
of name or adoption ever took place;
- in the early years not all events, particularly births, were
registered;
- nicknames by which a person is known may be different to their
birth name. e.g. Sandy may be a name used for someone registered as
Alexander, Harry for Henry and Jack for John to name but a few.
People often use a middle name as a forename;
- sometimes the parents of a child may register it with one set
of forenames, such as Thomas William, but then have them baptised
as something different, such as Archibald Henry. This would make it
very difficult to locate the original birth entry from the baptism
records;
- the numbers in these references are only useful to the General
Register Office, they are not relevant to the way information is
kept in the local Register Office Indexes. For example the area 4A
covers most of Suffolk!
- whilst the General Register Office index shows a place for an
event please remember that this is the name of the registration
district in which the event was registered which may not always be
the same as the name of the place where the event
occurred.
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Other sources
Ancestry Library Edition provides genealogical
information with more than five billion names in over 4000
collections.
Please note: this service is available in Suffolk libraries and
Suffolk Record Office only.
If you found this site you're probably aware
of the vast number of sites available to help you in your quest. We
have put together a list of good
family history web sites for you.
Some leaflets (pdf) and resources that you may find useful
on:
- Beginning your family history
- Black and Asian history sources
- Irish history sources
- Photographic collections at the Suffolk Record
Office
- Suffolk Regiment
- Using the census