Help with ancestry.co.uk?

Question

Ive just become a paid member, now how do i find out the names of my great grandads parents?

Ive searched for the name of my great grandad but i cant work out how to find out the names of his parents.

Answer 1

Agree the key is in the census returns . Remember on ceyou have located the area in which he was born and baptised , home in on the parish . Remember in England and Wales statutory records started in 1837 but in Scotland it was not unrtil 1855 . Also note that census  in  Scotland on Ancestry are not digitised as in England and Wales but are transcriptions and  are somewhat error strewn . Yes you have to send off for the actual cert for England and Wales bit if in Scotland you can access the cert on line through Scotlands People .  

Answer 2

The best way is to look in the census's, when your gt. grandfather was young ( they are at 10 year intervals)

Say he was born in 1860, if you look at the 1861 census it will show his parents, siblings etc. also it will show where they lived and occupations!

If there is quite a few, make sure you know where they lived, you may need his birth certificate to confirm this-these are available though Ancestry, you will need to fill in the online form with a debit card.The certificates cost £7.00.

Hope you enjoy your experience-Its addictive!

Answer 3

You can come up with candidates for his family from census (depending on when he was born) but for confirmation you need certificates from the GRO.

Answer 4

Look for census records, birth or death records.  Also, be flexable in the spellings.  William might be under Wm or Wlm. John might be under Jno or they might be listed under just the initials.  I like using the wildcard *.  So if I'm looking for Johnson, I might just put in John* or Johns* and this will find the names with John or Johns in the front and many characters at the end.  I will also search an area, putting in just the last name and country and state.  This also helps find mispellings.

Search for your great grandad again using these "tricks".  You might find additional records which have his parents names listed.

Answer 5

Only way you can confirm his parents is from a birth certificate, however you may find his baptismal record on the IGI (google familysearch).

Going back to finding him on the census, try using the facility "soundex", i have found that to be useful when the name has been spelt differently to what i was looking for.

When that hasn't worked i have even resorted to leaving out the surname, but putting in all the other info i have, for example

John

Manchester

born 1845  (you may have to allow 2 years or so either side of his birth year)

admittedly a bit laborious, but its surprising how many times that has enabled me to find a family member, always the surname has been incorrectly transcribed, i had one guy with the surname Root, it had been transcribed as KORDA!!

Good luck

Answer 6

you need to look at census records

they tell you the names of every person living in the same house and the relation to them.

the new Ancestry is hard to use so I would suggest clicking in the corner that says BACK TO OLD VERSION it is so simple I still use it