How to trace genealogy before 1841 in the UK?

Question

how do you trace your ancestors before 1841 when there's no census in the UK

Answer 1

In addition to the parish registers, as detailed by Itsjustme,

of which, searchable transcripts can be accessed free at

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Home/Wel...   but they must then be verified against the original register pages (normally now on microfiche or film).

A few censuses exist for various small areas prior to the first general census of 1841, but they are very limited.

Among parish records, it is often possible to find other lists in what is known as 'The Parish Chest', and can include details of poor relief, charities, law and order, maintenance of the highways, minutes of parish meetings, apprenticeship records, rate books, workhouses, settlement papers, bastardy bonds, orphans and foundlings, affidavits of wool, communicants, Protestation returns, etc. All of which contain many names which can help in researching one's ancestry, unfortunately very many records have been lost over time, and not all of these exist for every place, a very good, time and cost, effective idea is to join the family history society of the area you are interested in, they know about every record that is available for their area and can often put you in touch with other people researching the same names/families.

If you are lucky enough to find a property owner among your ancestors, it can help you to go back further because property records often exist and also the wills of those ancestors. It is always worth checking for a will anyway.

Good luck !

Answer 2

UK answer.

Before 1837 there was the Parish Records, these were Baptism's, Marriages and Burials, these began  in 1538. In the event of a Baptism, the  record held was parents names, baby's name and area, not a date of birth. Marriages they were registered as names, ages, dates and diocese ( church area), and in the Burials register, it sometimes gave a brief cause of death, or son or daughter of and a date.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

Start simply and see what you can find out.  You need firstly to go through the census records noting down all the details you can about your immediate family and any possible siblings or other relatives.  These should give you the parish or even township within the parish where you need to look in Parish Registers, though you won't necessarily find all Catholic records there and certainly not Quakers. They had separate records.  Civil Registration only goes back to 1837 so you have very few years for that before 1841.  I would also look in registers of wills and your local County Record Office could be of help here, i.e. local to the family, and graveyards.  Other records in Local Record Offices, (excluding the textbook reply that one correspondent has given), are Poor Law records where they exist but also house deeds, Enclosure Acts and Tithe Awards if in rural areas, for towns there are also Trades Directories.  Take it a step at a time. Good Luck.  

P.S.  Look for printed books/articles on your family or area and via a family history society see if you can contact anyone who may have already done work on that particular family.  People who have researched family history are usually willing to share information and new relatives can be discovered.

Answer 4

You're pretty much reliant on parish records.  You start with the parish that your ancestor claimed he was born in in the 1851 census and look through the churches baptism record for the year he should have been born in and see if you can find a match and make a note of his parents.  You then try and find any other brothers and sisters baptised at the same church and then starting with the eldest known child, work backwards from there looking for a marriage of the two parents.  Any sucess largely depends on whether your ancestors stayed put in one parish for centuries or moved around a lot as this will not usually be noted.  Baptism records of course are rarely as complete or infomative as birth certificates.  Some vicars were diligent and included a birth date or fathers occupation, others less so and didn't even name the childs mother, just the father.  It's pretty much a lottery.  Some parish records were subject to natural disasters like floods and fires down the years and might not have survived in any case.  In theory, you should be able to get back to 1538 using these records, but by then many of the registers are written mostly or partly in Latin and can be quite difficult to read.  Many people come unstuck later than this during the English Civil War period between 1649-1660 (the so-called "Commonwealth Gap").  Plenty more struggle to get past the mid-1700s.  It all depends where you are researching and the general quality of the registers.