historical information
Hi everyone. I am loving finding names of ancestors to add to my tree but names in it self do not mean as much as finding more about their lives and how they lived. Would anyone know if there are websites available that would could give more of such information? I am assuming a start would be a country's census, any other ideas?
Answers
-
Providing rough details on where and when they might have lived would be of great help in getting advice from one or more of the experienced researchers who use this website. For example, a search for more details on a great grandfather who was born in New York in the late 1880s might need a different approach than if he lived in England in the 1900s!
In general terms, you are right in thinking of the census as being a good source for finding details of an occupation, other family members, etc. Many census records (for England, the US and other countries) are available to view for free (well, at least transcripts, if not actual images) on the FamilySearch website. Otherwise, you might have to look to websites like Ancestry or Find My Past, which provide some records to view for free, but for viewing actual images you would probably need to pay a subscription.
Apart from the census, websites that specialise in newspaper records (such as newspapers.com and the BNA website, for British papers) can produce great results. However, success in finding articles (including birth, marriage and death notices) about your relatives / ancestors is very much a "hit and miss" exercise. For example, I wondered for years how an ancestor came to retire at 60, in the late 1800s, then at last came across a number of articles detailing the exact position. (He was a prison officer who received a pension when retiring through ill health and newspaper articles even give details of his leaving ceremony and parting gift from his colleagues!) On the other hand, I have drawn a complete blank in a search for any mention of other ancestors.
Even typing a name in Google - especially if not too common, like "John Smith" - has produced results for me. There was a lengthy pdf document for one distant relative that immediately came up, just by typing his name, which described how he had emigrated to New Zealand and become a renowned medical researcher.
In summary, there is much general advice that can be provided, but it would really help if you could be more specific about the ancestors you have in mind, as "time and place" can be really important factors here.
3