Geneology

[prattw]

I have no proven details about my family other than details of my parents and that my late father told me that his mother came from Sutherland in Scotland. I've no dates for her nor precise locations to go on.

With that information, I went to Rootsweb.com, put in my own details and as much as I could of my parents - but the search told me that nothing could be found!

Do I exist?

Rootsweb.com is rather USA-centric, Hamish. The UK equivalent is GENUKI <http://www.genuki.org.uk/>

Your best first step would probably be to locate your parents in the census, as children, with their parents. That will give you the general area of their parent's birth, and you can go from there. There's good odds you could follow your family back at least into the early 19th century in the census.

Will Pratt

[Hamish]

Rootsweb.com is rather USA-centric, Hamish. The UK equivalent is GENUKI <http://www.genuki.org.uk/>

Your best first step would probably be to locate your parents in the census, as children, with their parents. That will give you the general area of their parent's birth, and you can go from there. There's good odds you could follow your family back at least into the early 19th century in the census.

Will Pratt

Many, many thanks for that link Will. I have just taken a quick look, went to the 1901 census and popped in my father's details - only to remember that he was not born until 1902!! My mother was born, I think, in 1906.

It appears to be a very detailed site, so I am going to have to isolate myself for a day or two at some point and get into it.

I appreciate your help.

[prattw]

Many, many thanks for that link Will. I have just taken a quick look, went to the 1901 census and popped in my father's details - only to remember that he was not born until 1902!! My mother was born, I think, in 1906.
[snip]

Hamish,

Try to locate your parents' birth records. That will give you the names of their parents, who _will_ be in the 1901 census.

Will Pratt

[jkdesq]

Hamish,

If you were interested in following through with this, your could find your father's birth record on a webpage www.1837online.com. This site (again for a fee) will provide you with the coordinates for your father's birth certificate (ie. a year, a register district and its code number and a page number). This site is no where near as slick as www.scotlandspeople. Then you can send away to the PRO for a copy of the certificate. It will give you your father's name and place of birth as well as his parents' names. If you're lucky, it might give additional information about the parents (age, place of birth -- English records aren't very good in that regard though). Once you have your grandparents' name, you could set about in www.1837online.com to find their marriage. The marriage certificate should give you the bride and grooms age (although they don't always) and the names of their parents.

Armed with your grandmother's name, age and her parents' names (and possible ages), you could go back to www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk and see if you can find her birth and the first bits of information on your highland ancestry.

Sorry, I don't mean to oblige you to do anything. I just hope I am providing information you might wish to receive. I love geneology and I am happy to you find your roots. If you want any help or explanations on things, feel free to post something or to PM me. The website www.1837online.com is not straight forward; you might need some help with it.

[highlander_Daz]

English birth records give the name of the child, name of both parents (if the child is illigitimate the fathers is often left blank. place and date of birth of the child and name of person reporting the birth of the child also fathers occupation is sometimes listed, there are regional offices where a certificate can be obtained or the GRO in London. searching the indexes only generally reveals the name district and what "quarter" of the year the birth occured in, for all the above details a full certificate needs to be purchased at a cost of £7.50. the procedure in Scotland is similar however certificates are more detailed and include things like marraige of parents etc.

the church of Jesus christ and the latter day saints (mormans?) also hold detailed records that anyone can view again at regional centres.

[Big Paul]

Try http://genforum.genealogy.com/

[jkdesq]

Hamish,

If you were trying to find your people on the Rootsweb free census page, I'm not suprized that you didn't find anyone. If you look on this page http://home.chilitech.net/~mmjeffery/myweb9/index.htm, it gives the status of the different counties. It looks like little attention has been paid to the Sutherland, Ross & Cormarty and other counties in that area.

Further the rootsweb site covers only earlier censuses (ie. 1841 to 1871). I would imagine you are more likely to find your father's mother and her parents in a later census (ie. 1881 to 1901) -- census have been taken in England and Wales and Scotland every ten years. As you may (or may not know) only 100 year old census are available to the public. So there is nothing available past 1901. You'll have to wait until 2011 to see 1911.

I would suggest, if you aren't opposed to paying a little, going to http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk and looking up 1901. My guess is that you will find your grandmother with minimal problem.

[jkdesq]

Rootsweb databases are being pieced together by volunteers. The information is incomplete and the servers they have aren't sufficient to handle the hits. If you can afford to, go to www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk. It is alot more complete, easy and convenient.

[Hamish]

Hamish,

If you were trying to find your people on the Rootsweb free census page, I'm not suprized that you didn't find anyone. If you look on this page http://home.chilitech.net/~mmjeffery/myweb9/index.htm, it gives the status of the different counties. It looks like little attention has been paid to the Sutherland, Ross & Cormarty and other counties in that area.

Further the rootsweb site covers only earlier censuses (ie. 1841 to 1871). I would imagine you are more likely to find your father's mother and her parents in a later census (ie. 1881 to 1901) -- census have been taken in England and Wales and Scotland every ten years. As you may (or may not know) only 100 year old census are available to the public. So there is nothing available past 1901. You'll have to wait until 2011 to see 1911.

I would suggest, if you aren't opposed to paying a little, going to http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk and looking up 1901. My guess is that you will find your grandmother with minimal problem.

You too are very kind, jkdesq. I'll bookmark that link also for future use. Unfortunately, I know nothing about my grandparents other than, as I say, my father once telling me that his mother came from Sutherland. I've no idea where in Sutherland, when she came south to England, or even what her full name was. Neither of my parents were remotely interested in their roots, and my father certainly had no wish to be reminded in later life of his Scottish connections. He was horrified when, at 14, I became besotted with Scottish Highland and Country Dancing - and pleaded for a kilt!!

I really must have another attempt at tracing my roots in the long winter evenings to come.