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Genealogy: Researching your family tree. WEEK THREE: (Major Sources:…
Genealogy: Researching your family tree. WEEK THREE:
Major Sources:
Church Records
Primarily baptism, marriage and burial. Can include confirmations, pew rental, congregation membership lists, kept for moral control, proof of parentage and right to worship.
Census Records:
Usually created by a government agency, check for different levels (municipal/ provincial), special censuses (religious, slave, mortality), reflect interests of the government, provide demographic information such as age, sex and occupation.
Civil Records
Primarily birth, marriage and death. Can include divorce/ annulment, adoption, family registers, created by a government body, provides an identity within a society, creates a data source for vital statistic's.
Other Records:
Are just as important such as passenger lists, wills, military service records and passport records.
Civil Records:
Why are they created?
IT gives people a name and identity within society which facilitates the delivery of benefits and government services. Also provides a data source for vital statistic's so that a government can tell how many people died, were born in a year and so on. Also give evidence of parentage and thus evidence of entitlement to inheritance. Civil registration also provides a facility for marriage and civil partnership that does not depend on religion.
How are they created?
In many countries, the responsibility is on the people involved in an event to inform the government, a process normally termed registration. Historically, in some places a government employee would tour an area to discover and thus record events instead of the parents or other parties having the responsibility to seek out registration.
What are they?
Generally civil records are created by government entities to record the vital events of its citizens. The registration of events in many countries is legally mandated and fines can be levied if an event is not registered.
Religious Records:
What are they and why are they created?
Generally are created by a religious body to record the events of its members such as baptisms, marriages and burials. Many records will have been created to keep track of whether an individual had taken part in a necessary element of his or her religion, records would have been kept to identify who belonged to a congregation and thus should have access to support from the church.
How are they created?
Typically religious officials will create the records at the time of an event. Sometimes clerks had to provide their own ink and paper and this could have a detrimental effect on the quality of the records as ink was watered down and as much text as possible was crammed into one page. some religious bodies did provide printed forms for their clerks to fill in and these are often easier to use than the more free form registers.
Census Records:
Why are they created?
Primarily so that governments know how many people are living in the area of enumeration, this helps with issues of funding allocation and to assess the number of legislators required for an area.
Perhaps more interestingly, the characteristic's of a population are also assessed and this where we get information such as whether a person could speak or write a particular language, the value of life insurances held and son on. All this information gave the government a snapshot of its population and thus could help answer particular issues of concern.
How are they created?
Nowadays, often by sending out a form in the post and then if a household does not reply, a census enumerator will come to your door. A number of countries are now doing away with a formal census and relying on data taken from various systems. Enumerators would copy information from the householder forms into an enumeration book which would be sent onto a main office.
What are they?
Census records are typically created by government entities to count the people living within a particular area. They are useful as they pinpoint your ancestors to a given location at a particular time and they often show people in family groups which can reveal relationships and previously unseen family members.
Military Records:
Why are they created and what will we find:
A military body needs to know who its members are in order to track things as experience, training, Pay, progress through the ranks, names of any dependents a member might have in case a pension needs to be paid, information on the next of kin in case of death and so on.
Issue with finding military records:
Your success in finding information about your military ancestors will depend in part on whether they were an officer vs enlisted as generally it is easier to track officers as more records were kept on them and whether you know their regiments name, the ship served on and so on. Many record sets are not arranged by individuals names so if you are looking at a resource that has not be indexed, then you may have to resort to looking page by page through the resource for your ancestor.
What are they and how are they useful:
Military and naval records can provide details on an ancestors life and any wars in which her or she took part in. they can contain records that track a persons service, record any medals or promotions they nay have received or any training undertaken or their post-service pension.
Archives:
What are archives:
Archives keep records of individuals or organizations with significant historical, cultural or administrative value.
Archives are created:
For the specific purpose of maintaining and preserving important records, to provide access to records for reasons of historical scholarship or for the accountability of the organization creating the records.
What about libraries:
They keep a range of differnt materials and resources. They allow public access to published works and other resources.
Family History/ Genealogical societies:
These societies promote and encourage the study of local and family history in the area in which they are based through they can be family, religion or topic based. They are often volunteer organizations comprised of individuals who love genealogy and history.