Genealogy at home: Births, Deaths and Marriages (Part I)

Published on 24 March 2020

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The main tools to use for growing your family tree are Birth, Death and Marriage indexes, as these give details of the previous generation, including maiden names, ages and places of birth.

The object is to work from yourself, and go back one generation at a time:

  • Your birth certificate gives your parents' names, ages and marriage date
  • Your parent’s marriage certificate will provide details of their birth date, where they were born and their parents' names and occupations.
  • Death certificates can provide much valuable information, but it should be remembered that the information being recorded is not being given by the person themselves.

This then arms you with enough detail to find your parent’s birth certificates, their parent’s marriage certificates etc. Your aim is to keep your family tree growing by pushing your direct family line back generation by generation.

If you are doing genealogy “by the book” you should be proving each step of the way by purchasing every relevant certificate. The costs of doing this would soon soar and very few people actually purchase every certificate. Choose certificates which are going to help you verify details and most enable you to take the next step backwards

Church Records and Civil Registrations

Civil or Government registration of births deaths and marriages didn’t start till the early – mid 1800s. Prior to this, the only records are church records recorded in parish registers at the time the events took place. In NSW civil registration began in 1856, and in England around 1837.

Churches did not ask for as much information as the government, so once you get back to this period you will only get basic details on the records. The offset to this is that church records are mostly available free via various websites.

Privacy

Privacy legislation is now enacted in most countries. This means that details of birth death and marriage informationis restricted. This is understandable as most people would not want their details to be made public. Generally, birthsindexes are only freely available for over 100 years ago, marriages for over 50 years ago and deaths for over 30 years ago.

There are other ways of finding this information which we will discuss later.

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