KEY SOURCES

FAMILY ARCHIVES

It’s worth checking if anyone in the family has any records or researched the branches you’re investigating. If you are ever involved in a house clearance, it’s important to recognise and preserve any family archives for future generations – hold onto any loose documents or pages of notes. If you can’t find a home for a late genealogist’s research, see if local archives or the Society of Genealogists ( sog. org.uk) will take it.

USA FEDERAL CENSUSES

These were first taken in 1790 and like their British counterparts were repeated every 10 years. From 1850 more detailed information was collected and the most recent USA census you can access is from 1940. They can be searched on Ancestry and Findmypast with a worldwide membership and on FamilySearch for free.

FAMILY BIBLES

If you’re lucky enough to have found a Bible once owned by an ancestor then you’ll know what a fantastic source of information they can be. Details of births, marriages and deaths – sometimes along with other details – were often written into the pages at the front of the Bible. It’s here that you can find ‘missing’ ancestors who died or were born between censuses. There are several websites dedicated to trying to match descendants up with their family Bible such as Rootsweb ( archiver.rootsweb.ancestry. com/th/index/ Family_ Bibles).