Exploring your canal ancestry: Getting started
In the first of a new series, Nicola Lisle explores ways to discover canal ancestors.
LIVING, working and holidaying on Britain’s canals has enjoyed a surge in popularity over the last few decades and this looks unlikely to diminish any time soon. But how many of us are drawn to the canals because it’s in our genes?
If you know or suspect that you have canal workers in your family history, this new series will help track them down and find out more about them and their life on the canals.
There is now an extraordinary amount of information in archives and on the internet to help family historians, the latter constantly increasing as more archival material is digitised. This is obviously good news for researchers, but it can be a bit overwhelming, especially if you are new to family history. Over the next few months I’ll be exploring local, national and specialist archives that can help you in your research.
As with so many things, it is best to start with what you already know. So, before you get stuck into the archives, gather together as much family memorabilia and documentation as you can. Most families have birth, marriage and death certificates for at least the immediate family, and these are useful for confirming names, dates, occupations and addresses.
Other records and family memorabilia can give vital information as well as provide clues about the kind of people your ancestors were – their likes and dislikes, hobbies, political allegiance, and much more.
Useful things to look for include:
• Old family photographs (hopefully with inscriptions on the back, giving dates and names, although sadly this is often not the case!)
• Family portraits
• Letters
• Diaries
• School certificates and reports
• Invitations to family events
• Orders of service for weddings and funerals
• Birthday and address books
• Newspaper cuttings (including death notices and obituaries)
• Pension books
• Passports
• Family bibles, almanacs and other books inscribed with dates and family messages
• War medals and other memorabilia, including ration books.
Talking to elderly relatives can be helpful for identifying family members in photographs and supplying missing dates and other details and they might be able to talk to you about their own or an ancestor’s experiences of living and working on the canals.
You might even uncover some family skeletons, too, such as a family rift or a scandal. Bear in mind, though, that people’s memories may be inaccurate after so many years and also possibly prone to a little exaggeration!
All the information you glean at this stage gives you the building blocks for your ongoing research and can lead you in all kinds of interesting and unexpected directions.
Make sure you make detailed, accurate notes as you go, so that you gradually piece your family history together. This can save a lot of wasted time later on. File your records in a clear, organised way, so that you can easily retrieve details when needed. It is a good idea to keep a different page for each ancestor, showing clearly the details you already have, the sources consulted so far and what information you still need. A template for this could include:
• Full name
• Date and place of birth
• Names and details of parents and siblings
• Name and details of spouse
• Date and place of marriage
• Occupation
• Names and details of children
• Date, place and cause of death
• Date and place of burial
• Documents and other sources consulted so far
• Information still needed
• Last updated.
Each of these details can be crossreferenced to other relevant ancestors. For example, the page for your mother will cross-reference to pages for your father, your maternal grandparents, your siblings, and so on.
It is also worth drawing up your family tree straight away, even if you only have a few details to start with. Watching this build over time is hugely exciting and satisfying.
Finally, and most importantly of all, always check names and dates against other sources, as even the most reliable can contain inaccuracies. If you are researching a common surname, such as Smith or Jones, you will need to be extra careful, as it will be all too easy to ‘identify’ the wrong Smith or Jones!
If this all looks a bit daunting, don’t worry! This series will show you, step by step, where to look for information and how to avoid pitfalls.
Next time I will be exploring the census, a vital resource for family historians – including a look at the 1921 census, which becomes available in January 2022.