Short, plain guides to the records people ask about most, written by members who remember being lost. You do not need to be a member to read any of them.
Start here
If you have a name and nothing else, read these two in order. Between them they cover about eighty per cent of what a new researcher needs in the first year.
Where to start when all you have is a name
Working backwards from yourself, what to write down, and why the temptation to jump straight to the eighteenth century will cost you months. Four minutes.
What the census can and cannot tell you
How the returns were compiled, why ages drift, and what an enumerator actually did on the night. Five minutes.
Records
Reading eighteenth century parish handwriting
The letter forms that trip everybody up, the abbreviations clerks used without explanation, and a method for working through an entry you cannot read at all. Six minutes.
Births, marriages and deaths after 1837
What civil registration changed, how the quarterly indexes work, and how to order a certificate without wasting money on the wrong one. Five minutes.
Monumental inscriptions and what survives
Why the stone often outlasts the register, what our volunteers recorded, and how to read a worn inscription. Four minutes.
Method
What to do when the census says something different
Conflicting ages, moving birthplaces and names that change between returns. When to trust which source, and when to accept that both are wrong. Five minutes.
A short history of the Ashen Hills parishes
Boundary changes, chapelries and the parishes that were carved out of others, which is the usual reason a family appears to vanish. Seven minutes.
Prefer to ask a person?
Come to the open evening in December. Bring whatever you have, however messy, and somebody will go through it with you. It is free and you do not need to be a member.