Keep Asking Those Family Members!

Every family tree begins with the information that you already know and normally the next step is to ask other family members for details.  Once you have these then it may seem like you will have exhausted your family's knowledge but nothing could be further from the truth.

At the start, we tend to ask for names and dates of birth, marriages and deaths.  If our relatives have documents or photos this is great too and most are happy to allow copies to be made.

People often think they are giving you everything they have but will later find, when clearing out a box or things in the loft, that they have all sorts of other items that can help to build your family's story.

There is normally someone in the family that is good at keeping family information so ask in your family about who is normally the best source of information. However ask everybody for information as everyone has their own experiences and knowledge that is unique to them. If anyone in the family passes away then sensitively ask if you could look at any family information that is found if a family member is going through paperwork, photographs or other items.

Old letters, diaries, address books, jewellery and medals are common finds from a clear out of a loft when a family is moving home or simply having a tidy up.  Sometimes there will be more unusual items too. All these items can help to build the details of your ancestors.  At Kn Tree we are expert in explaining the significance of objects from the everyday to the unusual and what they tell us about your family.

In amongst this treasure trove, it is also common to find more documents such as certificates also.  These things are often stored away carefully but are also often forgotten about until they are unearthed for some other reason.  So it is good to ask your relatives to remember your family tree research if they later come across anything related to your ancestors.

Older relatives are good sources of information on family life and other information however people often remark that these relatives can be reluctant to talk or have seemed to have forgotten any details.  Sometimes there may have been a family rift or an event and they do not want to discuss it or anything in relation to it. Never press on a particular issue but of course, it can also be that you do not know of an issue so don't know there may be a sensitive point.  

There are ways to chat though where you will not be stepping on toes and this can help with those relatives that are simply not great conversationalists too!

Try to avoid the type of question which makes it easy to say yes or no.  For example, do not ask

Did you like school?

Instead, you could ask

What was school like when you were there?

Similarly, if you want to know more about home life then a question asking about home life might not get much of a response if it was not happy or they are someone who is not much of a talker but by saying

What was it like in your neighbourhood when you were growing up?

This can be a great starting point to find out more about family life.  The social history of a family brings it to life more than simple names and dates. 

For more information on unearthing family treasures and talking to family members :

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How Social Media Can Help Your Family Tree Research

Social media can help you in your family tree research  in a number of ways. 

1. Keeping You Up-To-Date

Genealogy sites such as Kin Tree, Ancestry and Find My Past have Facebook and Twitter pages along with blogs where you can keep abreast of all the latests news.  Even if you don't use them for anything else, it's worth checking these out and connecting with their pages t make sure that you don't miss out.

2.Tracking Down Living Relations

If you have an idea of where an unknown relative is based then a search on social media can be very fruitful. It also has the advantage of allowing them to check you out and to see you are a genuine person and not a scammer.

3. Surname Groups

Social media is full of groups who share the same surname.  This can be helpful in a number of ways.  Firstly, you can find out about the surname and where people are located in the world. Secondly, you may find a family connection. Lastly, other people researching the same surname may be able to give you pointers or have information on the family name that is useful to you.

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4. Historical and Geographical Groups

There are many social media pages out there who are interested in events or places with which your ancestors were connected.  most are friendly and helpful and can fill you in on details that you may not have found anywhere else.

5. Answering questions

Try putting in a search on Twitter for example, for something for which you have questions. In this example (below) the phrase "Seaforth Highlanders" was used and below gives you a flavour of the results.  You can select to look for people called "Seaforth Highlanders", where the phrase is used (as we did) or to look for images.

Bonnie Saunders ‏@Glasstreasures21 Sep

Here is today's feature for you. This is The Seaforth Highlanders Badge Plate. I hope you all enjoy and... http://fb.me/2s3HTQSFK 

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•  Reply 
•  Retweet 
•  Favorite 

We Are The Dead ‏@WeAreTheDead20 Sep

Pte. Eric Oswald Cleugh (Seaforth Highlanders of Canada). Dec. 27, 1942.

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Valour and Gallantry ‏@VC_GC3 Sep

VC: Lance Corporal Robert McBeath (Seaforth Highlanders) First World War http://bit.ly/Xy46jh  #VC

Retweeted by ScotsMilitaryHistory

6. Ask A Community

There are many social media communities out there or a variety of topics where you can simply ask a question.  People are generous with their help and will be glad to help you find information or point you in the right direction.

At Kin Tree, we are experts in the use of social media so please don't hesitate to contact us for more information.

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Tracking Down That Elusive Ancestor

Anyone tracing their family tree will have come across that problem where you know that you should be able to find an ancestor in a particular index but they don't seem to be there. Census records are a common area where ancestors seem to "disappear" for example.

How can we find these elusive ancestors and why might they disappear off the records?

The are common reasons why our ancestors might disappear.

• Spelling - Names were normally written down by the person who was officially recording an event. Different people might use different spelling variations.  There could be a mistake simply because the person recording information misheard a name.

• AKA - Often people were not known by their birth name, The name on the birth certificate may say, for example, Jane Mary Paterson. On records such as the census on some occasions she may have been recorded as Jane however if she was known as Mary, it could have been this that is recorded or many people called Jane were known as Jean, Jeannie or Janet.  She may also appear with a completely different first name because although she was registered as Jane, she gets called Anne, for example.

• Transcription errors - Old handwriting may not be clear so it is easy for errors to be made with transcriptions.  People are not perfect and transcriptions are often done by volunteers who are giving their best efforts. Sometimes people simply make a mistake.

• Indexes - Sites use different methods of indexing for the same information so how you might extract the information in one will not work on another or would bring  forward some results that are the same and some that are different.

So how might we find them?

• Using wildcards, soundex and all the other search tools can help widen the search but can also bring different results depending on what site that you use. Sites will often give you variations on the spelling of a name but try the same search on different sites and you will come up with a different set of results according to which names they think match closely enough to your original enquiry. 

• Finding out information about your ancestor from other sources may shed some light on where they were or the name by which they were known.

• Sometimes it is a case of sitting down and going through pages of information page by page.

• It's important to check a number of sites to find an elusive ancestor or to cross reference your results where the name varies from what you were expecting. This can be expensive of course as most websites cost money to access and time consuming if you are unaware of the best strategies.

How do you cut down on costs and use the best strategies?

At Kin Tree, we subscribe and use a number of websites so paying for an hour or two of our time will cost a lot less than subscribing to all the sites yourself.  Also, being expert researchers we know the best strategies to get results. Contact us for a no obligation chat or further information at:

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Bringing Your Family History To Life

Tracing your family tree is an absorbing past time. Often it starts with a desire to find out how far back you can trace your family but along the way you will also start to root out other interesting information about your ancestors. You soon realise that they are more than a date in history.

There comes a point when you will want to gather all the information together and write it down.  However, then thoughts generally turn into how to make it more interesting than simply a set of dates.

Look at this example of a fictitious person called William MacDonald.

We could have an entry that said simply -

William MacDONALD was born on 7 November 1897 at 23 Example Street, Govan. He was the son of James MacDONALD and Mary RANKIN.  He married Janet FRASER on 22 June 1922 in Parish Kirk, Glasgow. He died on 17 August 1971 at the Royal Infirmary, Glasgow.  His home address then was 154 Sample Street, Glasgow.

However by adding in more detail on these bare details, we can build up the picture of William's life. 

We could write about his birth - 

William was the fifth of seven children born to James MacDONALD and Mary RANKIN.  He was born at the family home, 23 Example Street, Govan on 7 November 1897. 

Then by adding in some more details that we have from poor relief records, we can add in -

William was the fifth of seven children born to James MacDONALD and Mary RANKIN. He was born at the family home, 23 Example Street, Govan on 7 November 1897. The family lived in a tenement flat and were on the second floor in the left hand side flat.  

So we now have facts about William from his birth certificate, the 1901 census and poor relief records (from a later date) which described their flat. The next step that we can take is to add details about his life through putting the family into the historical context of the time. This can be done in a number of ways, for example by researching the area in which William lived and the wider social context of the times.

Mixing all these elements together we have -

William was the fifth of seven children born to James MacDONALD and Mary RANKIN. He was born at the family home, 23 Example Street, Govan on 7 November 1897. The family lived in a tenement flat and were on the second floor in the left hand side flat. 

For William and the rest of his family, the kitchen was the centre of activity in old tenement flats. William's family had two rooms. Beds, sink, coal bunker, cupboards, pulley, fireplace and cooking range would all be crammed into them. The cast iron kitchen range was standard in tenement buildings used both as a heating and a cooking tool. 

A large cast iron kettle normally stood on the hob keeping the water warm. Every effort was made to keep the fire alight over night, especially in winter. This was done by saving old tea-leaves and potato peelings, mixed with dross (coal dust) and cinders and placing them on the fire before going to bed.

Outside toilets were a common feature of Govan tenements until the late 19th century. Subsequently tenements were built with a toilet or renovated to include a shared water closet on each stair landing. Often too, the only running water was an outside tap that was used by all the residents.

By adding in these details, we are already bring William's world to life.  We can imagine how it would be to live in his home.  It can be quite daunting to build up these details however they do make the difference between a simple list of facts and an exciting and interesting book about our ancestors' lives.  

At Kin Tree we are not only experienced and qualified in genealogy but also in history so we have a wide knowledge base to build a picture of your family's past.  We have the experience and knowledge to draw together the genealogical facts and present them in a way that brings your family's story to life.  We are also experienced at printing family history books so we can present your book to a professional standard.

 If you have any questions on bring your family's story to life or on printing a family history book then please get in touch for a no obligation chat at:

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Great Digital Image Resource For Scotland

If you are looking for digital images relating to your Scottish family history then your first stop should be Scran

The Scran Trust hosts around 370,000 images, movies and sounds which come from archives, museums, galleries and the media on its website.  It's funded through the Scottish Government, subscriptions and sales of services.

The site is easy to navigate.  For the family historian there are lots of images available of local towns and cities.  Similarly, there are images of subjects such as occupations, migration and historic maps.  There are many other sections too or you can simply put in a straight forward search into their search engine.

This is only a very small glimpse of what is available on the site.  The best way to find out what is there is to go and look for yourself. Access can be gain in a number of ways. It's free to browse thumbnails of the images but to gain full access there are a number of was in which this can be done.

• If you are a school pupil or student in Scotland, there is a good chance that you will have free access to the whole site. Check with your school, college or university librarian.
• Local libraries often have accesses. This might be within the library itself and many have remote access from home.  Check with your local librarian for details of access.
• Subscription - It is inexpensive to join Scran either for 6 months or a year.
• Buy individual images.

The site has a wealth of material on Scottish life so it is of interest to not only family historians but to anyone with an interest in Scotland.  Why not give it a browse and if your local library does not give you access then why not ask them to subscribe to the site.

For more information on using online sites, please contact us for a free no obligation chat at:

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What Can Hospital Records Reveal About Your Ancestors?

Death certificates can reveal a tremendous amount of information about your ancestors but they need not be the final piece of the jigsaw.  If you are lucky then an obituary may appear or you may find a will but even without either of these things, there is a great way to look for further information.

If your ancestor died in hospital then it is worth investigating if there is a record of their hospital stay. Depending on the country in which you live there may be some restrictions on what you can access and how much time must have elapsed before you can access the records however it is always worth checking with the archivists for the latest information as data protection laws are often updated.  

So what information can you find? It will vary even within the same hospital - from the briefest of details perhaps regarding your ancestor's admission to hospital to full clinical notes or a post mortem.  The great news though is that even with the briefest of details, these can easily reveal some interesting facts and open up a new way to investigate a branch of your tree.

A good example of this was Edinburgh Royal Infirmary who on admission to the hospital, asked  patients for their "native place" or in other words, their place of birth.  This can be invaluable for those seeking to place their Irish ancestors as it would often name a town or at least a county.

It can often be a surprise to find ancestors admitted to hospital.  How did they afford to pay for their care if there was no free health care? However many hospitals were operated by subscriptions and were known as "free" or "voluntary" hospitals.  They received donations from rich individuals but also charities, churches and many work places and unions operated schemes where workers paid into a fund so that they could receive treatment if they needed it.  The work place contributions were particularly common within industries where there was a certain amount of danger and therefore there was more chance of accidents.

Hospitals were not always  in the immediate area in which your ancestors lived so if your relative died in hospital, you may find it is some distance from their home. This is usually because this was a hospital that was free or perhaps, the one to which their workplace or church subscribed.

It is important if you are going to approach a health archivist to be prepared.  They will need specific information on your ancestor in most cases.

They are not usually able to look for someone without details of when they were in the hospital as the information is not in a nice modern database where they can simply search for someone's name!

Also, think closely about what information you would like to find out.  The archivists will answer your questions but they cannot answer questions that you have not asked!  

If you would like further help or information on discovering heath records then contact us for a no obligation chat at: 

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Great Resource For Scottish Military Information

The media has been full of details about the forthcoming anniversary of the start of World War 1.  There has been discussion about when and how the centenary of World War 1 should be remembered. As genealogists, what we can all agree on however, is the importance of the individual stories of our ancestors and how their lives were affected by the war.

Kin Tree will be looking at a variety of ways at tracing the military careers of our ancestors over the next few months.  Check back on a regular basis for more information as we build up your knowledge. 

A photo of a panel from the
Denny and Dunipace War Memorial
Photographed by the SMRC

Today we are highlighting a particular group, The Scottish Military Research Group (SMRC) who have been carrying out an amazing project to catalogue the names on the war memorials and war graves in Scotland and in many cases with photographs. There are also photos of many war graves across the world, of those associated with the Scottish military. 

The site can give you the added bonus of information about non military relatives also. There are often details of non family members included in the information the group have collated.

SMRG have also photographed many non military headstones where family members have included a dedication to a member of their family who is buried elsewhere and died during military service.  This can give you the unexpected extra detail of where family members are buried that normally can be hard to track down and corroborate even if the correct names are found.

Grave in St Imoges Churchyard,
Marne France
Photographed by SMRC

Unlike many other projects, all the information and images that they collect is freely available to the public and they carry out all this work as volunteers.  As a professional genealogy company, Kin Tree carries out military research on a regular basis and they are the "go to" site for accurate and in depth information.  We have no connection to them but would urge everyone to support their work.

Researching your family's military connections can give you a fascinating insight into your ancestors' lives.  Kin Tree can help you with this research.  contact us for a no obligation, free chat at kintree@ymail.com