Areas of Expertise at Professional Family History

Areas of Speciality

I offer research both using online sources and at record offices in Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire and Suffolk. My areas of speciality include but are not limited to the following areas of England and Wales research:

•Indexes of births, marriages and deaths
-the history as to how the GRO (General Register Office) indexes were prepared and sources of error
-the history of how the information in the indexes has changed over time
-the use of multiple commercial websites to find “missing” entries arising from online indexing transcription errors
-the use of local indexes where available
•Birth, marriage and death (BMD) certificates
-the history of birth, marriage and death certificates and how the information contained has changed over the years
-changes in the law pertaining to age of consent, illegitimacy etc
•Census records 1841-1911
-the history behind the census records and what information to expect from each census year
-a number of approaches to find “missing” relatives
•Parish registers
-their history, the reasons for changes in the information contained and layout over the years,

the reasons for e.g. surges of baptisms at particular times in response to changes in legislation.
-the use of reconstitution methods to construct pedigrees, moving up and down and across generations to verify family relationships
-the use of parish registers in combination with BMD certificates to obtain maximum genealogical information e.g. in the case of illegitimacy
-searches for records in parishes within a set distance from the starting parish using historical parish maps
•Parish records (“parish chest” material)
-the history and detailed content of the records kept by the parish in addition to parish registers, which may include (the material available for each parish varies):
‣churchwarden’s accounts, overseer’s accounts, constable accounts, vestry minutes, settlement papers, removal orders, bastardy papers, parish apprenticeships
-the use of parish records to provide information as to how ancestors lived; whether they paid taxes or received poor relief, whether they had been “removed” to or from another parish, whether they were parish officers

•Wills & Probate
-the history of wills and probate, who could leave a will, types of wills, where probate could be granted at particular points in history e.g. 1940-1946
-the differences in the court systems before and after 1858: ecclesiastical probate court versus the court of probate and National Probate Calendar
-ecclesiastical jurisdictions and selection of appropriate court for grant of probate: Archbishop’s Court, Consistory Court, Archdeacon’s Court, peculiars
-original wills, registered wills, letters of probate and administration, administration bonds, inventories

•School & education records
-the history of education and establishment of different types of schools e.g. National schools, British schools and ragged schools
-the use of schools records such as school board minutes, log books, punishment books, admission registers to discover more about how our ancestors lived