Doing Genealogy

As well as writing up the design plan for the blog, April has been busy with what we are here for - genealogy!

I'd love to say - especially for Vera, who sent me a pile of information to wade through - that its all been about our family. But it hasn't; it has been about the keen and eager folk who join the genealogy course I teach for Oldham Council.

Teaching genealogy

Genealogy isn't something you teach or learn easily; its something you feel in your bones. If you have the urge, nothing will stop you even if all you ever do is ask relatives where your family comes from. What we do in the classes is teach people how to use on-line resources to scratch that genealogy itch! But I can't deny that I do sneak the odd bit of time to do a little of our own family research and this time I have indulged myself recording the family of my cousin Jimmy - the Clitheroe Kid.

When I was a child, I used to spend a lot of time with Jimmy and my grandmother in Blackpool during the summers away from school. I used to call it "holidays" though what I was really doing was acting as a double for him in his stage shows. I still had to do school work, but it seemed like a laugh to me. I even turn up in some of the radio shows, after I was grown up enough to stick to a script. There is an archive of shows you can use to download or listen to shows from.

Its this sort of memory that often inspires the "itch" for genealogy, though it can be to find out about a bad guy rather than a comedian - remember, one of our family was hanged with the infamous Pendle Witches. Every family is likely to have skeletons in the cupboard when you start to investigate.

On-line resources

So where do you find on-line resources? Well, I'm not going to run my course here - I do have a living to earn - but I will mention the main source we should be using in the UK. Don't get me wrong, the resources are for anyone and thats one of the joys of on-line research, but in the UK there are good reasons to use details held by Ancestry.co.uk since they are our records from the National Archive database.

We ought to be better going directly to the Archive - but have you ever tried to search that mess? Its terrible and one of the most tricky to use, badly designed, unfriendly messes I have seen on the internet. Frankly, it stinks, while the version on Ancestry is easy to use, simple to search and just as good.

The good reasons are not quality of the data or even facilities of the web site. They are about the quality of services since over here we have family history centres in most towns and in most there are PCs you can use freely to get on-line and do research. For many of us, our public libraries offer a similar service even when there is no local family history centre.

Frankly, we have it made.

How do we use them?

The first lesson is one we should all take to heart - don't part with money! Yes, you can join the Ancestry website and should if you want to use the extra functions you get - but it costs almost £100 per year, so you really have to want those extras!

For most of us, stick to free membership since it will let you do research and even store the family tree on-line as a safe copy in case your PC at home should break, burn, get stolen or any of the other multitude of disasters that can happen. With the free membership, you can do the basic research and get the details you want - but what you can't do is get copies of the documents you might need.

To get document copies, you need paid-for membership and, like I said, that's a lot of money a year. But there is a better way that should be available to every one of us in Britain. Theres a special membership available on Ancestry provided for public libraries.

The library version of Ancestry gives you all the benefits of private membership, but as a public service. It isn't cheap, but since you don't pay for it directly why should you care? All you need is to be able to use it at your local library; you can do the basic work at home on your free version, note the people you want documents for and go to the library and get the documents from the public service version. I teach for a local authority where libraries and adult teaching are managed together, so I get access to the library service in my courses - and I assure you we don't neglect this magnificent source!

But what if your local library doesn't offer this service? Many are ignorant of the public service from Ancestry even though its the reason the company has access rights to the data in the first place! Check with your local library and if they don't offer access, contact your local council. Get the service made available, persuade your council to set up a family history centre - anything to get you the service we should enjoy. Remember, this is one of the things you pay your Council Tax for; if you don't get it, make a noise!

Failing that, move to somewhere like Oldham and join public libraries that do offer the full service.