Heritage Centre Events

I shall be visiting RAF Lakenheath in the BX on Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week 20th - 22nd August 2009.   If you have any enquiries please email me on the contacts page.

Familly Tree Research

I have been spending my vacation visiting the villages of the ancestors on my father's side of the family.   It had always been known that family members with my surname "Dore" came from the Cotswolds, a beautiful part of the Middle English countryside.   This would not be the case that all Dores came from this region but certainly my family and many others did.

So where do you start?   First of all talk to all the older family members about what they remember about their parents and relatives - where they lived, where they moved to, approximate dates and anything else of interest.   Take notes or even better record the converstions on tape or disk.   These will be invaluable when time passes.  

The internet

The majority of early records are now available on the internet, often issued by governments and then made available by commercial organisations such as "Ancestors.co.uk" (See our "links" page).  Ancestors are offering a two week free trial at the moment which will get you moving straight away.   Start with a more recent relative, for example your father and check out his birth records.  Next, follow up with a search for his father and mother.  Once back to the 19th or early 20th century, you will be able to look up census records, the most recent of which was dated 1901.   These records are only released after 100 years so the next issue will be 1911.   When the 1901 census was made available there were millions of hits on the first day!

Census records

More to follow...watch this space.

Best wishes, Peter