North Ayrshire Library and Information Service

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Local and family history - getting started

Step 1 - Your own memory bank

Work backwards, starting with your own details - name, date and place of birth, date and place of marriage, your children's birth dates, your siblings. Then fill in the same details for your parents and, if possible, your grandparents.

By now you will have realised the pace at which these ancestors multiply - 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great-grandparents, 16 great-great grandparents and so on. Even excluding brothers and sisters for each generation, there's a lot of people waiting to be discovered.

Our own personal knowledge is often quite limited, so where do you turn to for help? The next useful source is your oldest living relative who is willing to share the family's secrets with you.

Step 2 - Your own relatives

Typical questions to ask are:

who did they marry
when did they marry, when were both born
did they have any siblings - when were they born, where were they born, who did they marry
what were their parents' names - when and where were they married, when and where were they born, did they have any siblings.

Be aware, though, that the human memory is not infallible. Everything that you are told should be backed up by some form of documentary evidence.

Step 3 - Old documents

Invaluable to your research, these will include birth, marriage and death certificates, the old family Bible, obituaries, diaries, letters, photographs, military records, school records, immigration records and so on.

Once you have exhausted your relatives and have gathered all the family papers you can find, the next step is the public records.

Step 4 - Certificates of births, marriages and deaths

If you know where your family came from, then the local Registrar's Office in that town will hold all the birth, marriage and death certificates from 1855 (the start of civil registration in Scotland) to the present day.

Step 5 - Local History Libraries

If you are fortunate enough to live in the same area where your family originated, then plan a trip to your local history and genealogy centre.

Back to main Local and family history page