I'll be in London in February and wanted to do some "family history" research while I'm there. My family emigrated from Somerset 400 years ago but I was wondering if there is some kind of British National Archives situated in London where there might be family history records. Any genealogists here who can help me?

SusanN

Wow, you're going back some. I think you'll struggle to find any easy resource for such old data - there wasn't a national register scheme until the early 1800s, so most records that far back are kept by local parish churches where your relatives would have been baptised/married/buried.

Here's some sites to help you make a start, I think you'd have to do quite a lot of research before you get here to know where to look, and it would more than likely involve a trip to Somerset to check out the local Church records, if you could find out which parish they lived in.

http://www.british-genealogy.com/
http://www.genuki.org.uk/ab/
http://www.britishorigins.com
http://www.genesreunited.co.uk
http://www.freesurnamesearch.com/

and loads of links on this one:
http://www.britishlibrary.net/family.html

Most people use the Government's Family Records office, but I think it only covers records dating back to when national registration began.
http://www.familyrecords.gov.uk/

We visited the National Archives located in Kew, in November. There seemed to be quite a few people registering to do research. I suspect many of them were genealogists. Visit their website: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
where you will find a section on family history and links to other useful sites. I think it's a good place to start.

You can get to Kew easily on the underground (maybe 20 minutes from London) and the Archives is a short, well-signed, walk from the station. I think you will need your passport as identification to register.

If you are in the U.S., you might want to look at the resources available to you here before you go. The New England Historic and Genealogical Society website can help you. www.newenglandancestors.org

Good luck with your search.

CW

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) has a lot of information. Back when I was doing a bunch of genealogical research, I went to one of the several Mormon Libraries in the city in which I was living at the time, which happened to be Melbourne, Australia. There were a lot of microfiche records that I was able to consult.

Just around the time that I was completing my project, i.e., I'd identified the particular ancestor for whom I was searching, the Mormon Family Search Library went online:

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/default.asp

As far as I understand the work that they've put into genealogical research, the Mormons have scanned the records of churches throughout Europe. They've also scanned whatever census information exists, marriage records, etc. In most cases, if a physical record exists (e.g., in a parish register), it exists in the Mormon Library's online collection as well.

The benefit of visiting a town from which an ancestor came is that one may find gravestones, a house in which a family was known to have lived, living people who share the family name, etc.

There also are places in the UK where one can consult military records, but those kinds of records were much sketchier 400 years ago.

Besides the Mormon Library, there are several websites that specialise in genealogy. One can find them by doing a Google search for genealogy.

I agree with CW that it will help you if you do preliminary research before you reach the UK. It will help you to make the best use of your time once you get there.

Judy in Calgary,

I didn't know the Mormon records were on-line now. That's quite a resource. Thanks for the good information. I know they microfilmed early church and town records in New England years ago.

CW

JudyIn Calagry, thank you so very much for the Morman Church website. I just went to it and in seconds I had the info regarding my greatgrandparents.

Oh, now I will never get anything done between Fodors and this Morman Church website LOL.

Which reminds me, better go finish up those Christmas cards! Thanks again.

Not to sound like an advertisement, but I've been using the Mormon church resources (as well as MANY others) to do family research for family and friends for about 20 years now. A great deal is available online, but much is still only on microfiche. They have the reference online, but you have to send away to borrow it from the main center in SLC. Not a big problem, but not the instantaneous satisfaction we're getting used to in the electronic age.

I'm a HUGE fan of the LDS -- they helped me find my father 4 years ago by being a genealogical database. I knew my dad's name and had his birth cert, and found my grandparents' birth cert's from the state of MINN. From there, I searched their database -- and found my great-grandparent's names in someone else's research. Writing to that person, I got my dad's address and phone -- he was thrilled to discover he had a daughter, and has since married my mom (who never married and hadn't dated anyone since him) in Las Vegas on the Starship Enterprise.

Yes, freaky story! But true and very romantic

If you have any genealogical research questions, please email me and I would be happy to help anyone.

As a side note, it is MUCH better to do as much research as possible before you go 'on location'. If you can find specific people to look for, that is best. Otherwise you don't know if THESE Jones's are the same as YOUR Jones's!

Wow, GreenDragon, that was quite the turn of events involving your parents! And you were a major catalyst. Congratulations.

Hehhe.. if you want the full, sordid story, it's on my personal webpage...

http://members.fortunecity.com/green...hotoalbum.html

BTW, my travelogues of trips to Ireland and Scotland/England are also there, on other pages

(advertisement over!)

The National Archives at Kew are not likely to have much to help you, unless you already know a lot and have some specific questions to follow up. The Family Records Centre in London deals mainly with the records since civil registration and formal censuses began in the 19th century.

I think the Mormon IGI probably is the best place to start. If you don't already have a clear idea of where in Somerset your family came from, the IGI could at least suggest where there are clusters of similar names.

www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/SOM/ has links to sources specific to Somerset. Some of the parish records and Boyd's Marriage Register may be available on microfiche in London, at the Society of Genealogists, whose library you can visit for a fee:
www.sog.org.uk/

But obviously it would be more use to you if you are able to work out some specific topics in advance.

My goodness, I didn't think I would get any responses to this, let alone so quickly. Thanks so much, everyone! Your tips are invaluable.

SusanN

Susan, just be aware that the entries in the IGI have been transcribed from often partly-legible handwritten parish records and reflect normal human error. And spelling of surnames could be a very hit-and-miss thing at the best of times - I doubt that the notion of a "correct" way to spell a name was really in force 400 years ago.

Genealogy is full of traps for the unwary and it would be a good idea to do some background reading as soon as possible.

Rootsweb is an excellent resource - you can join lists dealing with individual counties such as Somerset and find some very helpful people.

(BTW, do you know when your family arrived in America? I understood that the first permanent English settlement was Jamestown in 1607, a tad under 400 years ago - your people must have been very early pioneers.)

information: Liverpool was establishing lists of passengers on ships leaving there for the USA and other places. At one time most passenger traffic to the new world begin there. Office/facility was located at new waterfront.

Susan, I had a friend (sadly now deceased) who also had relatives who'd emigrated about that time. He had family letters dating back to the original "move" (amazing really with advice to others in the family on what to bring and what to leave home). Anyway, he knew from what town they'd come (in Yorkshire). On a lark, he got in a car and drove and visited the town. He found records of the family in the church there and was even directed to the family home which was a b & b at the time. Point of the story, it would be really helpful to know where in Somerset.

Greendragon, an amazing story. Can't wait to check out your website!

County boundaries have changed frequently. Migrating from Somerset doesn't mean the place your ancestors came from is still in Somerset, and neither the Somerset Record Office, nor the Somerset church record index on the Society of Geanealogists website might cover your ancestors' parish. The area immediately in and around Bristol can be especially messy when it comes to county boundaries over the past 400 years

If you don't know which parish or town tey came from, it's just possible you might find them on the web, now, at the familysearch.org site. You don't need to mess with their microfiches: all the English church records the Mormons have transcribed are on the Web. But they've actually transcribed only a very small proportion

Which reminds me of an ancestor who hailed from a coal mining locality just outside Bristol and narrowly escaped being hung for horse theft (along with an accomplice known as "Bristol Sam", if you can believe that). Nobody's ever located his birth record, because it's unlikely that he was never baptised, apparently a common situation in that "Godless community". Another possible problem in an age when the church kept the only such records.

Thanks once again for the replies to my post. My family history had been very well researched and I should have reviewed it better before my post. On review, my family came over around 1700 from North Petherton, and the baptism records are well recorded at a church there, and there are many ancestors at local cemeteries.

So, the question now is... what kind of lodging is around North Petherton, and, since I won't be driving, will it be possible to get around to cemeteries, churches, etc., easily via taxi? Also, how far is North Petherton from London?

Thanks again. I can't wait to read more of the history of the region and get better prepared before my trip.

North Petherton records are not currently held by the SoG in London.

It's just south of Bridgwater, a good way SW of Bristol. Trains to Bridgwater take about 2hr 15 from Paddington, changing at Taunton.

Thank you, Patrick. It looks like my travel plans are evolving daily. I'll plan to spend a couple of touristy days in London, and then hop on down to North Petherton to see what I can find out there genealogy-wise and get a feel for "the old country." I'll start a different thread for specifics about any possible day trips from around there and see what else North Petherton officers. Thanks again!