Soooooo Tracing Parents and Their Parents Etc Using Birth Death and Marrage Certificates is Easy Enough Where They Are Available and Accurate but How ...
A lot can depend on where you're based, but some good places to start are with census records and electoral rolls, immigration lists, headstones, newspaper notices, family bibles, and a bit of a google search for genealogy resources in your region.
Different locations can offer digital cemetery lists, BDM databases you can cross reference for parent's names on children's certificates, church and baptisms records, immigration and shipping, sometimes census records, things like that. Searching through the Tasmanian, Aust, records, for instance, is an experience in all kinds of awesomeness!
Electoral rolls and census records can indicate not only the street address or town, but also how many are in the household, sometimes with family names.
Immigration records can give you clues if you have an ancestor you know arrived at a certain place in a given year.
Headstones are a kind of obvious, but not often thought of resource of sibling's names. From that, you can also sometimes find out the children's spouses names, if they're included in the family.
Family Bibles, as another obvious but not always thought of source, can give you dates for births, marriages, sometimes deaths, often for Christenings, which can then lead you to church records, which were often official records in the past.
I could write a whole tutorial on researching in newspapers, particularly digitised ones, but here's some hints for you:
How far back you're going will affect newspaper notices, but that can give you some ideas of siblings and, potentially, parents, who can then be looked up in your usual resources, or referred back to earlier newspaper notices.
If you know the death date of the person you're researching, then with newspaper notices there's 3 places you usually find info: the original death notice, obituaries, and personal 'In Memorium' notices.
You do need to have a bit of an understanding about cultural norms of the day and area you're researching. For instance, if you're looking for notices in South Australia, as I am, it would help if you know that:
a) the Colony only began around 1836, so anything earlier than that is impossible, and early papers would also be difficult to research;
b) there was a significant German immigration between 1839 and 1856, so the earlier newspaper articles you might be looking for might, in fact, be in German (and possibly need help looking for them);
c) what the early pioneer naming conventions were in writing notices, which is in fact really helpful sometimes in tracing female relatives (I'll come to that in a moment);
d) when memorial notices were traditionally posted;
and e) which source is classified as a 'family notice', and which is an 'article'.
Traditional death notices will most likely be in the 'family notices' section, along with the birth notices, engagements, and marriages (or, as many older relatives used to say, the 'Hatched, Matched and Dispatched :)
Funeral notices, however, can be classed as either a family notice, or an advertisement. While not generally useful for tracing family members, they can be a superb help in finding where a person is buried, and lead to that elusive headstone you might be looking for.
Obituaries are usually printed as articles, although some places might include them in family notices. Be careful with those, though, as they're generally written based on what the family has been told, or what they believe to be true, and might not necessarily be accurate.
For example, my g.g.grandfather's obit states that he married Emma Fellenberg in 1903. Impossible, as the records show them marrying in in the 1890s, and she died in 1904. It's most likely that they came in off the farm to the nearest town in 1903.
In Memorium notices can be an untapped wealth of information.
With death notices, they were an extra expense at the time of death, funerals, probate and taxes, as well as grief, and so were usually submitted as a single notice on behalf of the family. Occasionally, they might list the children, but just as often, they might simply say 'he leaves a widow, 4 daughters and 2 sons to mourn their loss.'
In Memorium notices, at least here, were commonly inserted at the 1 year anniversary, occasionally on the 2nd, and more commonly on the 5th and 10th anniversaries, and often are inserted by the wider family members themselves, so you can find 4 or 5 notices, complete with family names all at the same time.
"Remembering our dear father, John Marks, passed away this day at Port Vincent in 1894, aged 68. A year has passed, but our sorrow is unending. Inserted by his loving daughter Clara (Mrs. E. F Martin), son in law Edward, and grandchildren Sarah and James."
Here you have confirmation of the day, year and place John Marks died, a probable year of birth somewhere around 1826, give or take a year and providing there's no other errors, his daughter's name, Clara, her husband's name and initial, and 2 of John's grandchildren.
From that, you can determine that Clara could not have married Edward any later than 1894, and that the children had to have been born before that year as well, because they exist when this Memorium was posted.
This is also where naming conventions help. When this woman was unmarried, she would have be known as Miss Clara Marks.
When she married, she would be known as Mrs. Edward F Martin. You'll often find birth notices, too, that reference 'to the wife of Mr E F Martin, a son, both well', and that type of thing.
If she becomes widowed, however, she would revert to her first name, and would become Mrs. Clara Martin. Sometimes, it would be styled as 'relict of Mr Edward Martin.'
That's a clue for you, too, that can help you determine whether a husband has passed on or not at the time of the notice.
If that notice had been written as Mrs Clara Martin, instead of Mrs E. F. Martin, then it's likely that Edward has already died by 1894, and that gives you dates that you can start searching around for his records.
There's 2 good newspaper sources for marriage info: the wedding notice itself, and the social pages.
A descriptive "social event" article, as opposed to simple marriage notices, can reveal all sorts of information.
A good article on, say, Mary Marks' wedding might include things like 'Attending the bride were Mrs. J Franks, and Misses Sophie and Clara Marks, the Bride's sisters, as Matron of Honour and bridesmaids, respectively.' From that, you have 3 of the sister's birth names, and that another of the bride's sisters married a Mr J Franks at some point before Mary's wedding date.
Also included will be Mary's husband's name and family, and any family members he has attending. You can also find references for cousins, nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles, and other extended family that might have been included in the wedding.
Even in a simple marriage notice, you'll often find ones that read "Marks-Martin: On July 13, 1891, Clara, third daughter of Mr & Mrs. J Marks of Port Vincent, to Edward F. Martin, youngest son of Mrs E and the late Mr R Martin of Reynella, at St. Neots Church of England."
There doesn't appear to be much to it, but from that, you can fill in these blanks:
there's at least 2 more daughters in the family;
that Clara's husband Edward came from Reynella in SA;
that Edward's father was already deceased in 1891;
that Edward's mother's initial was E. and his father was R. Martin (following the naming convention of a wife after her husband's death);
and that the Marks family, at the very least, were Anglican/Church of England.
If you put the earlier marriage article on Mary Marks' with Clara's wedding notice, you'll know there's at least 4 daughters, Mary, Sophie and Clara, and another daughter was married to Mr. J. Franks.
If Clara is the third daughter, and Mary and Mrs. J Franks are also already married, then it's a clue for the order in which the children were born, so you can start looking for birth records to confirm that.
You can also then cross reference those with the In Memorium notices after John Marks' death, and possibly locate some of the sisters' children there, and any of the brothers' should they exist as well.
Also from Clara's marriage notice (and likely from Mary's), a quick google search says that St Neots Anglican Church still exists at Port Vincent, and contacting them might give you a link to John Mark's other children through the baptism and marriage registries.
You can also see if there's any info you can find about census and electoral roll info for Edward and Clara Martin, starting with Reynella, since that's where Edward's widowed mother still resides.
And one last less obvious source is a person's will. If you don't know where to start looking for that, papers can come in handy as well, as their solicitors might have posted advertisements on probate, which gives you dates, again, that can lead you towards when the will was read and entered into records.
So, there's a few ways that just searching newspapers can give you siblings you didn't know were there. Cross that with any existing headstones, and you'll have even more to work with.
As always, it's just a start.
[*Disclaimer: while Port Vincent, Reynella, and St Neots Anglican Church are factual places, all names and detail included in this example are completely fictional, and any resemblance to persons or circumstances living or deceased are completely co-incidental....
A lot can depend on where you're based, but some good places to start are with census records and electoral rolls, immigration lists, headstones, newspaper notices, family bibles, and a bit of a google search for genealogy resources in your region.
Different locations can offer digital cemetery lists, BDM databases you can cross reference for parent's names on children's certificates, church and baptisms records, immigration and shipping, sometimes census records, things like that. Searching through the Tasmanian, Aust, records, for instance, is an experience in all kinds of awesomeness!
Electoral rolls and census records can indicate not only the street address or town, but also how many are in the household, sometimes with family names.
Immigration records can give you clues if you have an ancestor you know arrived at a certain place in a given year.
Headstones are a kind of obvious, but not often thought of resource of sibling's names. From that, you can also sometimes find out the children's spouses names, if they're included in the family.
Family Bibles, as another obvious but not always thought of source, can give you dates for births, marriages, sometimes deaths, often for Christenings, which can then lead you to church records, which were often official records in the past.
I could write a whole tutorial on researching in newspapers, particularly digitised ones, but here's some hints for you:
How far back you're going will affect newspaper notices, but that can give you some ideas of siblings and, potentially, parents, who can then be looked up in your usual resources, or referred back to earlier newspaper notices.
If you know the death date of the person you're researching, then with newspaper notices there's 3 places you usually find info: the original death notice, obituaries, and personal 'In Memorium' notices.
You do need to have a bit of an understanding about cultural norms of the day and area you're researching. For instance, if you're looking for notices in South Australia, as I am, it would help if you know that:
a) the Colony only began around 1836, so anything earlier than that is impossible, and early papers would also be difficult to research;
b) there was a significant German immigration between 1839 and 1856, so the earlier newspaper articles you might be looking for might, in fact, be in German (and possibly need help looking for them);
c) what the early pioneer naming conventions were in writing notices, which is in fact really helpful sometimes in tracing female relatives (I'll come to that in a moment);
d) when memorial notices were traditionally posted;
and e) which source is classified as a 'family notice', and which is an 'article'.
Traditional death notices will most likely be in the 'family notices' section, along with the birth notices, engagements, and marriages (or, as many older relatives used to say, the 'Hatched, Matched and Dispatched :)
Funeral notices, however, can be classed as either a family notice, or an advertisement. While not generally useful for tracing family members, they can be a superb help in finding where a person is buried, and lead to that elusive headstone you might be looking for.
Obituaries are usually printed as articles, although some places might include them in family notices. Be careful with those, though, as they're generally written based on what the family has been told, or what they believe to be true, and might not necessarily be accurate.
For example, my g.g.grandfather's obit states that he married Emma Fellenberg in 1903. Impossible, as the records show them marrying in in the 1890s, and she died in 1904. It's most likely that they came in off the farm to the nearest town in 1903.
In Memorium notices can be an untapped wealth of information.
With death notices, they were an extra expense at the time of death, funerals, probate and taxes, as well as grief, and so were usually submitted as a single notice on behalf of the family. Occasionally, they might list the children, but just as often, they might simply say 'he leaves a widow, 4 daughters and 2 sons to mourn their loss.'
In Memorium notices, at least here, were commonly inserted at the 1 year anniversary, occasionally on the 2nd, and more commonly on the 5th and 10th anniversaries, and often are inserted by the wider family members themselves, so you can find 4 or 5 notices, complete with family names all at the same time.
"Remembering our dear father, John Marks, passed away this day at Port Vincent in 1894, aged 68. A year has passed, but our sorrow is unending. Inserted by his loving daughter Clara (Mrs. E. F Martin), son in law Edward, and grandchildren Sarah and James."
Here you have confirmation of the day, year and place John Marks died, a probable year of birth somewhere around 1826, give or take a year and providing there's no other errors, his daughter's name, Clara, her husband's name and initial, and 2 of John's grandchildren.
From that, you can determine that Clara could not have married Edward any later than 1894, and that the children had to have been born before that year as well, because they exist when this Memorium was posted.
This is also where naming conventions help. When this woman was unmarried, she would have be known as Miss Clara Marks.
When she married, she would be known as Mrs. Edward F Martin. You'll often find birth notices, too, that reference 'to the wife of Mr E F Martin, a son, both well', and that type of thing.
If she becomes widowed, however, she would revert to her first name, and would become Mrs. Clara Martin. Sometimes, it would be styled as 'relict of Mr Edward Martin.'
That's a clue for you, too, that can help you determine whether a husband has passed on or not at the time of the notice.
If that notice had been written as Mrs Clara Martin, instead of Mrs E. F. Martin, then it's likely that Edward has already died by 1894, and that gives you dates that you can start searching around for his records.
There's 2 good newspaper sources for marriage info: the wedding notice itself, and the social pages.
A descriptive "social event" article, as opposed to simple marriage notices, can reveal all sorts of information.
A good article on, say, Mary Marks' wedding might include things like 'Attending the bride were Mrs. J Franks, and Misses Sophie and Clara Marks, the Bride's sisters, as Matron of Honour and bridesmaids, respectively.' From that, you have 3 of the sister's birth names, and that another of the bride's sisters married a Mr J Franks at some point before Mary's wedding date.
Also included will be Mary's husband's name and family, and any family members he has attending. You can also find references for cousins, nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles, and other extended family that might have been included in the wedding.
Even in a simple marriage notice, you'll often find ones that read "Marks-Martin: On July 13, 1891, Clara, third daughter of Mr & Mrs. J Marks of Port Vincent, to Edward F. Martin, youngest son of Mrs E and the late Mr R Martin of Reynella, at St. Neots Church of England."
There doesn't appear to be much to it, but from that, you can fill in these blanks:
If you put the earlier marriage article on Mary Marks' with Clara's wedding notice, you'll know there's at least 4 daughters, Mary, Sophie and Clara, and another daughter was married to Mr. J. Franks.
If Clara is the third daughter, and Mary and Mrs. J Franks are also already married, then it's a clue for the order in which the children were born, so you can start looking for birth records to confirm that.
You can also then cross reference those with the In Memorium notices after John Marks' death, and possibly locate some of the sisters' children there, and any of the brothers' should they exist as well.
Also from Clara's marriage notice (and likely from Mary's), a quick google search says that St Neots Anglican Church still exists at Port Vincent, and contacting them might give you a link to John Mark's other children through the baptism and marriage registries.
You can also see if there's any info you can find about census and electoral roll info for Edward and Clara Martin, starting with Reynella, since that's where Edward's widowed mother still resides.
And one last less obvious source is a person's will. If you don't know where to start looking for that, papers can come in handy as well, as their solicitors might have posted advertisements on probate, which gives you dates, again, that can lead you towards when the will was read and entered into records.
So, there's a few ways that just searching newspapers can give you siblings you didn't know were there. Cross that with any existing headstones, and you'll have even more to work with.
As always, it's just a start.
[*Disclaimer: while Port Vincent, Reynella, and St Neots Anglican Church are factual places, all names and detail included in this example are completely fictional, and any resemblance to persons or circumstances living or deceased are completely co-incidental....
... I've always wanted to say that ;)]
WOW! What an impressive response! I feel like I've just completed Genealogy 101. Thank you for such an informative post!