It’s one of the questions I’m asked the most. Everyone starts somewhere, and most people start with very little, a surname, a vague sense that a great-grandparent came from somewhere in Devon, a handful of stories that may or may not be true. That’s not a problem. That’s the perfect starting point.

The honest answer to where you begin is simple: you begin with what you already know.

Start with yourself and work backwards

Start with yourself, then your parents, then your grandparents, and continue from there. Before you open any database, there’s a short but important preparation stage. Gather what you already know. Speak to family members who might remember details. Pull together any documents you already have at home.

I’ll cover all of that in detail in next week’s post, because it genuinely makes a difference to how quickly your research progresses. For now, just know that five minutes with a notebook before you start will save you hours later.

The three records that will take you furthest, fastest

Once you are ready to start searching, there are three record types that will do most of the work in the early stages of British research.

The census

England and Wales were enumerated every ten years from 1841 to 1921. These records provide a snapshot of a household on a single night, listing names, ages, relationships, birthplaces and occupations.

Find a relative in a census return and you will often find their parents, siblings and children alongside them. You may also find a birthplace that points you directly to the next parish or county to explore. It is one of the fastest ways to move a family back a generation or two.

Civil registration

From 1837 onwards, all births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales were registered with the state. These certificates form the backbone of most British research.

A marriage certificate can provide the names and occupations of both fathers, the ages of the couple and the names of witnesses. A birth certificate gives you a mother’s maiden name, which can open an entirely new branch of the family. One document can reshape your understanding of a whole line.

The 1939 Register

Often overlooked, but enormously useful. Compiled on the eve of the Second World War, the 1939 Register recorded almost the entire civilian population of England and Wales. If you are tracing someone born in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, this record often bridges the gap between the last available census and living memory.

What if you want to go back before 1837?

That’s where parish registers take over and where research gets both more challenging and more interesting. Before civil registration, the Church of England recorded baptisms, marriages and burials in its parishes. These registers are the primary source for most research before the Victorian era.

I’ll cover parish registers in detail in a future post. For now, don’t let the earlier period put you off getting started. Most people find that working with the census and civil registration alone takes them further than they expected.

A realistic first research session

Open the 1911 census on Ancestry or Findmypast. Search for a grandparent or great-grandparent. See what comes up.

If you find them, look at who else is in the household, note the birthplaces, and follow those threads. You don’t need to know what you’re doing yet. You just need to begin.