How To Trace My Ancestors? Useful Books To Help You

Tracing your family history can bring up some unlikely connections to people that you thought might not have existed in your family tree. This ‘How To Trace My Ancestors‘ guide will show you how you can find illegitimate children, Freemasons, gentlemen, gypsies, or lunatics in your family.

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That is not to say that there are such in your family. But if you do suspect that any one of these in is in your family tree then the following guides will help you.

Tracing these unique relatives!

I have covered different categories of guidebooks that can be used in your quest to trace your ancestors.

However, in this post, I wanted to cover an area that is not so much talked about.

And if you are struggling to find any information on an illegitimate child or a lunatic in your family then these guides are for you.

5 Books To Help You Trace Your Ancestors

Please note!

Although these books are available to you in the US and the UK, they discuss how you may find such people within the United Kingdom.

Tips are also included on how you can search records and get the information that you are after.

Also, these books are available in Kindle format.

So, once you have purchased them then you can immediately start to trace your ancestors. There is no waiting for a book to arrive in the mail.

If you do wish to purchase a paperback then there are links available when you go through to the Amazon product.

My Ancestor Was A Bastard

When tracing our family history we may come across the proverbial skeletons in the closet.

Having a bastard ancestor will certainly be classed as a skeleton that we might not want to acknowledge.

But this illegitimate child that is born out of wedlock should not be forgotten.

As negative as this skeleton may appear to be he or she is still a part of your family history.

So, with that in mind, we shouldn’t just disregard this person and the circumstances behind their existence and their parents. We should accept it for what it is.

Finding illegitimate children in your family!

Truth be told I have found several illegitimate children within my family tree. Not many but a few.

Rather than sugar-coat or gloss over this fact I too have learned to accept it.

I want to preserve any part of my family history no matter what I do find.

If you do happen to find an illegitimate child in your ancestry I suggest that you try to find their true biological father.

After all, they are just as much your ancestry too, and they should not be forgotten.

This guidebook can help you immensely!

This is a great guidebook for you if you too find a bastard child in your family. It will help you to formulate a research strategy and also show you resources that you can use to find these children.

There are guides as well that will show you where to find these members of your family, how to use these resources, and what information may be contained in them.

There is also a very useful directory of websites that you can check out that will help with your research. A rather useful and somewhat weird glossary is included that lists all sorts of terms that you may encounter when researching for an illegitimate child in the family.

Finally, within the book, there is a step-by-step guide that will help you plan a research strategy that is tailored to you and your family.

        

Finding information about our illegitimate ancestors is not straightforward, unless if you are extremely lucky. But we all know that we will find brick walls in our research. It is inevitable.

This book will help you to understand the cultural, economic, and legal boundaries that have shaped the world of the unmarried mother and her child.

By understanding the circumstances you can then make educated guesses and search in the right area and get results.

My Ancestor Was A Freemason

Freemasons, or just masons, are members of a ‘secret’ organization of fellow members. It is the oldest fraternity in the world.

Despite being considered secret, members do not hide the fact that they are members of this society.

Although handshakes and grips that are used as passwords are kept private.

Members will regularly attend gatherings or meetings at a Masonic Lodge. This building is the basic organizational unit of Freemasonry.

There are two parts to these meetings. The first part is to take care of business.

This is followed by initiating candidates and promoting members. All of this is done in a formal ceremony that is centuries old.

The secrets of Freemasonry originated as early as the Middle Ages. Essentially stonemasons needed a way to show their level of skills and expertise.

This meant that they would be paid concerning their skill.

Also, lesser skilled masons could not expect to be paid as highly as more experienced stonemasons.

Was Your Ancestor A Freemason?

If you know or suspect that an ancestor of yours was a Freemason then this short guidebook is for you.

The book will go into more detail about the history of this fraternity within England and Wales.

        

The book also covers what publications you can find about Freemasons.

This is followed by listing female Freemasons, details about lodges, and then a prisoner of war and record repositories.

My Ancestor Was A Gentleman

This book focuses on helping you to find English and Welsh gentry that is in your family history.

So, if you know or suspect that you do have a ‘gentleman’ in your family tree then this guide is for you.

As yet I have not found such gentry within my family. But that is not to say that someday that I will not find one.

I have traced many branches of my family tree, but as genealogists, you will know full well just how incredibly dense your tree gets the further back you go.

This guide is essential for you if you already know that you have notable blood in your ancestry.

It can help you for example help you trace back to a 17th Century Lord, (if such a connection exists).

Guides to different records:

• Title deeds
• Heraldic records
• Taxation records.

        

My Ancestors Were Gypsies

If you know that your ancestors were travelers, vagrants or hawkers then quite possibly they may have been gypsies.

A person’s occupation may very well indicate that they were a gypsy.

Together with a person’s occupation, three other characteristics can help you.

Do you know whether there were any gypsies in your family?

If not then why not ask an older relative and find out?

Who knows what you will discover.

4 characteristics:

• Surname
• Occupation
• Evidence of mobility
• Unusual forename

Surnames such as Cooper, Smith, and Lee are signs that your ancestors may have been gypsies.

The same can be said about a person’s occupations, as mentioned above.

Unfortunately, these two characteristics cannot always be guaranteed to tell that your ancestor was indeed a gypsy.

The next characteristic is whether they were listed as a tent dweller, a van dweller, a stroller, an itinerant, or had no abode.

Different places listed for each of the children is also a telltale sign.

Does your ancestor have an unusual name?

The last characteristic is quite common for gypsies where the children are given unusual forenames. This is concerning the settled community around them.

        

This guide will be essential to you as it will help you to access and understand records about this subject. The book also includes a list of over one hundred Romani surnames found throughout England.

This therefore could help prove your connection.

So, if you have encountered a brick wall in your gypsy heritage then this book is for you!

My Ancestor Was A Lunatic

In the past mental illness was something to be concealed.

These people may have been locked up for not only their safety but also for the people around them.

For this reason, you may have found some people that absent for some time within your family tree.

However, sometimes people would just disappear permanently.

If your ancestor suffered a breakdown in their health then they would have been put into an institution.

This could have been temporarily or may have been for a permanent stay.

Typically people that had a mental illness and the mentally handicapped were put together.

Even though there were distinct differences between the two they were still held within the same institution.

Guidebook’s aim!

This guidebook aims to help you locate surviving medical records. These records will show you whether your ancestors were mentally ill, had a disability, or were cared for by others.

The history of how mental illness was perceived from medieval times up until the present day.

        

Chapters include:

• Criminally insane
• Suicides
• Records in Scotland and Ireland
• Finding your ancestors who cared for and treated people in asylums.

Further Guidance!

If you require further help to trace your ancestors why not head on over to wikiHow. There you will find three methods on How to Trace Your Ancestry.

It will show you how to begin your research by asking questions, checking online for records, and even using a genealogical service.

It’s worth checking out for the helpful tips and tricks that are shared.

Thank You and Please Leave A Comment

I hope you enjoyed this review that asks the question ‘how to trace my family history‘ and helps you to discover the unusual members of your family tree. If you have any questions or comments then please leave a comment below.

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Summary

Article Name

How To Trace My Ancestors with Books

Description

These useful guidebooks will help you to trace your ancestors. Whether they be a bastard, freemason, gentleman, gypsie or even a lunatic.

Author

Owain Couch

Publisher Name

The Genealogy Guide

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