Getting Started with Family History Research in England:

Step 1:  Ask all of your oldest relatives for information about the family.  Try to get names, birthdates, places, maiden names, marriage dates and so on.  Make sure you write this information down and, even if you don't have time at the moment to research your family history, do this part as soon as you can because later on you may not have the chance!  Also, try to gather stories about the family, what people & places were like - otherwise if you only have dates &places it can be a bit boring.

Step 2: Civil registration (birth, marriage and death certificates).  From July 1837 onwards, all births, deaths and marriages in England & Wales had to be registered (although it was not fully enforced until 1875).  A birth certificate will obviously give you the name and birth date of that person but also will list the name of the father and maiden name of the mother.  You can then search through the marriage indexes looking for those two people getting married around or before the birth date and probably in the same general location.  When you get the marriage certificate it will list the ages of the man and woman plus the names of their fathers.  Now that you have the ages of the bride and groom you can then search for their birth certificates and progress backwards in the same way.  You can get these certificate in various ways:
- visit the Family Records Centre in London at 1 Myddelton Street, London EC1R 1UW  (website)
- visit local register offices
- visit 1837online.com (website)

Step 3: Census Information.  A census is taken every 10 years and the ones from 1841 to 1901 can be searched.  They are valuable sources of information about people and places.  People are grouped together by the house where they lived and so the majority will be families.  They give names, ages, occupations and birth locations (although the 1841 census has less information).  You can search the censuses in many ways:
- also at the Family Records Centre in London (website)
- the National Archives website
- local Family History centres or records offices

Step 4: Parish and other religious records.  Prior to civil registration and the censuses, the main source of information are church records.  For the majority of people this will be Church of England records but there are others for non-Conformists etc.  These records gives dates and names of baptisms, marriages and burials - note they are usually baptism dates rather than birth dates and similarly burial dates rather than deaths.  The records were originally kept at the church and so many have been lost, stolen or burnt.  Today they are mostly kept at local county records offices or family history centres.  However, you cannot normally see the original documents but can view microfilmed copies.  Also, the Mormon Church has computerised vast amounts of the records and they can be searched online at their International Genealogical Index website along with their other records.

Step 5: Other records.  There are plenty of other places to look for information:
- Local History in books or newspapers.  Local county records offices or family history centres have lots of other local records which you may be able to search e.g. employment records at local hospitals or other institutions
- Military and other records at the National Archives in Kew (website).
- RootsWeb or Ancestry.co.uk
- Personal family history websites and email
- Local Family History Societies (website)
- Society of Genealogists (website)
- Wills or other legal records

Good Luck!