From: "Debbie" <[email protected]> > Hi Everyone, > > In reading the post, it says: > > You should also, however, try and trace them at FreeBMD, which has > many millions of birth, marriage and death records from the General Register Office for > England & Wales online. This can be found at: http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/cgi/search.pl and > does not require a subscription. The GRO records go back to July 1st 1837 and then you > are back to the parish registers. > > My question is....If you have a common name, there is no way to know > which family is truly yours > without sending for the certificate? Correct? > > Thank you > Debbie > USA > Not entirely true, Debbie. The phrase I would use is: there is no EASY way to know which family is truly yours. You are of course correct in your assumption that if it is a very common surname, then research is going to be more difficult. However, much depends on what sort of time-frame, area and family you are talking about. If it's a Smith family and they were agricultural labours (ag labs, as they are known in genealogical shorthand), then, yes, you could have a problem! On the other hand, it's a paradox of genealogy that it is often easier to trace a family of ag labs who remained in the same parish for many generations than it is to follow a family of upwardly mobile aspirations who moved about to further their career and business. How do you tell, for instance, if a John Smith who was born in Nottingham in humble circumstances was the same John Smith who went to London and became a wealthy merchant? Of course, when tracing people it is vital to use the census returns in conjunction with other evidence like BMDs and parish registers, paying particular attention to their age and stated place of birth (which, unfortunately, is not always consistent from one census to another). Yes, often it is necessary to acquire BMD certificates, especially to see who the parents were - and even then, sometimes little white lies were told! But isn't this part of the fascination of family history, making it like a giant jigsaw puzzle or detective novel, and especially the thrill of the chase and the immense satisfaction when a problem is solved> -- Roy Stockdill Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE