Genealogy Chat

You can aslo put in a street name where your ancestors lived and information comes up about that to. Irene

This looks a very useful and interesting site-thanks for the tip and good luck ! best wishes Elaine

I used to really get annoyed with that site until Brenda and Marjorie encouraged me to have another go at looking through it. I recently found what seems very likely my GGFx4 being indicted for letting timber impede the Thames traffic in 1790!! I have had such pains with the Horstead side of my family in Norfolk, i.e. where did Edward marry Elizabeth Selby in 1763? But yesterday I had another look at A2A and there is a case of a disputed inheritence with a John Horstead in the 17th century, just over the Norfolk border in Lincolnshire. As the Horstead name was solely peculiar to either Norfolk or Northamptonshire at that time, this may give me a clue to the movement of the family.

Sophie Your Ancestors don't need to have done anything important. There are literally millions and millions of bits of paper all over the Country, in various locations, from the year 809 - and a few before that, too. It could be absolutely anything, which someone at some time, has decided to keep, or possibly more likely, not throw away! I notice recently, for instance, that many Solicitors have listed their old documents on A2A. These include things as trivial as 'A letter from Mrs B. to her daughter Mrs. S.remarking on the good weather they are enjoying in Epsom' You might not be able to find anything on your rellies because the County in which they lived has not yet listed all their documents - new stuff is listed all the time. Or they may have lived in an area where much documentation was destroyed. Some Counties are less enthusiastic than others about putting the stuff on-line - it all takes time and money. But the most important thing to remember is that A2A will only give you exactly what you ask for in Surname terms. If you search for 'Bloggs' that is all you will get - it won't give you Blogs or Blogg - and it wont give you Ploggs either!If you know where your rellies lived, search a place-name such as a village or town. Its a bit of a plod but can be extremely rewarding. Good luck Old Crone.

Hi, I don't seem to get any info on any of my family members why might this be? Is that they just haven't done anything of any importance. sophie x

This has long been my favourite site. Entering my Ancestral name and all possible (and impossible LOL) spellings, has led me to over 600 documents. Two stand out. One, the records of a court case which went on for over 70 years. Two branches of the family laid claim to ONE FIELD (!) and the Judge insisted that they both prove their descendancy from their common ancestor. This took 70 years and included documents copied from as far back as 1379 and their family trees, with certificated Church Documents, letters from the Court of Heralds and so on. Some of you no doubt will say this is not proof of their lineage and perhaps the Judge agreed with you, because after 70 years of deliberation, he awarded them half the field each!!!! Cannot imagine how much the Court Proceedings cost, both men were Crofters. The other was a humble scrapbook, donated by a long-suffering widow. In it was a press cutting of a marriage I had been unable to find through all normal routes. It included names, addresses, names and relationships of guests and suck-up potted biographies of the couples parents. Because it was only a Press cutting, the Lancs RO charged me £1 for a photocopy - priceless to me. It often pays to search by area too - in my case, a small village in Lancashire produced several more creative spellings of my family name which I had not thought of!! Happy hunting! Old Crone

thanks Nell, you have explained it much better than me. Love Hilary. x

A2A stands for Access to Archives. Think of it as a big index to all the records offices in England (doesn't cover Wales). What can you find out? Well you can look for a person, an organisation or a placename and see what is held. 2 examples of how it helped me in my family research. 1) I couldn't find my gt grandfather John's death cert. Knew from his gravestone he was buried May 1917, but couldn't find a death registered in the district where the gravestone was - a Norfolk village where John lived for over 40 years. I searched the village name in A2A and found that the Norfolk Records offfice had a plan of the village churchyard. I was able to quote the exact reference of the document when I contacted the NRO, and because of that they looked up his name and then found his burial record which told them he had died in North London, and waived their usual research fee. 2) I looked for the rarest family surname I have in my tree - Chowns - and found a reference to a Robert Chowns being a witness in a case Aston Rowant v Stoke Poges. At this point in my research I knew that I had a gt gt gt grandfather who was living in Farnham Royal, next door to Stoke Poges, a few years before the case. A2A site told me the relevant documents were at the Bucks Records Office in Aylesbury. So I got my husband to take me. Turns out Robert was evicted with his wife and 3 young daughters from Stoke P to Aston R (his birthplace) as the parish didn't want to be responsible for them. As well as the court judgement that Robert and his family had a right to stay in Stoke P, I had the book with Robert's testimony in it - obviously written down in answer to various questions, which told me lots of detail about how much rent he paid, how he'd moved to Stoke P from Farnham because the roof had fallen in and that he'd originally lived with his father-in-law, how he'd kept pigs and sold apples from the orchard to pay the rent and rates. His actual words, written down in 1819 and read by his gt gt gt granddaughter all these years later!!!! nell

Hi Maureen, glad you have found something. Love a bit of scandal Love Hilary. x

Maureen Darlo Just had alook at this site its really good. Just found out a relation in1789 had abastard son and court were making him pay for his up keep. Iwould,nt have found that out just looking at birth cert or marriage cert,s put this site in my favourites Thanks Maureen

Hi Robyn, I have only just found this site but it tells me about what counties are holding information about my ancestors. So I know which records office is holding what. Have you searched it properly and gone into the hits. Hilary. x

Ive seen this before, but i dont understand really what it tells you. maybe im just being thick again!!

I have just found this site. It is great. I suppose alot of you know it already but if not go to www(.)a2a(.)org.(.)uk remove brackets. Or google A2A. Go to search & put in the name you are researching and it will bring up what county is holding any archives for that name. You can then click on the hits and it will tell you what that county is holding. Happy hunting. Hilary.