Originally Posted by cindyabs

It would have been interesting to see where her family came from in England, likely East Anglia.

Originally Posted by robin1234

Good question - UK records compared to US.

I actually have the worldwide subscription to Ancestry.co.uk (same thing as ancestry.com) and I also have the full subscription to findmypast.co.uk, including the 1911 census. OK, this is a bit of an extravagance, as the two of them together cost a few hundred dollars a year. However, I thought it was worth it to have the luxury of searching any record set when I wanted, not being bound by "per search" charges or by "7-day free trials" etc.

Most of my work has been in the UK census and BMD records. Also the UK migration records. All of these record sets are absolutely amazing, relatively complete, relatively easy to use, etc. ... good census records back to 1840, BMD indexes relatively complete back to about 1880, less reliable before that (I forget the exact date, but but I believe that from 1837 until about 1880 registration of births for instance was not strictly enforced..)

For anyone who hasn't used them, the UK Board of Trade kept really good records of all ships to/from the UK that went BEYOND Europe and the mediterranean, 1890-1960. Annoyingly, the inbound and outbound records are available from different services, one on ancestry and one on findmypast, which is why I subscribe to both. Well, my mothers parents lived in Egypt for many years, so I have records of their every trip to/from UK & Egypt from 1930-1956, and these records have last address in the UK listed etc. I also have family members from various branches of the family who migrated to NZ, Australia, US, Canada in the late 19th and early-mid 20th century; all are listed in ship's manifests, with exact dates, last address in UK, profession, age etc.

As for US records, yes, the census is excellent - very similar to the UK, except that the entire 1890 census is missing (destroyed in a fire I believe.) But unless I am missing something, there is no close equivalent to the UK BMD indexes in the US, presumably because BMD registration is a state responsibility here. There are some US birth marriage and death records on ancestry, but much more hit-or-miss than the UK.

Other great record sets available on the ancestry and findmypast sites include (both UK and US) WWI military records (including multipage, detailed medical records in Britain.) and New York immigration records. My wife's grandfather migrated from Poland to England in about 1902, and from England to New York in 1907. The immigration record from the Lusitania in 1907 had an incredible level of detail about him, including his address in London and his address in NYC. The address in London then led me to lots of other info about his uncle with whom he lived in London, including his UK naturalization record and lots of other interesting data...

So, in conclusion, there certainly is a lot you can find out from free web searching, but there are many kinds of specialised record sets that are only available to you if you pay. And, beyond that, many types of records that you can only access the old-fashioned way; spending a day or two in the library or archives. (National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, National Archives in Kew, etc.)

As for the TV series, sounds interesting, but I don't have a TV.. No time to watch it, so not worthwhile..

Originally Posted by snowbunny

I also have some Native American ancestry.

Originally Posted by snowbunny

Unless your family had money, your ancestors were likely ag labs - agricultural labourers. The term "farmer" was reserved for the person who owned the land. To some extent that tradition carried here, but wasn't rigorously kept. That was what made people want to come here; they could own their own land, which was impossible in Europe. Their alternative was to work in the mills or the mines, which was hard, life-shortening work.

Originally Posted by Optimus Prime

WWYBASOTTISA?

Originally Posted by Optimus Prime

Why?

Originally Posted by Optimus Prime

Quick tip mate. Long posts about how you research your ancestry bore people shitless and arent usually read past the third line.

Originally Posted by cindyabs

Why not? Simply curiosity on my part. At the time her family was in MA, the majority of colonists came over here for religious "freedom" and mainly from East Anglia. It's a pity they couldn't have made the specific UK connection.

Originally Posted by robin1234

Whatever.

Originally Posted by Optimus Prime

Not why are you asking. Why east Anglia. I was curious why you thought East Anglia and wanted your reasoning. I wasn't aware most of the God squad that left for America were from East Anglia.

Originally Posted by cindyabs

Oh, okay, because for the most part that was the "hotbed" of the Purifyers- that swarmed to New England. Virginia and so on, more of a crosscut of the British population. Also, for the most part it wasn't the British gentry that settled in the Northeast, rather farmers, or yeoman or whatever, ordinary folk. The second or third sons of the aristocracy tended to head south.



Also, this is an excellent book (which I picked up here some years back on a tip from a BEer. It's a 1000 page read, but history geek that I am, I enjoyed it.

http://www.amazon.com/Albions-Seed-B.../dp/0195069056

But there is much more out there on the subject.

I found it interesting that whole families came from neighbouring towns in England, arrived in New England and preceeded to name their new town after their old one and keep on intermarrying.

Originally Posted by robin1234

Certainly the East Anglia connection is borne out by town names in New England; lots of Eastern county names (Ipswich, Harwich, etc.)

Not just keep on intermarrying, but apparently kept up the relationship with the home town in England for a hundred years or more, in terms of continuing to support & endow the home village church in East Anglia over several generations, for instance. Also, I remember reading that the number of migrants from America to England in the period 1600 - 1800 exceeded the number of migrants from England to America over the same period. I think this reflects the higher birth rate in British North America, and the lower death rate..

Originally Posted by robin1234

Certainly the East Anglia connection is borne out by town names in New England; lots of Eastern county names (Ipswich, Harwich, etc.)

Originally Posted by Optimus Prime

You forgot Manchester, Hampshire, Rutland, Belfast, Bangor, Taunton, Hartford, Worcester, Bedford, Gloucester, Portsmouth, Rochester, Dover, Leominster, Ludlow, Wells, Buxton etc etc etbloodycetera... all good East Anglian names.

Originally Posted by cindyabs

Why not? Simply curiosity on my part. At the time her family was in MA, the majority of colonists came over here for religious "freedom" and mainly from East Anglia. It's a pity they couldn't have made the specific UK connection.