The reader being anxious to trace his own or a friend’s pedigree, or to look for some missing link in an ancestry—how should he set about the work?

To do this more efficiently, and to save unnecessary expense, he should first ascertain and set down whatever is already known on the subject or can be discovered, before proceeding to record-searching.

We will suppose that he is interested in ascertaining the ancestry of a certain man, whose father’s name is known and, perhaps, his grandfather’s; but he cannot trace the pedigree farther back.

Also, presumably, he may know where this individual and, possibly, his father and grandfather lived. From such data, however slight they may be, his future knowledge is to spring—for he must work from the known to the unknown. This is necessary in all genealogical searches.

Friends of the family can give him some little particulars—all of which should be carefully noted down—and a visit to the place where he locates the earliest known member of it, if practicable, might be very advantageous.

If this is not possible at the moment, he should write to the vicar of the parish, who, from the parochial entries, would supply information at a moderate cost. There might also be tombstones, with names and dates on them, which would help materially.

Some parish registers have been printed. The searcher should ascertain whether the parish in which he is interested is among the number, and, if so, whether the published entries have been brought down to the date he requires, as in that event he might obtain the necessary information in some large library free of cost. But he is scarcely likely to be so exceptionally fortunate at the start, so will probably have to make the requisite inquiries.

Before doing so, however, our pedigree-hunter should carefully consider the surname of the individual in question. If he boasts of an uncommon one, as say, for instance, Vandeleur, the chances are that all the Vandeleurs mentioned in the same parish books will belong to his family. If, however, he is a Smith—well, the Smiths are not a very small tribe, and several of the name unrelated to each other might appear in the same parish. To obviate the difficulties which this would entail, our pedigree-hunter should be clear as to the district in the parish or name of the house in which his ancestor lived. But, if he does not know this, how is he to ascertain it?

Well, he probably will know it in the case of the latest of his ancestors, say, his father or grandfather, and let him work from that point. Failing this, a study of the family names in each district should reveal the secret.

The surname itself, especially if the searcher has been able to trace the ancestry some way back, should be carefully noted with regard to the different forms in which it may appear, for in early days there was a quite delightful variation in the spelling of names; so a somewhat similar sounding name, if spelt differently, should not be ruled out of court as having necessarily nothing to do with the matter, the odds being generally on the other side.

Even if parochial registers supply no additional details to those which friends have been able to give, their testimony may be of great importance, for the recollections of old friends are more or less traditional, and the golden rule to be most carefully observed by genealogists, is

Verify your Information.

An honest searcher would never appreciate a “faked” pedigree; but it is fatally easy to assume a certain point, and, working from that assumption, to have all future details more or less incorrect.

No time should be considered wasted which is spent on verifying information.

The searchers should not even take it for granted that all Peerages or similar works are always correct; as a matter of fact, this is far from being the case.

Even in the mystic circle of the Baronetage it is said that some sixty claimants have appeared, whose titles, though received for long unchallenged, cannot be fully verified.

Our late king recently ordered an official roll of the Baronetage to be registered and kept.

This does not preclude, however, the pedigree-hunter from consulting Peerages and works of Family History at libraries; indeed, this might well be the next stage in his search. Let him look through his Library Index, under the heading “Genealogy,” and consult works in it which he thinks might bear on the matter in hand.

There are many such in all good libraries, a list of which will be given later on; but, while the search is in its infancy and does not go farther back than two or three generations, probably the Peerages (if the family is of social position), with perhaps certain other printed pedigrees and works on family history, such as Burke’s Commoners and Landed Gentry, should suffice for the present.

But the golden rule in genealogy should always be remembered; and, though the information thus derived may possibly be fairly correct, many details may call for verification later in the search.