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Help with Family History Problems

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So you are having problems researching your family history? This is something that we all suffer from, and one of the best ways of getting help is to join a Family History Society. As there was much movement of people from Cornwall, there are a number of societies to help in your research in the county.

If you want an answer quickly, then ask it on one of the email list. Cornwall has a large number of lists:

 

Help with surnames

The first place you should look if you are interested in a particular surname, is the Guild of One Name Studies (GOONS). The GOONS' members collect and research information about all occurrences of the particular surname they are researching.

The other source to look at are the surname lists that individuals maintain for particular locations. Have a look at the Cornwall surname lists

Contributing information

You may wish to contribute some information about a particular place or parish, or elsewhere in Cornwall. If you want to supply information about your own family, or a link to your family web page, then I'm sorry but you're out of luck. We are trying to provide information that will interest most users, and that would tend to be swamped by personal information. Links to personal pages are also a maintenance nightmare, as experience has shown that they change URL's or disappear quite frequently. I suggest you use the surname lists for this purpose.

Now if that hasn't put you off, it is quite likely that you may know some basic facts that will be of use to other people. For example look at a page with plenty of information, e.g. St Austell. That's bound to give you some ideas of what can be provided. In particular I need to know the basic items, which frequently need a bit of local knowledge:

  • Which is the local library which holds the local studies information for the place you have knowledge about?
  • Which local Register Office holds the records for that place?
  • What are the GRO piece numbers and LDS film numbers for the censuses of the parish?
  • Are there any census indexes, apart from 1881, and who publishes them? If they exist but aren't published, where do you find them?
  • Is there a local history or other society that may have relevant information?
  • Have any books been published about the place?
  • Then there are details of what useful records exist; have they yet been published, etc.?

Please look again at the list of the information that we're particularly looking for at the moment.

So if you know any of this information, and it's not currently on the Cornwall parish page, then do let us know via the form at the bottom of the appropriate page. (Note: Have a look at the bottom of all pages [see at the foot of this page]. All GENUKI pages for Cornwall have this link at the foot of the page which will created a response form for you.). All parish and Town pages for Cornwall have now been produced.

Reporting problems

If you have found a problem on the parish page, or on any other Cornwall