Family History for Waltham Abbey Essex | Family History Research

Next Meetings: 20th June, 18th July, 15th Aug, 19th Sept

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Welcome to Waltham Abbey Genealogy.co.uk

We welcome all those looking to research their family history. Whether you come from Essex or Scotland, you a welcome here. All our members are at different stages of their family history, some have only just started and some have been researching for many years.

About Abbey Genealogy Enthusiasts (A.G.E)

Abbey Genealogy Enthusiasts was launched on the 17th November 2004. The club is welcome to anyone and everyone who generally has an interest in genealogy and researching their family history. We are all at different stages with tracing our ancestors, some are very new to it and others have gained and learned more experience and knowledge to share and help with others. One of the many key features about the club is that there are many different people of all ages and backgrounds who can help and aid eachother through their own experiences of researching. The club has access to a number of historical records, books and the fun part is that it is all down to you how you want to research.

Abbey Genealogy Enthusiasts invites you to take part in our family history discussions, share your knowledge and stories of your past and to simply take a self, personal journey back in time to find out who your ancestors were.

We arrange many historical trips and outings to many different record offices for everyone and being that our meetings are held in the library we have access to computers and books. We meet on the third Wednesday of every month at 8.0clock in Waltham Abbey Library. If you are interested in joining Abbey Genealogy Enthusiasts email

Family History

Tracing back your family starts with your living relatives such as your parents, siblings, uncles, aunts,cousins and grand parents. These are the people that will hold the important information in unlocking your family history and where you came from. Advice to anyone who is new to family history and is starting out, record and write down all what you know about each of your living relatives and obtain their birth and marriage certificates for these are the factual evidence that proves what their full names and details are. Family members will have plenty of stories and family rumours that will give you a guide to who and where to search for, but always have in mind sometimes family stories can be like chinese whispers, which may prove to be far from the trueth in the end.

Another good tip to have in mind when searching for an ancestor is that our ancestors like some of us today,sometimes shortened their names or used nicknames and middle names to be referred to as and this can cause problems and great confusion when you research. Great grandfather was always known as Bob, but when i found his birth certificate his name was Robert and aunt Milly was recorded as Millicent on her marriage certificate.

Family History Records

Record keeping in modern day is a lot different to the days of our ancestors, for one thing it was certainly not as vital as it is today, and it was only until 1837 that legally everyone had to be registered for births,marriages and deaths in England and Wales.
The first census records started in 1841 which was conducted by the General Register Office which recorded the names and households and institutions of everyone. However it was not as well detailed as the 1851 census which gives you more details like the head of the family and occupations. The transcribers would do door to door visits recording everyone who lived in each household at that particular time. Take in mind that a large percentage were eliterate and they could not write so what tend to happen, transcribers would write down names as they knew it was spelt. One example Ernest could have been recorded as Earnest. This also also occured very often with surnames, which is a big reason for so many variations. Eg. Davies, Davis, Cook, Cooke, Cookson.

Previous Family History Outings

Dickens World
For those who like Charles Dickens and his stories, Dickens World is a must. As soon as walk in Dickens World, every foot step is step back in time. All those who attended had a good time and I expect this will be one to revisit. Visit website
London Metropolitan Archives
With only two Saturdays left of being open our trip to the LMA was well worth it. Not everyone had success, however it is better to know you have looked in an area and not found anything than to not know what in that area.
Essex Records Office
A good time was had by all, thanks once agian David who was on hand to answer our questions and show us around the records office showing us where we can find certain records.
London Metropolitan Archives
This was met with great responce, however we would have liked to have more next time. Everyone got something out of day if nothing else we all learnt how to use and search the LMA, which will prove to be well worth knowing when we go back.
Hope to see you all next time....
Essex Records Office
With thanks to David for helping us out on the day we all had a great time. Remebering that even if you find nothing out on the day, you have still had experience of search for records in a "records office".
Keep searching....
Family Records Centre
Great to see so many of you their, I know many of you had some success with finding ancesters Well Done. Lets hope this success continues...
Happy Hunting...
Waltham Abbey Cemetry
As morbid as it seams we all had a good time over the graveyard recording all the gravestones. Our findings will all be on the website soon.

Contact Details
General Register Office PO Box 2 Southport Merseyside PR8 2JD 0151 471 4200	The National Archives Ruskin Avenue Kew Richmond Surrey TW9 4DU 020 8876 3444

	British Library Newspaper Library Colindale Avenue London NW9 5HE 020 7412 7353