Simon Martin BSc, Genealogical Researcher

Latest News

As I am currently working part time at Wigan History Shop - do pop in and say Hi! - Although I am gradually still working on existing commissions as well, . I am therefore only currently taking on straightforward searches NOT impossible genealogies! Please bear this in mind if you are contacting me for new commissions

I was at the Who Do You Think You Are - Live - at Olympia did you spot me on the AGRA stand?

See my New Price List - well I like it!

Are you Stuck ?:-(   or even Perplexed ?:-()  Then you can still get a 25 minute consultation for £9.95 - a bargain surely! Pricelist and how to book research

Pricelist and how to book research

Who is Simon Martin? See Manchester Evening News Article http://members.aol.com/SMartinBSc/men.html

Genealogical Research, Family Tree Trouble Shooting, House Histories, Surname Research, One Name Studies, Website Development, Local History Research, Talks to Your Society or Club, even individually tailored Genealogical/ Historic holidays.

Simon Martin BSc, Genealogical Researcher

Experienced Researcher

Academically, I am a graduate in Geological Sciences from Leeds University with a 2:1. I also have a diploma in Information Technology [NVQ level 2]; a GCSE In Local History - Grade A; as well as the Chartered Institute Of Management Accountants - Part 1 - [Incorporating Business Law, Quantitative Methods, Accounts and Economics]. I am an AGRA member and have passed their rigourous selection proceedure for membership.

Practically, I am also an experienced genealogical researcher. I have been researching my own family history since 1987 and have been doing historical research since 1979 [age 14]. The best genealogists and most experienced are those who see the highest number of original records, know what they contain and what their limitations are. Although I am a Record Agent and will search the records you primarily specify you will be employing me primarily as a Genealogist who is aware of the inter-relations between different records and the advantages to you that can be gained from this knowledge.

I am registered with the Data Protection Acts to handle records of living persons. I am however not the best person to catch those drug dealers or to spy on people whether with a digital camera or not. I can however trace some living persons but this is not a speciality, as I am better engaged tracing those who are already dead through the records they left behind. I can also trace some of the records that you may think are in the hands of a living family member in record repositories without the need to trace the living person concerned.

As member 2045 of the Guild of One Name Studies I am registered as working on the Copestake/Copestick families and the Mountney/ De Mountney families [when I rarely get the time between commissions]. I have researched the Mountneys with the help of my correspondents to the 1100s and possibly earlier.

I am a member of a number of Family History Societies but you can be a member of these as well just by paying the membership fee..

With the extensive research and organisational skills I have gained, I am therefore willing to offer the following help and assistance to you in your research:

Research Services

IMPORTANT NOTICE - There is no guarantee of success with a genealogical or historical research.

I have extensive day in day out, week in week out experience of working at the following Libraries and Record Offices and am willing to do research at an agreed hourly rate plus expenses at any Record Office whether I have previously visited or not.

This actually means I have ready access to everything ever published, all Parish Registers, all published indexes, all records and censuses and everything in any record office in the whole country with very little restriction.

I do not just therefore search on the Internet but have personal contact with original records about YOUR ancestors.

Just think for a second how mind-blowing this is - Yes if it exists I can get to it and look at it and [in most cases] read it and then report on it in great detail to you  You cannot get closer to your ancestors than that.  In some cases I can obtain a copy of your ancestor's signature, in one case I even found their photo in their Merchant Navy Records.

I can also take photos with a digital camera [depending on many copyright restrictions].  I can photograph buildings and streets if needed.

LANCASHIRE (Pre 1974 Counties)

Wigan History Shop and Leigh Archives

Liverpool and Merseyside Record Offices

Merseyside Maritime Museum Library

Lancashire Record Office - Preston

Manchester Library and Record Office

Manchester - Greater Manchester Record Office

Manchester - Chetham's Library

Manchester - University Libraries

Manchester - Manchester and Lancashire FHS Library

Manchester - Portico Library

Manchester - John Rylands, Deansgate, Methodist Records [Not Registers] etc.

Manchester - The Manchester Museum of Science and Industry - Collections Centre

Stockport Library and Record Office

St Helens Library

Leigh Library

Bolton Library and Archives

Ince Library

Hindley Library

Orrell Library

Oldham Archives and Local Studies

Liverpool and Chorley LDS Family History Centres [I am not a Mormon]

Tameside Archives now at Ashton-Under-Lyne [Previously at Stalybridge]

Southport Library

Nelson Library

CHESHIRE

Stockport Library and Record Office

Cheshire and Chester Record Offices

Tameside Archives, now at Ashton-Under-Lyne [previously at Stalybridge]

YORKSHIRE

Leeds Library & Archives

West Yorkshire Archives Service including Leeds Archives Service

Leeds University Library [I have full use of all services available to their graduates]

Borthwick Institute, York - Prerogative Court of York, Wills and Administrations

Huddersfield Archives

Doncaster Archives

DERBYSHIRE

Derbyshire Record Office,

Matlock Local Studies Centre

Derby Local Studies Centre

Lichfield Joint Record Office, Lichfield (Bishops Transcripts, Wills and Marriage Licences for Derbyshire, part of Shropshire and Staffordshire)

STAFFORDSHIRE

Lichfield Joint Record Office, Lichfield (Bishops Transcripts, Wills and Marriage Licences for Derbyshire and Staffordshire)

Staffordshire Record Office, Stafford

William Salt Library, Stafford

Birmingham & Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry Library in the Birmingham and Midland Institute, Margaret Street, Birmingham

ISLE OF MAN

Note I do not read or speak Manx

Manx Museum

The Registries of Births, Marriages and Deaths

WARWICKSHIRE [West Midlands]

Birmingham Library & Archives

Birmingham & Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry Library in the Birmingham and Midland Institute, Margaret Street, Birmingham

LONDON - All UK

Society of Genealogists Library [SOG]

Family Records Centre [FRC]

PRO - Kew - The National Archives including the Manorial Documents Register

Guildhall Library

British Library Including Oriental & India Office Collections [BL]

Institute of Historical Research, University of London

London Metropolitan Archives

WALES

Note I do not speak or read Welsh

National Library of Wales

St David's Cathedral Library

Pembrokeshire Record Office

Ireland

Note I do not speak or read Gaelic

National Library of Ireland, Dublin

General Register Office of Ireland, Dublin

Irish National Archives, Dublin

Church Representative Body Library, Dublin [Church of Ireland Records]

Chorley LDS

St Helens Library

Liverpool Central Library

I can also meet you in a Record Office for a Consultation and can guide you through the records eg at Wigan History Shop, St Helens Library etc.

Talks [Fee is negotiable and depends on travel and in one case how many surname histories you want me to compile within the 6 months running up to your meeting!]

Introduction to Family History. Interactive short talk with two puzzles to assemble a Family History from copies of documents supplied. Takes about 90 minutes, includes live Ship's Bell from the "Ebba Brahe" and large Family Bible.

Full Genealogy Course over 10 weeks including:

- Getting Started. 

• "Raiding your Granny" getting her to spill the beans about the family, 
• family photos, family bibles, documents, don't forget book plates etc. 
• Finding living relatives. 
• Electoral Registers, Telephone Directories and the Internet. 
• Beware of scams and people on the internet who do not do any real research, Chinese whispers. 
• Data Protection Act, Traceline, 
• Tracing downwards is more difficult than tracking backwards, why and the uncertainty of life.

- Drawing up a family tree.

• Freehand, using Microsoft Word and the Lucida Console font, 
• Using a genealogy package and the limitations of each, 
• What if my ancestor had 4 wives? etc. 
• Keeping research records, 
• Why you should record everything in a firmly bound hard backed book and reference everything properly. 
• The importance of making regular backups of computer data and easy ways to do it.. 
• Goals, time management planning and is life too short to worry about it all.

- Using archives, libraries, the Internet and paid researchers

• How to get the best out of them all and the limitations of the Internet and even the limitations of Archives and how to get round the problems.

- Civil Registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths.

• Big advantages despite the problems and pitfalls [do I really save by refusing to buy any certificates?], 
• Why it is important to use a local registrar where possible rather than the General Register Office [GRO]. 
• A discussion on what are primary and what are secondary sources and how to record them in your family history program. 
• Problems 1837-1875, 1837-1899, 
• What happens in 1969?, 
• How to solve problems and trace back to Parish Registers. 
• Why, once you have a birth certificate, you can't just find a baptism straight away or a burial if you have a death certificate. 
• Civil Registration in Scotland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Channel Islands, India and Oriental Office of British Library Records and overseas. 
• Internet developments and their limitations and advantages. 
• Checking the originals of Marriages in Parish Registers. 
• Finding Marriages if the registrar has too many indexes to search.

- Census Returns.

• What are they? 
• How do you find a reference in the census and record it so that you and anyone else reading your notes can find it again? Class, Piece [Box], Enumeration district [1841], Folio, Page, Schedule - numbers numbers numbers. 
• Why are those after 1851 more useful? 
• The 1841 Census, its limitations due to rounding and lack of relationships and how to overcome them. 
• Census On CD-ROM, 
• Census on the Internet, FreeCEN. 
• How to use Census returns and Civil Registration together - Father on Marriage Entry, place of birth on census, ages on census and why the originals should always be checked. 
• Finding Irish Ancestry using the census. 
• Using Certificates as Indexes to the Census. 
• Using Directories and other finding aids as indexes to the Census. 
• Online Indexes and their limitations eg 1901 Census being Indexed very badly.

- Parish Registers  

• What are they? 
• Why Baptisms, Marriages and Burials are not the same as Births, Marriages and Deaths. 
• Why we should not pester or demand things from clergy. 
• Why it is best to search for the civil records first - indexing, 
• Where are parish registers deposited, 
• Copies, transcripts extracts, 
• Indexes IGI, British Vital Records Index, indexing and its precision and time consuming nature and why we should not cause a fuss and can't always have everything we demand. 
• Why the originals should always be checked. 
• The History of Parish Registers - The Civil War losses and civil marriages being nailed to the town hall, 
• Mortuaries in Church Wardens Accounts, 
• Parish registers start, 
• Copy them out in Parchment, 
• Copy them to the Bishop [See Bishops Transcripts], 
• 1752 and all that - change of new year - legitimising ancestry as a result and people who have their wills proved before they appear to be dead and other peculiarities,  
• How to record dates old/New System, 
• Burial In Wool, taxation and under-recording, tax evasion, declaring your deceased relative was a "pauper". 
• Hardwick's Marriage Act 1753, 
• Dade registers and their great utility, 
• Rose's Registers including changes in the style of recording marriages in 1754 and 1812. 
• National Index of Parish Registers, 
• Other finding aids, GENUKI, Indexes and the Phillimore Trancripts including errors, 
• Boyd, Pallot. The Internet, 
• FreeREG and Online Parish Clerks (OPCs). 
• Phillimore Atlas, Parish Boundaries, Surrounding Parishes and why be careful if near a county boundary.

- Bishops Transcripts [BTs], Banns Registers and Marriage Licences and their utility and limitations.

• Marriage licence Bonds and allegations - What are they? Why useful? - ages, marital condition, occupations, bondsmen and witnesses. Why - High status including Marriage settlements and how to find them, Non-Conformity, shot gun, home on leave. 
• Special licences and how to find them, 
• Ordinary Licences and how to find them. 
• Who can issue them. Can a father write out a licence for his daughter to marry? Surrogates
• William Paver and his Yorkshire Marriage Licence Records; did he destroy the originals to support his forgeries, limitations as a result, 
• Medieval Dispensations to marry given by a Cardinal, 
• Consanguinity and the Prayer book table of affinity - don't marry your granny, 
• Banns Registers - are they worth looking for - township of residence earlier location. 
• Bishops transcripts and lost or destroyed Parish Registers, 
• inaccessible Parish Registers, more or less details than the Parish Registers, 
• Forged entry in the Parish Register of Frodsham revealed using a Bishop's transcript and lack of Marriage Licence bond and allegation, discussion on the reasons and implications. 
• National Index of Parish Registers and Phillimore Atlas of Parish Registers.
• Indexes, IGI, British Vital Records Index, Boyd, Phillimore's marriages. Indexes to Marriage Licences on CD-Rom the Internet. Parish registers act as indexes.

- Non Conformists,

• How many and the 1851 Religious Census and 1831 Return from Incumbents. Directories. 
• Roman Catholics, 
• Orthodox, 
• Baptists, 
• Methodists, 
• Quakers, 
• Jews, 
• French protestant émigrés, 
• Presbyterians and Scottish links, 
• Congregationalists. 
• More modern denominations, post 1900 Pentecostal and Black Churches; 
• Sects - Mormons, Spiritualists etc. 
• Why it is not wise to use a medium to find your family history, but it is wise sometimes to use a Mormon Family History Centre. 
• Records, lack of records [St Helens Independent Chapel - where there other registers?] worst culprits.  Quakers and very good record keeping discussion. 
• the 1837 Commission, Records at the National Archives [TNA in RG]. IGI.
• Records at the Quakers near Euston and Digests. Dr Williams Library - Congregational and independents, Wesleyan Registry, British Vital Records Index.

- My ancestor is dead what do I do?

• My ancestor is not yet dead what do I do? 
• Wills, Letters of Administration [Admons], Inventories, Probate Accounts, Probates Post 1858, Pre 1858, Medieval.Bishop's Registers, Saxon wills. 
• Pre 1858 how to find Juristictions, Camp, Gibson and the Phillimore Atlas. 
• Prerogatives Courts of York and Canterbury [PCY, PCC] how to use, Early America Wills, 
• Death Duty Registers, Bank of England Extracts. 
• Exeter bombed during the War and efforts to reconstruct the collection. 
• Grave stones, 
• Grave Books/ Registers, Burial Registers, Sextons Notebooks [Wigan, Manchester Cathedral], 
• Memorial [funeral] cards. 
• How do I find my ancestor's death and burial - lack of indexes. 
• Newspapers - Coroner's and death notices, obituaries, 
• Who was Who, Dictionary of National Biography, trade and religious magazines; 
• Workhouses and their Infirmary Wings, hospital records. 
• Index to the Times, 
• Death Certificates - do I really have to buy one - discussion; 
• National Burials Index, 
• Ford, Yew Tree etc. at Liverpool.

- My ancestor had a job, calling, was in the army, navy, air force or was a poor criminal bastard without a father or any money.

• Army Ancestry, Burnt and Unburnt Series, Medal Rolls, Post 1922, Commonwealth War Graves Commission.  Refusing to go to Kew.
• India and Oriental Office of British Library Records, Naval Ancestry, 
• Merchant Fleet Ancestry, 
• Air Force, 
• Clergy, 
• Doctors, 
• Surgeons, 
• Civil Service, 
• Working for an employer. 
• Working for himself - Churchwarden's accounts, surveyors of the highways accounts, Apprenticeship Records, 
• Poor Law Records, Overseers of the Poor and the poor rate - rate books, bastardy examinations and bonds, 
• Constables accounts, removal orders, Police Courts Petty crime [Manorial Records], Quarter Sesson records. Assize records, reprive from death only to be sent to Australia.

- Land Records. 

• Deeds, American reliance on land records to trace ancestry
• Manorial Records, 
• directories, 
• lists, 
• taxes, Including, Land, Window and Hearth, Medieval Records, 
• Norman Ancestry. 
• Solving problems open forum, party.

I can of course tailor a talk from the above topics especially for your group.

Box of Treasures Two puzzles set to members grouped in syndicates, to assemble a Family History from copies of documents supplied. Takes about 75 minutes, includes live Ships Bell from the "Ebba Brahe" and large Family Bible. This is Introduction to Family History without the introduction!

Help I'm Stuck! Why we get stuck in tracing a family history and possible routes out of the brick wall. Takes about 90 minutes, includes live ships bell of the "Ebba Brahe" and large Family Bible.

James Smith and John Dickron - Naughty Chaps? - An exploration of the Lancaster Assize records and criminal records of the Palatinate of Lancaster with a discussion on who was the naughtiest John Dickron the Burglar, his "victim", or the prosecuting council! You can decide and cast your votes. Includes live Ships Bell from the "Ebba Brahe".

Origin of Surnames. Surnames! we all have them, but have we ever thought where they might come from and who the original holder of our Surname was? ... Please supply surnames of your regular members and give me 6 months warning!

E-mail and the Internet. Practical Live Demonstration of Internet and e-mail. Best if there is a live telephone line. Suitable for no more than 20 people.

Recent Developments in Computer Genealogy. I will tell you all about the latest hip Genealogy thing. Extra cost if I do not happen to have a copy of that latest thing that you want to know about.

Tailor made talks. These could be One-name Studies, The Guild of One-Name Studies [Includes latest directory], Seeking Professional Help. Parish Registers, Bishops Transcripts, Wills, Marriage Licences, Births, Marriages and Deaths and their Indexes, Reading Old Documents, It's In Latin!! Commonwealth War Graves Commision Web-site. Or anything you want but give me 6 months to develop it and write it. My talks tend to be tailored to my audience, I normally try and bring the Ship's Bell from the "Ebba Brahe" into it somewhere and a discussion. Other ideas could be Non-Conformists, Bound up for Australia, Maps.

Interesting talks and speakers are also available from the PRO, Kew and Local Record Offices, they can often describe their collections much better than I can.. Another interesting talk I went to was from the Tyndale Society on the history of the Bible http://www.tyndale.org/ [I am not a member] you can buy a copy of their slideshow.

Genealogical Holidays individually tailored to your requirements, price of course depends on requirements.

I can research your ancestry then show you where your ancestors came from.

I can book you into record offices and help you search and interpret the records.

We can even take you round the British Isles, take you on guided walks in the Lake District or even take you to Evensong at Lichfield Cathedral.

We are conveniently sited near to Manchester and Liverpool and their airports.

We can put you up in a family home (or a hotel of your choice) and then drive you wherever you want to go.

If emailing me please put "RESEARCH" in the subject line. SMartinBSc@aol.com

By Post to Simon Martin

"Ebba Brahe"

21 Petticoat Lane

Higher Ince

Wigan, Lancashire

WN2 2LH

England

Wigan 01942 702594

Mobile 07811 031795 - Very Very Rarely Switched on!

Still here? As you have read this far, you have read the blurb and you appear to like it, and can now see the advantages in using my services to help you trace your Family History, so now is decision time.  Go on give it a try. Aww go on. Go on I tell you, what have you to lose.

My price list and how to prepare your request for research are here: Pricelist and how to book research

Last Updated 29 January 2008

WHAT IS A GENEALOGIST?
A full-time detective
A thorough historian
An inveterate snoop
A confirmed diplomat
A keen observer
A hardened sceptic
An apt biographer
A qualified linguist
A part-time lawyer
A studious sociologist
An accurate reporter
An hieroglyphics expert,
AND . . .
A complete nut!

Courtesy of Jan in Bronte Country - Yorkshire List