GETTING STARTED

Family history demands a step by step approach, working back in time. Begin by finding out what your family already knows. Who is your earliest known relative? Do you have the date and place of that person's birth, marriage or death?

Draw up a family tree showing the known people in your family, their dates, and how they relate to each other, starting with yourself at the bottom. Then you can see where there are gaps.

Birth, marriage and death certificates

Civil registration began on 1 July 1837 and no central records of births, marriages or deaths exist before that date. Birth, marriage and death certificates cannot be viewed or ordered at The National Archives. The General Register Office (GRO) keeps all certificates of births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales since 1837.

•  Find out where to search birth, marriage and death indexes online at Directgov
• Order certificates from the General Register Office

If you are tracing a birth, marriage or death before 1 July 1837, look for parish registers in local archives. As most non-conformists were obliged to marry in the Church of England between 1754 and 1837, it is possible to find records of their marriages in Church of England parish registers.

•  Search BMDregisters for non-conformist and other non-parochial parish records of births and baptisms, and deaths and burials up to 1865

Census records

A census of the population of England and Wales has been taken every ten years since 1801 with the exception of 1941. The 1841 census was the first to list the names of every individual. Earlier censuses covering 1801 to 1831 only recorded the number of people in each area.

• Search census records for England and Wales from 1841 to 1911 online.

Wills

You can search over one million wills proved before 1858 in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury on DocumentsOnline, The National Archives' collection of digitised records. Although the records mainly relate to testators resident in the south of England, all parts of Britain are represented in the records.

• Search wills on DocumentsOnline

Wills proved from 1858 to the present day are held only by the Probate Service. The National Probate Calendar may also contain details including the full names of executors, administrators and relationships to the deceased; the date and place of the death; the date and place of the probate or administration grant; and the value of the estate. A complete set of calendars (from 1858) is available for public inspection at Record Keeper's Dept, Principal Registry of the Family Division, First Avenue House, 42-49 High Holborn, London WC1V 6NP, Tel: 020 7947 6948. Most District Probate Registries have calendars covering at least the last fifty years.

At the show

Exhibitors to visit include:

• Ancestry.co.uk
• Federation of Family History Societies
• Findmypast.com
• General Register Office
• Society of Genealogists
• The Genealogist
• Probate Service

You can also go to workshops on tracing your family history on all three days of the show.

• See the workshop programme for more details.

Click here to view a floorplan with some of the top show highlights for people who are Getting Started.