Tracing your family tree

Tracing your family tree can be an interesting and addictive process.

This guide provides some pointers as to where to begin and general advice to help you along the way.

It is not intended to be a comprehensive guide to all the resources available at the Norfolk Record Office (NRO), Norfolk Heritage Centre (NHC) and beyond.

However, it does provide basic information about the most common records used in family research.

How to start

• Begin with what you know and work steadily backwards
• Gather as much information as possible from relatives
• Collect information from photographs, certificates, medals, family bibles and other family papers
• Try to verify everything that you are told or find on the internet against a primary source (such as an original document or image)
• Make copies of your documents and take these with you when carrying out research
• Make a note of everything you search, even if you found nothing relevant, to avoid repeating previous work