Genealogy

Whilst we were in the pool yesterday cooling down Pam and I were discussing family trees.

I know a few people who have traced their lineage back; in some cases by quite a few generations. It helps of course if the family have kept records and passed them on.

Where families have broken up and moved on it must be a whole lot more difficult. Although some of the work could probably be done using the Internet, I imagine you still need to visit various records which are not available online.

Pam can trace her ancestors back to her great great grandparents on her mother’s side of the family; I can only go back as far as my grandparents on my mother’s side and no further than my father on the other side.

To make matters worse for the genealogist, the quality of parish records vary a lot. It all depends how well they have been kept. 

Luckily for anyone in Bigastro, the parish records are in very good condition. So the job of tracing your family history in Bigastro would be relatively easy. Amazingly, the records go back to almost when the town was first established in 1701.

In total there are:-

• 22 Books of Baptisms:  covering the years from 1725 to  today.
  
• 10 Books of Marriages: covering the years from 1715 to  today.
  
• 10 Books of Deaths:  covering the years from 1737 to  today. 
   
• 7 Books of Infant Deaths covering the years from 1821 - 1958