WHITEHOUSE FAMILY HISTORY CENTRE

Registrations are free (as are all Whitehouse FHC services). Please read Section 3 carefully.

This is a friendly, privately run, non-commercial service for those who are researching their Whitehouse family tree.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT REGISTRATION

1. What is the point of registration ?

An important aim of the Whitehouse FHC is to archive your genealogy. Another is to put you in touch with distant relatives researching the same or a closely related ancestral line. By registering with the Whitehouse FHC, you will be linked ONLY with those who are connected to your genealogy (usually distant cousins, but occasionally people who are connected through a marriage).

When you register, I will search your tree to see whether it matches anyone else's and tell you if it does. If it does, I will then put you in touch with the other correspondent(s). Also, you will receive a Whitehouse FHC reference number. I will enter this reference number against the relevant census, probate and marriage data on the website. This will help me (and readers of the site) to locate future matches. There is no charge for this or any other service.

2. How do I register ?

There’s no form to fill in or boxes to complete, but see below regarding the requirements. Simply send me an e-mail headed “New Registration”. My e-address is xxxxxxxxxxxxx[at]yyyyyyyy[dot]com. The non-case-sensitive 13-letter word consists of a ten-letter surname plus three initial letters immediately following it, without any spaces, dots etc. The non-case-sensitive 8-letter word is the name of a well-known British supermarket owned by the John Lewis Partnership. Please excuse this simple measure to protect the e-address from spamming.

My postal address is:

XJ5 2MS dnalgne ,yerrus ,nottus ,yawgdir eht ,eerht-ytxis ,ycrep htiek rm

Contact details are also available under Whitehouse on the Guild of One-Name Studies’ website: http://www.one-name.org/cgi-bin/searchrequest.cgi

3. What information do I have to supply to become registered ?

YOU CANNOT BE REGISTERED UNLESS YOU HAVE EITHER (I) A CENSUS REFERENCE OF 1881 OR EARLIER, WHICH INCLUDES THE WHITEHOUSE NAME, OR (II) A FIRM MARRIAGE DATE OF 1881 OR EARLIER IN WHICH ONE OF THE PARTIES IS A WHITEHOUSE.

Please supply the following information (check this off as you go):

(a) Your style - Mr, Mrs., Ms., Dr. etc.

(b) Your names

(d) Your landline telephone number (or mobile/cellphone, but only if you have no landline)

(e) A tree of your Whitehouse family. A tree can be in any format you like except a digital file in gedcom or specialist family tree software. Simple text is fine, as is also the text output from specialist software. You can draw it on paper and scan it in or post it if you prefer. There’s normally no need to include anyone born after 1901, unless part of a sequence of siblings that begins in or before 1901.

(f) Census references - use the website to obtain them for British censuses 1841 to 1871. If you have 1911 census information, include it (scan in the original page if possible).

(g) Whether you can read a file sent to you in MS Excel 2003.

(h) If you are not the descendant, a note of who is - maybe your wife or husband, for example. If it is more complicated than this, please draw a tree to explain.

(i) Through whom you or the descendant are descended - a simple statement such as “Henry Whitehouse born 1897 is my great-grandfather” is enough. The starting point of this explanation should be the most recent ancestor of yours who qualifies for inclusion, that is to say normally someone with the Whitehouse name born in or before 1901 or who is part of a sequence of siblings that begins in or before 1901.

Wherever possible, trees should not be simply of your descent, but include “collaterals”, i.e. who are not in your direct line, but are brothers and sisters of Whitehouses who are, and descendants of these collaterals who have the Whitehouse surname.

Include as much birth, death and marriage information as you possess pre- and post-civil registration, including day, month and year dates, places and name of church etc. and the occupations of adults, if possible. More detail is greatly preferable to less. There is no need to supply information which you do not have at present.

For the spouse, that is to say the person who is married to the Whitehouse, please include the same detail.

A common fault is to fail to include places. Another fault is to provide an excellent tree, but omit to include detail about the most recent ancestor who qualifies (see above) or his/her wife/husband. A third failing is to omit occupations.

It is becoming very important to provide me with good, accurate trees which have as much detail as possible, because of the demands on my time. Your co-operation would be greatly appreciated.

4. What records about me will you keep ?

On the website (eventually), the following information only:

Your reference number

Your surname

Your forenames and style (Mrs, Ms, Miss, Dr etc.)

If you become deceased (D), contact has been lost (LC) or you no longer wish to be contacted by others (NF), a note to this effect

Reference number of linked correspondents.

Not publicly available, but will be given out to anyone who is linked with your genealogy:

Your e-mail address, if you have one

Your postal address; also, if you are not researching your own genealogy, a note of who is the descendant

However, see Section 6 below, where contact has been lost.

Private information which will not be disclosed to anyone without your specific consent:

Your telephone number.

These “rules” are followed strictly.

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO TELL ME OF ANY CHANGES, ESPECIALLY TO YOUR E-ADDRESS. PLEASE PUT ME IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK IN YOUR E-MAIL SOFTWARE.

5. What information about my genealogy will you keep ?

I am destroying all paper files and bundles and keeping the chart, on computer, plus a printout. Exceptionally, I will also keep tidily presented family histories, so long as they do not include excessive material related to other ancestral lines. At some point I shall put the charts into the public domain, e.g. website, Society of Genealogists’ Library, libraries and record offices in the West Midlands etc. I reserve the right to cut off or reduce any information relating to any person born after 1901. You have the right to do the same.

6. What if a correspondent dies or no longer wants to be contacted or contact has been lost ?

I shall stand in the place of the deceased (D), non-functional correspondent (NF) or lost contact (LC) and provide the chart.

Where contact is lost, which means that I have been unable to find the person at the last e-address, last postal address and in the relevant on-line telephone directory, I reserve the right to publish the last known addresses and any genealogical details that I possess, in an appeal to trace the missing person.

Keith