The Genealogist: Researching 19th Century Biographical Information

As I mentioned before on this website, I intend to publish texts from the 19th century which were previously published in British magazines. The first three books will only be published in the USA due to copyright issues. In the USA, all texts published before 1923 are copyright-free. In Austria, as well as in many other countries, different copyright laws apply.

The first book published by me will be comprised of short texts by approximately 40 different authors. Those texts were previously published in British magazines in the 19th century. In addition, I’ll write a few chapters of the book myself in which I’ll cite texts from books which were published pre-1923. All in all, texts from approximately 50 different authors will be included in the first book.

As the copyright has expired on all those texts, I wouldn’t need to include biographical information about the authors in my book. However, I don’t just want to re-publish those texts, I want to bring the authors back to live, if you will. Most of them only ever had one or two short pieces of text published in those magazines, and didn’t become professional writers. No information can be found about most of them anywhere on the Internet, or in other books. I do think that those authors deserve to be remembered not just for their writings, but also for the lives they lived. And that’s why I am doing biographical research. If I can find out anything about them, e. g., dates of birth or death, or any other information, I will include it in my book.

I signed up for an account on TheGenealogist website, which is a brilliant resource for researching historical biographical information about people who were born, lived, or died in England and Wales. Some Scottish and Irish records can also be searched, if you have a so-called “Diamond” (all-access) subscription.

I can run searches for birth & baptism dates, or for dates of death. Census records date back to 1841! I can search education records, military records, Parish Record Books, or information about landowners or occupiers, to name just a few different kinds of records.

I can not only search census records for specific names, but can also type an address into the search form, and receive information about every single person who lived at that address, or visited friends or family members at that address, on the day a census was conducted in Britain.

If I want to acquire copies of actual birth or death certificates, I’ll need to contact the General Register Office (GRO) which is part of the United Kingdom’s “HM Passport
Office.” I already signed up for an account.

So that’s what I’ve been doing. Biographical research is time-consuming, for sure – but I love it! When I decided to establish a one-person publishing business, I didn’t do it to get rich. I wanted to publish books which I care about, books which I would want to read.