04 September 2017
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Useful genealogy websites for family history
Rod Shepherd presents his round-up of the best family history websites, taken from recent issues of Family Tree magazine.
Rod Shepherd presents his round-up of the best family history websites, taken from recent issues of Family Tree magazine.
Ancestry Hour - an online community of family history enthusiasts. Also on Twitter on Tuesdays, 7pm-8pm GMT - use #AncestryHour and tag @familytreemaguk
FAMILY HISTORY ON THE NET – NEW (2009!) EDITION 2009/10
Author: Colin Waters; ISBN 978 1 84674 156 2
Publisher: Countryside Books
1861 Census England and Wales
1939 Register for England and Wales at FindMyPast
The register is available online only at this site and is free to search
but there is a charge to view the records, with different pay-per-view
packages starting at £6.95 (as at December 2015)
Catholic Family History Society
Census details at Automated Genealogy
and for 19th century censuses (1841-1891). A
c1921 Census substitute covers 23 counties at October 2017 go to the News tab at TheGenealogist.
Central Database for Burials and Cremations, Deceased Online
Coal Mining History Resource Centre
Coal Mining in Wales: Welsh Coal Mines, Digging up the Past and Museums Wales.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Copy of a will at UK Family Records and Justice.gov.uk
Copy Will and Probate (wills 1858 – 1996)
to order a copy of a will made in England or Wales within these dates
- Use this website address; or 2) by post at
The Postal Searches and Copies Department, Leeds District Probate
Registry, York House, 31, York Place, Leeds, LS1 2BA.
Create Timelines at Histropedia
An open platform allowing people to work together to create timelines
using information imported from current Wikipedia data.
Day of Birth (and conception!) and other facts - Paul Sadowski
as above re religious festivals at SmartNet
Digital Executor to Digital Legacy
British Library collection of electoral registers, complete for the UK from
1947 but with many earlier holdings from 1832
Emigration to North America at Family Search.
English Civil War: British History Online and The Cromwell Association.
Family Name: History and Geography at GB Names
Federation of Family History Societies
To find their annual “Really Useful Information” leaflet go to their home page,
click on “About Us”, highlight “Really Useful Leaflet”, download and save it.
France – births by Département 1891 to date
Free online genealogy course with FamilySearch
Indexes of births, marriages and deaths freely available to view from
1837 to, largely, the 1970s
Free access to transcriptions of UK censuses – care! partial coverage
Transcriptions of baptisms, marriages and burials across the UK
Free records transcriptions - Ancestry Aid
Free UK Genealogy - free access to a host of features for family historians.
General Searching - National Archives
General Register Office BMD Indexes – to access the improved indexes register at - www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates
GENUKI (UK and Ireland Genealogical Information Service)
Free access to archives of images (e.g. street scenes) to enhance family history research. Diamond subscribers to The Genealogist can access the archive to allow the download of images in a high resolution format.
Jersey Records back to 1540 at Ancestry
The records are mainly in French. Search at the ancestry web address above. Free access available at Jersey Archive. For more information search the catalogue at Jersey Heritage
Look for an Archive at National Archives
Looking for people at Cyndis List
Looking for people/families at FamilySearch
(Input: both parents’ names – if known – village and date range)
Old Maps (researching): Cassini Maps and Old Maps Online.
For a list of the “Top 20 Websites for Researching Old Maps” see article by June Terrington in Family Tree May 2017 pp. 86 & 87
(for free online tutorial on deciphering old-style handwriting)
Parish Registers (via BMD Registers)
Parish Register Transcriptions
(Andy Phillips, FreeReg area assistant for Somerset)
Probate - which registry? Consider
PROBATE JURISDICTIONS: WHERE TO LOOK FOR WILLS (6th Edition) ISBN: 9781906280550 RRP £5.50, softback, The Family History Partnership
Where people researching their families can find others researching the
same names
(free)
Second World War Military Records
Tactic “cousin bait” use either of these websites to attract others researching the same name(s) to contact you to ask for/share information
The Gazette (the London Gazette)*
*Access, search and use is free. Register for a “My Gazette” account.
The War Graves Photographic Project
To locate a grave or memorial and obtain a photograph – use the
website’s search facility to see if a photograph is currently available
Time and Date (find day of week for a date)
Timeline service Twile.
Trove Website
To search for ancestors in Australia
UKBMD (for links to local sites etc.)
Vision of Britain (overlay maps from different periods – 1801 to 2001)
Enter name being researched and follow on-screen instructions
War Memorials: Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and Great War Memorials.
Search for, find and order wills and probates
British Legion website trying to get commemoration for every life lost
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