Links

These are among the many websites and directories I’ve used to help me in my family tree research.

Note that search engines on these sites vary but to try to limit the results to the most relevant if too many are returned, enclose your search in quotation marks. For example, “Walter Finch” will return only those documents with those two words together in a string rather than all documents featuring Walter and/or Finch.

1939 Register

A census substitute taken in preparation for war. It’s at Find my Past and Ancestry.

Agricultural workers

Agricultural labourers are not easy to track down. The Museum of English Rural Life has some background info.

Australia

National Archives of Australia has military records, passenger lists and more but the states also have archives, including Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania.
Australian War Memorial has lots of military records.
Death Notices from 1803 to present as published in Australian newspapers.
Gallipoli and other Australian Imperial Force records can be found at the AIF site.
The Australian newspaper archive is free, comprehensive and invaluable.
CoraWeb is an comprehensive resource for immigration to Australia and associated records.
Ancestry and Find my Past have information on transportees and the various criminal records associated with them.

Bankrupts

The London Gazette lists bankruptcies and other matters of record.

Berkshire

The county records office website is a useful resource.

BMDs – see ‘Ireland’ for additional Irish BMD sites

Free collections are at Freereg and FreeBMD. Family Search is free but you will need to register.
Ancestry and Find my Past are subscription sites with growing collections.
Norfolk baptism records.
British people who died abroad as well as clandestine marriages are at BMDregisters.
General Record Office of Northern Ireland has many records online.
Death duty registers are at the National Archives and some can be downloaded for a small fee.
Burials at Find a Grave and Billion Graves – often with photos of the gravestones.
Deceased Online features UK burial and cremation records. Free to search. Pay for records.
The Angus Library and Archive is the leading collection of Baptist history and heritage. Baptists generally didn’t baptise members until adulthood.

Canada

Library and Archives Canada has numerous records and resources including census.
CanGenealogy has a comprehensive set of links to resources.
Nova Scotia’s family history archives.
Canadian First World War service records.
Military resources can be found at Canada at War.
Canadiana has numerous histories, newspapers and other archives.
Royal British Colombia Museum holds online BMDs for the province.
The Provincial Archives of Alberta is home to BMDs for the province.

Census & substitutes

Census Finder shows where records are held around the world.
Pre-1841 census returns information.
Freecen has free records for parts of the UK.
Census records are at pay sites Ancestry and Find my Past as well as at free site Family Search.
Protestation Returns – not so much a census but a list of names of men from every parish who had to swear an oath to support the Protestant religion in 1642.

Crime & punishment

Ancestry and Find my Past have a collection of crime collections including transportation, prison hulks, judges’ reports, prison records and Old Bailey listings. Find my Past also has newspaper archives – a great resource for trial reports.
Black Sheep Ancestors is a great resource for those researching crime and criminals.
Digital Panopticon – search millions of records from around fifty datasets, relating to the lives of 90,000 convicts from the Old Bailey
Old Bailey Online has many trial transcripts.
Our Criminal Ancestors has guides and some stories.
Prison History – website with info about prisons but also useful links to where records are held for individual institutions.

Directories

Leicester University has digitised trade directories listing businesses, their owners and addresses. The pay sites have collections too.
Midlands Historical Data – you have to pay to view records.

Divorce

Ancestry has some case files; more recent ones at the National Archives.

Dorset

Dorset History Centre – lists of records and where to find them.
Dorset Online Parish Clerks – historical data for many county parishes.

Essex

Search the county’s records.

Forums

Register for membership and post questions for help if you’re stuck. Roots Chat has numerous forums. They can be organised by county, surname and so on.

General

Society of Genealogists. An online database of records.
The Modern Records Centre is the main British repository for national archives of trade unions and employers’ organisations, and also has strong collections relating to pressure groups, fringe political parties and transport.
Family Search has much more than BMDs, including census, land records, poor law, crime, directories and tax.
Genealogy for Kids – a great resource for young people getting into family history. Thanks to Isaac for pointing this one out.
HathiTrust – a large collection of archived reports, records and other papers, including publications.
There are millions of records at the National Archives – and some can be downloaded online for a small fee.
Guild of One-Name Studies has lots of information on surnames and the families associated with them.
British History Online features histories of our towns and villages to help us get an idea of where our ancestors lived. Some record sets are available.
Connected Histories searches a wide range of websites and records in one place.
GenGuide is a guide to records and where to find them.
genuki.org.uk has info about counties, with ideas on where to find the associated records.
archive.org has numerous books and other publications, many long out of print.
Old maps of Britain at the National Library of Scotland.
Civil War Petitions lists places and names of people who claimed welfare payments as a result of the conflict of the 1640s. Can be searched by place, name and more.

Hampshire

Hampshire county records office has useful resources. Search their online database.
Knightroots has many parish records.
Some Wonston parish records.

Hertfordshire

Herts county records can be searched online. Probate records for the east of the county are held at Essex Record Office.
Herts sources available at the family history society.
History of St Albans and nearby villages, including family history records.
Policing history in Herts, including documents and crimes.
Herts Memories. Brings together various sources in the county from documents and memories.

India

Find death records at Find my Past.
Many records are free to search at Families in Britain India Society.
The British Library hosts India Office family history records.
The British Association of Cemeteries in South Asia has records.

Inquests

Many coroners’ inquest records no longer exist but the cases were a good source for newspapers. Find my Past has a big collection of publications. London Lives has some inquest records.

Irish records

Beyond 22 is an attempt to create an online version of the Irish Record Office before its destruction in 1922. Will include many rediscovered records.
Belfast Burial Records.
Calendars of Wills and Administrations 1858-1920, mostly for the whole of Ireland.
Griffith’s Valuation was a 19th century survey and is a useful census substitute. Revisions were made to the original records over the years and these are available online at NI Direct.
Ulster Settlers Database lists known settlers to Ulster in the 17th century especially from Scotland and northern England.
Irish Emigration Database, includes letters, family papers and diaries.
Irish census records from 1901 and 1911, plus surviving records from 1821-1851.
Substitute census records for 1841/51.
Irish catholic parish records – a free service.
A huge resource for County Tyrone records, people and histories.
Roots Ireland have many records and potentially cheap subscriptions. For example, you can pay for just a day’s access.
John Grenham’s site is a hub for Irish ancestors
General Record Office of Northern Ireland has many BMD records available to view online.
Church of Ireland records and guides.
The Irish Genealogist has a free name search of its annual journal.
Public Record Office of Northern Ireland has extensive record collections including the usual suspects and more unusual collections such as tithe payment records.
This guide contains a list of parishes and describes whether records are available to view online or elsewhere or, indeed, whether they’ve survived.
Irish BMDs are available on many sites including for free on the official site Irish Genealogy. This contains births over 100 years ago, marriages over 75 years ago and deaths over 50 years ago.
Irish military archives.
Some tips on how to take research further and where to look for records are at the Irish Genealogy Toolkit.
The National Archives of Ireland – calendars of wills, valuation office records and more.
The National Library of Ireland has various resources including directories, property websites and published family histories.

Kent

Kent Archaeology has wills, surveys, local history and much more.
Kent Online Parish Clerks.
Kent Genealogy with free indexes, eg quarter sessions and land tax.
Kent Archives has details of all the records held by the county.

London

Layers of London. This looks at places through time.
Parish records, especially for Docklands, are on pay site Parish Register.
Policeman in the family? History by the Yard may have details and the National Archives hold many London police staff records.
Various manuscripts and much more at London Lives.
Searchable livery company records.

Medieval genealogy

England’s Immigrants 1330-1550, a database of more than 60,000 who migrated to England.
Manorial records. This documents register shows available documents and where they’re located. Family Search has a growing collection that can be searched here.
Guides and sources for medieval genealogy
Foundation for Medieval Genealogy
English Civil War Petitions from veterans and others.

Merchant Navy

Merchant Navy crew lists from 1915.
Merchant Navy records collated by the Maritime Museum.
Crew lists from voyages ending in 1881. Note that this site holds vast quantities of crew lists but most are not online.
A useful guide on where to find crew lists, created by the National Maritime Museum.
More crew lists – a site set up to improve access to the records of British merchant seafarers of the late 19th century with the largest database of entries from crew lists. Crew lists there and at TNA are often found by official ship’s number, which can be found by searching for the ship on this website.
WW2 medal records for merchant navy seamen.

Military – First World War

Lives of the First World War – collected records of thousands of servicemen
Many First World War service records were lost in a fire but those that survive are at Ancestry and Find my Past
First World War diaries of regiments and other army units from the National Archives
First World War absent voters list details of where these lists can be found. This site, the Long Long Trail, has many other Great War resources.
First World War Red Cross volunteer info.
First World War merchant navy sailors.
First World War POW and missing person records are at the International Red Cross.
Gallipoli and other Australian Imperial Force records are at the AIF.
Operation War Diary is digitising unit war diaries of the First World War that may feature ancestors’ names. The diaries are also at the National Archives.
Free access to sailors records from the First World War – Royal Naval First World War: Lives at Sea
First World War naval history with details of ships lost.

Military – Army

The National Archives have service records and is working to add Second World War ones too.
British Army Ancestors – a free site with links to records and photos.
Militia Attestations 1860-1915.
British Army war diaries 1914-1922 at the National Archives.
Surrey regiments and their history – including the Queens Royal Surrey Regiment and the East Surrey Regiment.
National Army Museum suggested research websites. Plus some free post-war soldiers’ records.
Regimental description books give details of regiments and the men who served in them, at the National Archives.
Muster rolls can be found at the National Archives but you need man’s name and regiment and can only view records at the archives.
Boer War – huge resource and details of soldiers.
Roll of Honour. Huge resource of those lost in various wars.
Army officers listed in the various Army Lists at archive.org.

Military – RAF

Bomber Command Digital Archive

Military – Royal Navy

Sea Fencibles – part-time militia for coastal areas composed mainly of fishermen and boatmen. National Archives have pay records.
Royal Navy Registers of Seamen’s Services, seamen’s wills, naval reservists’ details and Officers’ Service Records are at National Archives. Downloading records costs justs a few pounds. The archive also contains log books, surgeons’ logs and sailors’ wills.
Pre-1853 Royal Naval Musters can record sailors in the days before service records.
Naval log books transcribed from hundreds of ships and other resources are at Naval History.
Age of Nelson has officers listings as well as information about ships.
Battle of Trafalgar list of servicemen, at least those known from the records.
The 1805 Club has records related to the Napoleonic and French Revolutionary Wars.
Ancestry has certificates of service for some personnel.

Military – General

War graves records at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Post Office staff killed in the war.
Imperial War Museum has resources for family historians.
Waterloo records are available at Ancestry but as they list only names, it’s difficult to accurately identify whether someone is an ancestor. The Waterloo Medal Roll lists all recipients of the medal awarded to those who fought.
Naval and Military Archive – a pay site but you can buy membership for just one day or a week to make it cheaper. Useful for war diaries from a variety of regiments.
How to apply for ancestors’ service records.

Newspapers

Find my Past has a big collection, basically it’s the British Newspaper Archive as it’s run by the same outfit.
The Australian newspaper archive is free and excellent.
Newspaper archives from around the world through Google.
Newspapers of the USA are available to view at Chronicling America.
Irish News Archive – you have to pay.
Wikipedia list of online newspaper archives, some free some not.

Nonconformists

Not all my ancestors were followers of the state religion. BMDregisters has non-conformist and non-parochial BMDs. This is worth bearing in mind if a family suddenly disappears without trace – I’ve found one branch became baptists.
Quaker Family History Society.

Norfolk

Norfolk baptism records.
Norfolk census records before 1841.
Norfolk Record Office online catalogue.
Norfolk County Council has trade directories, probate details and other material to view online for free.
Norfolk Transcription Service has online BMD and other records.
Pubs of Norfolk, with details of previous licensees.

Nursing and healthcare records

Some Royal College of Nursing and Wellcome Library collections are at Ancestry.
The Wellcome Library is digitising huge numbers of mental health patients, workers and institutions and making them available for free.

Poll books, electoral registers and taxes

Poll books show how people voted before secret ballots. Electoralregisters.org.uk has listings and is a general resource for poll books and more recent electoral registers.
County record offices hold many other poll books, and electoral registers are found in large numbers at Ancestry and Find my Past.
Public Record Office of Northern Ireland holds some records.
The Hearth Tax website has records from some parts of England of those who had to pay this 17th century levy.

Property

Valuation Office Survey of Britain, 1910. Field books show owners, occupiers and other details of property. See them at National Archives.
1862 Land Registry property owners database.

Pubs & brewing

National Brewery Centre has archives that may reveal some ancestors, mostly related to Bass family companies.
The Lost Pubs Project has details of closed pubs with publicans’ names and recollections.
Pubs of Norfolk, with details of previous licensees.
Surrey licensed victuallers in the 19th century.

Railways

The Railways Archive has accident listings including casualties.
Thousands of railway accident reports.
Ancestry has railway employment records from the National Archives.

Schools

Find my Past has national schools registers, including Sussex, for the late 19th century and early 20th century.

Scotland

Scotland’s People is the official government site with loads of records, including BMDs, military, census, valuation and wills, with a variety of payment options.

Ships, passenger and crew lists, immigration, emigration and travel

Passenger lists, wrecks, marriages at sea and so on at theshipslist.com.
Wreck reports plus huge amounts of archive shipping material. More wreck details are at wreck site.eu.
Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild
US immigrants can be found at the Ellis Island Foundation. These records are also at familysearch.org.
Crew List Index Project has some info on merchant seafarers on British registered ships for the years 1861 to 1913.
Immigration database for US arrivals that identifies origins
Passenger arrivals to Canada

Staffordshire

Staffs Name Index has free access to a range of online record indexes.

Surrey

West Surrey Family History Society.
Exploring Surrey’s Past has some online records and information on where to find other archives.

Sussex

County bastardy examinations. These are the records of illegitimacy for the county but full details are held at the record office. However, go to this page and then click on the ‘Browse by Hierarchy’ tab to see a list of names and places that can be followed up on-site later.
Marriage notice books at The Keep. Notices exist for some planned weddings but not all.
Sussex Parish Clerks have BMDs, census records and will transcripts and is always being added to. There are also less obvious records such as protestation returns and poll books.
Sussex Record Society has online records including burials and Poor Law as well as a bookstore and other resources.
Join Sussex Family History Group to access a wealth of data.
West Hoathly BMDs and the West Hoathly Local Archive.
East Sussex tithe maps
The Coombers – some family history notes.
Tithe maps and names for the county.
Two centuries of old Sussex maps.
West Sussex Past Portal – links to features on local history as well as the country records catalogue.

USA records

BMDs and census records are at pay sites Ancestry and Find my Past as well as at free site Family Search. Individual states also have their own wide range of records including BMDs.
Deaths – Steve Morse has a searchable index of Social Security death records.
Immigrants – details of those arriving before 1892 are at Ancestry and Family Search. Later arrivals are at the Liberty Ellis Foundation site.
Land records show those immigrants who purchased cheap plots as the US expanded, what they bought and where.
The National Archives has many records and guides.
usgenweb.com has guides on where to find records from the states, and it’s free.
Reclaim the Records has several collections from around the country obtained through FoI Act requests.
US newspapers are available to view at Chronicling America.
Collection of useful links

Wills

For wills after 1858, do a Probate Search of government records. Records can be ordered for delivery. Wills can be useful for spotting deaths if you can’t find one recorded in the BMDs.
Some wills are available at the National Archives – and some can be downloaded for a small fee.
Northern Ireland wills at PRONI.
Sussex Parish Clerks have some will transcripts.

Workhouses and the poor

Workhouses.org is an invaluable guide.
The Poor Law website is building details of the people who were in receipt of benefits and the men and women who helped them.
Settlement, removal and bastardy orders and certificates can usually be found at county record offices. These relate to the Poor Law.
Poor Law Unions’ Gazette has stories about locals, for example where a father is being sought by a union to support his family. This is at the British Newspaper Archive.