Info booklet

Client: Learning Direct Ltd, Mayfair, London

Audience: Genealogists without detailed internet knowledge

Brief: Help people get used to the internet while pursuing a hobby they enjoy

THE 101 BEST WEBSITES FOR TRACING YOUR ANCESTORS ON THE INTERNET

Introduction

Sometimes it feels like most of the millions of genealogical websites and pages have been created by - and for - family researchers on the other side of the Atlantic.

We've put this guide together for the benefit of UK-based genealogists, listing 101 websites that are relevant to Great Britain, offer just that little bit extra ... or are just fun to visit.

Because websites can be altered or even deleted at any time, if you try visiting a site that's suddenly disappeared or has changed since being featured in this guide, we're sorry, but that's the nature of the net.

 

Getting Started

1 Cyndi's List
http://www.cyndislist.com
15 million visitors (so far) can't be wrong. The site to visit for anything genealogical and not-quite-genealogical. How about old weights and measures and their modern equivalents? Or what our ancestors did for a living? Or a history of medicine? More features added daily. If you haven't bookmarked it already, shame on you. Do so at once.

2 GENUKI - UK and Ireland Genealogy
http://www.genuki.org.uk
Probably the best beginner's section on the web, as far as UK genealogy goes. The FAQs are a learning experience in themselves. Very good links to British Isles sites ... and the British Newspaper Library.

3 Lineages Genealogy Site: United Kingdom and Ireland
http://www.lineages.com
Put together by professional genealogists, this site has an excellent 'first steps' section divided into a range of subjects, each with its own 'toolkit', delivered by e-mail.

4 Lycos Genealogy
http://www.lycos.com/people/genealogy.html
Primarily for US-based researchers, but with a very good list of web-based resources and exceptionally good tutorials.

5 The Federation of Family History Societies
http://www.ffhs.org.uk/leaflets/faq.htm
It's worth browsing through the leaflets on offer here, and the Q&A section is particularly good.

6 Backward Footprints
http://feefhs.org/pt/m/begtips.html
Lists several useful beginners' guides to genealogy, each with a link to the site in question.

Downloadables

7 Gensite
http://www.genealogy.org
An ever-changing selection of interesting freebies and downloadable software. Geared towards the US market, but still worth a browse nonetheless.

8 Downloads
http://www.benet.net.au/~brandis/downloads/download.html
A deceptive-looking page. But click on 'more downloadable files' to find anything and everything related to genealogy - from operational army records in both world wars, to how to restore old photographs.

9 Genealogy Documents to Download
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/rmhh/genealogy_research_aids.htm
Includes the Genealogy Calendar, UK calendar changes in 1752, the Chapman abbreviations and the Domesday Book, all in .zip file format.

England

Sites that deal with England as a whole are a rarity, even though the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints lists nearly 500 topics under the heading of 'England'. There are, however, thousands of sites about separate counties and districts, the borders of which have moved backwards and forwards over the years. So if you're puzzled by local geography way back when, have a look at …

10 British Counties, Parishes, etc for Genealogists
http://homepages.nildran.co.uk/~jimella/counties.htm
A very good history of the way the country has been divided up, with origins of county names and the changes they've gone through, and the way boundaries have changed over the years.

Forums

Three of the best newsgroups for UK researchers are alt.genealogy, soc.genealogy.britain and soc.genealogy.ireland, but if you're surfing, stop by at:

11 Genforum
http://www.genform.com
Offers over 14,000 online forums, categorised by country, all devoted to genealogy. If you're looking for something in particular, use the edit/find option - it'll be much quicker.

GenWeb

12 GenWeb
http://www.worldgenweb.org
A volunteer organisation working towards free access to genealogical information for anyone, anywhere. So far, it's divided into 11 world regions, subdivided into countries and provinces - check the alphabetical country list and be impressed.

13 British Isles GenWeb
http://www.britishislesgenweb.org
The local branch of WorldGenWeb, working very closely with GENUKI. An all-in-one resource centre that deserves bookmarking, and a space very much worth watching.

14 Genealogy Demo Page
http://www.genweb.org/gene/genedemo.html
What GenWeb should look like one day - personal and family websites with sound and vision archives. This site has an example of each, but be prepared to wait while they download.

Government Agencies

15 Public Records Office Genealogy Home Page
http://www.pro.gov.uk/genealogy/default.htm
With links to specific departments and an excellent selection of browsable leaflets, plus resource links that include phone books past and present, this site is definitely worth a visit.

16 General Register Office for Scotland
http://www.open.gov.uk/gros/groshome.htm
More to this site than meets the eye - click on 'Services' and then on 'library link' to find an impressive selection of downloadable information.

17 Welsh Record Offices and Archives on the Web
http://www.oznet/~markhow/welshros.htm
Record offices and archives on the net, arranged by county.

18 Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
http://www.proni.nics.gov.uk/records/private/picts
With photographs and portraits, plus links to the collections where they can be found, and summaries of related documents to read while you're visiting, this site appeals to the more visual side of genealogy.

19 Genealogy.ie: Welcome!
http://www.genealogy.ie
Although belonging to a company specialising in tracing Irish ancestors, this site does give good information about dealing with the Dublin General Register Office, should you happen to visit it in person.

20 The National Archives of Ireland: Family History and Genealogy
http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy.html
Gives a guide to the archives themselves, lists parishes, a guide on where to start searching and a small - but very well-chosen - selection of links.

Historic Interest

21 Searchable Genealogy Links
http://www.bc1.com/users/sgl
Newgate prisoners in the 19th century, the roll of executions and reasons for them from 1606 to 1895 ... plus the passenger and crew list for the Titanic. Eclectic stuff here, but still interesting.

22 Bert's English Genealogy Page
http://www.xmission.com/~nelsonb/brit4.htm
You may find the Latin primer here useful, but the best feature is an excellent timeline of events in British history, from 1509 to 1854, viewed in tabular form. Makes a lot of sense this way.

23 Cornwall Online
http://www.cornwall-online.co.uk/genealogy.htm
A Cornish surname index, a list of Royal Navy ships and crews in service in 1894 and a register of convicts transported to New South Wales, all self-extracting .zip files to download.

24 History UK
www.history-uk.com
Search here by subject or historical period, or just join the live 'chat room', and get the flavour of days gone by.

25 London Genealogy
http://www.gold.ac.uk/genuki/lnd
History, politics, maps, occupations, Victorian churches, changed street names, parishes and boroughs, archives and libraries, census surname indexes available for a price, mailing lists and family history societies - they're all here.

26 A Brief Guide to Medieval English Genealogy
http://www.cgp100.dabsol.co.uk/gui/guide.htm
Notes here on such topics as land taxes, feudal surveys, chancery rolls and miscellaneous public records.

Ireland

27 Hylit: Irish Genealogy
http://www.hylit.com/info/genealogy
A very few names here that have been researched, but the 'immigrant names' section gives a good idea of how they came about elsewhere around the world. Enjoy the Irish recipes.

28 Irish Genealogy Name Search
http://www.goireland.com/genealogy
Tied in with Ireland's national tourism service, this site gives you nice quick results on name searches, and can supply birth and marriage records for a fee.

29 Ireland's Families' Names
http://www.niceone.com/families.htm
Good Q&A, with a comprehensive dictionary of Irish names, and links to the Northern Ireland Public Record Office.

30 Genealogy in Ireland
http://www.irelandnow.com/genealogy/intro.html
A useful selection of printable forms for family trees, search checklists and records, plus family group page. Links to a free downloadable program called Clooz, an 'electronic filing cabinet' for genealogical records.

Links

31 Alan's Genealogy and Cheshire, England Page
http://members.tripod.com/~alancheshire
Claims to have the best list of UK-specific search engines, and has a very good choice of world-wide ones, too. Also links to UK beers and breweries, plus a glossary of diseases our ancestors might have had.

32 Surnamesearch
http://surnamesearch.com
An impressive selection of links here, including a cut-and-paste translation service to and from English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.

33 Family Genealogy Online: Your Family History Research Guide
http://www.familygenealogyonline.com
Hundreds of links to sites and search tools, plus the chance to create your own family website while visiting.

34 Genealogy @ Connections 1 Link Exchange
http://www.50megs.com/genealogy/freelink.html
One of the most useful links here goes to an internet bookstore specially for UK researchers - which seems to be a rarity these days.

35 UK Genealogy
http://www.ukgenealogy.co.uk
Separate links for England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, plus links to surname lists, lookup exchanges, mailing lists and societies. Plus an obituary search engine.

36 Records
http://www.records.org/tools.html
Over 50,000 links here, including the Inflation Calendar that calculates today's value of any dollar amount from 1800 onwards.

37 Genealogy Links
http://www.genealogylinks.net/uk/index.html
Links of all kinds, plus a version of the Domesday Book with a search engine specifically designed for it. Likewise the Harliean Index.

38 Surname Web
http://http://www.surnameweb.org
Over 150,000 links, plus the offer of a personalised 'hard disk' for uploading up to 50 Mbytes of your own files.

39 Worldwide Top Sites
http://www.worldwide-top100.net
Some real gems of links hidden away here, but take care when flicking through the rankings - the pull-down menu reverts to the first ten links every time you go back to it.

40 UK Links
http://www.nittlion.com
From here, you can get to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, some UK newspapers, many UK libraries and quite a few UK census-related databases.

Miscellaneous

41 Genealogy as a Tool for Self-Knowledge and Family Therapy
http://www.catskill.net/rue/family/systems.htm
Makes interesting reading. Likewise the other essays of that ilk linked here.

42 Victoriana
http://www.gendocs.demon.co.uk/victorian.html
A good guide to inns, lodging houses, public institutions, lunatic asylums and cemeteries of the day. Plus a surname index, but it's not free.

43 The Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain
http://www.ort.org/jgsgb
Members can use the facilities, including online databases, library services and synagogue records. Families being researched at present are listed, together with their countries of origin ...

… a good tie-in with …

44 … Jewish Genealogical Resources
http://www.isragen.org.il/bib/jgr/jgrmain.htm
This Israeli site has locations of local genealogical information by resource, including city archives, and links to most of them.

45 UK Census Entries for People Born in Jamaica
http://www.candoo.com/genresources/jam-cns_off.htm
Anyone born in Jamaica from 1841-1891 and appearing in a UK census is listed here by surname, forename, age, occupation and PRO reference.

46 British Ancestors in India
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~clday
With access to over 20,000 birth, marriage and death notices - not just in India, but also Burma, Pakistan and Bangladesh - this site is worth visiting if you have any interest in Colonial days. There are also regimental rolls and histories, and links to the modern-day versions of cities mentioned here.

47 Kent and Canterbury Resources for Genealogy
http://www.digiserve.com/peter
What makes this site worth visiting are examples of documents including apprenticeship indentures, bastardy papers and removal orders.

48 Genealogy for ALL!!!
http://www.excaliburknights.com/genealogy
A slow site to download, but worth the wait for very good surname search feature, a huge noticeboard for enquiries, and sample printouts created by a text-based family tree program, available to purchase from here.

49 Genealogy Top 100
http://genbooks.hypermart.net/topsites/topsites.html
Many more than a hundred sites, ranked by popularity. Some gems of links to be found at the top end, and some quite … er … interesting ones at the other.

50 Genealogy World - Webring Home Page
http://genealogyworld.com/gw-ring.htm
Here, you're invited to add your genealogical website to this web ring, and follow the instructions on registering it.

51 Irish Genealogy
http://www.genealogy.org/~ajmorris
The section on 19th century photography here is a real find - including a guide to dating card-mounted portraits.

52 Genealogy Abbreviations and Acronyms
http://www.gendocs.demon.co.uk/abbr.htm
Very useful for explaining initials after names, medals, other honours and awards.

53 Circus, Theatre and Music Hall Families
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~paulln/circus.htm
Census data for itinerants in the mid-to-late 1880's, including performers, 'travellers', canal-boat people and links to Romany sites and researchers.

54 An Index to Genealogy and Family Tree Links
http://www.hawaii.edu/~sharkey/links/genealog/genealog.htm
Worth bookmarking if you want to track down anything on the web - this site is full of search engines and links to absolutely everything.

55 Relationship Chart
http://www.genealogy.com/genealogy/16_cousn.html
Explains the difference between third cousins twice removed and second cousins three times removed, plus other family relationships, in both chart and text form.

56 Your Dictionary.com
http://www.yourdictionary.com
Part of a growing web of online dictionaries, and very useful for translating words and phrases to and from any language you can think of.

57 Family History Archive Library
http://www.family2001.com
More of a gift gallery for family history scrolls and coats of arms, this site has a 'combined search' feature that tells you where your surname first appeared, and when … and yes, of course there's a coat of arms recorded for your family name, if you'd care to order it here. Fun nonetheless.

58 RecycleGen - Genealogy With a Difference
http://www.recyclegen.com
What a good idea: a site where you can copy or cut and paste any research data taking up space on your hard drive, and search through all the other material everyone else has pasted up here, for any particular subject.

Newsletters

59 Treasure Maps
http://www.firstct.com/fv/tmapmenu.html
As well as offering e-mailed newsletters, this site also has a guide to deciphering old handwriting.

60 AncestorNews Free Genealogy Newsletter
http://www.ancestornews.com/
For a taste of the newsletters offered, have a look at the back issues included here.

61 International Internet Genealogical Society
http://www.iigs.org
Again, back issues to browse through, but you might also find the Online University aspect appealing.

Research Services

62 Title Research
http://www.title-research.com
Here you can order documents and certificates of birth, death, marriage and adoption, decrees absolute, wills and grants of representation.

63 UK Family Trees
www.ukfamilytrees.com
This agency can create a Gedcom file of your family history on diskette or CD, with a variety of price structures.

Royalty

64 Directory of Royal Genealogical Data
http://www.dcs.hull.ac.uk/public/genealogy/royal/catalog.html
From Baronetcies to Royal Dukedoms to our own monarchy - and royal families across Europe, Scandinavia and Russia - this site gives you all the information you're likely to need on the subject.

Search sites

65 ChurchNet
www.churchnet.org.uk
Geared more towards missing persons than genealogical enquiries, but still useful for present day searches.

66 Missing You
http://www.missing-you.net
Features a free message-publishing service to help UK family researchers.

67 LookupUK
http://www.lookupuk.com
Try the e-mail address finder feature here.

68 Family Search
http://www.familysearch.org
This is the site created by the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints, which, of course, you've already bookmarked. Specify your search by country, by name, by year (give or take a few on either side) and by documented event, and then download the results.

69 UKphonebook
http://www.ukphonebook.com
Gives quick results by name and area, but the real bonus is the local map that appears, showing exactly how to find whoever you're looking for.

70 Genealogy Helplist
http://www.helplist.org
Volunteers around the world are prepared to spend some time following up on local research for you. For the UK, they're listed here by name and area of expertise. You're invited to add your name to the list, if you have the time and inclination.

71 Family Tree Searcher
http://www.familytreesearcher.com
Not so much a search service, but a time-saver: enter your family information once, and it searches through multiple websites, without you having to fill in the same sort of form every time you use a search engine.

Scotland

72 Scottish Clans, Families, Genealogy and History of Scotland
http://www.members.tripod.co.uk/scotfax/scots.htm
A fine beginner's guide for Scottish searching, and links to the top 100 Scottish sites, including, naturally, the Haggis Home Page.

73 The Gathering of the Clans
http://www.tartans.com/genalogy.htm
Enter your surname to find out which clan you belong to, and then read its potted history.

74 Studyweb
http://www.studyweb.com/links/156.html
To get a taste of the history of Scotland, try this site's selection of articles on wars, castles, clans, events from 8000 BC onwards.

Societies

75 Societies Listed by County
http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/genuki/societies/england.html
Click on any county name and up comes a list of genealogy societies dealing with that county and the surrounding area.

76 Society of Genealogists
http://www.sog.org.uk
They give lectures and run courses around the country, produce information leaflets, have a well-stocked online genealogical bookshop and their site includes a wealth of material to explore - all very good reasons for joining... plus, very shortly, you'll be able to apply to do so online.

77 The Federation of Family History Societies
http://www.ffhs.org.uk
An umbrella organisation for local family history groups, with links to all of them, plus the British Library, the Imperial War Museum, the National Army and Maritime Museums. Have a look at the Q&A section while you're there.

78 British Isles Family History Society - USA
http://www.rootsweb.com/~bifhsusa
All references to records here relate to microfilm in Los Angeles, but the links are good and the reference book list excellent.

Software

79 Genealogy Toolbox
http://www.genealogytoolbox.com
This site provides at-a-glance profiles of many genealogical programs and links to sites to download them from.

80 Reunion
http://www.leisterpro.com
A very detailed writeup of the product (for Mac users) and a free demo version for downloading.

81 Softseek
http://www.softseek.com/home_family_and_leisure/genealogy
A collection of genealogy software titles for DOS and Windows, some shareware, others 30-day free trials.

82 Gene Macintosh Genealogy Software
http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/gene
Read the user guide to get a fuller idea of what this program can do. It's shareware, and comes in two versions, one for older Macs, the other for newer ones.

83 Family Origins Genealogy Software
http://www.formalsoft.com
A Windows-based genealogy program where you can have 9 databases open at once, with multimedia capability for a family scrapbook. There's a free 15-day demo to download here.

84 Legacy Family Tree
http://www.legacyfamilytree.com
Another multimedia Windows program with a downloadable demo, but at 12 Mbytes, it might be more economical to pay a small shipping charge for the free CD instead.

85 Genesis
http://www.jcls.freeserve.co.uk/genesis.htm
Windows-based again, where you can record family tree details and link them together according to relationship.

86 Palmtop Genealogy
http://www-theory.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk
Suitable for Psion owners, GenMVD is a specially-written piece of software for palmtop computing. The screen prints featured give an idea of the power of the program, which you can download from here.

87 Genopro
http://www.genopro.net
A free downloadable program that converts GedCom files into charts, creates genograms and hyperlinks from any part of a family tree to the individual's home page.

88 TWR Computing - Computers and Software for Family Historians and Genealogists
http://www.twrcomputing.freeserve.co.uk
Being genealogists themselves, they understand what you're looking for, and can offer reasonably-priced systems and guarantee the lowest genealogy software and data CD prices in the UK.

89 Free Software
http://www.jodenoy.clara.net/dealers/freebies.htm
As well as a parish locator program and a GedCom viewer that can show a full family tree on a single PC screen, there are other free programs to download that can speed up your computer, give you faster access to the net and search several search engines at once.

… and finally …

90 Genealogy Software Springboard
http://www.gensoftsb.com
Before parting with your cash, read the 'Selecting the Best Software' section for a rundown on the program you've selected. Developers frequently use the feedback they receive about their products, e-mailable from here.

Source Material

91 Ordering Birth Registrations from England and Wales
http://www.oz.net/~markhow/ukbirths.htm
Read the piece on the history of registration here, and have a quick look at some of the sample certificates.

92 Genealogy Resources on the Internet
http://members.aol.com/gfsjohnf/gen_mail_country-unk.html
Links to all countries, plus rolls of convicts transported to Australia, emigrés to North America, British regiments, the Cayman Islands and Gibraltar.

93 Genealogy Pages
http://www.genealogypages.com
Links to resources from churches, religious and ethnic groups, surname list and a comprehensive US military section.

94 Local Catholic Church History and Genealogy Research Guide
http://home.att.net/~mensch-family/CatholicRecords-index.htm
Click on 'Europe and Asia' and then 'England' for a list of churches, chapels and parishes, where you'll find directories and the occasional parish history.

95 Sources for Research in English Genealogy
http://www.lcweb.loc.gov/rr/genealogy/bib_guid/england.html
and
96 Sources for Research in Scottish Genealogy
http://www.lcweb.loc.gov/rr/genealogy/bib_guid/scotland.html
and
97 Sources for Research in Welsh Genealogy
http://www.lcweb.loc.gov/rr/genealogy/bib_guid/wales.html
and
98 Sources for Research in Irish Genealogy
http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/genealogy/bib_guid/ireland.html
Part of the US library of Congress site, these are worth visiting for the impressive book lists and collection of sources, none of which, sadly, have any links.

Wales

99 DataWales
http://www.data-wales.co.uk
Good info about the country and local places of interest, featuring a guide to Welsh surnames, family history research links and a piece on the Welsh and slavery in America.

100 Wales Genealogy Forum
http://genforum.genealogy.com/wales
A popular forum, probably because it's one of the very few that deals with Wales alone.

101 Welsh Place Names
http://home.clara.net/wfhg/wales/regular.htm
A glossary of Welsh place-name elements, with their meanings and sound-file pronunciation guides, which make interesting listening.

END