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www.familysearch.org
This site still has to be top of my 'Favourites' list, and it's
completely FREE to use.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints web site.
The world-wide I.G.I. & Ancestral Search is on-line
plus the whole catalogue of the Churches holdings.
It also lists the research aids that you can purchase
(Census CD’s, UK vital records, microfiche and Pedigrees)
The excellent family history program P.A.F. software is free
to download.
The latest data to be added to the site is the whole of the 1881
census for the British Isles,
the 1881 census for Canada and the 1880 census for the United
States of America,
The site has links to thousands of pedigrees that have been sent to
them.
http://www.ancestry.com
A very rich site for researchers with lots of
family trees and message boards for most surnames.
You can get a lot of data free but to go further you will have to
subscribe.
I think it is well worth it for me; so I have been a subscriber for many
years now.
UK records include indexes and pages for the 1901, 1891, 1881, 1871,
1861, 1851 & 41
census for England & Wales.
The USA Census from 1930 back to 1790 is also fully indexed.
Some Canadian BDM and the 1911 census are indexed. And
Immigration records
with all the above data it is simple to download an image, print it or
email it to a friend
http://www.rootsweb.com
ROOTS. The Internets first genealogy mailing list and still the largest
and best.
This is massive FREE site for all people interested in family history
research,
you will have to visit it yourself to see why it's become so popular
The
Free BMD section alone has over 112 million names indexed from
what was known as
St. Catherine’s index of Births Marriages & Deaths. the English & Welsh
GRO
All the data has been transcribed by volunteers that love family
history.
http://freebmd.rootsweb.com
you may need to turn off, or reconfigure
your computers firewall.
http://www.findmypast.com
This on-line research site has proved very useful to family historians
who don’t have easy access to the GRO index of Births, Deaths &
Marriages 1837 -2004
(the old St Catherine’s index) of Births Deaths and Marriages from 1837
to 2004) this site was 1837online
You can now buy images of the pages of the Surname, Year and Quarter
that you are interested in.
The latest addition to this great site is the indexed England & Wales
1861 & 1891 census.
And you can now search for your ancestors in certain Military
Records (WW1, WW2, Boer war etc)
This is my highly recommended site and it's easy to use.
http://www.britishorigins.com
Specialists in English and Welsh Genealogy,
Over 7 million of the Boyds marriage index 1538 - 1840,
Over 67,000 Marriage Allegations, Canterbury and Bank of England Wills
and lots more.....
Pay to View site; The latest addition is the 1841 and 1871 census
for England and Wales,
Cambridgeshire, Devon and Gloucestershire, Essex & Suffolk are the first
counties
but the rest will follow... A very worth while site,
it's not expensive to join for a years subscription (£34.50) I am a
member
This gem for genealogists is in association with the Society of
Genealogists
www.sog.org.uk
http://www.ukbmd.org.uk
This is a site for the future; Family History teams are busy
transcribing
registrars original GRO indexes
that are held at register offices in England and Wales,
they are then checked with the original certificate books and corrected
when needed,
they then add the Christian names, year of the event and name of the
Church if a Marriage. they are then put on line for you to search 'free
of charge'.
With Marriage entries you find
the exact Spouse and the Church or Office that the event took
place at.
You can then print off an application for the certificate in
seconds.
Some counties are well advanced with the project; Cheshire was the first
and set the standard.
when it is complete this will be the definitive GRO Index, for FREE!
http://www.historicaldirectories.org
This is a new site devoted to old local trade directories in England and
Wales,
the directories are fully searchable and cover a period 1750 - 1919.
This marvellous project by the University of Leicester has already saved
me a lot of leg-work.
Funding was from the National Lottery so you can access and search the
site free of charge.
http://www.friendsreunited.co.uk
is a great site and is aimed at reuniting you with friends from the past
hundred years,
your schools, workplaces, neighbours and armed forces friend are all
catered for.
The sister site;
http://www.genesconnected.co.uk
is a site which gives you a chance to build your family tree (and keep
it confidential)
but the names can be searched by other researches.
The site receives about 40,000 names every day. (membership about £7)
http://www.familyrelatives.org
This very friendly and progressive site seems to have been produced by
people who had a passion for
family history not just for making money. It gives more than it's
competitors' and should do very well
Claims to have access to over 300 million records for England & Wales
(Pay to view site)
www.a2a.org.uk
This site has access to over 9.5 million catalogue entries from 396
record offices in England,
a fantastic searching aid with a very sophisticated search engine,
key in a surname or place name and you are in for a surprise,
Documents, Quarter Sessions, Wills, Details of societies and
organisations.
http://www.documentsonline.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
Public Record Office Wills on-line,
Key in the surname of the person you want and see all the Canterbury
wills that are available,
you are able to down-load up to five wills at a time and the cost is
£3.50 per will.
You need Acrobat Reader to view and print, it's a free download.
A recent addition is the fully searchable list of Medal Rolls for all
the WW1 servicemen and
a register of RN Seaman 1853-1923 also the Merchant Navy Seaman of WW2
who qualified for medals
http://www.familyrecords.gov.uk
This site is free and is a quick route to A2A, British Library, GWGC,
Family Records Centre,
General Register Office of England and Scotland, The Imperial War
Museum, Welsh
and the Scottish and Northern Ireland Archives etc.
Clicking on General Register Office you will be able to order copies of
English and Welsh
certificates of Births, Deaths and Marriages 1837 - 2004 at £ 7.00 each
on-line by credit card.
(Delivery is about 20 working days at the moment, March 2006)
order direct at
www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/
http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/
Containing almost 50 million names, The General Register Office for
Scotland's contract with
Origins.Net for ScotsOrigins service expired 31 Aug 2002
The GRO( S) has instead contracted with Scotland On Line to create a new
"ScotlandsPeople" service,
as "the official online source of parish register, civil registration
and census records for Scotland."
The above site is pay to view and down-load, you can enter the site and
have 24 hours to locate and
down-load a certain amount of data or images. The Scottish site
allows you to search all the
fully indexed 1901, 1891, 1881, 1871, 1861, 1851 census
plus the old parochial Church records 1553 - 1854
Plus their ‘St Catherine’s index’ of Births 1855 - 1905,
Marriages 1855 - 1930 & Deaths 1855 - 1955.
This is the way our English PRO site should be working, but Free to
use of course.
www.1901census.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
A number one site for family history research in the world for quite
some time.
I use the voucher payment system as these stay current for six months.
The data is free to subscribers of Ancestry.com
http://www.genuki.org.uk
From this site you can go into any County or Family history Society,
It has a vast amount of data available, many links to other societies
and research aids.
http://www.cwgc.org/
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission site has been given a face lift,
a data base of over 1.7 million persons that have died as the result of
War action.
Searches for British and Commonwealth war dead from all conflicts
includes civilians war casualties.
http://www.genfair.com/
Online Shop for family history, Lots of Family History Societies are
represented on this site,
you can buy microfiche, books, renew subscriptions etc.,
Well worth a visit, the services are mostly by return of post for thing
that you may want to buy.
This good site has now been taken over by the FFHS and you are
connected automatically.
http://www.ffhs.org.uk
They have given this site a new look, apart from contacts to all the
member societies,
this site has all the federations publications that are available,
The federation has launched it's own 'Pay to Download' site (December
24th 2002)
Berkshire, Birmingham and Midland, Cleveland/North Yorkshire/South
Durham, Cornwall,
Glamorganshire, Leicester and Rutland, Lincolnshire and Wiltshire
societies have agreed to place data into the project.
It will, I am sure, provide interesting data to some of you in Family
History in years to come.
It's expanding all the time but you will need a £5.00 voucher or Credit
Card to try:
http://www.familyhistoryonline.net
I don't think you will be disappointed. They currently hold about 62
million records and growing.
http://www.ellisislandrecords.org.
Ellis Island passenger lists millions of immigrants entering the United
States,
Searches are free but you have to register but this is again free,
you can download all the records you need or keep them on the site in
your own folder.
http://www.sog.org.
Visit the the Society of Genealogists and it's on-line bookshop, also
visit the Guild of one name studies,
for the pay to view area for such items as Boyd’s marriage index which
was left to the
Society of Genealogists
by Percival Boyd
I was a member of the 'Society of Genealogists' for over ten years and
often visited it's wonderful
research facility at: 14 Charterhouse Buildings, Goswell Road, London
EC1m 7BA,
if you ever get the chance to visit
the society you will be amazed at what recourses they have (the cost to
non-members)
is £10.00 for 4 hours
It's worth every penny, I just wish I didn't live 250 miles away
(I would still be a member if I lived in London)
http://www.192.com
UK Directory for finding people today, Directory enquiries, and
Electoral rolls 2005 etc.
You have to register then you can have a limited access to parts of the
massive database of the UK for free.
http://www.gazette-online.co.uk
The London, Edinburgh & Belfast Gazettes are the official newspapers of
record in the United Kingdom.
Several legal notices, including insolvency notices, are required by law
to be published in the London,
Belfast and Edinburgh Gazettes.
I located my fathers awards during World War 2, you can search for
events in both world wars.
http://www.PhotoLondon.org.uk
London's libraries, museums and archives possess a treasure house of
modern and historic photographs
of London. The photoLondon website exists to highlight and
promote these collections.
The site also provides background information on photography in London.
You are able to copy old photographs of the area that your ancestors
lived in.
How nice it would be if Essex County Record Office were able to offer
this service.
While on photographs for family history you may find what you need on
http://www.francisfrith.com/us/
This is a commercial site and you will need to pay for old photos from
the 'Frith' collection
Family
History Software
For over
twenty years now Brother's Keeper (BK5) has been my preferred
family history programme
and I still use the old DOS version in Windows XP every day,
when I want a report or display that BK5 can't give me, I will use my
BK5 data in programs like
Family Tree Maker 2006 and Personal Ancestral File (PAF).
No one family history programme gives me all the features that I need on
the computer.
Brother's Keeper is Shareware and is free to download and try for
yourself,
register later if you like it.
PAF can be downloaded free of charge from the LDS site
http://www.ldscatalog.com/
Family Tree Maker 2006 will cost up to £30.00 depending on the
version.
The latest Brother's Keeper 6.2 has been released and is on CD
ROM.
versions 5 and 6 can also be downloaded from the internet from John
Steeds page
(It can take up to an hour to download the programme depending on the
speed of your modem
as BK6.2 as it's over 7mb)
http://www.bkwin.net
UK Suppliers of Family History Programs for your Computer
Below are two firms that I have used in the past and I have had no
complaints;
they have both been in business for many years
and they will accept credit card payments and offer a next day postal
service.
TWR
Computing.
based in
Suffolk. Phone 01284 828271
Trevor Rix will talk you through any problems on the phone, you will
find him very helpful.
He will also supply Computers for Family History.
His latest supplies are Data CDs by Ancestry.com, a typical disk of
English Parish Records of
Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk for £29.95.
http://www.twrcomputing.co.uk
S&N
Genealogy Supplies.
Phone 01722 716180
Susan and Nigel are established as the UK's number one supplier of
genealogical software,
they have a vast stock of programs and data disks for family historians
Census image sets of CD Rom or DVD disks for all counties of England and
Wales.
http://www.genealogy.demon.co.uk
Other
suppliers can be found advertising in the excellent monthly
'Family Tree Magazine'
http://www.family-tree.co.uk
and the latest modern "Your FamilyTree" magazine by future
publications
http://www.yourfamilytreemag.co.uk
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