Records of civil registration of births, marriages & deaths and census returns are important sources of information to anyone getting started on their family tree. For further information, see our BMD and Census pages.
Getting Started
Free Stuff
A new series of free video tutorials aimed at beginners is now available from findmypast.com.
The UK government website at Directgov now has a new
Family history and research page giving advice on family history research and how to obtain birth, marriage and death certificates. See our
BMD page for further information on this topic.
Up to its unfortunate closure in September 2009, FamilyRecords.gov.uk provided a comprehensive overview of the information available to family historians and where to find it. The site included a useful seven step "Beginners Guide". These pages can still be accessed from the
UK Government Web Archive.
GENUKI is an excellent resource for beginner and expert alike. Content varies from county to county, but the site contains many useful links on a wide variety of topics related to genealogy and is always worth a visit. If you have not used GENUKI before start with the
Guidance for First-Time Users.
We make extensive use of
Parish Locator
This excellent free download is an essential tool in our box. It contains a database of all the parishes in the UK with map references and allows distances between parishes to be calculated at the click of a mouse. Another very useful feature is the ability to plot the location of neighbouring parishes within a specified radius. The programme can be downloaded from the
Bennett Family History pages.
In common with most other family historians, we have made extensive use of the
IGI. We have learned through experience, however, that the quality of data varies enormously. Whilst a degree of reliance can be placed on records which come from a "controlled extraction" batch (i.e. those extracted from parish registers in a controlled fashion), those which do not have to be treated with a degree of caution. For this reason, we recommend the excellent
site maintained by Hugh Wallis which lists "controlled extraction" IGI Batch numbers for each parish. There is, of course, no substitute for verifying all research by reference to original source material.
If you do not live close to the relevant record office or library,
LDS Family History Centres provide an excellent means to access copies of source material. We have spent many hours in our local centre perusing parish registers, bishops transcripts, land tax returns and many other items. The volunteer staff are very helpful and you do not have to be a church member to use the centres. Copies of some records covering the immediate locality may be held on the premises and other information on film or fiche can be ordered for a small charge.
The LDS Catalogue is the place to go to find out what is available.
The
FamilySearch Research Wiki from the LDS Church is a large on-line library with articles and "how-to" instructions. You can search ny topic or by location.
When we started our family history research over eight years ago, we began using Personal Ancestral File. We found that it met all our requirements and the good news is that it is a FREE download from the LDS church website.
Click here for further details. The only major drawback has been its inability to produce European style vertical charts. This can be overcome with Family Tree Builder which is a FREE download from
MyHeritage. As long as you are comfortable importing and exporting GEDCOM files (or are willing to re-enter data), this package has an impressive range of features. Of particular interest to us is the ability to produce Ancestor, Descendant and Close Family charts in vertical format as PDF files. It is also possible to produce Ancestors and Descendants reports in an attractive format. Last - and by no means least - Family Tree Builder provides access to a free version of The Complete Genalogy Reporter (TCGR). This produces book reports in PDF format comprising ancestry, narrative description of ancestors and relatives, family trees of each family and a range of indexes. If you like the book reports, you can purchase the full version of TCGR at modest cost from
Nigel Bufton Software. This has a wider range of features, much more control over content and can produce reports in HTML format for uploading to web sites. It also includes the option to add hyperlinks to PDF files so that they can be navigated on screen in a similar way to a web site.
Chargeable Stuff
Out of the numerous sources available, we have only listed those we have used ourselves.
Ancestry.co.uk has a growing range of databases which include Pallott's marriage index, UK trade directories, BT phone books, military records, immigration records and much more. Access packages vary from 7 days "pay per view" to one year subscriptions.
The
findmypast collection includes passenger lists, passport applications, military records, directories and electoral rolls. Access is by subscription or "pay per view" credits. The latter are valid for at least 90 days and can also be used on the 1911 Census website. There is now a separate findmypast subscription covering the 1911 census only. Findmypast also now incorporates
Family History Online. This site is FREE to search, but to access records, users must purchase credits.
The Origins Network includes British Origins, Irish Origins and Scots Origins together with Origin Search Pro. British Origins includes marriage records (Boyd's Marriage Index alone includes 7 million names), wills records, apprenticeships, court and militia records. The site also includes Boyd's London Burials Index. Access to The Origins Network is "pay per view" with time periods ranging from 72 hours up to one year.
The
Genes Reunited site can be used in two ways. Hosting your tree - entered either manually or by uploading a Gedcom file - is FREE. Users of the site can then find your names in the index and make contact with you. Alternatively, you can take out a subscription. This gives you the additional benefit of being able to initiate contact with other members and to view the trees of other members. Through GenesReunited, we have made contact with a considerable number of distant cousins and, as a result, have been able to add a significant amount of information to our database.