Links
Ancestry.co.uk or Ancestry.comThere seems to be advertisements everywhere for Ancestry but it really is worth looking at as there is an unbelievable amount of information on there. If you are based in the USA, you can try the Free Trial of Ancestry.com World Deluxe Membership which includes access to UK records. In the UK you can sign up to a 14 day free trial
BBC Radio - Tracing Your Roots
Radio program (you can listen online) looking at past social history. It has useful background information for people tracing their family history e.g. how to tell when a photograph was taken by the type of cloths worn.
BBC - Family History
Linked to a television programme but contains lots of useful information for people starting their family history research.
BMD Share
Currently free to join and planning to impose a charge of £1!. The site allows you to share Birth, Marriage and Death information by entering details which you have on a certificate. This allows people to share their information free.
Border Art
A really fascinating and fun site. They sell copies of old photographs and maps (for all of the UK)and traditional Scottish and Irish clothing, footwear and decorations such as pins, cap badges, broaches and tankards.
Burke's Peerage
Although a paid for membership website it also has some interesting free history articles, you don't have to register for, if you want to know about Scottish Clan or English, Welsh or Scottish royalty and history.
Cyndis List
Huge list of Genealogy links with sections for English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish links.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Free online "Debt of Honour Register" search that lists 1.7 people serving in the UK and Commonwealth forces who died during the two world wars with their details such as name, age and regiment.
Curious Fox
Odd name but excellent site. Register free, then add the names of ancestors for whom you are searching. You can look at the list of people others are searching for without registering.
Free Reg
A free online search of parish church registers of baptisms, marriages and burial. Using volunteers, it aims to provide free internet searches of transcribed records prepared from UK parish and non-conformist registers. Excellent for searches of records before official state records were kept.
General Register Offices (GRO)
There are UK Government records offices for England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. They hold records of births, marriages, adoption, divorces and deaths. You can order copies online
Gravestone Photos
Volunteer project which aims to photgraph and record the incscriptions on gravestones prior to 1900 throughout the UK. At the moment they have a limited number of records but you may be lucky and find your ancestor.
Guild of One Name Studies
A list of names collected by people collecting the names of people with the same family name. Whilst this doesn't sound very exciting or relevant it actually can be a short cut to finding ancestral links. Some British names can be traced back to one or two families. You may find someone researching your name has information about one or all of your ancestors.
Family Records
The UK Government's portal for family history records. Old Certificates of Birth, marriages and deaths can be ordered online from here. To view the registers online you can try the free service or a more comprehensive set of records at Ancestry.co.uk.
Familysearch
LDS Church (Mormon) website. Has the 1881 Census which can be searched for free together with information on Christenings and records held on the International Genealogical Index. A good place to start searching for ancestors in the late 1800's. Limitation is that the only Census it has is the 1881 one and you will need to go to Ancestry.co.uk
Genes Reunited
Excellent UK website. Not Genetic Testing but a UK website with information of use to people searching for their British ancestors (BMD, Census etc.). You can search and register for free and the content is exclusively British. You can upload your tree and they give you "Hot Matches" (matches in other peoples Family Trees). You can then contact the person anonymously - Genes Reunited forward on emails using your username. I linked up with several people who lived in other parts of the country and were able to tell me about their research (e.g. searching church gravestones and parish records) when it would have been difficult for me to find them or the information any other way.
Goodridges of Coventry
One problems with researching your family is that you end up with dozens of family members and when you want to show people the results it an be difficult. One neat solution is to use a "Fan" chart like the one developed by this family researcher.
Great British Heritage Pass
If you are coming to the UK from overseas to find out about your ancestors you will want to get this pass which gives free entry to nearly 600 historic attractions around England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland including Stonehenge, Edinburgh Castle, the Roman Baths and Shakespeare's Birthplace.
The National Archives
The UK Government's archive of historic records including Census, BMD. Wills and other historical personal records. It Provides the physical location of the archives if you want to visit them. They are also available online at Ancestry.co.uk and Genes Reunited
Genuki
Free resource run by volunteers. Lists Family History Societies in the UK, listed by area ( County). These societies are run by enthusiast and are an excellent source of local knowledge and can help with information on tracing records for their area. Genuki also has a lot of free general information of help to people tracing their Family History in the UK (including advice for those trying to do this from abroad).
Gazetteer of Counties
List place names in Britain and provides historical information on them. It lists the historic county of more than 50,000 places in England, Wales and Scotland. This is useful if you are trying to find records as they tend to be kept by county.
The Origins Network
What sets the Origins Network apart is that they have access to rare Society of Genealogists' records, nearly 50 million names covering 1209-1948, some not available online elsewhere. They include marriage registers, census records, burial records, wills, passenger lists, military records, court and apprentice records. There is a Free Search by Place, expert family history articles and a user discussion group.
. Past Times Project
Has a Family History section (called Gene Junction) where you can submit a request which others can read (and you can read their requests) to help you find out about distant and not-so-distant relatives, and sometimes, ones you never knew you had.
Scotlands People
The Scottish Government website. A pay per view system for looking at Census and other information. You can search the index of wills and testaments free of charge.
Scots Origins
Has a Free IGI search, access to "Origins Experts" research of Scottish Old Parish Registers Births, Baptisms, Marriages and Death records and 1861 and 1871 Census Records, a Free Scottish Place search, and expert articles and discussion on Scottish history.
U.K. National Inventory of War Memorials
A searchable, by name, online resource listing memorials to the casulties of war. It includes not just memorials traditionally associated with war, such as cenotaphs and graves, but any other memorial associated with death in war.
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