2. Genealogy & Family History
Genealogy…
The construction of a family tree through research
Family History is…
The writing of a biography of a series of related ancestors
of common genealogy
3. Genealogy
Society of Genealogists: http://sog.org.uk
Genealogy links:
GENUKI Includes details of County Record Offices
Cyndi's List LOTS of useful links to software, databases and
resources
Genealogy Mailing Lists by John Fuller
LookupUK Resource Centre for finding friends or relatives
4. Genealogy
Gov’t repositories:
General Register Office
The National Archives
Libraries:
British Library for Family Historians
National Library of Scotland
National Library of Wales
National Library of Ireland
National Repositories:
College of Arms
National Maritime Museum – PORT. Catalogue of maritime-related resources
ArchivesHub - 20,000 archives in UK's universities and colleges
ARCHON (Archives On-line). - Managed by the National Archives
British History Online - British historical sources, inc. text and information about people,
places and businesses from the 12th century to the present day. Built by the Institute of
Historical Research and the History of Parliament
Moving Here – a National Archive initiative of 150,000 free images. Mostly from four
communities coming into Britain since 1800s: Jewish, Irish, Caribbean, South Asian
5. Genealogy
Useful Organisations:
Federation of Family History Societies.
Scottish Association of Family History Societies
Family History Societies - More Family History Societies indexed
at GENUKI
New England Historic Genealogical Society, oldest and largest
genealogical society in the USA
Institute of Heraldic & Genealogical Studies
The Heraldry Society – covers heraldry, armory, chivalry,
genealogy and allied subjects
The Heraldry Society of Scotland
AGRA - Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives
6. Genealogy
Online Databases:
findmypast.com - entire copy of the indexes of Births, Marriages and Deaths for England and Wales from
1837 to 2001 – small charge for copies
Family Search site (LDS Church) - largest collection of free family history, family tree and genealogy records
The Origins Network - 80 million + British and Irish genealogical records
Commonwealth War Graves Commission Debt of Honour Register - personal and service details for the 1.7
million members of the Commonwealth forces who died in the First or Second World Wars
Burke's Peerage and Gentry - genealogical records of Britain's titled and landed families throughout the
centuries. Good for terms related to British history, society and tradition
The Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum at Caernarfon
The Monumental Brass Society - brasses and the MBS's activities
Police Orders - police orders of police officers serving in London's Metropolitan Police Service. From 1891-
1895 and 1899-1932. Includes joined, resigned, retired, died, transfers and medals.
The Bookplate Society
Naval Biographical Database - People and ships associated with the Royal Navy since 1660. Charges.
Vision of Britain - by Great Britain Historical Geographic Information System (GBH GIS). Uses 200 years of UK
Census statistics, assorted historic maps and gazetteers and the observations of travel writers from as early as
the 11th century
7. Get someone to do it for you!
Costs money. Useful if you’re coming up against Latin
texts!
Association of Genealogists Researchers in Archives (AGRA)
has a list of members who will do research,
www.agra.org.uk
8. Types of Resources
General resources relating to a whole county:
Bibliographies
Clergy
Histories
Maps
Newspapers
Place Names
Record Office Guides
Visitations
Wills – some online at www.Ancestry.co.uk , then try National
Will Index at www.Britishorigins.com . Most have to be accessed
from http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/probate/family-history
(can be expensive).
9. Types of Resources
Local:
Local histories, church guides, etc.
Registers:
Births, marriages, deaths, held by General Register Office (1837 onwards). Each
certificate costs just under £10. More and more available free through:
www.freebmd.org.uk Paid online versions available here: www.findmypast.com,
www.ancestry.co.uk, www.bmdindex.co.uk, or www.familyrelatives.com
General indexes such as Boyd’s Marriage Index and the International Genealogical
Index. Before the mid-1800s, you can look at parish registers, some go back to 1500s.
Many non-conformist registers here: www.bmdregisters.co.uk and
www.familysearch.org
There is the International Genealogical Index (IGI) - An index of c.800 million births,
baptisms and marriages from around the world, at www.familysearch.org
Name indexes. E.g. Census indexes for England and Wales on The National Archives
website, www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/censusrecords.htm Scottish census
indexes at Scotland’s People, www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk Irish censuses,
www.census.nationalarchives.ie/
Monumental Inscriptions
10. Types of Resources
Censuses
1911,1901,1891, 1881, 1871,1861 1851, 1841. Often microfilms or
microfiche of census returns held by County Record Offices, Local
Libraries or the Society of Genealogists. A complete set for England
and Wales, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands is free at The
National Archives in Kew, www.nationalarchives.gov.uk The Scottish
returns for 1841 to 1911 are available at Scotland’s People Centre in
Edinburgh, www.scotlandspeoplehub.gov.uk/
Lists:
Lists of people living in counties such as Directories and Poll Books
(those who voted in Parliamentary elections, 1690s onwards).
Provincial town trade directories – including street lists, such as
Kelly’s Directory. Available from 1770s onwards.
National and county trade directories. Available from 1780s onwards.
More details from 1840s onwards.
11. Family History
- Beginners’ guides
Beginners’ Guides:
www.genuki.org.uk
www.bbc.co.uk/familyhistory/
Herber, M. 2005. Ancestral Trails, Alan Sutton
Barrat, N. 2008. Who Do You Think You Are? Encyclopedia of
Genealogy, Harper Collins
Federation of Family History Societies – Has a world index
of Family History societies
E.g. The Hampshire Genealogical Society
12. Family History
- Major websites
Major Websites:
www.ancestry.com
www.ancestry.co.uk
www.findmypast.co.uk
www.familyrelatives.com
www.originsnetwork.com
National Archives Discovery website
13. Family History
– Finding support
Social Network Sites:
Roots Web Mailing Lists
The Guild of One-Name Studies – Register the surnames
you are researching to see if anyone else is doing the same
thing!
14. Family History
– On your computer
Data formats:
GENCOM (most common)
GedML (XML-based)
FamilyML (XML-based)
Don’t worry if you’ve been using a spreadsheet
up until now!
Excel2GED – for taking Excel spreadsheets and converting
them to GEDCOM file format
http://godskingsandheroes.info/software/index.htm#12
15. Software to build family trees
GRAMPS – free, but bit of work needed initially to learn
how to use
http://gramps-project.org/
FamilyTreeBuilder – free, with paid Premium version (that
you can sign up to at any point in using the free version).
Easy to use, very popular
http://www.myheritage.com/family-tree-builder
GEDitCOM II – free, this software is for Macs
http://www.geditcom.com/
Web Family Tree – free, really easy to use
http://www.simonward.com/cgi-bin/page.pl?family/tree
16. Software to visualise family trees
Geneaquilts – advanced, great for visualising large
genealogy datasets
http://www.aviz.fr/geneaquilts
Misbach Enterprises - specialises in making family tree
charts. They generally charge for this service, but there
are some nice free charts you can download and use
http://misbach.org/freecharts.html
17. Software to visualise family trees
GedView – a way to look through GEDCOM files on your
PC. If you’ve downloaded or been sent any files from
other researchers, you can use this software to navigate
the data
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tmark
/GedView.html
GedView for iPads, iPhones, etc. – costs £2.49, great to
look at your work on a mobile device
http://www.ritter.demon.co.uk/Projects/gedview.html
18. Software to share family trees
Websites:
GED-GEN for making websites, works with any GEDCOM
files
http://www.ged-gen.com/
