Links
There is a huge range of genealogical web sites. Here are some of those I have
found useful in my own research.
Sites which charge
I use all three of these sites for my research. Each has their
own benefits and drawbacks. If you are thinking about taking out a new
subscription please use one of these links and help support
A Family Story at no cost to yourself.
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Ancestry.co.uk
Ancestry is a huge site with a wide variety of data.
I use this as my primary research site as the search facilities are, I
think, the best available. Although it has a higher rate of transcription
errors than on the other two sites, the flexibility of searching more than makes
up for this, allowing you to search (for example) by Christian name and
birthplace, or Christian name and birth year, or by any combination of indexed
data. Search results lists are better than those of Find My Past, giving more
information and enabling you to find the correct entry more quickly.
The London parish records available here are an absolute boon and well worth
searching even if you aren't aware of any family connection with London.
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Find My Past
Find My Past is another large site. It includes the 1911 census and its
census images can be better than some of Ancestry's. This can mean that records
that you cannot locate in Ancestry (especially for 1851) may be found here.
Another benefit is the way images are presented, making them very easy to zoom.
The downside of Find My Past for me is the searching. Date ranges default
strictly to two years either side of your specified date - not helpful for 1841
where dates were rounded down to the nearest five years. Also the Christian name
element of the search only matches against the first name - if you inadvertently
type a second name your search will fail.
Another irritation for me is the lack of birthplace in results lists. This
can mean having to call up a lot of individual records when you are trying to
find the correct match.
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Genealogist
The Genealogist is smaller than the other two sites but benefits from using
UK volunteers who are family historians to create and check data and indexes, so
transcriptions are usually very good. It now offers the 1911 census.
I've found the Non-Parochial BMDs here particularly useful. |
Free sites
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
The National Archives of the United Kingdom includes wills, medal records,
family documents. It is free to search, with a growing collection of
document images available to download for a modest fee.
http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl
Free BMD - an index to births, marriages and deaths.
LostCousins.com
Join Lost Cousins
for free, enter your ancestors from the 1881 census, and the automated
matching process finds other people who share the same ancestors. The matching process, unique to Lost Cousins, generates matches with 100% accuracy.
http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk/generalArchive.asp The archive of The
London Gazette contains bankruptcy announcements and information about
appointments and promotions, amongst other things.
http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp
is a Family History service sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints. It can provide you with an extra generation or two that
is not available elsewhere on the internet, but its content needs to be
treated with caution as sources are not always given.
http://www.cyndislist.com/
Cyndi's List is a huge, categorised list of links on all things
genealogical. It has been running for more than 10 years and is frequently
updated.
http://www.1914-1918.net/index.htm The Long, Long Trail focuses on the
British Army in the First World War. It gives masses of helpful information
for those researching relatives who served in the war.
Latin
Translating Latin words in
wills etc
Abbreviations used in medal cards
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/help/Abbreviations-unit.asp
Non-Genealogical Sites
Project Gutenberg is is the oldest
producer of free ebooks on the Internet. It has a catalogue of 20,000 titles
amongst which are titles of interest to local historians and genealogists. I have hosted
a number of titles on this site, which give you a taste of what is available. See the
eBooks Index.
http://www.protopage.com Nothing
to do with genealogy, but I find this a brilliant way to keep all my links
handy. You can set up and save your own protopage which is then available
to you on any computer. I have mine as my home page on both my personal and
work computers, with "work" links on private (locked) pages, and genealogy
links on public pages that anyone can access. You can include to-do lists,
pictures, live pages from other websites and a host of other things.
