Research Links

Useful websites for family history purposes

Links to useful material are compiled mainly as they crop up in Cutlock & Co research (with help from Who Do You Think You Are magazine and other sources). General articles on the site will also have related suggestions.

Research help elsewhere on Cutlock

Cutlock research page for links of direct relevance to the family tree.
Specialist websites covering migration, crime, institutions, military, peoples and nationalities, living conditions.
Newspapers, maps and visual resources also have their own page.
Notes on using Ancestry.co.uk, and related Family Tree Maker software. NB A section on Gedcom tools has been started at the end of this page.
Glossary, with some common ‘pet name’ variations.

UK data and trees

Paid subscriptions are needed to do anything much here, but check for 14 day trials, any free access offers, etc.

Ancestry UK site. Also see our Ancestry notes and tips page.
FindMyPast. Also see their Australian/New Zealand site.
Genes Reunited. Owned by the same company as Findmypast.

Other less well-known British sites, with their own particular range of databases:

The Genealogist continues to develop significantly, with census, BMD, nonconformist records etc. plus less standard stuff such as tithe maps, poll books, the 1910 ‘Domesday’ survey. There’s a connected family tree site, TreeView.
Deceased Online has burial and cremation records for the UK.

Also available:

MyHeritage – tree building/genealogical social network. They now also own WorldVitalRecords, with millions of historical records (mainly USA, UK, Ireland, Australia and Canada) and what they claim to be the world’s largest collection of historical newspapers.

General Archives

Generally free, although there may be some charges.

Internet Archive Finding old material online, not just old websites. Out of copyright and copyright-free text (books) could include works of interest.
National Archives Directory of archives has web and contact details for the vast range of record repositories in the United Kingdom, listed geographically.
National Archives themselves, based at Kew. The centre for official records (if the documents you want aren’t held locally, try here).
Historical Directories – a digital library of local and trade directories for England and Wales, from 1750 to 1919.
GENUKI (UK and Ireland Genealogy) has helpful info on sources of records across the British Isles, and is worth a browse for other info, such as a map of pre-1974 counties.
AIM25 – archives in London and the M25 area. A project “to provide electronic access to collection level descriptions of the archives of over one hundred higher education institutions, learned societies, cultural organisations and livery companies within the greater London area”.
FamilySearch – UK records (a Mormons-run site). A mixture of transcriptions, browsable record images and finding records held elsewhere. Also a ‘global’ family tree facility .

Also see

Community Archives and Heritage Group has links to many community history resources (UK/Ireland). Family and Community Historical Research Society.

Discussion forums

There are plenty of places online where you can post requests for help, raise issues etc. Which ones work for you can depend on the topic and definitely depends on the helpful people who may change in availability as their interests evolve. It also helps to phrase queries clearly with plenty (but not overwhelming) details on names, dates, places, events etc. On most forums anyone can browse/search but you need to register to post queries.

Rootschat has helped crack a few problems for me. Make sure you find the right area (board) to place your request/info.
Ancestry.co.uk on Facebook Some useful official announcements and chatty help from subscribers.
Ancestry message boards. Again it pays to find the right place to post.
Genes Reunited has a Community discussion area which some people obviously like. Wouldn’t be my first choice as I don’t particularly like how the site works.
British Genealogy Forums Supported by Parish Chest, you need to subscribe (free) to use this.

Online help

GenGuide Descriptions of and information on genealogical sources (records) – occupations, emigration, census, civil, parish and property registers etc.
Professional genealogical research help (at a cost) via Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives. Also check Expert Genealogy website.
FamilySearch has a useful research wiki – not just about its own record collections.
GenealogyInTime has an “ancestral search engine”.
Connected Histories Use to search across a number of digital resources related to early modern and nineteenth century Britain (started 2011). Some sources require subscription, higher education or library access.

Places

There are official archives and history centres in most English (and Welsh?) counties. There are also loads of local projects, transcribing and collating information from parish registers and other sources from their patch. Rootschat is a good place to find more (and to ask for help).

Quite a few of the links below are sourced from Who Do You Think You Are magazine, which features an area each issue.

Multiple places

Victoria County History “an encyclopaedic record of England’s places and people from earliest times to the present day”.
Vision of Britain 1801 to 2001 – maps, statistical trends, historical descriptions (including from well-known writers).
Parish registers – Ancestry and FindMyPast are competing on putting online transcriptions and images of parish registry entries (baptisms, weddings, burials) around the country, and other local sources (such as workhouse, nonconformist records). An out-of-date and incomplete list:
- Ancestry: London, Liverpool, (West) Yorkshire, Dorset, Ireland. And various smaller extracts.
- FindMyPast: Manchester, Cheshire, Cambridgeshire, Derbyshire, Hampshire, Hertfordshire; much of Wales, plus many smaller sets in England counties.
Also check Online Parish Clerks Links on UKBMD, which connects to various local volunteer initiatives on collecting parish-based genealogical information. Sussex OPC has a simpler list of county OPC projects around England.
Society for One-Place Studies (international); One Place Studies Directory (mainly UK?).
Find local family history societies below or via Family History Federation (was Federation of Family History Societies).

Lancashire and Cheshire, north west

Lancashire BMD The county’s Family History Societies are collaborating with the local Registration Services to make the indexes to the birth, marriage, death records freely searchable.
Lancashire Online Parish Clerks Project BMD transcriptions from parish registers across the county.
Lancashire Archives – online catalogue includes North West Sound Archive.
National Museums Liverpool includes various institutions with useful archives, such as Merseyside Maritime Museum. Also see The Archives Group website for archive resources across Liverpool city region.
Tameside Family History.
Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society.
Manchester and District Council of Synagogues has an online burial records search
Family History Society of Cheshire.
Cheshire Archives.
CheshireBMD.
Cheshire Parish Register Project.

London

London Lives 1690-1800, “crime, poverty, social policy” and “A fully searchable edition of 240,000 manuscripts from eight archives and fifteen datasets, giving access to 3.35 million names.”
Museum of London collections.

Northumberland, Durham, Tyneside

Northumberland Archives; Woodhorn Museum;
Northumberland and Durham Family History Society.
Family and Local History records at Durham University Library; the Library’s North East Inheritance project is creating an online digital image catalogue of over 150,000 wills and related archives from across County Durham, Tyne and Wear and Northumberland.
Durham County Record Office including indexes to the Durham Miners’ Association trade union records.
Durham Records Online.
Tyne and Wear Archives.

South East England

Kent archives, including History and Library Centre.
Medway Archives Centre.
Exploring Surrey’s Past.
Surrey History Centre.
The Keep opened late 2013, housing East Sussex archives – records office, University of Sussex Special Collections. and more.
West Sussex Records Office, or West Sussex Past portal.
Sussex Record Society.
Sussex Online Parish Clerk.
Sussex Family History Group.
Knightroots, as well as their own family history, acts as a Hampshire genealogical resource (Online Parish Clerk). Note: link problem 31 Mar ’15

South West England

Devon Heritage.
Devon Family History Society.
Cornwall Online Parish Clerks – transcriptions from parish registers across the county, and more. Cornwall Family History Society.
Cornish Archives Network – directory. Kresen Kernow is the new home (from Sept. 2019) for official Cornish archives.
Dorset: Dorset History Centre; Dorset Family History Society.
Gloucestershire (Glos): Glosgen – parishes info, particularly war memorial inscriptions; Gloucestershire Family History Society; Gloucestershire (official) Heritage Hub; more useful links from Glos Local History Association. Gloucestershire Police Archives.
Forest of Dean Family History Trust has various record sets in its resources section.
Bath Archives has a Bath Ancestors online database; Bath BMD.
Somerset page on Cutlock & Co.
Wiltshire Family History Society.
Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre.
Wiltshire Museum Archive and Library.

West Midlands

Birmingham History Forum Discussion boards with loads of info on resources and particular interests.
Trace your ancestors in Birmingham, from Midland Ancestors (previously known as Birmingham and Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry). Also has resources for Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire. Ancestors of Birmingham also has transcriptions of parish registers for some areas.
Birmingham Libraries Archives and Collections. Also see The Iron Room blog and Connecting Histories.
Birmingham Burial Records from the city council.
Black Country History – finding material in the museums and archives of the area.
Coventry Collections.
Herefordshire History.
Midlands Historical Data Covering Warwickshire/Birmingham and also Shropshire, Staffs, Worcestershire.
The Melocki site has transcriptions and information on various Shropshire parish registers. Also some very old Hereford ones.
Staffordshire Names Index from Staffordshire & Stoke On Trent Archive Service.
Staffordshire Asylum Records project.
Windows on Warwickshire.
Explore the Past from Worcestershire Archives, and The Hive, Worcester.

Yorkshire/Humber/Lincs

Lincolnshire Archives.
Hull History Centre
Paul Gibson – a personal history of Hull.
Yorkshire Archaeological Society Has parish register and other publications of interest.
Yorkshire Burials (was Indexers).
Sheffield Indexers.
York Family History Society Has an index to prisoners at York Assizes, as well as more usual information.
Yorkshire Group of Family History Societies for other local FHS.
Heritage Quay – archives held by University of Huddersfield.
North Yorkshire County Record Office online catalogue.
West Yorkshire Archive Service.

Wales

Archives Wales online catalogue for more than 7,000 collections of historical records in 21 Welsh archives.
National Library of Wales at Aberystwyth – various relevant collections including probate records and Crime and Punishment database.
People’s Collection Wales.
Familysearch Wales wiki page.
Association of Family History Societies of Wales.
Ceredigion Archives – also have a blog.
West Glamorgan Archive Service.
Swansea has a Cambrian Index database, hundreds of thousands of newspapers entries on local people.
Glamorgan Archives.
Pembrokeshire Archives.
Powys Archives, county museums.
Carmarthen Gaol Felons Register (1844-71) on Welsh Legal History Society website.
John Ball’s Welsh Family History Archive has various interesting material, even recordings of place-name pronunciations.

Also see Rhondda, Mid-Wales and South Wales pages on Cutlock and Co.

Scotland

ScotlandsPeople The official site for Scottish genealogy research.
National Records of Scotland.
National Library of Scotland Family History section has resources such as post office directories available online.
Familysearch Scotland wiki page amongst other things has useful maps showing counties/regions.
ScotlandsPlaces
Scotland BDM Exchange – sharing information about ancestors found in Scotland.
Scottish Association of Family History Societies Has useful info such as burial grounds, pre-1841 population lists.
Scottish Genealogy Society. Their library has various clan and family histories.
Glasgow City Archives at the Mitchell Library and their connected Glasgow Family History website.
Glasgow and West of Scotland Family History Society.
Heritage Hub for Scottish Borders Archive and Local History Centre, and online catalogue.
High Life Highland – online catalogue for archive centres in Inverness, Portree, Fort William and Wick.
North East Scotland Roots “directory to the organisations and institutions in the City of Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire which hold original records or secondary sources” for family history.
South West Scotland’s Future Museum (Ayrshire, Dumfies and Galloway).
Shetland Family History (using The Next Generation web software), Shetland Family History Society.
Scottish Indexes site has a range of searchable material.
Old Scottish Genealogy & Family History may also be worth a visit.
Scottish Monumental Inscriptions. Also see Moray Burial Ground Research Group.

Ireland

Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI). The family history section includes material from a Wills digitisation project.
For online birth, marriages and death records, see General Register Office NI.
National Archives of Ireland and their National Archives Genealogy Website.
Ireland’s census 1901 and 1911 at NAI.
Ask About Ireland’s Griffith’s Valuation resource.
Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland.
Irish Genealogy – various church records.
National Library of Ireland has Catholic parish registers.
Irish Ancestors, the website of Irish Genealogical Research Society.
Another Irish Ancestors website created by John Grenham is also worth checking.
Irish Family History Foundation has a major database of Irish genealogical sources searchable online, including parish records.
Roots Ireland.
FindMyPast Ireland.
Irish Archives Resource, helping you find relevant collections open for public research in Ireland.
Library Ireland genealogy pages – pedigrees, street directories etc.
Irish Genealogy eBooks – a round-up of free online resources.

Islands

Isle of Man – Isle of Man Family History Society, ManxBMD, Manx Notebook, Isle of Man Registry Office. The iMuseum site is due to have archive material available online from spring 2012.
Guernsey Ancestry site from a local researcher has basic info and some useful links.
Guernsey’s Local Studies and Family History Research Centre, the Priaulx Library.

Abroad

Families in British India Society. The Kabristan Archives tries to capture graveyard inscriptions from Indian sub-continent, Sir Lanka, and also Jamaica and Ireland. Genealogy Sri Lanka.
Trove from National Library of Australia, includes newspapers. Ryerson index to contemporary death notices and obituaries in Australian newspapers. Australian Cemeteries Index – gravestone photos and transcriptions. Queensland Birth Death Marriage certificate search.
France: French Genealogy Blog has plenty of info and web links. English language version of the French genalogy database filae.com, new autumn 2019.
Germany: German Computer Genealogy (in German), Anglo-German Family History Society, English translation of German words in Genealogy.
NZ: New Zealand Government’s Birth, Death and Marriage Historical Records website. Archives New Zealand. Also see government guide to family history records.
Canadian source sites used in compiling Cutlock and Co data are on our other Research page. Additional sites worth a visit include Library and Archives Canada genealogy section with a list of family history groups, as well as census records (for free – up to 1921 at Sep. 2017), passenger lists, etc. Also see Heritage collection of canadiana.ca
- British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa looks interesting – they have a section on British Home Children for instance.
USA Governmental National Archives web section on Genealogy and family history resources. Ellis Island for searches on people passing through the Port of New York, from 1892 to 1924.
South America: South American Brits Database. British Settlers in Argentina and Uruguay – studies in 19th and 20th century emigration.
Family and Colonialism Research Network “connecting researchers interested in the history of the family in colonial contexts”.

General

Currency converter at National Archives – the value of old money in today’s terms. Well, as at 2005, as its not being updated. Or try Measuring Worth – RPI or average earnings calculations.
Institute of Historical Research There are various collections of note in the open-access library.
British History Online Includes free digital versions of various historical sources, covering a variety of subjects. “Some of the core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles.”
British Association for Local History website has a Useful Links section of local societies and other relevant organisations.
Grow your own family tree blog from Alan Stewart (another one using WordPress) keeps an eye on developments, including new online resources.
British GENES blog (Genealogy News and Events) from Chris Paton.
Wikipedia on Cousins – describes how to work out relationships and other useful stuff.
Oral History Society.

Gedcom tools

As I spotted a few, a quick collation.

GEDxlate “quickly and easily translates genealogy data from standard GEDCOM format into MS Access dB (*.mdb), MS Excel Worksheet (*.xls), comma delimited (*.csv), and text file (*.txt) formats”.
genMerge “Find and merge duplicate records in genealogy files”.