Family history

Ancestry: Library Edition

Ancestry: library Edition provides the same service as Ancestry, but is available only through local library authorities. Like Ancestry, Ancestry: Library Edition gives access to hundreds of millions of fully searchable individual records, including the England, Wales, Channel Islands and Isle of Man census records (1841 to 1911), Scotland census records (1841 to 1901), slave registers (1812 to 1834), US (1790 to 1930) and other international census records and scanned images of many other original historical British and international documents.

Find my Past

Find my Past offers access to the complete England & Wales census collection 1841 to 1911 and complete England & Wales birth, marriage and death indexes 1837 to 2005. Plus millions of records covering over 650 years of history, including parish records, passenger lists, and military records.

Find My Past is free to search, but records and scanned images are pay-to-view.

Your library may subscribe to these resources on your behalf.

To see if Ancestry: Library Edition or Find my Past are available in your library, go to the cyberLibrary's Reference Online page and select your library from the list.

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FamilySearch

The "Mormon Index" from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is a searchable resource of millions of entries transcribed from parish registers, censuses and other sources from around the world. The Search for Ancestors section includes the International Genealogical Index, and the 1881 UK and Canadian and 1880 US censuses.

FreeBMD

FreeBMD is an ongoing project transcribing the Civil Registration index from 1837 of births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales, and provides free access to those records.

Genuki

Huge "virtual reference library" for the UK and Ireland providing links to websites covering all aspects of family history and genealogy, at national, regional, county and parish level.

Historical Directories

A digital library of local and trade directories for England and Wales, from 1750 to 1919.

London Lives

This website is the result of a partnership between academics who have aimed to bring together the records of the lives of ordinary people in the London area. There is a simple search covering records for the period 1690 to 1820 and the database gives useful access to a range of digitised documents including coroner’s reports, parish records and hospital and guild records.

National Archives (TNA)

TNA, formed in April 2003 from the Public Record Office and the Historical Manuscripts Commission, is the England, Wales and UK depository for documents dating back to the eleventh century. This website provides news and information about TNA and its work, including its collections and how to access them.

Rootsweb

Huge amounts of free information, including family trees submitted by individuals. Most useful for its geographical, surname and occupation mailing lists and message boards. The mailing lists are archived and searchable.