Genealogy and Family History are interesting and rewarding pastimes. In the past researching usually involved a lot of travel to visit remotely sited churches and various record offices. Now, more and more information is finding its way online. This opens up the hobby to a far wider audience and can greatly reduce the costs incurred.
How and where do I start? What do I do first?
These are the usual questions and there are many web sites with comprehensive guides online to steer you in the right direction - see the links below.
In the UK the main resources for genealogists are:
- Civil Registration births, marriages and deaths.
- Census returns
- Parish Registers
Once you have found the basic details then there are many more resources to help you.
The web sites that you can find online can basically be divided into two categories:
- Private and voluntary.
- Commercial.
Private and Voluntary web sites
These are, as their name suggests, web sites that are run by volunteers, e.g. from family history societies, and other private individuals.
Commercial web sites
A huge number of online databases and lists are made available on a commercial basis. When you consider the costs that you might incur in travelling to remote records offices and other such repositories, these commercial web sites offer great value for money. Their charges vary from Pay-Per-View options to full annual subscriptions. In many cases they will have the same sets of data online, e.g. the census for 1841, but if you can afford it, we recommend you subscribe to more than one as this will allow you to compare transcriptions -- none of these can claim to be perfect !
The UKBMD, UKGDL and UKMFH websites mentioned above provide links to many commercial websites with online data for genealogists and family historians.