| Genealogy Research Links |
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| Please
note that these links open in a new window |
| These are the most
directly useful resources on the web. They are broken
into several general areas: |
General
online search resources
Tameside
online resources
Births Marriages and Deaths
Censuses
Dictionaries & Glossaries
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Services
Societies
Starting Family History
Miscellaneous
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| Online
Search Resources |
|
Historic
Newspaper Collections
Provides researchers with the most comprehensive
collection of national and regional newspapers of
Victorian Britain available. Needs the password
"british".
The
Genealogist
Online parish records and much more for a subscription.
Family
Records
An excellent site produced by the key players
in family history records. It has a good guides
section and another about the various records
that we rely on. All in all, great use of
taxpayers' money!
Family
Search
This online genealogy database has been created
and is maintained by the Church of the Latter
Day Saints and has been much improved recently
with additional features, although the family/pedigree
link options are not always illuminating. But
particularly useful is the searchable International
Genealogy Index of parish records. An excellent
alternative
search facility has been created by Hugh Wallis
which is faster and allows much greater query
flexibility. The site also has census
databases for 1881 in the UK and 1880 in the
US and Canada.
GENUKI
Perhaps the most useful resource for research
in the United Kingdom and Ireland, particularly
its county mailing lists. I have primarily used
the sections for Cheshire,
Derbyshire,
Lancashire
and Yorkshire
in England and Midlothian
in Scotland. Also especial thanks to the Lancashire
Parish Register Society.
Search
the lists
You can search the messages archived on the various
GENUKI lists.
Boyd's Marriage Index
An index to English marriages taken from parish
registers, Bishop's Transcripts and marriage licences
from 1538 to 1840.
Expert
Genealogy Forum
An online genealogy discussion forum moderated
by professional genealogists, including an expert
on Cheshire
and Greater Manchester. Still early days at
the time of writing, but seems a good idea.
Cheshire
Wills
A searchable data base of wills from 1492 to 1940.
Copies cost £3 each, plus postage.
Cheshire
Parish Registers
An ongoing project to put parish records online.
Note that the database
has moved site.
Public
Records Office
Access to information on English records, including
A2A (Access
to Archives) a database containing catalogues
describing archives held throughout England and
dating from the 900s to the present day.
Ellis
Island
An online database of people emigrating to the
United States in the late 19th and early 20th
century.
Tameside Burials and Cremations
The local authority is gradually putting all its
burial and cremation records as a searchable database
on the web.
UK Schools Online
A growing site featuring the schools that our
ancestors might have attended.
Trade
Unions
The University of Warwick keeps more modern recrods,
including those of trade
unions.
Hospital
Records
A joint project by the Wellcome Trust and the
PRO. Database tells you what records are available
and where they are kept.
Researching
Military Records
Useful guide at Rootsweb and links to the various
PRO leaflets.
Historical
Directories
A project to put trade directories online.
White's
Directory 1857
Searchable directory of the county. |
General
Records Office
BMD certificates can be ordered online at the
same cost as at a register office if you have the
GRO reference.
Scots
Origins
This online database will allow searches of all
official records in Scotland and to order digitised
copies. I found it very useful when I began researching
there, but two warnings - first, it is a commercial
operation so there is a cost. Second, giving Scottish
naming patterns, basing your research entirely on
the information here could quickly lead you astray!
The English
Origins site boasts Boyd's Marriage Index 1538-1840
of over 3.5 million names, including Lancashire
and Yorkshire and Marriage Licence Allegations Index
1694-1850, plus other databases.
Mancuniensis
Genealogical information about the Salford Hundred.
North
West Derbyshire and North East Cheshire resources
Includes censuses and other information online.
Disley.net
Census and parish records for Disley, Lyme Handley;
Taxal & Whaley in Cheshire.
Curious
Fox
An easy to use contact site for anybody researching
UK genealogy, family or local history. 50,000 counties,
towns, villages and hamlets with contact boards,
surname lists and links to the exact location on
old maps and modern maps.
North West Derbyshire and North East Cheshire
A useful searchable site including the 1841 census.
Executions
The names and details of all those lawfully executed
in the UK on the 20th century.
Police
and Criminals
125,000 names of police and criminals taken from
UK newspapers from 1850 to 1920, plus 5,000 from
WWII magazines.
Old Bailey Trials 1674 to 1834
A fully searchable online resource, containing accounts
of over 100,000 criminal trials held at London's
central criminal court.
Moving
Here
200 years of migration to England. The ultimate
online database of original sources recording the
migration experience.
Genealogy
Toolbox
This privately maintained site provides information
on genealogy and links to related resources on the
net.
Trade
Directories
The University of Leicester is creating an online
library of trade directories for England and Wales.
Military
Memorials
Database of memorials from the Indian Mutiny, the
Boer War, the Kabul Residency and others.
National Roll of the Great War
The National Publishing Company produced 14 regional
volumes which profiled the services of 100,000 people
who survived or died in WWI. This volume covers
Manchester. Thanks to Martin Briscoe for making
it available.
Acts of Parliament
The law of interest to family historians.
Family
History Online
Various searchable databases, some free, some pay-per-view.
Vision of Britain
A useful site funded from Lottery money that
paints a social picture of the UK based on information
from the censuses from 1801 to 2001.
Online
Parish Clerk
The OnLine Parish Clerks project for the County
of Lancashire aims to extract and preserve the records
from the various parishes and to provide free online
access to that data.
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| Tameside
Online Resources |
|
Denton
Roll of Honour
Searchable database of the men from Denton wounded
or killed in WWI.
Tameside
Burials and Cremations
The local authority is gradually putting all its burial
and cremation records as a searchable database on
the web. |
Tameside
War Memorials
A searchable database of memorials in Tameside.
Alternatively, try 'Carl's
Cam' photos for genealogists' with names in alphabetical
order. |
| Births,
Marriages and Deaths |
|
1837
Online
After three years' negotiation, the GRO has relaxed
its rules about making records available online. This
includes the BMD indexes from 1837 to 2001 and the
1861 for a number of counties, including Lancashire
and Cheshire. It comes at a cost (5BP per 50 pages)
and you will need to download DjVu
Viewer to view originals. This works in IE and
Netscape, but not Firefox.
The
Genealogist
A rival to 1837 Online, by subscription.
Free
BMD
An ambitious and valuable project to provide free
internet access to the Civil Registration index for
England and Wales. It is far from complete, but is
already proving its worth. You can also check registrar
office details on line. |
Cheshire
BMD Project
An excellent free online service that will eventually
cover births, marriages and deaths from 1837 to 1950.
Presently, it has Tameside marriages from 1837 to
1879 and work is under way on births up to 1862.
Lancashire
BMD
The Lancashire version of the above.
General
Records Office
BMD certificates can be ordered online at the
same cost as at a register office if you have the
GRO reference.
Certificates
Online
Certificates can be ordered from the GRO online. |
| Censuses |
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Ancestry.co.uk
Has all the UK censuses indexed and available as
scans online, but there is a price to pay. Having
said that, many local studies libraries can provide
access free of charge.
The
Unfilmed 1851 Census
The census records for parts of Manchester were
damaged in a flood and were either unfilmed or impossible
to read if they were. A 14 year project by the MLFHS
has recovered over 200,000 records.
1851
Census
A two percent sample of the 1851 Census is available
to download.
1861 Census
Searchable and available at a cost from 1837 Online.
1881
Census
Part of the Church of the Latter Day Saints website.
1881 for UK and Canada and 1880 in the US.
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1891
Census
An ongoing project to put this online with a database
search.
1901
Census
Information available online for a small fee.
1901
Canadian Census
Free online (and ongoing) census site.
Census Finder
Links to online census databases in the UK and the
US.
Glossop
Information
Liz Sparkes has some Glossop records on her family
history website, including an index for the 1841 and
1861 censuses for parts of the area, the Hearth Tax
for High Peak and the Window Tax. |
| Dictionaries
& Glossaries |
|
Dictionary
of Genealogy & Archaic Terms
Don't know your ab fron your ealdoeman? Try this
online genealogical dictionary.
Latin
in Parish Records
Useful to unravel what the priests actually meant!
Latin
Names
Old written records of refer to first names in Latin.
Here is a list of names and their spoken translation. |
Glossary
of Terms used in past times
From assarts through heriots, messuages and tofts
to virgates.
Latin
Dictionary and Grammar Aid
Both Latin to English and English
to Latin.
Archaic
Medical Terms
Got a death certificate and still not sure what killed
them? This Rooysweb page might provide the explanation
you're looking for.
Occupations
A source of information about those obscure occupations
our ancestors had from the Hall Genealogy website. |
| Services |
|
Obtaining
BMD from outside the UK
Getting BMD certificates from overseas can be costly
and time-consuming. A fellow LANCSGEN lister can provide
an alternative. This is a not-for-profit service that
might cut you a corner or two. Antony also has other
useful resources on his site, including a parish
records look-up and 1871
census for Hurst, Ashton-under-Lyne.
The House Historians
A commercial service offering to research the history
of your home. |
Graham
and Jill Hadield's Pages
Need a large family tree printing? This may be the
place. Graham has information about Glossop on his
site, as well as about his family. He also hosts the
Derbyshire
Family History Society pages.
General
Records Office
BMD certificates can be ordered online at the
same cost as at a register office if you have the
GRO reference. |
| Societies |
|
Tameside
Family History
The Dukinfield Group of the Family History Society
of Cheshire covers the whole of Tameside, an area
that straddles the River Tame, taking in south east
Lancashire and north east Cheshire.
Lancashire Family History and Heraldry Society
Formed in 1973 as the Rossendale Society for Genealogy
and Heraldry (Lancashire), the Society now has twelve
centres in Lancashire, together with one in London
where members meet regularly.
The
North Cheshire Family Historian
This
is quarterly journal of The North Cheshire Family
History Society. |
Society
of One Name Studies
Some genealogists specialise in one surname and yours
may be amongst them.
Derbyshire
Family History Society
Hosted by Graham and Jill Hadfield
Manchester
& Lancashire Family History Society
Founded in 1964 as the Manchester Genealogical Society,
the Society encourages and supports family history
research in the Greater Manchester area.
Society of
Genealogists
Useful backgorund information. |
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BBC
Family History
Excellent guide to genealogy with useful timelines
and suggested avenues of research.
Basic
Genealogy
Anyone starting the family history 'journey' could
do worse than check Norman Buckley's 'no frills'
introduction to the hobby. You will also find links
to over 150 images of Cheshire churches by Bill
Moston.
Family
History Radio
A new concept in the US. Presenter Karen Clifford
broadcasts genealogy lessons over the internet.
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Roy
Stockdill's Newbie Guide
More detailed information about the sources available,
including an explanation of what the IGI is and what
it isn't! Roy is one of the most experienced online
genealogists, specialising mainly in Yorkshire. Recommended
reading.
Jumspstart
Family History
Download this E-book guide to family history for free.
Uses a Windows based program, so not for Macs I'm
afraid.
About.com
Lots of useful articles on genealogy. |
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