Guides

A Beginner’s Guide to Family History Sources

1. The Family

It is best to start by drawing up a simple family tree, with yourself at the bottom, your parents on the line above, and grandparents above them, based on what you already know yourself, add in dates and places of birth, marriage and death. Where you don’t know something yourself, ask other members of your family, especially elderly relatives and cousins.

Next, find out all you can about the family from elderly relatives and friends of the family. Listen to all of their stories, take notes or record the conversation, if they agree. However, don’t believe everything they tell you, go away and prove it all. Memories fade and fail, and quite often they weren’t told the correct story in the first place, perhaps to cover up something that was not deemed to put the family in a good light.

Seek out documentary evidence from the family perhaps birth, marriage or death certificates, memorial cards, newspaper cuttings. It is amazing what some people keep. If you have camera phone or digital camera use that, so you don’t have to take away someone’s valuable documents.

Ask if there are any old photographs and talk about them. Find out who’s who and mark their names on the back with a soft pencil for future reference. Again photograph them if possible.

Now start from what you know and can prove with evidence, the most recent family events, and work backwards following whatever genealogical lines interest you. Add information to your family tree to help you visualise your progress. Don’t try to follow too many lines too soon, as this may be confusing but concentrate on a few, perhaps towards some targeted goal.

Always note down everything you find and how and where you found it. Also note what you didn’t find and where, so you don’t waste time in future looking for it in the same place twice.

Don’t just record facts and figures, explore the local and national history to see how they might have affected your family members.

2. Birth, marriage and death certificates

The first set of records chronologically going backwards to consult are the births, marriages and deaths which were recorded locally from July 1837 and indexed locally and nationally. The indexes were compiled quarterly so you will find references to the year and the quarter, the volume and page number. The national indexes can be examined using two free websites, www.freebmd.org.uk and www.gro.gov.uk. For the latter site you will need to sign up for a free account first.
The coverage as at April 2024 is given below.

	freebmd.org.uk	gro.go.uk
Births	1837 to 1993	(1837 to 1934 and 1984 to 2023)
Marriages	1837 to 1994	No coverage
Deaths	1837 to 1995 not 1991 and 1994	(1837 to 1957 and 1984 to 2023)

You can search FreeBMD for births using the mother’s maiden name (if known) from the middle of 1911 onwards. Before that use gro.gov.uk for the mother’s maiden name. This site also gives you the full list of First Names. When you find the right birth record you can order a certificate from gro.gov.uk which is the cheapest option. For births up to about 1923 you can order an electronic black-and-white certificate (in PDF format) for £8 (which takes about 7 days) or a digital image for £3 (which is instantaneous). After 1923 you will have to pay for a certified, colour copy posted to you for £12.50 taking about 7 to 10 days. Birth certificates give the date and place of birth, both parents’ names, including the mother’s maiden name (the father may not be known or given) and the father’s occupation, so you can progress backwards from there. Extra charges will apply if you don’t know the GRO reference number.

Birth certificates from 1935 to 1983 and death certificates from 1958 to 1983 are not indexed on the GRO website, but can be ordered by obtaining the reference from Freebmd and using this information to order the certificate.

Death certificates can be obtained in electronic PDF format (£8) or instantaneous digital images for £3 at gro.gov.uk, if the event occurred from 1837 to 1957. After 1957 you will need to order a certified copy posted to you for £12.50. The information they give is not always useful. You will get the date, place and cause of death. It will also give the name of the informant, which need not be a family member.

Marriages are not indexed on the GRO site but are on freebmd.org.uk. These certificates give the date and place of the marriage, the names of the fathers of both parties, if known, and their occupations, but not the mothers’ names. They also give the names of at least two witnesses who may or may not be family members. Once you have the reference from Freebmd, you can order the certificate for £12.50 from the GRO website.

Certificates held at local register offices can be searched using sites like bathbmd.org.uk or generally ukbmd.org.uk. If an event cannot be found in the national indexes it is worth using these sites and/or enquiring at the local register office, if this is known.

3. The 1939 Register

At the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939 a register was compiled so that ID cards and ration books could be issued. The register was in three parts. The first (which is the one that we can currently examine) contained everyone in England and Wales at the time, except those in the military at the outbreak of war. (For Scotland and Northern Ireland you will need to contact Records of Scotland www.nrscotland.gov.uk and the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland www.proni.gov.uk. The second part contains those in the military. It didn’t matter if they were home on leave, in barracks or overseas they were not included in the household books. This might be released one day. The third part contained those who were born after 29 September 1939, those who came into the country after that date, those that came out of the armed services and those pieces that are missing from the original books.

Unusually for such a manually compiled database it was updated until 1991 as it was used for patient records for the new National Health system. For example, women who married between September 1939 and 1991 will be recorded under both their maiden and married surnames, but their address will be shown where they lived in 1939. Only people born before 1922 or who died before 1991 are shown, the rest redacted for data protection purposes. Unlike the census, relationship in households and places of birth are not given but the full date of birth is. The Register is available at Findmypast, Ancestry and The Genealogist. As the years go by more records are made available as the 100-year rule includes more people. Findmypast update their records monthly but Ancestry and The Genealogist only annually.

For more detail see www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/1939-register/

4. Census records

Censuses have been taken every 10 years (except for wartime) since 1801. Early ones did not contain any personal information and/or the information was not always kept but some do survive. The 1841 census is the oldest which is nationally available, although family relationships, exact ages and places of birth were not recorded until 1851. The latest current available is 1921. After downloading a record from the 1911 census go to the next page and look at the schedule, this sometimes give more details about the address eg the name of the house, but this is only available on Ancestry. The address is given on page 2 of the 1921 census.

All of the censuses now have national indexes (some more than one) online, the main ones being ancestry.co.uk, findmypast.co.uk, myheritage.com, genesreunited.co.uk and thegenealogist.co.uk. The 1921 census is available on Ancestry and Findmypast. If you cannot find your relative on one, use another because an incorrect transcription on one site could be correct on another. Therefore, one index may contain the person or family that you are seeking, whilst another might not. The best national index is that for 1881, which was compiled by the Mormons, using local transcribers. It is available free to use on their website and on subscription websites.

5. Parish registers

Before July 1837 baptisms, marriages and burials are recorded in parish (Anglican and Non-conformist) registers and other church records. Parish records started in 1538, but the further back you go the harder they are to read (some 16th century registers are in Latin) and the more gaps you will find. More and more are online these dates on the various subscription websites, but coverage of every county will vary greatly from site to site. They are also held in county record offices where you can view them (usually on microfiche these days) for free. Some churches still hold their own registers and may charge you to view them.

Searching can be a long, slow business if you don’t know exactly which church record to consult. Patience and plenty of time are a necessity. Families did not always stay in a particular parish for a long period of time.

Indexes to parish registers

• Increasing  transcripts and even digital copies of registers are now online. The Mormons (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) have attempted to index all parish registers before 1837. Formerly the International Genealogical Index (IGI) this can be found at online on their website, familysearch.org. Other indexes, and sometimes also images of the originals, can be found on different family history websites.
• Most family history societies have produced indexes of baptisms, marriages and burials in their area. Our Society has local indexes which can be downloaded online for a fee or can be examined for free in our Research Room. They also are now on Ancestry.
• Other indexes may be found in county record offices and these will vary from one to another. Often people with an interest in local family history or the record office themselves, have produced card or hand-written indexes or more recently computerised ones.
• Ancestry.co.uk has many local parish registers online for Bristol, Somerset and Gloucestershire, including scans of the original registers.

6. Wills

Wills have been proved through the Principal Probate Office or District Probate Registries since 11 June 1858. One national annual index is produced giving the testator’s name and outline of the contents of the will and are available at local probate or record offices. Admons, Letters of Administration, have a separate index up to 1870. These indexes often contain a short description of the estate left and the beneficiaries. These calendars are now available at ancestry.co.uk and findmypast.co.uk but use different methods of indexing and searching so produce different sets of results.

Copies of the will can be purchased from the local probate office that proved it, or using the online resource, probatesearch.service.gov.uk/#wills which now only charge £1.50 per will.

Before 1858 wills were proved in ecclesiastical courts, normally by the Archdeacon’s court (e.g. Taunton, Wells, Bath. Bristol or Malmesbury). However, if property was held in more than one archdeaconry it was proved in a Bishop’s Commissionary Court e.g. Bath and Wells or Bristol (which also covers Swindon). If it were held in more than one diocese it would be proved in the Prerogative Court of York (in the north) or the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) (in the south). If it were held in both of these areas, it was proved in the PCC.

Tracking down pre-1858 is a skill in itself and one that can be fraught with frustration because for example, the Somerset wills held in Taunton were taken during the war to Exeter for safekeeping where they were subsequently destroyed by enemy action! The PCC wills are available on the National Archive website and can be downloaded for £3.50 each and also included on ancestry.co.uk

7. Trade Directories

These were the forerunners of the telephone books and go from the eighteenth century up until the 1970s. Most contain surname indexes and although most common peopled did not appear in them until the 20th century. They can be a good resource for finding the exact address of your relatives if you know roughly where they lived. Once their address has been found, it can be used to find them in the census although online indexes have, to some extent, made this unnecessary now. These directories were usually produced annually so you can trace your family in the years in between the censuses. Bristol Central Library has virtually a complete set for Bristol plus many others for Somerset and Gloucestershire on open shelves, but are now well worn. Bristol Archives has a less used set, but each volume must be requested separately. For other areas visit the local main library to find them. Some are now online.

8. Newspapers

Finding an article about your family in a newspaper can be rewarding and are now increasingly easy to track down. Some national papers such as the Times have historical indexes, but most locals do not. However, if you find an unusual death or know of some significant event with an approximate date it is worth looking. Local Bristol papers are kept in the Central Library on College Green. More and more newspapers are now indexed and available online at the British Newspaper Archive (available in the Research Room) and at Findmypast. Some newspapers are available online through your local library website.

9. Emigration and Immigration

Lost that ancestor early on in your research? Many British people emigrated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to seek a better life. Many of these records are now online, making it much easier to trace them. The US censuses from 1790 to 1950 and Canadian censuses from 1851 to 1931 are available. Some US censuses are free including the 1950 census.

Going back you may find your ancestors came to Britain. Naturalisation papers can be found in the National Archives and increasingly on their website.

Huguenots (persecuted French Protestants) arrived en masse in the 1680s although many arrived before then. Many French names were anglicised. Many became silk weavers in Spitalfields, London. If you suspect that your roots go back in that direction the Huguenot Society have published many of their records. Other French immigrants came over during the French revolution of 1789 to 1795.

Jews were banished from England in 1290 and only during the Commonwealth period in 1655 did a number of wealthier Jews arrive. A large number fled the Russian Empire from 1881 to 1914 and others came to England during the 1930s.

10. Military Records

World War 2
You will need to know:

1. The service (British Army, Royal Navy or Royal Airforce).
2. Regiment, ship or unit if possible.
3. For women, Auxillary Territorial Service (ATS), Women’s Royal Navy Service (WRNS) or Women’s Royal Air Force (WRAF).
4. Officer, or other rank
5. Did they survive the war.

By 2029 10 million personnel records of men and women who were born before 1939, from three armed services will be transferred from the MOD to The National Archives (TNA). Most are for those who served in WW2 but some are for those who served in WW1, Korea or were National Servicemen.

Individual files will be released 115 years after a person’s birth. Extracted medical records will only be released in 2044. All will be available on Ancestry.

Army records (other ranks)
These are in TNA. If the person is presumed deceased or born 115 years ago you can request their service record by completing a Freedom of Information Request at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/mod-open-foi-request-step1

Royal Navy (including Royal Marines), British Army (officers only), Royal Air Force

1. You will need to provide:
2. Full name, date of birth and service number (if known).
3. A death certificate is not required, but without one the information given may be limited. The form is at www.gov.uk/get-copy-military-records-of-service/apply-for-the-records-of-a-deceased-serviceperson.

Medals
Every serviceman and servicewoman were entitled to at least one (of the eight) campaign medals but had to claim them after their service. Medals were not inscribed automatically. To claim unclaimed medals, replace medals or find out if someone was entitled to one you will need to contact the Ministry of Defence Medal Office at www.gov.uk/apply-medal-or-veterans-badge.

For information about how to look for records of all British military campaign and service medals go to: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/british-military-campaign-and-service-medals/#4-how-to-find-records-of-campaign-medals.

World War 1.
There are many records available online (Ancestry or Findmypast). Most army service records were destroyed in the Second World War, those that survive, the Burnt Records, give much detail about a person’s service. All servicing personnel were awarded medals and the Medal Records are complete and online (as above) but usually only give initial and surname, so for common names you will need to know the service number to ensure you have the right person.

Pension Records are also complete and available at Fold3.com (part of an Ancestry All Access subscription). This will give the person’s dependents or heirs which helps with identification and also their service number so you can get their medal records.

Prior to World War 1
Pre WW1 most are not online, but at TNA Kew. They include:
Army records, Attestation records, Muster books and pay rolls, ships’ musters, ledgers, pay books and description books.
Can all be used to trace army military careers and put into historical context

Using just the first five of these resources it is possible, in theory, to trace a family tree back to the early 16th century, but family history is much more than just producing trees and lots of dates. It is about finding out about how our ancestor lived, worked and played and fitting them into the national and local historical background. Each record office will be different, so you will need to visit or phone them to see what is available.

Further information about how they lived can be found in Poor Law records, pay books or workhouse records, if they were poor, or Poor Rate books if they were rich. Service in the army, militia and navy can be traced through records available at the National Archives, Kew and increasingly online. Most families should have someone who fought in one of the armed services, look out for gaps in the birth of children which might indicate the husband being away for long periods of time. Such records can give much detail about them including a physical description and an assessment of their character.

Other documents such as apprenticeship records, indentures of purchasing or leasing land, settlement certificates, bastardy records can also be found at county record offices to give more background to their lives.

Land indentures can be particularly useful and their locations can often be found through the National Archives Discovery catalogue on their website or that of the local county record office websites where increasingly the material they hold is indexed and available to see before you visit them.

It is surprising what records common people appeared in and quite often they give family relationships.

11. Family History Societies

It is always worth joining your local society, the Bristol and Avon Family History Society, for this area, so you can attend talks on the subject and meet people with similar interests. They meet monthly at the BAWA Leisure Centre, Southmead Road, Bristol.

It is also worth joining other societies that cover the area(s) that interest you most. Even if you cannot attend their meetings you will get a quarterly journal, which will report the latest news on the indexing and other research projects. Most societies cost between £12 and £15 per year, so join as many as you can afford to cover your areas of interest.

12. Family History Magazines

The main publications on this subject are Family Tree, Who Do You Think You Are?, and Discover Your Ancestor.

With these you can keep up to date on the latest releases of information, datasets and indexing and research projects. Don’t subscribe to either, buy the issues that carry articles about the subjects that interest you.

13. Local history

Discover the history of where your ancestors lived and worked, so you can put their lives into the correct historical background. Many old, formerly out of print books are being re-published and give an eye-witness account of the times. Many are advertised by and can be bought from the local family history society. Local events often lead to people moving about in search of work, so it may help you to trace their movements.

Local history books were often published years ago and are now out of print. They can still be found for sale on abebooks.co.uk, ebay.com, amazon.co.uk or local second-hand bookshops.
The Know Your Place West of England has historic maps for the South West that can be overlaid on modern maps. It also contains old photographs, postcards, drawings, film clips and other local information uploaded by the volunteers who work on it and members of the public. The domain name www.kypwest.org.uk was useful that it linked to all the areas, but is now longer in use. Use the links below for the various areas.

Bristol; https://maps.bristol.gov.uk/kyp/
Bath and North Somerset; https://maps.bristol.gov.uk/kyp/?edition=banes
South Gloucestershire; https://maps.bristol.gov.uk/kyp/?edition=southglos
North Somerset; https://maps.bristol.gov.uk/kyp/?edition=nsom
Gloucestershire; https://maps.bristol.gov.uk/kyp/?edition=glos
Devon; https://maps.bristol.gov.uk/kyp/?edition=devon
Wiltshire; https://maps.bristol.gov.uk/kyp/?edition=wilts

Tithe maps and apportionments
The 1840 Tithe maps and the Apportionments for Bristol which list the Owners and Occupiers of land are available on Know Your Place. Select Bristol and Select Historic Parishes. Using the 1840 Tithe map, click on the parish of interest on the map, right arrow on the pop-up box and then More Info.

For other areas eg Bitton and South Gloucestershire, use www.thegenealogist.com
Search Land Owner & Occupier category

A CD is available from Bristol & Avon Family History Society. Indexes to Bristol Record Office Tithe Apportionment Books containing 38,000 records mainly covering the country parishes.

Other old English maps can be found on the National Library of Scotland website.

Free Resources

Bristol & Avon Family History Society records
In the Research Room visitors have free access to many databases that otherwise have to be purchased on CD or as an online download. These include indexes to:

Bristol Diocese baptisms 1754 to 1837
Bristol Diocese marriages 1754 to 1837
Bristol Diocese burials 1754 to 1812
Nonconformist baptisms in Bristol Archives 1754 to 1837
North Somerset marriages 1754 to 1837
South Gloucestershire marriages 1837 to 1901

Bristol cemetery records for Greenbank, Avon View, Brislington, Canford, Henbury, Ridgeway Park and Shirehampton from their inauguration to 1991.

Bristol Tithe Appointment Books
Bristol Apprenticeship and Burgess records

Eastville Workhouse Creed (Admissions) Registers, 1869 to 1899 and partly from 1899 to 1905 are available on the society’s website, members’ only area and in our Research Room.

Ham Green Isolation Hospital Admission records, 1914 to 1918 are available on the society’s website, members’ only area and in our Research Room.

Submitted members family trees have been digitised and are available on the society’s website, members’ only area and in our Research Room.

Ron Lewin’s Monumental Inscriptions have been digitised and are available on the society’s website, members’ only area and in our Research Room. MIs from graveyards in Somerset and Gloucestershire, but outside of the Society’s area have also been digitised.

And many more. See our online catalogue for more details (https://bafhs.org.uk/explore/databases/library-catalogue).

The Society also has a collection of microfiche copies of parish registers prior to 1837 for some of North Somerset and South Gloucestershire, including the whole area of the former County of Avon. Again, see the catalogue above for details.

The Society also has a large selection of books in its Research Room to help you trace your family history and many local history books for Bristol and the surrounding area.

Family History websites

Free websites

www.genuki.org.uk
The most comprehensive starting point to Internet resources for British and Irish genealogy. Every county has detailed information about records available and any indexes produced.

www.bafhs.org.uk
Bristol & Avon Family History Society’s website. It includes databases of Members’ Interests, Member submitted Family Trees, Memorial Inscriptions, Index of books, booklets, CDs, microfiche etc held in the Research Room and an Index to its journals. It also gives dates and details of Society meetings and events and how to join. The Society has its own Research Room, which is open to everyone, next to Bristol Archives. Opening hours can be found on this website. The members’ only of our website has more detailed information, see above.

www.freeukgenealogy.org.uk/
Free UK Genealogy is a charity dedicated to providing free public access to family history records. They do this through their dedicated team of volunteers who transcribe public records such as the indexes of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Parish Registers and Censuses.

www.freebmd.org.uk
A massive project (part of Free UK Genealogy) to transcribe the entries in the GRO indexes for births marriages and deaths and make them searchable online. Almost complete from 1837 to 1993 for births, 1994 for marriages and 1995 deaths (see https://www.freebmd.org.uk/progress.shtml for up-to-date details). From 1912 onwards the birth indexes contain the mother’s maiden name and the marriage indexes the other partner’s surname. From 1866 the index includes the person’s age on death. This makes it easier to find the person you want if they have a fairly common name.
If you find the person you want, you must still order the certificate at www.gro.gov.uk.

www.freereg.org.uk
A volunteer project the aim of which is to provide free Internet searches of baptism, marriage, and burial records, which have been extracted from parish registers, non-conformist records and other relevant sources in the UK.

www.freecen.org.uk
A similar project with the UK censuses. Both Freereg and Freecen are far from complete, but nevertheless still useful.

www.gro.gov.uk
The General Register Office (GRO) holds the certificates for England and Wales and once the exact reference number has been found can be ordered for £12.50 including postage.
You need to create a free account first and login. This site can be used to search for births from 1837 to 1934 and 1984 to 2023 together with the mother’s maiden name (up to 1921) if known, but otherwise display it anyway. Deaths can be searched from 1837 to 1957 and 1984 to 2023, containing the person’s age before 1866.
Searching for births with the father’s surname and mother’s maiden name (from 1841 to 1921) can help trace those children who were born and died between censuses.
This site also gives the cheaper option (£8) of purchasing digital (not certified) copies of birth certificates by email, or instantaneous digital images (£3). up to 1923 and death certificates up to 1957.

Neil Dunn’s index (www.neildun.co.uk/marriagexref/live/mainpage.htm)
A cross reference of GRO marriage references to some churches and chapels in and around the Bristol area. This enables you to visit Bristol or the relevant local archive and look up the marriage details for free. This has now been mostly overtaken by Ancestry which has scanned and transcribed Bristol parish registers, see below.
It covers Bristol marriages to 1950, Keynsham up to 1939, Kingswood 1950, Sodbury 1937 to 1950 and some others up to 1960.

marriage-locator.co.uk
An attempt to do the same as Neil Dunn’s index for the entire country but is obviously not complete.

www.familysearch.org
One of the largest collections of free genealogical data on the Internet now containing over 1 billion records. Produced by the Mormon Church it contains the former International Genealogical index (IGI) to mainly pre-1837 baptisms and marriages. It also contains the index and full transcription of the censuses of which the 1881 cenusus is the most accurate of all the national census indexes. It also contains immigration and emigration records and details of vital records (not usually deaths and burials) throughout the world.

You have to register to use it and login, but it is free. You can upload your family tree and make it part of a worldwide family tree.

It has many additional useful features which should be explored including a Face Comparison which does as it says - give a percentage match of two images of a face to estimate if it is the same person in both.

The National Archives

www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
The National Archives (TNA) at Kew, London contains a vast collection of records which are of great use for the family, local and general historian. You can search their Discovery catalogue and order copies online, some instantly for a small fee, at discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/advanced-search

A visit to the National Archives is free, but you must book in advance free. At Kew, once you have found the record(s) you are interested in, you can photograph them for free. You will need a Reader’s Ticket which you can request online and you can also reserve documents so they are waiting for you to inspect.
Their database also contains the descriptions of items held in nearly hundreds of archives across England. Usually searchable by names of people and/or places and properties. Once found it is necessary to view the documents at the appropriate record office or order a copy from them.
Record of genealogical interest include, wills, death duties, British citizenship, emigrants and immigrants, evacuees, ships’ passenger lists, military record, merchant seamen, apprenticeships, civil and crown servants, clergy, coastguards, customs and excise officers, police etc, etc.

Research Guides

The TNA research guides are extremely useful ‘pocket’ guides to researching over 100 topics of family history and general history.
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides-keywords/

www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/palaeography
Learn how to read old handwriting from 1500 to 1800 with these tutorials and examples.

www.ukbmd.org.uk
On this site you will find links to all the county websites that offer online transcribed indexes to the original records held by the local register offices. Searching these records should be your first choice. If found, certificates can be ordered from local register offices
It also has links to a wide range of other indexes and transcriptions which are available for most counties, these may include parish records, wills, monumental inscriptions etc.

www.ukgdl.org.uk
This site provides links to websites that offer on-line data in a wide range of categories to help you with your Family History research.

www.ukmfh.org.uk
This site provides links to websites that offer online information in a wide range of categories to help you with your Military Family History research. New links are added regularly.

www.cwgc.org
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s website. This is the site to visit to find out if your relative was killed in action and where he or she is buried or commemorated and the exact location.

le.ac.uk/library/special-collections/explore/historical-directories
A snappy little title to a useful site which contains a digitised selection of the trade directories (produced before telephone directories took over). The site contains directories covering England and Wales from the 1760s to the 1910s.

www.thegazette.co.uk
Search the London, Belfast or Edinburgh Gazette for your surname.

www.oldbaileyonline.org
Search for the proceedings of trials from 1674 to 1913.

www.familyhistoryfederation.com
The Federation of Family History Societies’ website with details of family history events and your local society and an online genealogical shop.

archivescanada.ca
The Library and Archives of Canada. Everything to do with Canadian records and genealogy is here including the censuses from 1825 to 1926 (but not all cover all Canada). It is especially good for Canadian army service records for men who fought in the First World War. Many of these soldiers were originally from the United Kingdom but emigrated to Canada in the early 20th century.

www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/first-world-war/personnel-records/Pages/personnel-records.aspx
Canadian personnel records of the First World War. Although these can be downloaded page by page in Ancestry (a rather tedious procedure) they can be downloaded for free as one document from this website.

trove.nla.gov.au/
Australian records and newspapers.

www.archives.govt.nz
New Zealand Archives.

Subscription and pay per view sites

www.ancestry.co.uk
Ancestry claims to be the world’s largest collection of online UK genealogical databases. If you are serious about family history this is the one to use. It is available free of charge in all libraries in Bristol, South Gloucestershire, North Somerset and BANES and the Society’s Research Room. It contains the censuses of England and Wales indexed (1841 to 1921) plus GRO birth, marriage and death indexes up to 2019, the National Calendar of Wills from 1861 to 1966 and 1973 to 1995 army and navy records, emigration records, British phone books (a selection) 1880 to 1984.

It also has the 1939 register but without the links to local maps that can be found in Findmypast. Unredacting records is slower on Ancestry than Findmypast so use that if your record is blacked out.

Ancestry has transcribed all Bristol Diocese Anglican registers and added them to their website, along with images of the pages concerned. The transcription of baptisms go up to 1918, marriages up to 1935 and burials up to 1994.

The US censuses from 1790 to 1950 are also available and Canadian census from 1851 to 1931. It has a lot of data for Australia and New Zealand plus many other countries as well.

It also has ship’s passenger lists who those who were probably immigrating or emigrating from the UK; army and navy records, including service records for the First World War, where these survive; a selection of merchant navy records including Master and Mates certificates and a whole lot more.

You can upload your family tree, compare it with others on the site and get sent tips about records or photographs that might match your ancestors.

www.findmypast.co.uk
The second most used subscription. Contains similar records to Ancestry but transcriptions were carried out separately, so mistakes on one may not appear on the other. It is available to use for free in Bristol libraries and Bristol Archives.

It has a good address searching feature for all the censuses and 1939 register. Its version of the 1939 register has links to local maps that show exactly where your relative lived and some local information about the area. It regularly updates the transcription and unredacts those who were born more than 100 years ago and anyone who they have been informed of, who has died.
Increasingly parish register transcriptions and digital scans are available. Search their record sets to find out what it contains for your area of interest.

You can upload your family tree on this site also.

www.thegenealogist.co.uk
Again, their collection of records is similar to the previous two sites, with birth, marriage and death indexes, the 1841 to 1911 censuses, parish registers and data coverage from 1127 to 2005.

It has a unique Map Explorer with maps of different date, which can be used in conjunction with the censuses, the 1939 Register, 1840 Tithe maps and apportionments, Lloyd George 1910 Domesday survey (selected areas) and others.

www.myheritage.com
A similar site to Ancestry, Findmypast and The Genealogist.

www.genesreunited.co.uk
Yet another site of the same ilk.

Before subscribing to any of the above five sites review what material they have to offer compared to what you would like to know and can afford. They are all constantly uploading indexes and scanned images on a weekly basis, so it is difficult to keep track of everything they have to offer. Most offer free trials but be sure to cancel any payments before the trial is up, if you don’t wish to subscribe.

www.fold3.com
An adjunct of Ancestry with more military records, but an additional subscription is required.

www.forces-war-records.co.uk
Search this site for more than 26 million military records.

www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk
A vast collection of scanned newspapers where you can pick up information about your family that might never find elsewhere. It is available free in the Society’s Research Room and with some Findmypast subscriptions.

www.newspapers.com
A similar site to the one above with North American newspapers.

www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
All the main Scottish records are here, census, parish registers and wills.

irishgenealogy.ie
The place to start your Irish family history.

Mike Slucutt
Research & Projects Co-Ordinator
July 2026