Britain
Listed below are some key family history resources for the whole of Britain. For information relating to specific countries, please select the appropriate link on the left of the screen.
Key Resources
Ancestral trails: the complete guide to British genealogy and family history
This book by Mark Herber is a key work for researching your British ancestors.
Tracing your ancestors in the National Archives
This book by Amanda Bevan is an excellent guide to resources for family historians in the National Archives at Kew.
Gateways
GENUKI: UK & Ireland Genealogy
This is the main genealogical gateway for the United Kingdom and includes information on England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.
Use the SLWA Genealogy Tags page on the social bookmarking site, Delicious, to find websites for Britain recommended by the Family History Subject Specialists. Simply click on any heading of interest e.g. great.britain-gazetteers to see a list of websites relating to this topic. The larger a tag appears, the more websites appear on the list.
Archives and Libraries
The National Archives
The National Archives, located in Kew in Surrey, is a vast repository of historical archives many of which are useful for family historians. The website includes:
- Research Guides
A large collection of online guides which explain the collections of the National Archives and how to use them. - DocumentsOnline
Digitised material which can be downloaded from the website on a pay-per-view basis. Popular content includes:
Prerogative Court of Canterbury wills 1384-1858
World War I campaign medals
World War I war diaries
World War I POWs
Royal Naval Seamen 1853-1923
Domesday Book - Catalogue
10 million descriptions of documents held at the National Archives in Kew. - A2A Access to Archives
Search catalogue records for archives across England and Wales. Some agencies have very detailed records including personal names.
Searchable listing of contact details for libraries, archives and museums throughout the United Kingdom. Some overseas repositories are also listed.
The British Library
The British Library has a collection of millions of books, journals, newspapers and more. Digitised content can be found in their:
- Online Gallery
This includes the Crace Collection of Maps of London and Ordnance Survey drawings. - Archival Sound Recordings
Here you will find Accents and dialects as well as Oral history.
We have database subscriptions to some of the newspapers held in the British Library. Please note that these databases can only be accessed within the State Library building. There are three different search options for this collection:
- 17th & 18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers
Nearly one million pages of rare 17th and 18th Century material published in Britain and the colonies including pamphlets, broadsides and newspapers. - 19th Century British Library Newspapers
Over two million pages from 19th Century newspaper titles held in the British Library. Newspapers were selected from all over Britain including Ireland, Scotland and Wales as well as England. - British Newspapers 1600-1900
Combined searching of the 17th & 18th Century Burney Collection and 19th Century British Library Newspapers.
Societies
Society of Genealogists
Federation of Family History Societies
Journals
The following journals are available in the Genealogy Centre on the 1st floor:
Ancestors: family history with the experts / The National Archives
BBC Who Do You Think You Are?
Family history monthly
Practical family history
Your family history
Statistics
A vision of Britain through time
This website has statistical information for Britain on various themes such as life and death, work and poverty, learning and language etc.
Histpop - the online historical population reports website
Statistical analysis of population reports for Britain.
Page last updated: 24/09/2009 15:22:36