For many years, genealogy instructors taught genealogists the importance of doing a survey–what is currently known about the ancestor you chose to research? And this is still the best approach. You gain key results with a survey:
- You can capture several generations of new, corrected, documented, known, and unknown information.
- You prevent unnecessary duplication of research efforts and costs.
- You alert relatives of your own research interests and involvement.
- Your starting point for original research is identified.
The sheer volume of genealogical information available on the internet at the beginning of 2011 sort of requires you begin your checking online. Without a survey of everybody else’s stuff.
This research list of resources now available, compiled in categories by me, thrusts you into original indexes and images of records. And I prepared it with some unresolved questions in my mind–is it a good idea to search the records themselves FIRST? Before anything else? And especially, will this kind of research lead you astray? Grasping inaccurate conclusions? Or, will you spot the real data to begin with? Can you begin with real facts and the accompanying thrill discovery gives you?
England (including Wales) Online Genealogy Resources–
Census Records–Indexes and Images
*__http://www.ancestry.co.uk 1841-1911 indexes, with images
*__http://www.findmypast.com 1841-1891, some counties 1901
__http://www.familysearch.org 1881, index with transcript; 1851 Devon, Norfolk, Warwickshire indexes
__http://www.census.pro.gov.uk 1891, index and images for Norfolk, 500,000 people
$__http://www.1901 census.nationalarchives.gov.uk
$__http://www.1911census.co.uk 16 million colour images, 36,070,492 people, including entries written by your ancestors themselves!
__http://www.censusfinder.com/england.htm links to free indexes and transcripts
Civil Registration–Births, Marriages, Deaths
INDEXES
$__http://www.ancestry.co.uk includes Pallot’s Marriage Index, 1538-1837
RECORDS
__http://www.gro.gov.uk How to Order Certificates by email, telephone, FAX, postal mail
__http://www.raogk.org.uk volunteers who will do lookups
$__http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk BMD images, 1837-2003
$__http://www.origins.net Boyd’s Marriage Indexes, all series; Marriage Licenses and Allegations, Faculty Office (1701-1850) and Vicar General Office (1637-1911)
Parish Records–Church of England
__http://www.familysearch.org Advanced Search, International Genealogical Index (IGI)
$__http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk includes registers for Metro London
__http://www.onlineparishclerks.org.uk parishes digitizing registers
__http://www.google.co.uk “Look Up Exchange”
Check internet search engines like Google, Dogpile, Altavista using parish name, local town, county, “church records and indexes” for transcripts. And to locate parish names consult these sites:
__http://www.genuki.org.uk link to “Parish Locator”
__http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales, 6 vols.
__http://www.british-history.ac.uk/source Lewis’s Topographical Dictionary of England and Wales, 4 vols.
Nonconformists
__Baptists–1647 earliest
__Calvinistic Methodists (mostly Wales)–1735 earliest
__Congregationalists and Independents–1644 earliest
__Huguenots–1550 earliest, most from 1684
__Jews–1687 earliest
__Methodists–1740 earliest
__Moravians–1741 earliest
__Presbyterians–1644 earliest
__Quakers–1578 earliest, most from 1654
__Roman Catholics–1663 earliest
__Unitarians–1762 earliest
Records of these nonconformist groups were acknowledged by law about 1778. Their records were ordered to be sent in for preservation to the Registrar General in 1837. All those deposited in the Public Record Office are on microfilm at the Family History Library; 85 % of all surviving registers have been input into the IGI. Your favorite genealogist, Arlene Eakle. http://arleneeakle.com
Code: * Free versions available at the Family History Library and other research libraries and archives; $ Fee site.
PS Watch for the next installment of this England-Wales Basic Sources Online Checklist–posted right here in the near future.