The Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Researching Your Ancestors in England, Wales, Scotland or Ireland

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Over the course of household history research, many people around the world will discover that their ancestry leads back to the British Isles in one way or another. If you are a part of this group, congratulations: you’re about to enter a few of the world’s oldest and richest archives. In this guide we introduce you to the essential sites, sources and methods to help you discover these ancestors.

While we have made every effort to include links to free resources in this post, we have likewise linked to paid resources that can assist you in your UK genealogy research. Because we use them ourselves, we have actually partnered with some of these websites to share details about their services with you and might earn a cost if you select to benefit from them.

The Genealogy Research Landscape in the British Isles
The geographical entity known as the British Isles consists of a number of distinct countries and jurisdictions, each with its own records and archives. You’ll need to know roughly where your ancestors lived in order to be sure you’re looking in the right location. To get our bearings, we’ll start with a quick tour of the main archives and sites.

The Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Researching Your Ancestors in England, Wales, Scotland or Ireland

Secret Resources for Genealogy Research in England and Wales
England was and is the biggest of the 4 countries that comprise the British Isles in regards to both area and population. Historically, it was divided into 39 counties that had actually existed since medieval times.

Lying to the west, Wales was brought fully under English law by Henry VIII in the early 1500s. Ever since, England and Wales have actually shared a typical legal system and thus tend to have comparable records. The majority of are composed in English, you may likewise come throughout Latin (pre-1650, particularly in legal files) and Welsh (which continued to be used in some parts of Wales).

The National Archives (typically described just as ‘TNA’) at Kew, south-west of London, holds over a thousand years of English records. Its collections can be browsed via the Discovery Catalogue: this covers not only the TNA’s own holdings however also those of other English and Welsh archives.

A number of the most crucial collections are offered online, some complimentary of charge and others on either a pay-per-view basis or through business service providers. The TNA site has an extensive series of research study guides offering aid and suggestions on key topics.
In Wales, the main repository is the National Library of Wales, which houses numerous important sources consisting of church and legal records. The online catalog at Archives Wales offers a gateway into other Welsh repositories.

Numerous English and Welsh record sets of interest to the household historian are held at a local level in county or city archives (typically referred to as county record workplaces or ‘CROs’). Of particular note are the London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) and Guildhall Library which house abundant collections for London.
Secret Research Resources for Scotland

Scotland was an independent nation for hundreds of years and remained so even after a joint monarchy with England & Wales was established in 1603. The two only ended up being united politically– as ‘Great Britain’– with a single parliament, in 1707. Scotland retained its separate legal system and spiritual identity and this remains the case today. The record sets utilized by family historians can look significantly various to those for England and Wales.

The main archive is National Records of Scotland in Edinburgh, which runs the exceptional ScotlandsPeople website. Here you’ll discover important records, church registers, census returns and far more, all of which are free to search (with a complimentary account)– initial records are accessible on a pay-per-view basis. Likewise of note is the Scottish Archive Network, an electronic brochure to the holdings of more than 50 Scottish archives.
Secret Genealogy Resources for Ireland and Northern Ireland

The island of Ireland was ruled by the British Crown for centuries and became part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801. After an extended project for Irish Home Rule that became increasingly violent, partition was settled on in 1921 in between the Irish Free State in the south, which became an independent country, and Northern Ireland, which remained part of the UK.

The General Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) is the main archive for Northern Ireland. Its site consists of an eCatalogue, along with online access to crucial record sets. For Ireland, the government-run website Irish Genealogy.ie. is devoted to helping you look for your Irish family history and has beginner’s guides and helpful links. The National Archives of Ireland, which holds census records, is another important site.
The Channel Islands, off the coast of France, and the Isle of Man, in the middle of the Irish Sea, are Crown Dependencies– an unique status that means they are not formally part of the United Kingdom. Jersey and the Isle of Man each have small regional archives. Secret collections from these areas are on FamilySearch and other websites.

Vital Resources for Researching Your UK and Irish Ancestors Online
When it concerns researching online there is no shortage of sites to assist you find your ancestors from the British Isles. The industrial websites Ancestry and FindMyPast both have abundant collections of English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish records which are being expanded all of the time. You can discover a total list of Ancestry’s UK record collections here. FindMyPast has its roots in Britain and has lots of unique record sets that are not readily available in other places. Find out more about what they need to provide here.

On both websites, a ‘world’ or ‘all gain access to’ membership package might be essential in order to access these collections from other areas. Nevertheless, there are numerous complimentary or low-priced options, nevertheless, consisting of FamilySearch and sites run by local family history societies within the location concerned.

The Society of Genealogists, based in London, is the UK’s earliest society dedicated to genealogy and family history. Its substantial library contains countless unique records that you will not find anywhere else, a few of which are available online to members. There is likewise an online bookshop and discovering zone.

Family history societies (or ‘FHSs’) operate across the UK, bringing together individuals with an interest in a particular area (typically at the county level). As arranging routine meetings, FHS volunteers painstakingly transcribe local records which are readily available to acquire or download through society sites.

The Federation of Family History Societies (FFHS) has links to over 180 member societies within England, Wales, and Ireland, as well as a sibling organization covering societies in Scotland. Regional (instead of family) history societies are also worth looking for in order to get an insight into a specific region.
When it comes to sketching out the landscape, GENUKI, GenGuide, and the popular FamilySearch Wiki are all websites or recommendation websites using beneficial guides and links on different elements of British and Irish research study.

The 1840 Threshold

The duration around 1840 is a key recommendation point when it concerns investigating ancestors in Britain. This saw the starts of a nationwide system of civil registration of births, marital relationships, and deaths (started in 1837, at first in England and Wales just) as well as the national census, taken every ten years from 1841. After 1840, we have these 2 uniform, across the country recommendation sources through which to locate our forefathers and track their motions.

Before 1840 there are no extensive datasets covering the whole of the UK population: we are reliant instead on information obtained from disparate sources that are not always dependable or total. Pre-1840 research study in Britain comes with a health caution: prepare to dig deep, it could be a long haul. But it’s also guaranteed to be entirely fascinating!

Discovering Vital Records
Britain has a rich collection of what are normally described in your area as ‘BMDs’ (suggesting birth, marital relationship and death records), typically known in North America as ‘essential records.’

Important records after 1837

Under this system, all births, marital relationships and deaths had to be recorded by a registrar who provided a certificate, a copy of which was sent out to the General Register Office (GRO) in London. The indexes to these signs up (but not the registers themselves) are extensively readily available online.

British, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Genealogy Research Guide, FreeBMD GRO index records.
FreeBMD is the conclusion of a 20-year effort by volunteers to make the GRO’s crucial record indexes available for free online.
The GRO’s own online index covers registered births from 1837-1915 and deaths from 1837-1957. Not as substantial as that available through FreeBMD, it has some unique benefits. Birth entries list the mother’s first name and death entries offer the age at death, neither of which might be offered in other places (depending upon the period being browsed).

The GRO’s Index is totally free to search, though you’ll need to produce an account. You’ll likewise require to utilize the GRO website to purchase certificates. A new, lower-cost service to deliver information from the signs up as PDF files is also being trialed: these non-certified entries are not legitimate for legal functions however are great for household historians.

The statutory registers can be searched complimentary of charge at ScotlandsPeople (registration required), from where certificates may also be bought. In Ireland, a similar system was presented in 1864: the indexes together with digital images of the initial entries are readily available at no expense on Irish Genealogy.ie.

British, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Genealogy Research Guide, IrishGenealogy.ie
Search civil and church records for Ireland at the Irish Genealogy site.
Finding UK Church Records
Parish signs up

For hundreds of years, the main administrative body in Britain was the parish, at the center of which was the Anglican (i.e. Church of England) parish church. Baptisms, marital relationships, and burials were recorded in parish registers. These were presented in the 1530s however typically the earliest records have been lost.

These signs up consisted of extremely limited information– a baptism may simply have a daddy’s name. The introduction of printed signs up ensured that events were tape-recorded in higher detail and more regularly across the nation, but this did not occur till 1754 for marriages and 1813 for baptisms and burials.

There were around 8,000 so-called ‘ancient’ parishes in England and Wales (i.e. pre-dating 1500) and numerous thousand more in Scotland. With the growth of towns and cities throughout the Industrial Revolution, a few of these parishes were split to develop new ones. Registers had to be gathered from various different places and not all have actually survived.

Online protection varies significantly: not all parish registers from a given area are necessarily readily available online and some might no longer exist. For this reason, it is essential to validate whether a specific website covers the parish you have an interest in and for the time duration you have an interest in, so regarding prevent following incorrect trails. FamilySearch has lists of parishes in England and Wales with dates of their surviving registers, as well as maps of parish borders.

British, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Genealogy Research Guide, FamilySearch parish register maps
Use the parish maps at FamilySearch to understand where your ancestors lived and which directions they might have moved.
Many of the pre-1840 parish signs up (and some from later periods) have been transcribed. FamilySearch has a good collection covering all of England and Wales. FreeREG likewise has a database of over 40 million records transcribed by volunteers: protection differs considerably, being fairly thorough for some counties and irregular for others. Many regional FHSs have also transcribed registers within their location which might be searched via their site or purchased as downloads or CDs (see the FFHS gateway above).

In some counties, brand-new parish register transcriptions have actually been released as part of tie-ups in between regional archive services and business suppliers. These can be considered ‘official transcriptions’ and are essential for two factors: first, they use full protection of the location concerned (which other sources may not); and 2nd, they usually consist of pictures of the original register pages (useful for checking the info offered). New ‘official’ collections are being published all the time.

In Scotland, the church (or ‘kirk’) registers are referred to as Old Parochial Registers. These are now held by the National Records of Scotland and may be searched and spoken with as digital images on ScotlandsPeople (pay-per-view). Once again, FamilySearch has lists of parishes and their records.

Non-Conformist Records
The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was a period of spiritual chaos in Britain. Many refused to accept the new Protestant religion and sought to adhere to their Roman Catholic faith. On the other hand, divisions emerged within Protestantism that resulted in the development of new denominations that did not follow the creeds and interpretations of the Established Church (and for this reason became known as ‘Non-conformist’).

Thus, for any offered location there might be different records for Roman Catholic and Non-conformist locations of praise alongside those of the Anglican parish.

Up until just recently really couple of Catholic records were available online. The Catholic Heritage Archive on FindMyPast has collections from the Archdioceses of Westminster and of Birmingham, covering locations around London and Central England respectively (subscription required, a totally free trial can be found here). A brand-new database listing over a quarter of a million English Roman Catholics has been produced by the Catholic Family History Society (CFHS) and will eventually be launched online.

Ireland stayed primarily Roman Catholic. Church registers from the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland are available on Ancestry and might be searched totally free of charge in the Irish Records Collection at FindMyPast.

Non-conformism was specifically strong in industrialized areas in main and northern England and in Wales. Records of nonconformist chapels held by the National Archives (a small proportion of the whole) can be browsed at BMD Registers, a pay-per-view website. For others see FamilySearch, CROs, and regional household history societies.

British, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Genealogy Research Guide, BMDRegisters non-comformist records
Use the BMDregisters site to search for records from Non-conformist denominations.
Discovering UK Graves and Memorials
Deceased Online has cemetery registers from across the UK and is totally free to browse. The National Burial Index lists church and municipal burials from transcriptions made by local FHSs and is available to acquire as a CD-ROM and partially offered online through FindMyPast.

Splitting the Census for Britain and Ireland
The census is the go-to resource for family historians seeking to track down their British forefathers from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. Not the very first to be taken (see below), the 1841 Census was the first to tape the names of the entire population. Subsequent censuses have been taken at ten-year intervals and remain closed for 100 years. Therefore, the most current census offered to us at present is that for 1911.

The variety of info recorded in the census grew gradually, to the benefit of modern-day scientists. From 1851 the data consisted of: age, address, relation to head of household, marital status, profession or trade, where born, and whether blind, deaf or dumb. This last question was customized a little in subsequent years.

1901 saw the addition of concerns on work status and home-working, and in 1911 additional information about marriage and kids were asked that are of terrific usage for household historians. This was also the very first census to be finished by the householder themselves, rather than an enumerator, so we get to see our forefather’s real handwriting.

For example, someone recorded as “age 40” may be anywhere in between 40 and 44. Both of these elements can make it more hard to determine people in earlier years, so it is best to validate with a later census if possible.

Accessing the British Censuses

All of the British censuses for the duration 1841-1911 (covering England, Wales, Scotland, Channel Islands, and Isle of Man) are offered to search free of charge at FamilySearch.

From a list of search engine result it is possible to click through to the in-depth entry, which notes full information not only for that specific but likewise for the remainder of the home. Pictures of the original census pages might be seen either through FindMyPast or at an LDS family history centre.

British, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Genealogy Research Guide, FamilySearch totally free British census records
Search the British censuses for free at FamilySearch.
FreeCEN aims to supply totally free Internet searches of the nineteenth century UK census returns and is a sis site of FreeBMD. At present, around 50% of the entries from 1841-1891 are available: check if the location you’re interested in is covered in the list of FreeCEN database protection.

Origins, FindMyPast, TheGenealogist, and MyHeritage all have full protection of the UK censuses offered on a subscription basis. The search experience can vary between websites: you might like to secure a trial membership to see which you choose. Keep in mind, these are substantial datasets and errors are prevalent– if you can’t find the person you’re looking for at one website, try another– this way you can potentially detect any mistakes in the way the data has been transcribed.

Ireland (consisting of Northern Ireland) is a little a special case here. All of the nineteenth-century censuses were lost in a fire and only those for 1901 and 1911 make it through. The good news is that they are readily available to researchers complimentary of charge through the National Archives of Ireland, along with through commercial sites.

Censuses Before 1841

The very first census was taken in Britain in 1801– partially to aid with preparation throughout the wars against Napoleon– and the workout was duplicated in 1811, 1821 and 1831.

Unfortunately for family historians, really few of these early censuses have survived and, in any case, the info they contain is questionable. Nonetheless, where they exist they can be a beneficial resource. Inspect the sites of regional archives and household history societies for the counties you’re interested in to see if any survive and how they might be accessed.

In the lack of censuses that offer universal listings, for the period before 1841 we have to draw on substitute sources that cover at least a considerable percentage of the population.

Electoral signs up, initially introduced in 1832, show who was signed up to enact elections. In the duration before the universal franchise (not presented till 1928), undoubtedly this suggests they are prejudiced towards men and property owners.

Mandated under an Act of 1696, survey books fulfilled a comparable function prior to the introduction of the secret tally, showing not just who was eligible to vote however also for whom they voted. Once again, regional archives and household history societies are the very best ways of discovering what is available.

Origins has a good collection of poll books and electoral registers for London, and FindMyPast has some for other areas. Both sites have the modern-day electoral registers (2002-2014), which can be helpful to track down lost cousins.

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