Here are some helpful links for genealogists:
Websites for Records
FamilySearch (Worldwide)
FamilySearch is the free genealogy website of the LDS church. They have lots of indexed records as well as some images of original documents. You need to sign up for a free account in order to use the site.
FreeREG (UK)
FreeREG is a free index of selected UK baptism, marriage and burial records up to 1837 when civil registration started. All records have been indexed by volunteers. Not all counties and parishes are covered, so be sure to check their coverage page here.
FreeCEN (UK)
FreeCEN features free transcriptions of selected UK census records, from 1841-1891. These transcriptions are by no means complete and do not cover the whole of the UK for every census. Check their coverage for each county here.
FreeBMD (UK)
A companion site to FreeREG, FreeBMD is a free index of birth, marriage and death records from 1837-1992 held by the General Register Office (GRO). You can use the index information found on this site to order a copy of a certificate from the GRO. NOTE: This site does not contain images of certificates, only the certificate indexes.
General Register Office (UK)
Once you have a free account with the GRO, you can search their indexes for births and deaths in England and Wale from 1837 onwards. You can also order birth, marriage and death certificates. This is the best and cheapest place to order certificates, so don’t be fooled by other websites that offer the same service at a higher price!
London Lives (UK)
A searchable free database of records pertaining to London and Londoners between 1680 and 1820. You can search by person or by keyword. Some of the records in the database have original documents attached.
Old Bailey Online (UK)
A searchable free database of court proceedings at the Old Bailey, London, from 1674-1914.
British Newspaper Archive (UK) (£)
This collection of British newspapers is not free, but a very useful resource. Some of its contents are also available through FindMyPast.
National Archives (UK)
Search the Archive’s online catalogue to see if your ancestors feature in their record collections. Some of their documents are available to purchase online.
County Record Offices
County archives and record offices often have online catalogues available for their collections. It’s always worth checking to see if your ancestors feature in land records, wills etc. These records are not usually available online, but most county archives offer a document scanning service so contact them or look on their website for more information on this.
Click here for a list of links to the online catalogue of each county archives.
Useful Blogs
General Resources
National Archives Palaeography (UK)
An online tutorial from the National Archives on how to read handwriting from 1500-1800.
Scottish Handwriting (UK)
A guide to handwriting in Scottish records.
Genealogy Chats with Rosie 