Discovering Links: 25 FREE Links for Western Australian Genealogy Research

Here’s another of my “Discovering Links” post. These posts consist of a collection of links that I have discovered, or found useful, and want to share with others. But rather than simply giving you a whole batch of random links each time, I am grouping them by Australian state, country or topic. You can see my previous Discovering Links posts here.

For this one I’ve decided to share my Western Australian links. It is not intended to be an exhaustive collection (not by a long shot), but they are simply ones that many will find useful, and it may include some that you might not have known about.

And while many people think that genealogy costs a lot of money, let me tell you that all of the links below are free. There’s plenty out there, it’s just a matter of knowing where to look beyond the big-name websites, and hopefully this will help with that.

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DEAD RECKONING: A GUIDE TO FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Produced by the Library Board of Western Australia as a book back in 1997, this publication has been updated and is now available online. If you are a novice family historian just starting out tracing your family tree or an experienced genealogy researcher looking for whatever happen to the elusive great uncle, Dead Reckoning is a great place start to learn about family history research in Western Australia.

WESTERN AUSTRALIAN BICENTENNIAL INDEX (WABI)
Western Australian Biographical Index is really the pre-curser to the Dictionary of Western Australia and Bicentennial Dictionary of Western Australians series. This is the information noted on card file, and all 85,000 of them have now been scanned, transcribed and made available through both the WA Genealogical Society and the State Library of WA websites. For more on WABI read here.

BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX OF COOROW, CARNAMAH AND THREE SPRINGS
A project of the Carnamah Historical Society and Museum, the biographical dictionary aims to chronicle the lives of people with a connection to the shires of Coorow, Carnamah or Three Springs. These shires encompass the towns and places of Arrino, Billeroo, Carnamah, Coorow, Dudawa, Eganu, Eneabba, Five Gums, Green Head, Gunyidi, Inering, Kadathinni, Leeman, Marchagee, Prowaka, Three Springs, Waddy Forest and Winchester. And you will find some entries for people from the neighbouring shires of Perenjori and Mingenew, which include Bunjil, Caron, Latham, Mingenew, Perenjori, Strawberry and Yandanooka. Keep an eye on this, as it’s ongoing.

WESTERN AUSTRALIAN BIRTHS, DEATHS AND MARRIAGE RECORDS (BDMs)
The Western Australian registrar has free online searching of births, deaths and marriages from 1841 for their historical records. This covers the following: Births 1841-1932, Marriages 1841-1936 and Deaths 1841-1971. Remember it is an index only, so doesn’t contain ‘all’ the info that you’ll find on a certificate, but it is still very useful.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA MOTOR REGISTRATIONS 1917-1928
Motor registrations are a great resource, and thanks to the Royal Automobile Club (R.A.C.) of Western Australia who published an annual Year Book & Road Guide, and Carnamah Historical Society and Museum who have transcribed, indexed and created a searchable online database, you now have access to over 80,000 motor registrations from throughout Western Australia, and covering the years 1917-1928.

OUTBACK FAMILY HISTORY: WESTERN AUSTRALIA’S CENTRAL GOLDFIELDS
If your ancestors went to the central goldfields region of Western Australia, you can’t go past the Outback Family History website. It’s choc full of info on the people, places and history of the towns in the region. You’ll find info such as the: Western Australian Virtual Miners Memorial, Mining maps, Details on hotels (over 200 of them), Cemeteries, Marriages, Early Deaths 1891-1898, Lodge Records, Schools, and Post Office Directories.

WESTERN AUSTRALIAN LONELY GRAVES
If you’re unfamiliar with the term “lonely grave” the definition for it is “a lonely grave is a single or small group of graves outside recognised or currently used cemeteries.” The names, burial sites and photographs of over 2700 Western Australian lonely graves are on this site to date.

IMAGES OF WESTERN AUSTRALIAN HISTORY
The Images of Western Australian History website is a collaborative portal to the treasures that exist in various collections including museums and libraries in Western Australia.

WESTERN AUSTRALIAN ALMANACS 1849-1889
Almanacs predate the Western Australian government Year Books and Post Office Directories, and served a similar purpose in detailing the activities of the colony of Western Australia. The State Library of WA has digitised a series of almanacs covering the period 1849-1889. The link takes you to more info about the Almanacs, and give you the link to go to them.

GALLIPOLI DEAD FROM WESTERN AUSTRALIA
The Gallipoli Dead from Western Australia Project is one that has been a collaborative project between WAGS members and others to record details of known Western Australians who died at Gallipoli. So far this project has named 1023 men who died as a result of their service at Gallipoli. Also check out the Western Front Dead from Western Australia Project they have going.

WESTERN AUSTRALIAN POST OFFICE DIRECTORIES 1893-1949
Post office directories are a valuable source of information for researchers. These Western Australian post office directories provide information by place, surname, government service, and by trade or profession. The different sections enable readers to see at a glance the householders or businesses in any one town; the address of any householder or business in the State. Scanned images are able to be browsed, but not searched.

WESTERN AUSTRALIAN POLICE GAZETTES 1876-1900
Anyone who is researching history in Western Australia should be using the Police Gazettes. They have a phenomenal amount of information for those on both sides of the law. You’ll find info such as: apprehensions; police appointments, dismissals, discharges, promotions, resignations and transfers; tickets of leave, certificates of freedom, and conditional pardons issued to convicts; deserters from military service; escaped prisoners; inquests; licences (publican, gallon, eating, boarding and lodging houses, railway refreshment rooms, wine and beer, colonial wine, spirit merchants, club, wayside house, packet and billiard table); missing friends; prisoners discharged; special inquiries; stealing in dwellings; and warrants issued and a whole lot more …

THE HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA
The Historical Encyclopedia of Western Australia is an ambitious historical project. Previously released in book form, this is now long out of print, the University of WA has decided to make it available online. This comprehensive, authoritative work, covering all periods and aspects of Western Australian history should be a reference point for academic and general historians. There’s over 1000 pages of history relating to Western Australia in this book.

OLD MAPS OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA
The State Records of WA has a collection of several thousand maps which have been been digitised and made available online. These include original surveys of the colony, hand drawn and hand coloured maps, townsite plans, cancelled public maps, group settlement plans which show the allotment of land for individual properties, exploration maps showing the routes in WA throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, and a whole heap more.

REVERSE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN MARRIAGE LOOKUP
A project of the Perth Dead Persons Society, the Reverse WA Marriage Lookup site, is another place to search for WA marriages. Currently covering the years 1906-1965, it has a simple search function, enter a surname and see what comes up. You can narrow it down by adding in a first name, district and year.

WESTERN AUSTRALIAN CONVICTS
The Convicts to Australia is another other the Perth Dead Person Societies’ (DPS) sites, and is actually a reference site for convicts to Australia, not just Western Australia. If you have convicts, be sure to bookmark this one. There’s LOTS of info here.

CONVICTS TO WESTERN AUSTRALIA 1850-1868
Search the Convict Database to discover the men who were transported to the Swan River Colony, Western Australia from 1850 to 1868. Providing researchers with a wealth of information, you get not only the Name, convict number, date of arrival, and ship name. But also date of birth, marital status, occupation, literacy, sentence place, crime, sentence period, previous convictions, ticket of leave date, conditional pardon date, certificate of freedom date.

CEMETERIES OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA
There is no ‘one place’ to search for all Western Australian cemeteries, but a good place to start is the Metropolitan Cemeteries Board. Their cemetery records contain details of “interments, entombments, cremations and memorials” dating back to 1899, and covers Karrakatta, Fremantle, Pinnaroo, Midland, Guildford and Rockingham cemeteries. Also the MCB took over administration of Guildford and Midland cemeteries from the Shire of Swan in 1989, and these records have been included in the system.

11TH BATTALION AIF – CHEOPS PYRAMID PROJECT
The 11th Battalion, raised in Western Australia within weeks of Great Britain’s declaration of war in August 1914, arrived in Egypt in December 1914 to prepare for the Gallipoli campaign. On Sunday, January 10, 1915, Captain Barnes recorded in a letter to his mother: ‘After Church this morning the whole Battalion was marched up to the Pyramid (Old Cheops) and we had a photo took or at least several of them.’ Most of the 704 men who posed for this iconic image have never been named/identified and it is likely that this is the last photograph of many of them. The idea for the project came as a result of the donation of a print of the Cheops image which is now framed and hanging in the WAGS Library, coupled with a desire to expand the work of the late Allan Ellam who, in the 1980s, commenced a similar project. The aim of the project has been to identify as many of the men in the photo as possible as record the stories and honour the sacrifices made by all of the men of the 11th, not just those that appear in the Cheops photo.

PASSENGER SHIPS ARRIVING IN FREMANTLE, WESTERN AUSTRALIA 1829-1889
A chronological list of ships that arrived in Western Australia (Fremantle) from 1829, stating the date it arrived, and where it came from. Many (but not all) include lists of passengers.

WESTERN AUSTRALIAN SURNAMES LIST
Is anyone researching the same family you are? They may well be. So why not check the Western Australian Surnames List. The WA Genealogical Society has a listing of over 470,000 names that people researching, together with contact details. This research interest list is available to members and non-members, both to view and submit, and is open to all those whose ancestors came to Western Australia.

WESTERN AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT GAZETTES 1836-2017 
The Western Australian Government Gazette from 1836 is found online at the Department of the Premier and Cabinet website. Browse and search facilities are available. Access to individual notices is from 1st January 2002. Indexes are available online from 1836.

WESTERN AUSTRALIAN SCHOOL RECORDS INDEX 1891-2005
This index will enable family historians to quickly determine what archival material the WA State Records Office holds for Government Schools in the period covered. There are 2,687 Western Australian schools listed in the table.

ROYAL WESTERN AUSTRALIAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION
The Royal Western Australian Historical Society contains a wealth of useful information for researchers, but for this purpose I’m highlighting their photograph collection. Simply click on the “photographs” tab, and enter your search term (name, or place, or topic), and see what comes up. They really do have a stunning collection of photographs.

PASSENGER ARRIVALS IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA 1898-1966
The Passenger Arrivals index is an online database that includes the names from passenger lists in the National Archives series K269, Inward passenger manifests for ships and aircraft arriving at Fremantle, Perth Airport and outports, chronological series, 1898-1978 and series A1197, Incoming passenger cards. The index now includes the names of over 5.5 million passengers arriving:
– by ship between 1898 and 1966 (arriving in or travelling through the port of Fremantle or other WA ports)
– by aircraft from 1944 to 1966 to Perth Airport (or travelling through)
– by ship or aircraft from 1965 to 1967
For more about the Passenger Arrival Index read here.

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AND ONE MORE … 
Just a tip, remember to check out my “Discovering Links Australia” list, as many of these are Australia-wide, and therefore include references to those in Western Australia as well.

 

Discovering Links: 15 FREE Links for Australian Genealogy and History

Here’s another of my “Discovering Links” post. These posts consist of a collection of links that I have discovered, or found useful, and want to share with others. But rather than simply giving you a whole batch of random links each time, I am grouping them by Australian state, country or topic. You can see my previous Discovering Links posts here.

For this one I’ve decided to share my Australian (meaning Australia-wide) links. It is not intended to be an exhaustive collection (not by a long shot), but they are simply ones that many will find useful, and it may include some that you may not have known about.

And while many people think that genealogy costs a lot of money, let me tell you that all of the links below are free. Personally I find that it’s often a matter of knowing where to look beyond the big-name websites, and hopefully this will help with that.

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MONUMENT AUSTRALIA
Containing almost 30,000 monuments so far, the Monument Australia website is a site which records the “public monuments and memorials in all Australian States and Territories under various themes”.  Divided into conflict, culture, disaster, government, landscape, people and technology, you can search this site, and find transcriptions and photographs of most of the monuments listed. The work of volunteers, they are to be commended for their efforts.

AUSTRALASIAN BDM EXCHANGE
The Aus BDM Exhange site is a “free resource for genealogists to share information from Australian and New Zealand vital records”. If you have BDM records you can enter their details in so others can find them. And you can search to see if anyone has already entered details for those you are researching. Their stats show that currently the have about 38,000 Australian records, and 8000 New Zealand one.

AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL PIONEERS INDEX
The AMPI database provides biographical information on over 4500 doctors who lived in Australia or visited Australian shores in a medical capacity in colonial days (up to the year 1875). General practitioners and specialists are included, along with doctors in the army, the navy, and the colonial (civil) service. There are also records for doctors working in other (non-medical) occupations such as farming.

WELCOME WALL
Created by the Australian National Maritime Museum, the Welcome Wall is one that is dedicated to “all those who have migrated from around the world to live in Australia.” If you, other family members, or even your ancestors further back were the first immigrant to Australia, you can add those details in short biographies and stories to the Welcome Wall. While the ANMM has an actual physical wall with thousands and thousands of names on it, they also have a ‘virtual’ one as well. At present the online one is currently being updated, so it cannot be searched, so be sure to check back later, as I’m sure that function will be back in due course.

AUSTRALIAN BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY
The Australian Dictionary of Biography is Australia’s dictionary of biographies, and it contains the biographies of over 12,000 significant and representative persons in Australian history. Th men and women come from all walks of life — from prime ministers, governors-general and premiers, generals and bishops, artists, actors and authors, engineers and schoolteachers, to prostitutes, thieves and murderers — providing a cross-section of Australian society. Originally produced as an 18 volume book set, this important work is now all available online and free.

RYERSON INDEX
I can’t have a listing of free Australian genealogy-related websites without listing the Ryerson Index. This is a free index to death notices appearing in Australian newspapers. The date range covered extends from the Sydney Gazette of 1803 up to newspapers published within the last week or so. The Index also includes many funeral notices, and some probate notices and obituaries. Updated monthly this website currently has over 5.7 million entries listed, so be sure to check it out!

OBITUARIES AUSTRALIA
Obituaries Australia is a “digital repository of obituaries about Australians, and those who have made an impact on Australian history.” Reproducing obits from the earliest times right through to the present, you can help out by submitting details of obits of your Australian ancestors as long as it fits their criteria (ie. its been published in a newspaper, journal, magazine or bulletin).

GAZETTEER OF AUSTRALIAN PLACE NAMES
I’m sure you’ve all come across places in your search that you’ve never heard of, and wonder where on earth they are. That’s where a good gazetteer comes in. Geoscience Australia has created a website to search for Australian places. Currently the single search option is currently unavailable, but they have provided links to each state so you will just have to search them individually at present. Details can include town, parish, county, mountain, river and more.

THE LAST POST
This site is nothing to do with Australia Post, or even the Australian military, rather it is a website to place death and funeral notices online for free, not to mention tributes for loved ones who’ve passed too. A recent site, the earliest date i found was 2009 – so it’s not old in the historical sense, but still useful if you’re looking for someone who died relatively recently.

AUSTRALIAN FOOTBALL
If you have anyone remotely connected with football, or who is a total footy nut – this is one for them as it is totally choc-a-block with history of players, clubs, coaches, teams, stats, on this day in football history, photos, the leagues (state ones and Australia wide) and so much more!!

THE AUSTRALIAN STORYLINE
Created by ‘The Australian’ (newspaper), this is an interactive website which gets you to enter your birthdate (or any other date), and puts it in a timelime with numerous historical events that happened before and after. It does make for interesting viewing seeing it in that context.

MARINERS AND SHIPS IN AUSTRALIAN WATERS
“Masters, crew, a stowaway or two; passengers, cabin, saloon and steerage; births at sea, deaths at sea; deserters; vessels with one crew and one passenger and those with 70 crew and hundreds of passengers; simple single sail boats, barques, brigs, large steam ships; whaling voyages, regular coastal passenger trips, voyages from other Australian ports, London, San Francisco, China and other exotic ports – you will find them all here. ” The information on this site has been transcribed from records held at the State Records Authority of NSW, and records are updated weekly.

NUNS AND SISTERS IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 1838-1918
This website contains and alphabetical index of women who either became nuns in Australia, or who arrived in Australia as nuns. The index consists of approximately 14,000 entries and is the result of contributions from more than fifty Religious Orders or Congregations.

GERMAN AUSTRALIAN HISTORY ALLIANCE
This is a new site, but certainly one to keep an eye on if you have German heritage. “Whether you are tracing your own family for the love of it, studying at school or university, undertaking academic research, or are just interested in German-Australian heritage and history, we hope to bring the combined knowledge and resources of our field together.”This is a collaborative effort between German and Australian archives, genealogy societies, and historical groups. i look forward to seeing more of this as it’s developed.

WOMEN AUSTRALIA
Women Australia is as you would expect a website all about the women of Australia. And initiative of the National Centre of Biography at the Australian National University, it contains biographical information on women that is published on the NCB’s websites: Australian Dictionary of Biography; Obituaries Australia; Labour Australia as well as biographical register entries. Compiled together on the one website, it makes it quicker and easier to search.

Happy researching 🙂

 

Discovering Links: 21 FREE Links for Irish Genealogy and History

In this “Discovering Links” post, we take a look at some links that relate to Ireland. You can see my previous Discovering Links posts here. These posts consist of a collection of links that I have discovered, or found useful, and want to share with others. But rather than simply giving you a whole batch of random links each time, I am grouping them by topic, country or Australian state.

For this one I’ve decided to share my Irish links (together with a few covering specific counties). It is not intended to be an exhaustive collection of links (not by a long, long way), but they are simply some, that some may find useful, and may not have known about.

And while many people think that genealogy costs a lot of money, let me tell you that all of the links below are free. Personally I find that it’s often a matter of knowing where to look beyond the big-name websites, and hopefully this will help with that.

=== IRELAND GENERAL ===

IRISH ALMANACS AND DIRECTORIES
This site is the work of Peter Clarke, whose aim is to “build the biggest index of freely available ebooks on Irish history, biography and genealogy!”

IRISH GRAVESTONE RECORDS
This site currently features 70,000 free Irish gravestone records coming from hundreds of Irish graveyards, spanning all 32 counties, and compiled and transcribed by Dr. Jane Lyons and exclusive to From-Ireland.net. In addition, they have links to gravestone photographs, and complete transcriptions as well.

IRELAND ON THE FAMILYSEARCH WIKI
The FamilySearch Wiki is a powerful learning tool that everyone researching Ireland history and genealogy should use.

IRISH MILITARY ARCHIVES
The Military Archives has been the official place of deposit for records of the Irish military records since 1990. Their mission to collect material from the foundation of the military up until the present day, including records from overseas missions. From as early as 1924, the National Army undertook measures to preserve historical documents from that time.

IRISH GENEALOGY
www.irishgenealogy.ie is a website that allows users to search online indexes to historical BDMs and to baptism, marriage and burial records from some counties.

ROMAN CATHOLIC PARISH REGISTERS
The National Library of Ireland have digitised 390,000 microfilm images of Catholic parish registers, and have put them online and free to view on their website, but are not indexed. However you will find that 10 million of the entries have been indexed on findmypast.co.uk where they are available free of charge indefinitely. Note: if you want to view the index AND image on Findmypast, it will ask you to subscribe. So use the index, then go to the NLI website, and look at the image, and it doesn’t cost you anything.

IRISH ANCESTORS
This is John Grenham’s website, and is packed full with useful links. For those who haven’t heard of him, he’s the author of the “Tracing Your Irish Ancestors” book which is also referred to as the “bible for Irish genealogy”. So he totally knows his stuff.

HISTORICAL MAPS OF IRELAND
The David Rumsey collection of historical maps is an incredible collection of old maps that number over 69,000, and include maps from all over the world. When I narrowed the search to Ireland, there’s 4601 maps showing which is impressive in itself! All viewable, zoomable and online for free.

MORE IRISH DIRECTORIES
This website contains links to over 1000 Irish directories, each with links to where you will find them. The majority are free, with a few that can be found on pay sites.

HISTORY IRELAND MAGAZINE
History Ireland is a magazine that has been running for over 20 years, and while you do need to subscribe to get the current issues, you can view a number of their old ones free online in the Archive section on their website.

IRISH LIVES REMEMBERED
On the topic of magazines, you can’t go past “Irish Lives Remembered”. This is a free digital magazine, and can be read on your computer or device that gives you 70 pages of Irish genealogy and history each issue. They have recently been taken over by Eneclaan (who have recently rebranded themselves as the Irish Family History Centre). The magazine is expected to relaunch in the near future. You can view Issue 33 online here.

THE IRISH ARCHIVES
The Irish Archives is a portal website for specific for Irish genealogy. They have collected thousands of Irish ancestry and genealogy related links, and have put them into categories making it easier for you to find and search.

IRISH GENEALOGY TOOLKIT
Claire Santry’s website is one to bookmark, as it is another that is packed full of information. And I suggest following her blog, as she will keep you abreast of all the latest Irish genealogy happenings.

EMERALD ANCESTORS
The Emerald Ancestors website is dedicated to records from Northern Ireland.  Containing BDMs and census records for over 1 million Irish ancestors from the counties of Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone, this index is totally free to search, though if you do want further information you will need to subscribe which costs £9.99 a month.

IRISH TOWNLAND DATABASE
This Townland database holds details of all 60,000+ townlands as they appeared in the “Index of Townlands”, which was used for the 1851 census. It details the name of the County, Barony, Civil Parish, Poor Law Union and Province for each location.

IRISH FAMINE ORPHAN GIRL DATABASE
Created by those who have created the Irish Famine Memorial Sydney website, you’ll find details of the ships that sailed to Australia with also with details of the Irish famine orphan girls on them. The ships were are Derwent, Diadem, Digby, Earl Grey, Elgin, Eliza Caroline, Inchinnan, Inconstant, John Knox, Lady Kennaway, Lady Peel, Lismoyne, Maria, New Liverpool, Panama, Pemberton, Roman Emperor, Thomas Arbuthnot, Tippoo Saib, and the William and Mary.

IRELAND GENEALOGY PROJECT ACRCHIVES
Run by volunteers the IGP has a host of information, some for more counties than others, but more added each month. Information you may find for you county could be: Biographies, Cemetery Records, Court Records, Church Records, Census and Census Substitutes, Directories, Emigration Records, Headstones, Land, Local History, Memorial Cards, Military and Constabulary, Miscellaneous, Newspaper, Obituaries, Photos, Vital Records (Births, Deaths and Marriages), and Wills.

=== CORK ===

CORK PAST AND PRESENT
The Cork Past and Present website contains a huge amount of info including the history of Cork, old maps, photos and images, old adverts, directories and a heap of info to help you trace your Cork roots.

=== GALWAY ===

CLONBROCK COLLECTION
The Clonbrock Collection contains over 2,000 glass plates spanning the years 1860-1930. The photographers were members of the Dillon family, Barons Clonbrock, of Ahascragh, Co. Galway, a family of enthusiastic amateur photographers (particularly Gerald Dillon and his wife Augusta Crofton Dillon). The images provide a substantial and varied pictorial record of life on a landed estate. An index to the entire collection is available in a searchable database on the National Library of Ireland website. Please note that images are not attached to the database. A selection of catalogue records linked to images is available in their Online Catalogue.

=== LIMERICK ===

LIMERICK ARCHIVES
For anyone with Limerick connections this is a must bookmark site. You’ll find their collection of over 70,000 burials at Mount St. Lawrence Cemetery, the county’s largest cemetery. These range between 1855 and 2008, and include the name, age, address and grave location. Apart from that you’ll find information about their holdings including records from the Limerick City and County Council and it has also collected archive material relating to older administrations including Limerick Union, Limerick Rural District Council, private papers and collections relating to the commercial and cultural aspects of life in Limerick.

=== TIPPERARY ===

TIPPERARY STUDIES
The Tipperary Studies website is all about preserving Tipperary’s history and heritage and share it with the world. They have digitised a bunch of Rate Books, and have details of lots of holdings.

Discovering Links: 25 FREE Links for English Genealogy and History

Here’s another of my “Discovering Links” post. These posts consist of a collection of links that I have discovered, or found useful, and want to share with others. But rather than simply giving you a whole batch of random links each time, I am grouping them by Australian state, country or topic. You can see my previous Discovering Links posts here.

For this one I’ve decided to share my English links (together with a few covering specific counties). It is not intended to be an exhaustive collection of links (not by a long shot), but they are simply ones that many will find useful, and it may include some that you may not have known about.

And while many people think that genealogy costs a lot of money, let me tell you that all of the links below are free. Personally I find that it’s often a matter of knowing where to look beyond the big-name websites, and hopefully this will help with that.

=== ENGLAND GENERAL ===

PORTRAIT AND STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHERS IN THE UK: 19th AND EARLY 20th CENTURY
A work-in-progress site, this site has a database collection of details of portrait and studio photographers from a number of English counties.

GEOGRAPH
This is not a website with historical content, but rather one that is recording the present for the future. The Geograph Britain and Ireland project aims to collect geographically representative photographs and information for every square kilometre of Great Britain and Ireland, and you can be part of it.

GENEALOGY DOCUMENTS
This is a website that has grown out of a passion for collecting and transcribing historical documents. With a comprehensive place and surname index it makes it easy to see if there is any name or place of interest covered by those already transcribed.

HERALDS’ VISITATIONS
The Visitations (as they are known) contain pedigree charts, and in many cases coats of arms, of families documented when the Heralds visited each county, from the early 16th century through to the late 17th century. The Heralds were responsible for ensuring that people claiming to be able to use a coats of arms were actually entitled to do so, through either being granted their own arms or being directly descended in the male line from an ancestor to whom they had been granted. You’ll find the Visitation records for numerous counties listed here, available to view online.

THEGENEALOGIST’S IMAGE ARCHIVE
You’ve probably heard of the TheGenealogist website. It’s another pay/subscription site for UK records. But do you know about the thousands of vintage photographs they have online, and they’re free. And there’s no subscription required for them.

WELLCOME IMAGES
The Wellcome Trust Library has followed the British Library’s lead and made a huge collection (over 100,000 images), available online completely free. As these images have been released under a Creative Commons permit, that even allows commercial use without a fee as long as it is acknowledged. Amongst their collection you’ll find manuscripts, paintings, etchings, early photos, adverts, anatomical drawings, satirical cartoon and a whole heap more.

CHILDREN’S HOMES
The Children’s Homes website aims to provide information on all the many and varied institutions that became home for thousands of children and young people in Britain. They range from orphanages, homes for those in poverty, or with special needs, through to reformatories, industrial and approved schools, training ships, and hostels. As well as each home’s location, history etc. the site includes many maps, census listings, and historic images of the buildings and their inmates. You can browse for a particular institution, or use the search box.

THE COUNTY SURVEYS OF GREAT BRITAIN 1793-1817
The County Surveys of Great Britain, which were commissioned by the Board of Agriculture, are the earliest surveys of their kind in the world. They recorded comprehensive information on the agriculture, rural economy and political economy of each county in Great Britain between 1793 and 1817. They provide a unique insight into the innovation and agricultural improvement during a significant period in the making of Britain as the first industrial nation. Despite its remarkable historical interest, this resource is currently under-used because very few surveys are available in digital format, and printed copies are difficult to locate and access. Some titles listed on this site are available to view online, others give a reference to the organisation who hold the original so you can view it there.

CLERGY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND DATABASE
The Clergy of the Church of England Database 1540-1835 (CCEd), launched in 1999 it makes available and searchable the principal records of clerical careers from over 50 archives in England and Wales with the aim of providing coverage of as many clerical lives as possible from the Reformation to the mid-nineteenth century.

BRITISH RED CROSS MUSEUM AND ARCHIVES
The British Red Cross museum and archives contain a fascinating collection of records from its beginnings in 1870 … even includes audio visual items in their collection.

GENGUIDE
The idea behind the GenGuide is to offer beginners and experienced genealogists and family historians an easy and convenient way to find descriptions of and information on (mostly UK) genealogical sources. Keeping track of developments in new databases, web sites and reference books is a challenge and one of the aims of the GenGuide is to provide a facility where these resources are easily and quickly found.

ENGLAND’S IMMIGRANTS 1330-1550
England’s Immigrants 1330-1550 is a fully-searchable database containing over 64,000 names of people known to have migrated to England during the period of the Hundred Years’ War and the Black Death, the Wars of the Roses and the Reformation. The information within this database has been drawn from a variety of published and un-published records such as taxation assessments, letters of denization and protection, and a variety of other licences and grants, and offers a valuable resource for anyone interested in the origins, destinations, occupations and identities of the people who chose to make England their home during this turbulent period.

BRITISH FIRE INSURANCE MAPS
The British Library holds a comprehensive collection of fire insurance plans produced by the firm Charles E. Goad Ltd. dating back to 1885. These maps were made for most important towns and cities of the British Isles, and are invaluable sources of detailed information about urban areas and town centres.

HEARTH TAX ONLINE
The hearth tax was levied between 1662 and 1689 on each householder according to the number of hearths (fireplaces) in his or her dwelling. Hearth Tax Online is a web site dedicated to providing data and analysis of the records of the hearth tax which was introduced in England and Wales by the government of Charles II in 1662.

=== DURHAM ===

DURHAM MINING MUSEUM
A continual work in progress, this website has a index of over 325,000 names covering miners not only from Durham, but also the Northern part of England which encompasses Durham (DUR), Northumberland (NBL), Cumberland (CUL), Westmorland (WES) and the Ironstone mines of North Yorkshire (NRY).

 

=== ESSEX ===

ESSEX AND SUFFOLK SURNAMES
This is a website that has grown out of personal research. Covering transcriptions of wills, settlement certificates, removal orders, examinations, etc. from both Essex and Suffolk, this is not a huge site, but it certainly one to check out if you have ancestors from these counties.

ESSEX ARCHIVES ONLINE
Seax is the program used by the Essex Record Office (ERO) to search their collection.
It contains written descriptions of every item in the archive, but does not contain the full text of the documents themselves. And some entries have a digital image of the document, picture or map, but not all.

 

=== HEREFORDSHIRE ===

HEREFORDSHIRE HISTORY
Images, newspapers, cemetery records, maps, and other resources illustrating the history of Herefordshire.

=== HERTFORDSHIRE ===

HERTFORDSHIRE BURIALS AND MEMORIALS
This site contains over 30,000 photographs of graves and monuments in mid- Hertfordshire, including Essendon, Hatfield, Hertford, Hitchin, Lemsford, Northaw, Potters Bar, Redbourne, Sandridge, St. Albans, Stevenage, Welwyn Garden City, and Wheathampstead. You can search the database by surname, which returns all records with links to the picture of each grave.

 

=== LANCASHIRE ===

LANCASHIRE BMD RECORDS
With 5 million births, 4 million marriages and 5 million deaths from people in Lancashire this is a site to visit if you have ancestors in this county.

LANCASHIRE ONLINE PARISH CLERK (OPC)
Currently listing over 8.3 millions records, this site aims to extract and preserve the records from parishes in Lancashire and to provide online access to that data FREE of charge, along with other data of value to family and local historians.

=== LONDON ===

PHOTOLONDON
PhotoLondon is a database of 19th-century photographers and associated trades in London between the period 1841 and 1901. It is a gateway to London’s public photograph collections. While the database is no longer being added to, there is still a vast collection of information on the website.

LONDON GAZETTES (and Edinburgh and Belfast)
The Gazette has been at the heart of British public life for almost 350 years. As the first official journal of record and the newspaper of the Crown, The Gazette became an authoritative and reliable source of news, and conveyed important news to those overseas.

LOCATING LONDON’S PAST
This website allows you to search a wide body of digital resources relating to early modern and eighteenth-century London, and to map the results on to a fully GIS (geographic information systems) compliant version of John Rocque’s 1746 map.

MAP OF EARLY MODERN LONDON
The Map of Early Modern London is comprised of four distinct projects: a digital edition of the 1561 Agas woodcut map of London; an Encyclopedia and Descriptive Gazetteer of London people, places, topics, and terms; a Library of marked-up texts rich in London toponyms; and a versioned edition of John Stow’s Survey of London. These four projects draw data from MoEML’s five databases: a Placeography of locations (e.g., streets, sites, playhouses, taverns, churches, wards, and topographical features); a Personography of early modern Londoners, both historical and literary; an Orgography of organizations (e.g., livery companies and other corporations); a Bibliography of primary and secondary sources; and a Glossary of terms relevant to early modern London. All of the files in our databases use a common TEI tagset that enables us to work with primary and secondary texts simultaneously. The Map allows users to visualize, overlay, combine, and query the information in the MoEML databases that populate the Encyclopedia, Library, and Stow editions.

Happy researching 😉