Researching your ancestors from Great Britain and Ireland

A guide to researching your ancestors in England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, using resources at State Library Victoria.

eResources

Ancestry Library Edition
Access over 11 billion family history records from around the world. The UK and Irish records include census, land, immigration, parish registers, birth, death & marriage records, directories, poll books and electoral rolls.
Licence restrictions mean that libraries can’t make Ancestry available to Library users at home, but it’s available free on-site at the State Library and at all Victorian public library services.
FindMyPast
Database contains over 700 million records including - census records for England, Wales & Scotland,-1841-1911; UK's largest collection of parish records, dating from 1538; travel & migration records and military records.Also includes over 4 million Irish records including land records, directories, wills, obituaries, court registers, gravestone inscriptions, prison registers and parish registers.
FamilySearch
The FamilySearch database is an essential online source of information for international genealogy and can be accessed from home, for free. Developed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) the database indexes millions of iUK and Irish genealogical records, including indexes to parish records, births, deaths and marriages records, census data, cemetery records, military service records and immigration records. Go to their British Isles wiki and select individual countries to find out more about the records that are available.

Using websites

There are tens of thousands of family history websites now available providing access to millions of records. Family history websites can include official government archives and agencies, libraries, indexed collections of digitised records, family history blogs, family trees, online newspapers and discussion lists. Some websites provide free access to their records but many offer access through a pay-per-view subscription.

Much of the information on the internet is unfiltered and there is little control over what is posted so as you carry out your research we recommend that you always carefully evaluate what you find. The following criteria might help you with your evaluation:

Author - who wrote the page, what is their area of expertise?
Institution - is it from a government agency, library, university or other reputable source?
Accuracy - is the information reliable. Are their facts and citations included to support the information listed?
Purpose - does it provide factual information or just a personal opinion?
Audience - who is the target audience?
Currency - when was the information last updated?

Family history websites

It's not possible to include a comprehensive list of family history websites in this research guide as there are too many excellent sites that we could include. To find out what's available for the country, county or town you are researching we suggest you use one of the following sites, which include detailed lists of websites from around the world.

Cyndi's List
This site contains a cross indexed list to over 300,000 family history resources on the internet. Go to the Categories page and browse by country or region. You will then find a list of any available or relevant websites. Categories include birth, death and marriage records, census. directories, language, names, handwriting & script, maps; military, religion & churches and societies.

GENUKI
GENUKI provides a virtual reference library of genealogical information for the UK and Ireland. Search by country or county and browse a range of family history topics to find relevant websites and online information.

FamilySearch
You can find a list of key international sites by going to the FamilySearch Helpful international websites page.

RootsWeb
RootsWeb is the oldest free online community genealogy research site in the world. It uses online forums, mailing lists, and other resources to help people research their family history.

WorldGenWeb Project
WorldGenWeb is a non-profit, volunteer based organization dedicated to providing genealogical and historical records and resources for world-wide access.

Genealogylinks.net
This site includes over 50,000 genealogy links, including specific collections for Europe, India, China, South Africa, Canada and Jewish genealogy,

DustyDocs
Dustydocs is a 'web-linking site' of English Baptisms, Marriages and Burials records for the years 1538 to 1900. It links to freely available church records. Searches can be conducted using family names and/or locations.