FREE family history websites to get you started
When starting your family project you don’t always want to commit a sum of money. Although you may be curious about your family’s history, you may not want to or have the funds to splash out on a pay-per-view website……………yet!
With FREE in mind, here are a few websites I used while researching, but not listed in any specific order.
- FreeBMD – An ongoing project to transcribe the Civil Registration index of births, marriage and deaths for England and Wales. Not yet fully transcribed but a very useful site and if you know a few shortcuts the site opens up other avenues of research. FreeBMD is part of the FreeUKGEN initiative helping to make high quality UK primary records freely available online
- FreeCen – another of the FreeUKGEN sites. Covering the 1841 – 1891 census for the UK it is a wonderful tool if you don’t have access to a pay-per-view site – you are minus the image but a good transcription could help you go back a few generations. Some areas have greater coverage but still useful.
- FreeReg – Another of the FreeUKGEN initiative sites, this time focusing on Parish Registers. Another good site but………. error messages appear if you don’t fill in enough of the search boxes. However, the information given is useful.
- FamilySearch – FamilySearch is the online family history face of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The FamilySearch website has been around for many years and is a must for all family historians and genealogists. The aim of the Church is to preserve family history and historical records and allow them to be freely available. What can you search for? Census, Parish Registers, Passenger Lists and Service Records to name a few. The records are worldwide and are also available, for FREE, in the Church’s Family History Centers.
- CWGC – The Commonwealth War Graves Commission – Covering WW1 and WW2 and lists names of servicemen and women who died through enemy action at home and abroad. You can search by casualty or by cemetery, with most of the cemeteries run by the CWGC having at least one image. A very good site to visit.
- The Marriage Locator – This site helps convert the General Register Office reference numbers for marriage from a Registration District into a church – how good is that! But with like all volunteer projects it is an ongoing work. My recommendation is that you keep popping back.
- UKBMD – Again a site using information transcribed by volunteers. One set of information on this site is the transcription of the registers from many local Register Offices. I personally, found this a hard site to manoeuvre around, but for FREE information, give it a go!
- Cyndi’s List – Cyndi’s List has been around for many years and continues to grow. Cyndi has collected and been sent many links to family and local history site worldwide. Whether you search by country or category you are certain to find something that will help you in your search. You may end up going a little bit off your search criteria as you wind your way around the site, but it will be worth it. Grab a cuppa and enjoy the trip ……..Happy Hunting!
- Rootsweb – Although Rootsweb is part of the Ancestry community, this part is FREE and is full of information from family and place name message boards and mailing lists to hints and tips, blank charts. Rootsweb like Cyndi’s list has been around for quite a while.
- FindAGrave – This site is the home to over 145 million grave records and is searchable by name or cemetery. If you are looking for a picture of a headstone, don’t forget this site.
- DiscoveringAnzacs – Looking for military personnel from Australia or New Zealand who served in The Great War, look no further.
- Canadian soldiers of the First World War – Another good website for researching Canadian servicemen from around 1914 – 1918.
While mentioning a few of the websites I have used during the years it seems amiss of me not to include my own – Wakefield Family History Sharing & Genealogyjunction
Enjoy!