Looking for British Genealogy Records, These Databases May Help

Did you ancestors come from England, Scotland or Wales? If you are ready to jump the pond and do some British research; then this article will be of help to you. There are millions of records online but while you are searching for these million of records it can seem like it's the blind-leading-the-blind. Here I will tell you about the most popular Web sites that are the most useful for doing British research.

Some of these Web sites you have to have a member ship or you are able to purchase by pay-per-view.

We will start with Ancestory.com; they are one of the biggest companies on the Internet for genealogy research. They have viewings of from 1841 to 1901 census for England, Wales, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands. Other records that they have for British researching is the FreeBMD database (birth, marriage and death) and early parish registers. In order to access these records you have to have a membership of the UK, which you can purchase for a month or annually or if you can get the World Membership, which is quite expensive, you can have access to everything Ancestory.com has. If you just want to research in the Ancestries British records, they do have pay-per-view but it's very limited.

Next we have the FreeBMD. These are the Civil Registration Indexes that have been transcribed by volunteers. You can search the births, marriages, and deaths for Wales and England for free. If your research dates back further than 1837 then go to FreeREG, which is a companion and has transcripts of parish registers.

Next we have the IGI, International Genealogical Index. This site is free and is run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They have the biggest free database on the Internet. It contains England and Wales baptisms and marriages that were transcribed by volunteers. These records mainly are from the1850s and earlier. You'll want to make sure to check the source. It could have come from a church member doing their own family research or the original parish records.

Next we have The Genealogist. This site is a pay-per-view and isn't very expensive. It has the BMD index (birth, marriage, and death), directories, census and parish registers plus some specialty databases that you will want to check out.

Next we have the RootsUK. This is a great site if you need to look at just a few records. You can use the pay-per-view option.

Next we have the Scotlands People. They have indexes for births, marriages, and deaths that start in 1855 and you can see the images with their pay-per-view option. There census records are from 1841 to 1901 and the great thing is that they have old parish records of baptisms and marriages that are from 1553 to 1854. This is the only database that I have found that goes back that far for baptism and marriages. They also have Wills and Testaments that the National Archives of Scotland holds.

Next we have the British Origins. The British Origins have records that are not available on other sites. After you have search the entire BMD this site is the one to go to next. You can even search for first names that sound the same. Most sites you only have the option of doing this for the last name.

One thing about British Origins is that you have to have a subscription that you choose monthly or annually. They don't have pay-per-view option. The good thing is that British Origins subscription includes Scots Origin and Irish Origins.

Next we have the National Archives of England and Wales. The National Archives of England and Wales have a variety of records like the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) wills that date from 1384 to 1858, Royal Navy Seamen service records dated 1873 to 1923, WWI Campaign medals, the Domesday Book, and 1841 to 1901 census for England and Wales. You can search this site for free but in order to download documents you have to pay for each document you want to download.

Next we have the Family History Online. The data that Family History Online has is by county and are indexes. They have the National Burial Index and local indexes for baptisms to census records. This is a subscription site so you will want to search before you subscribe because the information is so scattered.

I hope you find the information you are searching for. It can get complicated when you are searching in a country that is not your own. Take your time and take it slow!