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Access to our award-winning Birth, Marriage and Death record transcripts for England and Wales

Complete Birth, Marriage & Death records index for England and Wales as published by the GRO. Images of the original index pages are available between 1983 and 1837.

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Ordering certificates

Certificates for births, marriages or deaths in England or Wales can be ordered online through the GRO. To order a certificate, simply follow the instructions on the GRO website, supplying the necessary data and a GRO Index reference.

Census transcripts

Access to our Census transcripts for 1841 to 1911.

Search by Name, Address, Age, Occupation or use our Family Forename Search to find your ancestors without entering a surname.

View original images and printable transcripts of the entire household or just family members

Image Archive

Go back in time with this window into the past. The Image Archive's old photographs provide the family historian with an atmospheric look at people, places, shops, places of work and much more. Images include hundreds of unique 3D photos and thousands of standard images dating from 1850 to 1940.

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The widest range of British overseas Birth Marriage and Death Records including War Deaths and Rolls of Honour - 1407 to 1997

We have overseas war deaths from various sources and "rolls of honour" with biographies and photos. Plus our overseas BMD record set from both the GRO and TNA.

This transcript covers the births, marriages and deaths of British Service Personnel throughout the world.

Unlimited access to our online reference books:

The Queen's Empire
This book is full of images from all over the Empire, with descriptions and is a great snapshot of the time. A map of global trade routes is also included.
Sixty Years a Queen
This is a biographical account of Queen Victoria's reign, with many illustrations.
A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pirates
A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pirates This book by Charles Johnson is titled 'A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pirates'. It contains an in-depth insight into the world of the pirates with chapters dedicated to the most famous pirates of the Eighteenth Century. 
The Life of Charles Dickens - John Forster
The Life of Charles Dickens - John Forster Biographer John Forster's best know work chronicling the life of his friend Charles Dickens. The book is broken down into 12 parts covering the major periods in his life, from his childhood to his time in America.

For our full list of research books with description please see here

Unlimited access to Rolls of Honour

Access to our Military Rolls of Honour with detailed biographies, photographs and linked information with the Commonwealth Wargraves Commission.

Contains Roll of Honour records for British Servicemen who participated in the Great War and the Second World War. Records can include detailed biographies with portraits and information on birth date, birth place, father's name, education, career, and circumstances of death.

Build your family tree in minutes

Build your family tree online with TreeView in seconds.

Great Features include:

  • Full Tree View - View everyone in one tree.
  • Printable Trees - Our Full Tree print wizard lets you print out your whole tree using a normal A4 printer.
  • TreeView Messaging - Contact other TreeView members who may share the same relatives as you.
  • Share Your Tree - Invite any of your friends and family to view your tree, decide who can view everything, and who can only view a limited tree. You can also decide who can see living relatives and who cannot.
  • Automatic Matching - Automatically find out which of your ancestors have matches in our records or other family trees, you can connect with other users with the same relatives. You can also share your family tree with friends and family.
  • Additional views - Custom Tree, Hourglass Tree, Ancestors & Descendants
  • Unlimited photo upload
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Online access to UK Landowner records, available to search by county or by surname, includes records of all people who owned one acre or more. With images of original pages showing name and address of owner, acreage and gross estimated rental in pounds and shillings.

  • English & Welsh records 1873
  • Scottish records 1872-1873
  • Irish records 1876
Census transcripts

Access to our 1939 Register transcripts.

Search by Name, Address, Age, Occupation or use our Family Forename Search to find your ancestors without entering a surname.

View printable transcripts of the entire household or just family members

Census transcripts

Access to our Scottish Census transcripts for 1841 to 1901.

Search by Name, Address, Age, Occupation or use our Family Forename Search to find your ancestors without entering a surname.

View printable transcripts of the entire household or just family members

In association with TNA Unlimited access our census transcripts

TheGenealogist is the official site for Non-Conformist & Non-Parochial Records with the largest collection available online.

Access over 8 Million records including Quakers (Society of Friends), Methodists, Wesleyans, Baptists, Independents, Protestant Dissenters, Congregationalist, Presbyterians and Unitarians. This data proves invaluable for research prior to census and BMD records. The details give images of early birth certificates and registers which include baptisms, marriages and burials.

These Records and images are unique to S&N and can only be found on this site and on our official BMDregisters site.

We also have RG33: Foreign Registers & Returns 1627-1960 which contains Overseas Birth, Marriage, Death and Burial of British Subjects including those onboard ships. Also Lundy Island Devon. Original registers, notebooks and copies of entries in registers kept by incumbents of English churches and missions, British embassies and legations etc. This new record sets allows access to 100,000 individuals, complete with images and full transcript, complete with mini family tree.

School Photo

School, college and university registers available for 29 counties in England with dates ranging from 1220 to 1949.

University registers also available for Aberdeen (1901-1925) and Glasgow (1728-1858)

Our search tools allow you to enter a name and view results within the school register or to browse through the images using bookmarks.

Entries include the famous Samuel Pepys, and contain a short biography, which can also give details of parents, sponsors and relatives

Access to our Wills and Testaments including access to our famous Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) Wills, giving you access to the original Will Record Images, and a great insight into your relatives history.

Until the Court of Probate Act in 1857, probate was granted by ecclesiastical courts of England and Wales. The PCC was one of the largest of these courts and, as such, heard cases from relatively wealthy individuals, mostly from the south of the UK.

The records are copies off registered wills, which were written into volumes by the clerks at the church courts, and many earlier records are in Latin.

This dataset covers the years 1384 to 1858 and is an on-going project for us, with 474 years worth of wills currently online and over 1,010,000 records.

Bristol, Edinburgh and a variety of Yorkshire volumes have also been added to our will indexes, with more to follow soon.

Wills are a valuable source of genealogical information. They can give details of family members, places of residence and burial, as well as revealing details about their possessions.

We also have various Will Indexes which cover most areas of the country

Historic Book Records

Our collection covers over 399 books from more than 48 regions, including many UK counties as well as America and Australia.

Directories are a useful insight into the lives of our ancestors, and cover a wider range of years than the current census records available. As well as providing details of your ancestor's occupation, they can also provide addresses, historical maps and information on the area they lived in.

Unlimited access to various post office, trade, street, court and commercial directories, with original images. Directories can be searched by name or browsed with the aid of bookmarks.

Poll Books give names, addresses, occupations and show how people voted in the election. The Poll Books available on TheGenealogist pre-date the census records and go back as far as the 1700s, making them a valuable resource for family historians.

Most records are searchable book images (Printed Books), which can be searched by name or browsed page by page with the aid of bookmarks. London 2005 and Queensland 1905 Electoral Registers are in database format and are searchable transcripts.

Military Battle

Unlimited access to our military collection. We currently have 92 Army Lists available ranging from 1661 to 1940 and 28 Navy Lists ranging from 1689 to 1944. Army Lists can contain rank and regiment of officers, details of those stationed abroad and recipients of the Victoria Cross.

Also provides unlimited access to our Overseas BMD Index, which covers the births, marriages and deaths of British Service Personnel throughout the world.

World War Records - RG32 and RG34 are part of the non-conformist and non-parochial BMD Registers collection. You can access these either from the 'Birth, Marriage and Death' section under 'BMD Registers' or through the 'Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Records' link also on the Research View page.

RG32 is 'Registers Abroad and on British & Foreign Ships, 1831-1969'. These records include notifications during the Second World War period of deaths of members of the British armed services, prisoners of war, civilians, internees and deaths through aircraft lost in flight. Also included are deaths and executions of persons in Japanese and German prison internment camps.

RG34 is 'Miscellaneous Foreign Marriage Returns, 1826-1921', but also includes marriages between British soldiers in France, Flanders and Holland during and after the First World War, including many who had been prisoners of war.

A Diamond subscription adds:

  • Soldiers Who Died in The Great War
  • First World War Casualty Lists, including those who were injured
  • First World War Prisoners of War
  • First World War Missing List
  • Medal Records
  • War Memorials
  • Regimental Records
  • Militia Musters
  • Dambusters Database
  • Second World War Prisoners of War

 

Parish Church

Unlimited access to our extensive collection of thousands of parishes, this currently includes parish records from 43 counties across England and Scotland.

These are available in two main formats, database (Transcripts) and searchable book images (Printed Books).

The database records consist of easily searched transcripts of the original records which allow you to search them on various fields and may also have linked images of the original registers.

The searchable books consist of indexed books that were transcribed and published many years ago, many over 110 years old. These transcript books have then been OCR'd (Optical Character Recognition) to turn the pages into searchable text.

All Diamond subscribers will have priority access to our forthcoming parish records.

Family History is made richer when you can add some detail to the dates and names of ancestors. Biographical records are a valuable resource for family historians, as they provide detailed information on individuals, which can include birth, marriage and death as well as achievements, education and where they lived. Some entries may also provide information on other family members such as parents and siblings.

Countries With Records

Scottish records include directories from 1406 to 1949, landowner records, parish registers, school/university registers and wills.

Irish records include directories, wills, land owner and heraldry/pedigree records.

We have also added directories, almanachs, pedigree and roll of honour records for the Channel Isles.

International records include directories, early passenger lists to America, civil service lists, almanachs, electoral registers and telephone directories.

Almanachs are annual publications containing data and statistics for the area. Many of these also include residential and business listings, similar to those found in directories.

Criminal Registers

If you find that you may have a black sheep amongst your ancestors then court rolls and criminal records can provide a wealth of fascinating and unique information for family history researchers. Often revealing details of property, possessions and family members, as well as crimes that had been committed, TheGenealogist provides access to early court rolls from 1394, and registers of convicts sent to Australia between 1787 and 1867.

Headstones

With many old headstones suffering from erosion, and burial grounds disappearing for new building developments, it is more important than ever to preserve the records of our ancestors. Our International Headstone Database is designed to meet that challenge. This searchable transcript database allows you to view photographs of the headstone and see photographs of the church and surrounds. Maps are also available for the latest additions to the records.

Passenger Lists

Some of our ancestors came to this country from elsewhere and took out British Naturalisation or the less expensive Denization. Family historians can use TheGenealogist's Home Office Naturalisation database to find over 150,000 unique Naturalisation and Denization Records with records ranging from 1609 to 1960, over 300 years worth of rare and hard to find records are now available for family historians.

For those of our ancestors who left the United Kingdom the Passenger lists kept by the Board of Trade's Commercial and Statistical Department and its successors covers the years 1896 to 1909 and can be easily searched on TheGenealogist. Other ancestors may have been compelled to leave the country as a result of a court sentencing them to Transportation beyond the seas. TheGenealogist has a collection of convict transportation records that can reveal names, sentences, employment and the penal colonies that your ancestors were sent.

Newspaper Covers

Historical newspapers and magazines were written as events were occurring and provide contemporary accounts of the world your ancestors lived in from day to day. They provide insight into opinions of the time and can also provide information on individuals which would not otherwise be recorded.

Includes:

  • The Illustrated London News
    • Our online collection starts from the very first issue in January 1842 and currently contains issues from 1842 to 1915.
    • Bookmarked by article and are easily searchable, containing many announcements of Births, Marriages, Deaths, Obituaries, Wills & Bequests. The Illustrated London News was founded in 1842 and was the world's first illustrated weekly newspaper.
  • The Illustrated War News - 12th Aug 1914 to 30th Aug 1916.
  • The War Illustrated - A weekly newspaper containing illustrated articles, photographs and public notices, allowing you to learn about your ancestors' experiences in the conflict, and gain fascinating insight into all aspects of the Great War. Covers issues 1-233 from 22nd Aug 1914 to 8th Feb 1919.
  • The Great War - The Standard History of the World-Wide Conflict - Full of marvellous illustrations and information that was gathered by a team of war correspondents at the time, including pictures, maps and background detail. Covers all 272 issues.
  • Other Magazines & Newspapers, including:
    • Harpers Magazine
    • Jewish Chronicle
    • SS Great Britain Times
    • The Sphere
    • The B.E.F. Wipers's Times
    • and more!
Occupational Lists

Occupational Records can provide a greater insight into the lives of your ancestors. They can be used to complement census records, and as some contain address details and pre-date 1841 they are a valuable substitute for the pre-census years.

Records are book images (Printed Books), with search tools that enable you to enter a name and view results within the records, or browse through the images with the aid of bookmarks.

Includes Apprenticeship records, Bankruptcy, Clergy, Civil Service, Teachers, Directors, Actors & Playwrights, Medical, Law, Sports, Pilot Certificates, Railway Employment Records, and more, with years ranging from 1066 to 1929.

Two Knights Jousting

Peerage and Heritage records document the ancestry of titled and landed families in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Records are available to Diamond subscribers and cover all areas of the UK, with years ranging from 1649 to 1942.

Entries can contain details of individual peers providing biographical information such as birth and marriage and names of family members.

Records are book images (Printed Books), with search tools that enable you to enter a name and view results within the records, or browse through the images with the aid of bookmarks.

Gloucestershire Regiment

These can provide details of battles and campaigns the regiment was involved in and also lists the regiment's officers, including various personal details relating to their birth, parentage, marriage and military career.

Royal Figure

Online access to Royal Records, available to search and with images of the original pages, from 43AD to 1937. These records cover various royals, their families, Peerages and those who fought on the Royalist side in the English Civil War.

Notably including, 'The Blood Royal of Britain'. A complete table of all the living descendants of Edward III, Edward IV, Henry VII and James III from the Plantagenet Rolls up to the mid 19th century. Each issue is compiled by the Marquis of Ruvigny and Raineval and contains both illustrative trees and descendancy notes.

Telephone Directory Cover

Early UK telephone directories ranging from 1899 to 1940, and international phone books for areas of Australia ranging from 1924 to 1936.

Records include the head of household, address and can also include their occupation. Searchable by surname and forename or can be browsed page by page with the help of bookmarks.

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The Tithe Records provide a unique view into our ancestral heritage by providing details of ownership and occupancy of land throughout England and Wales, revealing a wealth of information about people, places and landmarks in the Victorian era. The Tithe Commutation Act of 1836 meant records were taken, as with the Doomsday Book, of the land ownership and occupancy, land uses and sizes, and the rents to be paid.

There are early census records which are available for 1821 and 1831.

Heraldic Visitation

Heraldic Visitation records are available with the new Diamond Premium subscription on TheGenealogist.co.uk. There are 69 currently available on the website for individual counties and the whole of England and Wales, with years ranging from 1530 - 1921.

Heraldic Visitations began in 1530 and were tours of inspection undertaken by Kings of Arms in order to regulate and register the coats of arms of nobility and gentry, and to record pedigrees. As surviving visitation records include pedigrees and often the evidence that was used to prove these, including family details, background and ages, their records provide important source material for genealogists.

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