Useful Links

Shropshire Family History Links

• The Shropshire Family History Society is a Registered Charity, founded in 1979 to provide a meeting place in Shropshire for all those interested in Family History and Genealogy. They have resources covering the whole of Shropshire, including a Marriage Index, a Burial Index, and a Quarter Sessions Index. The approximately 2000 members also constitute a huge knowledge base for anyone who has hit a brick wall in their research. Well worth a visit.
• The Genuki Shropshire Page contains plenty of historical information on Shropshire, and also has links to many more family history sites.
• The Shropshire Archives site allows you to search summaries for a huge number of records in their collections. It also includes opening times and directions if you would like to visit and view documents yourself.
• The Lichfield Record Office holds a number of records for north-east Shropshire, as it falls within Lichfield Diocese. It also holds the original documents of all wills probated in Bridgnorth before 1858.

General Family History Links

• Ancestry.co.uk is one of the biggest family history sites in the UK and has transcriptions and images of document collections from all over the world. If you haven't heard of it, where on earth have you been? Do take a look around as soon as you can.
• Findmypast.co.uk is likewise one of the biggest family history sites in the UK, and has all the censuses right up to 1911, plus BMD indexes and passenger records and... oh, ever such a lot of stuff! Practically compulsory for a family historian.
• Lost Cousins can put you in touch with your long-lost cousins by matching up those researching the same ancestors in the census, with far greater accuracy than Genes Reunited. It is also worth signing up to for its newsletter alone, which is one of the best genealogy newsletters you'll find anywhere.
• The National Archives is the UK government's official archive, containing over 1,000 years of history. A great deal of information is available online - their collection of PCC copy wills is a key family history resource.
• The UK BMD website has links to thousands of family history websites links to web sites that offer on-line transcriptions of UK births, marriages, deaths and censuses. It also has a wide range of other indexes and transcriptions available for most counties, such as parish records, wills, monumental inscriptions and so on.
• The FreeBMD web site is a volunteer-based project to transcribe the Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes for England and Wales. Currently they have transcribed most of the records up to 1930. Absolutely essential for anybody researching UK ancestors after 1837. You can also check out FreeREG and FreeCEN.
• The General Register Office is the official place to order Birth, Marriage and Death certificates for England and Wales. It's easiest if you already have the GRO reference number (i.e. from FreeBMD) but they will still look for you if you can provide enough information to identify the event.
• This Regnal Date Converter will convert regnal dates into Julian/Gregorian dates.
• The International Genealogical Index (IGI) is a free index of parish records from all over the world compiled by the Church of Latter-Day Saints. An invaluable tool for family history research.
• The Family History Library is a list of all the microfilmed records which can be ordered through your local Family History Centre.
• Streetmap.co.uk has maps and directions for the whole of the UK, which can be magnified to a scale showing many obscure hamlets and farmsteads.

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