Top 10 UK Ancestry Websites
1. www.GenesReunited.co.uk
I would suggest that this is the easiest site to use and thus it gets our number 1 ancestry site.
It is designed to find your UK ancestors for free. You can search over 650 million names for free. Genes Reunited provide tools to enable you to build your family history records and family trees. According to Hitwise in 2009 Genes Reunited was ranked as the No.2 family website based on market share of visits among all UK websites.
The genealogy site has had a recent revamp, that means your family researching is even easier than ever.The smart layout offers more help and advice to genealogical novices, and lets you build a tree of close relatives on its homepage, from which you can branch out into the past. An improved search facility quickly and accurately locates names in other members’ family trees and historical records, although you still need to pay to view the latter.
2. www.Ancestry.co.uk
Ancestry.co.uk is the daddy of all ancestry sites with sections on building your family tree, genealogy and census records.
Ancestry.co.uk is officially the No. 1 website based on market share of visits among all UK websites in the Hitwise survey.
You can search Birth, Marriage & Death documents, including the UK Census collection Ancestry.co.uk has a lot to recommend it. It’s well designed and packed with records and documents to aid in the creation of your family tree. Though it isnt initially as easy to use as GenesReunited.co.uk in our opinion.
Ancestry.co.uk does save a lot of work for you though, and therefore it is ideal if you want to spend a lot more time digging deeper into family research. While you’re building your tree on the site and adding relatives, the tree shows other peoples trees that match yours and thereby gives you little hints. You can attach any relevant files it finds and ignore the rest. You can also add images and videos as well as view the tree in several formats.
3. www.1837online.com
1837 Online started life as a resource for lawyers and other professionals needing to research a client’s ancestry. It’s now a valuable tool for family historians. From that its now grown into one of the busiest ancestry tools on the web. The 1837 Online can be cheaper and better than Ancestry.co.uk site if you know what your searching for. It holds BMD data from 1837-2003 and 1861 census information for England and Wales.
You pay per search and the minimum cost is £5, giving you 50 searches. The data can be accessed by browsing in the year and quarter of interest or by carrying out a search which will list all the pages forthe relevant period. Like Ancestry, 1837 Online gives you a reference number to use when ordering person-specific documents from the GRO.
4. www.1911census.co.uk
The Official 1911 Census is now online ahead of release. This is another useful place to get the 1911 records. Searching is free as its associatted with findmypast.co.uk. Also building an online family tree with the family tree explorer software is free. To view the records though you will need either to buy PayAsYouGo credits or a subscription.
5. www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/census-records.htm
Census records from the The National Archives
It is free to search their websites, but there is a charge to download documents. For 1871 census registration district maps.
6. www.FindMyPast.co.uk
Research Ancestry Online with there free family tree software. Just follow the on-screen step-by-step guide and watch your family tree grow. Nice home page search box where you can find your ancestor within their vast collection of family history records.
7. www.ancestrycom.co.uk
Ancestrycom.co.uk has a huge vault of guides and specialist reports on how to get the most out of your research. The blog is regularly updated, and the articles cover all aspects of ancestry searching in the UK.
8. www.familysearch.org
FamilySearch.org has billions of free family tree, family history, ancestry, genealogy and census records. Also provides a free PAF Family History Software. Personal Ancestral File (PAF) is a free genealogy and family history program. PAF allows you to quickly and easily collect, organize and share your family history and genealogy information.
9. www.ukgenealogy.co.uk
Ukgenealogy is a great little Portal for UK Family Research.
It has an easy to navigate search area. The database includes – Surname Lists – UK Parish Records – UK Census Returns – unfortunately the design lets it down
10. www.TheGenealogist.co.uk
TheGenealogist.co.uk claims it will find your UK ancestors.
Has a free trial. Its credited as being popular for value, content and ease of navigation, as well as its impressive range of functions and features.
Over to you – do you think we’ve missed any in our top 10 ancestry web sites?
this is a really awful round up. Why do you include 1837online when it became findmypast i n November 2006? Why do you use phrases like ‘find your ancestor’ when you mean ‘search records’?