Free Online Resources

This database has information regarding the careers of Anglican clergy from 1540 to 1835; the information is drawn from all the dioceses in England and Wales. Sources as well as dates and other details are provided for key events such as ordinations, appointments and resignations. Not all relevant data has yet been harvested, but more than 155,000 clergymen already appear (some may be multiple records that relate to a single individual).

A special section of the introduction provides information for genealogists.

The site can be searched in a variety of ways, including for individuals or by parish.

http://theclergydatabase.org.uk

This ia a register of 1.7 million members of Commonwealth forces who died in both World Wars.

http://www.cwgc.org

This fully-searchable database contains references to over 64,000 people known to have migrated to England during the period.

Details are drawn mainly from alien subsidy returns and letters of denization. These records are useful not only to those fortunate enough to have traced ancestors back to the period but also to those researchers curious about the possible origins of unusual surnames.

https://www.englandsimmigrants.com

This is the largest family history organisation in the world with records of 3 billion plus names. Online access includes scanned and indexed images of records as well as extracted details. A substantial proportion of the material relates to the British Isles.

A section of the site called “FamilyTree” provides opportunities to organise and preserve your research. Users are encouraged to find and merge records about the same person and to work with others to fill in missing information and correct errors. There is a strong emphasis on providing sources for the data that you submit. It also incorporates the IGI (International Genealogical Index).

http://www.familysearch.org

Free UK Genealogy is a charity that works with volunteers to make transcriptions of family history records. It currently runs three online databases - FreeBMD, FreeReg and FreeCen - which anyone can search free of charge. The site explains the projects in more detail and includes a blog.

https://www.freeukgenealogy.org.uk

Indexes the majority of births, marriages and deaths registered in England and Wales from July 1837 onwards and explains which periods are covered. Over 261 million distinct records are included - you can search them by using a variety of different filters.

http://www.freebmd.org.uk

IFreeCen indexes over 32.8 million names from the 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871 and 1891 censuses of England, Wales and Scotland and explains the current extent of its coverage.

http://www.freecen.org.uk

Similar to FreeCen above, this website has more than 38.8 million baptisms, marriages and burials that have been transcribed from parish and nonconformist registers of England, Scotland and Wales. Detailed information is provided of the places and time spans covered and those being worked on currently. The site allows searches for a named person in all counties if a year range and an event type are specified.

https://www.freereg.org.uk/cms/about

IThis comprehensive database dentifies the nature and location of manorial records, but is currently available online for Wales and some English counties. For other places, you will need to visit The National Archives.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/mdr

This database containes over 250,000 records of named soldiers who served the English crown between 1369 and 1453 and can be easily searched. In addition, there are a number of research guides, articles and a list of other publications by members of the project team.

http://www.medievalsoldier.org

Fully searchable edition of texts relating to 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court.

http://www.oldbaileyonline.org

This is a searchable database for ancestors who worked in the theatre.

http://www.ellenterryarchive.hull.ac.uk/star