As Wikitree’s Sarah Callis said in her presentation during our 2021 conference: “Our ancestors are not just dates and names – they are people. And we want to learn more about them!”

The good news is that it’s possible to build a narrative around them – and, it is actually possible to do it using free resources.

Take one of our volunteers who is researching her Scottish roots. Using FreeCEN, she found her 3x great grandparents, William and Ellen, in the 1851 census. He was a soldier with the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders, and they were currently in barracks at Stirling Castle with their three young sons. But by 1861, Ellen was a widow, living in Plymouth, earning a living as a washerwoman.

Interest sparked, our volunteer set out to fill in the gaps. Wikipedia offered a wealth of information on the 93rd, and the Internet Archive provided an online book giving movements of the regiment. Then, contacting the archivist at the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders' Museum gave further insights into army life - such as this enlightening story he told about what it meant to be an army wife: 

Work on building her ancestor’s story continues for our volunteer, but it just goes to show the rich range of free resources available out there. 

An early photo, taken at Scutari, of officers and men of the 93rd Highland Regiment, shortly before their engagement in the Crimean War, 1854. Via Wikimedia Commons

Your recommendations revealed

So, here we go with YOUR recommendations for FREE local or occupation-specific genealogy resources. (For the national resources you recommended, please see our previous blog.)
The first recommendation was for the Forest of Dean Family History Trust where you will find resources ranging from parish records, marriage licence allegations/bonds and census name indexes to memorial inscriptions, surname interests and summary convictions registers. Simply register to search the records for free. It also has a popular forum described as ‘a very valuable tool for breaking down brick walls’.

Next, the Lancashire BMD and Yorkshire BMD sites were recommended as examples of several similar county projects aimed at placing the original registrars' indexes online. Note the word ‘original’ because there is a difference between the original indexes and the General Register Office (GRO) index that has been made available to the public. The GRO index consists of re-transcribed entries which were submitted quarterly to the GRO in London for the national catalogue. However, the simple act of making this secondary GRO copy introduced many errors and omissions – and that is what these various county projects seek to rectify.

Staying with Lancashire, another recommendation was the site of the OnLine Parish Clerks (OPC) project for the County of Lancashire. Its aim is to extract and preserve the county’s parish records and provide online access to them, free of charge. It also provides other data of value to those researching in Lancashire. All information has been compiled and transcribed by volunteers who have often become involved in the project because of their interest in a particular parish where their own ancestors lived.

Also recommended was the Cornwall OPC Database, which comprises parish records and 'extra searches' ranging from apprentice indentures and land records to muster rolls and wills. Other resources include emigration records, British Army & Navy BMD, and Cornish newspapers, plus links to useful information such as naming patterns, old occupations and trades, and online books about Cornwall.

From a distance…

Sheffield Indexers, another recommendation, is a site that started in 2001 with the aim of indexing genealogical information specific to Sheffield and make it available in a simple-to-access format. Access is free of charge, with all transcriptions provided by voluntary sources for the benefit of the genealogical community. It was started by Elaine Pickard who grew up in Sheffield but has lived in Ottawa for 50 years! She is ably assisted 'on the ground' in Sheffield by Vicki Theaker, who coordinates the team of transcribers. There is also a searchable message forum where anyone can ask for help from knowledgeable local genealogists.

And now for a couple of burial site recommendations: Adur & Worthing Councils Burial Search and Bath Archives Burial Index. If your ancestor lived in the Adur and Worthing areas, this site offers a simple burial register search to enable you to find people buried in either Broadwater or Durrington cemeteries. The results tell you where they are buried and provide a map.  

If you believe you have an ancestor buried in Bath, you can search on this site. Information can include name; dates of birth, death and burial; age at death; cemetery and grave location.

Surprising results

Staying with Bath, if your ancestors lived there between 1603-1990, the Bath Ancestors searchable database could be a real gem. It contains over 76,000 records of people who lived in and around Bath. The records have been indexed and transcribed by volunteers using original documents held by the Bath Record Office. The database includes brief details taken from the original sources, which is usually enough to enable you to identify individuals. The site states: “We index sources such as Coroner’s records, vaccination records, and Board of Guardian records. We’re always adding to it and it can come up with surprising results...”

Another recommendation is Essex and Suffolk Surnames, genealogy and local history website run by one of our FreeREG transcribers, Helen Barrell. It offers transcriptions of parish registers wills and poor law records, plus other historical documents, stories about families and interesting people, and hints and tips for research. There’s also a page of links to free online books for Essex and Suffolk genealogy - and a recommendation to try Ancestorian, which is a social network just for family history.

Staying with Essex, three more sites were recommended for this county.

Essex Family History is a site that covers the towns and villages in the Dengie Hundred area in eastern Essex. As the site states: “Family history research has two strands – firstly, finding specific data about your ancestors; and then secondly, finding out how they lived and what their world was like.” Accordingly, the site divides its data into two areas. The Family History index includes data ranging from BMD and trade directories to court records and sporting records. The Local History index provides links to information about the area’s local and social history – for example, 'buildings and physical features', 'everyday life' or 'village statistics'.

If your Essex ancestor was in the military, this site may help Military in Essex Family History. It covers the Essex Military, in its various forms, from 1415 up to 1958 when the Essex Regiment was amalgamated into the Royal Anglian Regiment. Or perhaps your ancestor was in the Police? If so, the Essex Police Museum could be a useful resource. It holds a large collection of service records for officers who served over 80 years ago, links to 'History Notebooks' free publications, and a digital archive of editions of the Essex Police newspaper.

And last, but not least, the Tameside Local & Family History site was recommended. It concentrates mostly on pre-1837 resources for the towns which make up Tameside and are not available elsewhere online. There are photographs, transcriptions of trade directories, census returns, and tax assessments; historical articles about Tameside people and places; and a forum.

Waiting to be discovered

Thank you to everyone who submitted their recommendations – reviewing the sites has been an eye-opener for us, and just goes to show how many other similar sites must be ‘out there’. It’s just a question of looking for them, and listening out for suggestions. So, our volunteer with her Sutherland Highlander soldier should take heart – there’s still much more she can learn about him and the family. It’s just waiting to be discovered.

We know you're wondering who you'll be hearing from at our 2021 online conference, so here you go... (Look out for the schedule coming soon!)

Alex Briggs

At 31, Alex has now been studying his personal genealogy since he was 15. Yorkshire born and bred his background is in theatre and entertainment both on the stage and behind. A Freeman of York, he comes from a long line of Yorkshire ancestors and looks to develop his skills professionally over the next year.

Join Alex as he takes you on a genealogical guided tour of the historic City of York. With eyes and boots on the ground, he will be delving into his ancestry and will explore just how to utilise everything a city has to offer for genealogists.

Else Churchill

Else Churchill is the Genealogist at the Society of Genealogists (SoG) in London and a member of the Lords Chancellor’s Advisory Council on National Records and Archives. She has over 30 years of experience as a genealogist.

Formerly a professional genealogical librarian and researcher, Else has worked for the SoG since 1994. She now leads on external liaison, representation and communications; the Society's education and publishing programmes as well as being the Society's subject specialist.

Else will discuss the online digital collections of the Society of Genealogists Library at the conference. In addition to providing a library and research facility for family history, the Society holds some unique records and archives. While not a public archive per se the SoG is often an archive of last resort, providing a home for records that might otherwise have been destroyed. Many of the SoG's digital collections are produced as a result of volunteer projects, which have been powering away at home during lockdown.

Guy Solomon & Joshua Rhodes

Josh Rhodes and Guy Solomon are economic and social historians of nineteenth-century Britain. At the Alan Turing Institute, Josh and Guy work on the Living with Machines project, using large-scale digitised historical datasets to take a fresh look at how the Industrial Revolution impacted ordinary peoples' lives.

Join Josh and Guy as they introduce you to the Living with Machines project and their work on large-scale nineteenth-century census data to examine the human impact of the British Industrial Revolution. 

Discover the possibilities that these new, large datasets offer, the challenges of working with commercial historical datasets, and the importance of open data for the future of historical research.

Lee Oliver

Lee Oliver has worked at The National Archives (TNA), and its predecessor, the Public Record Office, for over 30 years. Fulfilling a variety of roles at Kew, Chancery Lane, and the Family Records Centre, the common thread has been services to archive users. Lee has been involved in delivering, managing, and developing, reading room services for most of his career. Notable highlights include the introduction of bring-your-own digital cameras, the deployment at scale of computers in reading rooms for research and access to digitised archival material, and several large redesigns of the reading rooms. More recently, attention has been focussed on providing support and facilities to encourage a broader spectrum of visitors to TNA, and in April this year, Lee was appointed the first Head of Visitor Experience for TNA. For the last 15 months, Lee has been a member of TNA’s COVID Response Group, responsible for ensuring that a COVID-Secure environment is achieved and maintained for staff and visitors.

Lee will talk to us about "Providing access to archives during lockdown", or to put it another way, "the trials and tribulations of delivering an archive service during a global pandemic". This presentation will highlight the challenges The National Archives has faced in attempting to maintain a service to archive users during the most unprecedented of times, and illustrate that access to archives is now far more than just opening the reading rooms.

Michelle Leonard

Michelle is a Scottish professional genealogist, DNA detective, author and historian. She is an expert in the genealogical use of DNA and runs her own genealogy and DNA consultancy business, Genes & Genealogy, specializing in solving unknown parentage and all manner of unknown ancestor mysteries using a combination of DNA and conventional research methods. She also undertakes traditional family history research, living relative tracing, historical and television research, podcasts, tutoring, lecturing, course creation, bespoke family history books, webinars, speaking engagements and article, blog and book writing commissions. Additionally, Michelle is the official genetic genealogist of #AncestryHour on Twitter (ancestryhour.co.uk) and is known for her work on WWI soldiers, particularly with The Fromelles Genealogy Project. She is a regular speaker at major genealogy events. You can find out more about Michelle on her Facebook page, APG profile and follow her on Twitter.

Send in your DNA research questions now, for the chance to have Michelle answer them in her live Q&A session in part one of the conference (22nd May).

Nick Barratt

Dr Nick Barratt is an author, broadcaster and historian best known for his work on BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? He is the Director of Learner and Discovery Services at the Open University, a teaching fellow at the University of Dundee and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He is currently the President of the Family History Federation, sits on the Executive Committee of the Community Archives and Heritage Group and is part of the Midlands 4 Cities Doctoral Training Partnership Advisory Group. You can find out more about Nick and his research services here: www.sticks.org.uk.

Nick will talk us through the search for his grandmother’s parentage that was resolved via a paper trail, but then upended by DNA, leading to a transatlantic research journey.

Richard Light

Free UK Genealogy Chair of Trustees, Richard has a background in cultural heritage information systems (primarily museums), markup languages and Linked Data.

Richard will give an overview of genealogical file formats in his presentation: "Making Open Data a reality: file formats for exchange of genealogical data".

Sarah Callis

Sarah's interest in genealogy started with her grandmother who had conducted research before the days of computers; her passion was sparked when she received her grandmother's research. Sarah has been doing genealogy for about ten years and has been active within the genealogy community. A team member of WikiTree, The Free Family Tree, Sarah is in charge of their social media and hosts weekly livecasts that feature different aspects of genealogy and WikiTree.

Sarah's presentation is:

"WikiTree: The Free Family Tree"
WikiTree is a free online, collaborative one-world tree where members work together to create accurate, sourced profiles that not only compile the basic facts, but also biographies and photos. WikiTree's platform also enables its members to create non-person related pages to gather other information, such as those pertaining to a One Place Study. WikiTree is a community of genealogists where we all come together in different ways to grow our shared tree.

Register to attend now, and join us on 22nd May (4-7pm BST) and 29th May (8-11am) 2021

We asked, you suggested…

Recently, through the power of free data sources, some precious photographs, letters and documents belonging to a flight engineer who died in World War 2 found a new home and purpose with a blood relative.  

In November 1942, the flight engineer was part of a crew who perished when their plane was hit by flak. He was 25 and had been married to his childhood sweetheart for just six months.

Some 60 years later, a distant cousin researching the family tree found the flight engineer’s details on the Commonwealth War Graves website. His widow was still listed in the BT Telephone Directory, so the cousin wrote a letter hoping to learn more, but received no reply.   

Six years later, however, the widow’s nephew and executor of her will wrote to say he had found the cousin’s letter in his aunt’s files. He confirmed the family connection and offered to share copies of photographs, letters and more. Later, on reflection, he decided to pass the whole collection to the cousin, since his was the direct family line. 

Now the cousin - who happens to be a history teacher - is the custodian of the items, and he uses them to illustrate his lessons. So, the flight engineer’s story lives on – all thanks to a couple of free searches.

Image of the flight engineer's burial site - Oldebroek General Cemetery, NL (CWWG)

Open sources, galore

This is a powerful little story that illustrates the benefits of Free UK Genealogy’s vision of making data more accessible, more usable, and free, forever (see our previous blog).

This week, we asked you (via Social Media) for your recommendations for FREE sites that YOU use in your research – and you came up with the goods. In fact, there were so many suggestions, we plan to share them over two blogs!

Below, we will cover the national and international sources you have recommended. Then, next time, we will share your local gems.

"Free to All"

High on the list is FamilySearch, which has the tagline "Free to All". Provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints, FamilySearch is dedicated to preserving important family records and making them freely accessible online. Originally intended for Church members, the FamilySearch resources are now open to everyone to discover their heritage and connect with family members.

Several of you have cited the Online Genealogical Index (OGI) – a free tool that saves researchers hours of time by finding the exact website they need. The OGI began as a spreadsheet in January 2012 and currently has over 407,000 links to vital record data (birth, baptism, marriage, death, burial), as well as school records, graveyard headstones, war memorials and family pedigrees. The tool’s creator is a genealogist himself who was frustrated with subscription sites selling access to resources that were free elsewhere.

A highly recommended source: UKBMD. In 2000, the county of Cheshire revolutionised public access to birth, marriage and death (BMD) records dating back to 1837 when a joint project between the county's registration services and family history societies resulted in CheshireBMD. Other counties followed their lead, and UKBMD was started as a simple website to enable the main county BMD sites to be found via one convenient starting point. Many more BMD-related sites have since been added, covering parish records and Bishops Transcripts.

Now, you might think that UKBMD is a rival to FreeBMD. But there is a subtle difference that is of unique value to genealogists. Where FreeBMD transcribes the GRO indexes, UKBMD has transcribed the original indexes created by the local registrars. For this reason, our databases can differ slightly. For example, in the event that pages are missing in one index, they would likely be present in the other. Both are volunteer-led projects and so have similar commitments to quality of provision and there is actually potential for us to combine our efforts in the future, to enhance wider access to BMD records.

Again, in the same vein as FreeBMD, you mentioned the GRO website. As Howard, a FreeBMD volunteer explained:

Staying with the BMD certificate theme, the BMD Certificate Exchange Facebook group was amongst your suggested resources. The group is a very popular one, with over 10,000 members, and is "a means to share birth, death, marriage, burial, and other certificates with fellow genealogists who may have an interest in them". You never know, you may find a certificate in there you would otherwise have to purchase!

Another favourite you have recommended is GENUKI which provides a virtual reference library of primary sources of genealogical information relevant to the UK and Ireland. The content is provided by a group of volunteers, and the site is maintained by a charitable trust. Established in 1995, it now contains more than 110,000 pages of information.

On a similar theme, Dustydocs is a 'web-linking site' of English Baptisms, Marriages and Burials records for the years 1538 to 1900. Their information is sourced from freely available church and BMD records, and validated user contributions.

Ireland, US and Canada

For those researching Irish ancestors, you have recommended two national sites. The first is the National Archives Genealogy Website where you can gain free access (through searchable databases and linked images of relevant pages) to a whole host of genealogical material in the custody of Ireland’s national archives. This includes the Census of Ireland 1901/1911 and Census fragments and substitutes, 1821-51.

The second recommendation is Irish.Genealogy.ie, a government website where you can search and freely access records from a number of online sources including the historic registers and indexes to the BMD registers, some church records, and others such as the census data and soldiers’ wills.

For those with American ancestors, you told us about The USGenWeb Project. Established in 1996 by a group of genealogists who shared a desire to create free online resources, it began with listing online directories of text-based resources. The site has since grown into a network of over 3,000 linked websites, all individually created and maintained by a community of volunteers. It includes a variety of unique county and state resources such as photos, maps, transcriptions, historical documents, and helpful links.

And for Canadian ancestors, you suggested the site for the Royal British Columbia (BC) Museum and Archives, which offers a wide range of information in three searchable databases. These include textual records, photographs, sound recordings, moving images, and maps; descriptions of publications held in the library such as books, directories and government reports; and BMD registrations.

Do you know of any other UK and international resources?

Put them in the form at the bottom of the page and we'll add them to the list

OPEN, GLOBAL GENEALOGY

So, back to the free sources used in our flight engineer’s story, the Commonwealth War Graves site was also among your recommendations (as you might expect) – and, although telephone directories were not mentioned, perhaps they are a resource worth considering.  
That said, while the current telephone directory is freely available online, it seems that past issues are only accessible via a paid-for site, which seems a shame.  

If you are interested in OPEN, GLOBAL GENEALOGY, please do register your interest to take part in this year’s online annual conference to be held online on 22nd and 29th May.

And look out for our next blog on your FREE local and other site recommendations.

More accessible, more usable, and free, forever

It’s not a surprise to learn that more people have taken up genealogy in the past year. What better lockdown pastime than one which can be undertaken by anyone from the comfort of their own home?

Paid-for family history research sites are reporting increases in annual subscribers of up to 50%. “All you need is an internet connection and an inquiring mind!” according to one of them.

If only that were true! Even if you use only the free sites, some data can still only be accessed for a fee, and BMD certificates must be purchased. Regrettably, this means some people feel unable to take up or continue with their research.

That’s why Free UK Genealogy continually pursues its vision to make data more accessible, more usable, and free to use, forever. (And that’s why so many of you selflessly give up your time and skills to transcribe our records, helping to ensure that everyone has free access to their BMD, census and parish registers’ data.)
Fortunately, we are not alone. There are many other organisations around the world that believe in open, global genealogy.

Archives are for everyone

So, what is open data and why is it important?

Open data is the idea that our data should be freely available for everyone to use and republish as they wish, without restrictions from copyright, patents or other mechanisms of control.
 
This is important because, as the National Archives puts it, such data is “an essential resource for our democracy, a public good and an asset for future generations. Our conviction is that archives are for everyone and that archives change lives for the better.”
That’s a strong statement. But try a Google search on ‘benefits of genealogy’ and it returns over 32 million results. Among those listed are renewed sense of purpose; increased mental stimulation; reconnecting/making new connections with extended family; meeting like-minded people through groups and forums, and even discovering important family medical history.

At Free UK Genealogy, we know that it’s only by having open, global genealogy that will enable EVERYONE to enjoy such benefits.

Who does it?

So, aside from ourselves and the National Archives, which other organisations share our vision? Another Google search, this time for "totally free genealogy websites UK", returns 717,000 results comprising websites, articles and lists.

Most cite organisations such as ourselves, GENUKI, FamilySearch, RootsChat, the General Register Office, and the National Archives, but there’s also a myriad of event- or occupation-driven sites ranging from The Proceedings of the Old Bailey and Find a Will to The Gazette (receiverships, liquidations and bankruptcies) and Historical Trade Directories.  

Other organisations on our own wide-ranging radar include: Legacies of British Slave Ownership – UCL; Wikitree (a community of genealogists connecting the one human family tree using traditional genealogy and DNA testing); Open Archives NL (containing genealogical data of Dutch and Belgian archives); and Open Genealogy Data (a community project to make data that is important to genealogists available outside of the walled-gardens of large corporate entities).

There are thousands more.

How does it differ?

The main difference between free and paid-for sites is – obviously – the cost. While paid-for sites offer additional benefits such as ease of access to their collection ‘all in one place’, suggestions on other records to view, and connections to others’ trees, these CAN also be found through combining the various free sites, once you get the hang of them. You just need time and patience.

At Free UK Genealogy, we understand that transcribing or indexing records to make them searchable can incur huge costs. But, as our working model proves, it is possible to bring together volunteers to see a project through, and therefore keep the costs to a minimum.
Paid-for sites want to increase the number of records they offer as quickly as possible so that people will continue to pay a subscription. This can sometimes result in poor transcriptions - we all know that transcribing is actually a labour of love that cannot be rushed.

So, the other main difference is that free sites can offer better transcriptions than paid-for sites. But you know that – we don’t need to preach to the converted!

Taking to the stage

We are encouraged that so many organisations share our vision about making genealogy data more accessible, more usable, and free to use, forever.

And we are delighted that some of them will be taking to the stage to talk about OPEN, GLOBAL GENEALOGY at our 2021 conference on 22nd and 29th May. Learn morehere– and we hope you will be joining us, too.