Some helpful links for your genealogy research

The General Register Office for England and Wales : The website that used to be the central portal for the General Register Office for England and Wales has been reorganized. The original GRO site is now for the online ordering of certificates for birth, death, marriage, civil partnership and adoption events registered in England and Wales and for certain British Nationals who were born, married or died overseas. This link is to the portion dealing with researching family history.

The General Register Office for Scotland : The General Register Office for Scotland is responsible for the registration of births, marriages, civil partnerships, deaths, divorces, and adoptions. Copies of certificates can be ordered for a fee. No online searching.

The General Register Office of Northern Ireland: The GRO of Northern Ireland maintains birth, marriage and death Registers from 1864, and non-Roman Catholic marriages from 1845, to the present. Copies of a birth, marriage or death certificate can be ordered for a fee. Cannot be searched online.

The General Register Office of the Irish Republic : The General Register Office is the central civil repository for records relating to births, deaths and marriages in the Republic of Ireland. Civil marriage records date from April 1, 1845 and Roman Catholic marriage records are from Jan. 1, 1864. Copies of such records can be ordered online for a fee, but the records themselves are not searchable online.

Public Records Office of Northern Ireland : PRONI is the official archive for Northern Ireland and has several files you can search online, with more planned. Presently available are the signers of the Ulster Covenant of 1912, the pre-1840 Freeholders Registers and Poll Books and an index of wills proved in the District Probate Registries of Armagh, Belfast and Londonderry from 1858 to about 1900.

Library and Archives Canada : The Canadian Library and Archives contains a wealth of information, much of which can be obtained by online searching.

Irish Census records : The Public Record Office of Ireland in Dublin was destroyed in a fire during civil disturbance in 1922, resulting in the loss of many valuable genealogical records. Most of the census returns from 1821 to 1851 were among the records lost, except for a small number of volumes covering parts of counties Fermanagh and Cavan for 1821; parts of Co. Londonderry and for Killeshandra Parish in Co. Cavan for 1831; and for parts of Co. Antrim for 1851. Census returns covering the whole island of Ireland for the years 1861-1891 were destroyed by government order on grounds of confidentiality. However, the 1901 and 1911 census records still exist and are in the process of being digitized and made available online for free. Presently the records for all 32 counties for 1911 are available and are searchable online for free. Work on the 1901 census is in process and should be completed in 2010.

The National Archives of the UK : Formerly known as the Public Records Office of the UK (at Kew), the archives contain a wealth of information, but most of it is not accessible online. Some online searching is permitted and can provide information on where microfilmed copies of some records can be obtained. Many records can be ordered online for a fee. Well worth the visit.

The Scottish Genealogy Society : The society is a non-profit organization dedicated to serving people with an interest in Scottish genealogy. There is an annual membership fee, which includes a subscription to the quarterly magazine, The Scottish Genealogist. The society also has nearly 2000 publications relating to Scottish genealogy available for purchase in its shop.

Scotland's People: Scotlands People is the official government source of genealogical data for Scotland. Online searching is available and most any document held in the General Records Office may be searched for online here for a fee and copies of documents can be downloaded, also for a fee.

The Origins Network: The Origins Network features what it describes as comprehensive and exclusive British and Irish record collections dating back to the 13th century. It is a membership/fee for service site but does include some free searches. It has separate sites for Scotland, England and Wales and Ireland.

UK & Ireland Genealogy : GENUKI has links to a large collection of genealogical information pages for England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man.

Ulster Ancestry : Mostly fee for service site, but a few free searches available.

The National Library of Scotland : An interesting site with some information useful to genealogists, but not an essential stop.

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