These are a few of the key websites we recommend, but there are many more we think you’ll find useful.
Ancestry Library
Offering you access to billions of family history records from the United Kingdom and abroad. The site includes records for births, marriages, deaths, the military and criminals, as well as census returns, wills and much more. This resource is available from library PCs and Wi-Fi, but not from home.
Find My Past
Find My Past contains huge amounts of information useful to family historians. Key collections include census data, the 1939 register and parish registers for England and Wales. The site also includes some York-specific records taken from the city archive collections. This is available on library PCs or library Wi-Fi, but not from home.
The National Archives (UK)
The National Archives is the archives service of the UK government, and contains thousands of records relating to the history of the country from the medieval period to the present day. The search engine, Discovery, contains details of records from The National Archive collections as well as many archives services across the UK, and the website includes brilliant ‘How to’ guides on a number of research topics.
Archives Hub
The Archives Hub contains thousands of descriptions from UK archive collections. Over 330 UK institutions contribute to the database, including Explore, and as a result the Archives Hub is a great way of discovering often little-known sources to support your research. New descriptions are added every week.
General Register Office
The General Register Office oversees civil registration in England and Wales (births, marriages, deaths, civil partnerships and adoptions). They maintain the national archive of all births, deaths and marriages dating back to 1837, and copies of certificates can be ordered direct from them for a fee.
Yorkshire Film Archive / North East Film Archive
The Yorkshire Film Archive, now combined with the North East Film Archive, contains hundreds of films documenting life in Yorkshire and the North East over the last 120 years. Films are usually non-fiction, and have been taken by both amateurs and professionals.