Oxfordshire Family History Society

What's on the Internet for Genealogists

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"What's on the Internet for Genealogists" was the title of the talk given to the Computer Group on 1st February 2000 by Wendy Archer and Malcolm Austen. This page accompanies the revised second edition talk given on 1st October 2001.
So, who are Wendy and Malcolm ... Wendy is "list owner" for the Rootsweb "Oxfordshire-l" forum, maintains the GenWeb pages for Oxfordshire, is on the Oxfordshire FHS committee (helps to run the Computer Group among other things) and is active in the Guild of One-name Studies. Malcolm is "list-owner" for the Society's member-only email forum, maintains the GenUKI pages for Oxfordshire, is on the Oxfordshire FHS committee (helps to run the Computer Group and is webmaster for this site) and is on the Publicity sub-committee of the Federation of Family History Societies. By the way, both have a life outside Family History, or so it is rumoured!

"What's on the Internet for Genealogists" was the title of the talk given to the Computer Group on 1st February 2000 by Wendy Archer and Malcolm Austen. This page accompanies the revised second edition talk given on 1st October 2001.

So, who are Wendy and Malcolm ...

Wendy is "list owner" for the Rootsweb "Oxfordshire-l" forum, maintains the GenWeb pages for Oxfordshire, is on the Oxfordshire FHS committee (helps to run the Computer Group among other things) and is active in the Guild of One-name Studies.

Malcolm is "list-owner" for the Society's member-only email forum, maintains the GenUKI pages for Oxfordshire, is on the Oxfordshire FHS committee (helps to run the Computer Group and is webmaster for this site) and is on the Publicity sub-committee of the Federation of Family History Societies.

By the way, both have a life outside Family History, or so it is rumoured!

What is the Internet?
While the talk itself will assume some basic familiarity with the internet, newcomers may find these two links of use. They link to the pages for two previous talks given by Malcolm: The introduction to "hands-on" evenings run for the Oxfordshire FHS. A talk given to the Sussex FH Group Computer Conference in 1998. For help on searching the internet, have a look at the page that accompanied the Computer Group's talk on searching.

What is the Internet?

While the talk itself will assume some basic familiarity with the internet, newcomers may find these two links of use. They link to the pages for two previous talks given by Malcolm:

For help on searching the internet, have a look at the page that accompanied the Computer Group's talk on searching.

The talk covers four basic aspects of Family History on the 'Net
Guide material Sites that form an online library resource. Databases (some free, some chargeable) Sites that provide an online lookup service for transcribed Family History data. Mailing lists Each (there are hundreds) provides a forum for the exchange of queries, answer, discoveries and opinions among people with some common interest. Shopping Increasingly books, fiche and CDs of relevance to family historians can be tracked down and even purchased over the 'net.

The talk covers four basic aspects of Family History on the 'Net

Guide material: Sites that form an online library resource.
Databases (some free, some chargeable): Sites that provide an online lookup service for transcribed Family History data.
Mailing lists: Each (there are hundreds) provides a forum for the exchange of queries, answer, discoveries and opinions among people with some common interest.
Shopping: Increasingly books, fiche and CDs of relevance to family historians can be tracked down and even purchased over the 'net.

Before looking in details, lets just list the web sites of the 'major players' in UK Family History
The National Archives (was the Public Record Office) http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ Family Records Centre http://www.familyrecords.gov.uk/frc/ Office for National Statistics http://www.statistics.gov.uk/ Society of Genealogists http://www.sog.org.uk/ Federation of Family History Societies http://www.ffhs.org.uk/ Guild of One-name Studies http://www.one-name.org/ The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints UK http://www.lds.org.uk/ Salt Lake City http://www.lds.org/ GENUKI http://www.genuki.org.uk/

Before looking in details, lets just list the web sites of the 'major players' in UK Family History

The National Archives (was the Public Record Office): http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
Family Records Centre: http://www.familyrecords.gov.uk/frc/
Office for National Statistics: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/
Society of Genealogists: http://www.sog.org.uk/
Federation of Family History Societies: http://www.ffhs.org.uk/
Guild of One-name Studies: http://www.one-name.org/
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: UK http://www.lds.org.uk/
Salt Lake City http://www.lds.org/
GENUKI: http://www.genuki.org.uk/

Guide material

GENUKI http://www.genuki.org.uk/

This is considered by many to be the number one starting point for UK & Irish Family history on the web. It is organised in a hierarchy with pages for England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands fanning out into county and, in some cases, parish pages.

UK & Ireland http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/
England http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/
Oxfordshire http://users.ox.ac.uk/~malcolm/genuki/big/eng/OXF/

GENWEB http://worldgenweb.org/

This is superficially similar to GENUKI but with a world-wide umbrella. Overall however it makes the variability on GENUKI look like consistency and many parts have a distinct US-centric feel to them.

British Isles http://www.britishislesgenweb.org/
England http://www.britishislesgenweb.org/england/index.html
Oxfordshire http://www.rootsweb.com/~engoxf/

Cyndi's List http://www.cyndislist.com/

This is a massive portal. A classified directory to all sorts of family history related web sites. Just remember that it is intended as just that, a directory, it makes no claims to hold data or information itself.

SoG: Essential Web Sites http://www.sog.org.uk/links.html

Much smaller than Cyndi's list, this makes a more manageable starting point for those with limited time and experience of sifting through large numbers of alternatives.

FRC links http://www.familyrecords.gov.uk/linksmain.htm

This is the FRC's selection of the best and most reputable FH sites

Organisations

Many organisations, regional, national and international, have web sites offering refeernce material.

Find a society's web site isn't very hard. Sometime the site name is less than obvious but someone has a little list! Who? Well, the FFHS has a list of its member societies but not all societies are members. GENUKI has a list that pretty much covers them all and refers to the FFHS list when it is appropriate.

GENUKI http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/genuki/Societies/

FFHS http://www.ffhs.org.uk/General/Members/index.htm

Here are some of the major national sources of 'online leaflets':

Federation of Family History Societies: http://www.ffhs.org.uk/General/Help/index.htm
Society of Genealogists: http://www.sog.org.uk/leaflets/index.html
Parish Register transcripts
Guild of One-name Studies: http://www.one-name.org/facilities.html
The National Archives (was the Public Record Office): Research Guides http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/researchguidesindex.asp?j=1; Census http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/census/
Family Records Centre: http://www.familyrecords.gov.uk/guides.htm
Office for National Statistics: Obtaining certificates:
Births - http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/births/obtainingbirthcertificates/index.asp
Marriages - http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/marriages/obtainingmarriagecertificates/index.asp
Deaths - http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/deaths/obtainingdeathcertificates/index.asp
The fees are detailed here - http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/research/obtainingcertificates/certificatefees.asp

Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City): http://www.familysearch.org/

Events

Most organisations have a list of events on their web site, some may even be up to date!

GENEVA: http://users.ox.ac.uk/~malcolm/genuki/geneva/
This list is run as a joint venture between GENUKI and the FFHS. Events are simply listed by date giving their location. Details are supplied simply by a link to the event's own web pages (or sometime an email link). If you know of an event that isn't listed, tell the event organiser, not me!
Society of Genealogists: http://www.sog.org.uk/events/

Databases
FamilySearch (LDS) http://www.familysearch.org/ David Hawgood's book FreeBMD http://FreeBMD.RootsWeb.com/ FreeUKGen http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/genuki/FreeUKGEN-FAQ.html English Origins http://www.englishorigins.com The Commonwealth War Graves Commission http://www.cwgc.org/ The Public Record Office catalogues http://www.pro.gov.uk/catalogues/ Surname Interests There are many listings of surname interests both on and off the internet. OxSIL http://www.rootsweb.com/~oxsil/ Starting close to home, this list is run by Leah Savage for those interested on Oxfordshire families. GenUKI: Area surname lists http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/genuki/SurnamesList/ Such lists exist for most parts of the UK, they are listed by GENUKI. RootsWeb Surname List http://rsl.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/rslsql.cgi Places Ordnance Survey http://www.ordsvy.gov.uk/ Free GB Maps - http://www.ordsvy.gov.uk/freegb/index.htm Streetmap http://www.streetmap.co.uk/ Multimap http://uk.multimap.com/map/places.cgi/ Old-Maps http://www.old-maps.co.uk/ Aerial Photos Streetmap.co.uk has aerial views for some parts of the country. e.g. http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll? grid2map?X=415238&Y=280830&arrow=Y&zoom=1&largeuk=P Streets and addresses Royal Mail - postcode and address finder http://www.royalmail.co.uk/quick_tools/postcodes/default.htm Directory Enquiries, well almost - InfoDisk on-line http://www.192.com/

Databases

FamilySearch (LDS) http://www.familysearch.org/

David Hawgood's book

FreeBMD http://FreeBMD.RootsWeb.com/

FreeUKGen http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/genuki/FreeUKGEN-FAQ.html

English Origins http://www.englishorigins.com

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission http://www.cwgc.org/

The Public Record Office catalogues http://www.pro.gov.uk/catalogues/

Surname Interests

There are many listings of surname interests both on and off the internet.

OxSIL: http://www.rootsweb.com/~oxsil/
Starting close to home, this list is run by Leah Savage for those interested on Oxfordshire families.
GenUKI: Area surname lists: http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/genuki/SurnamesList/
Such lists exist for most parts of the UK, they are listed by GENUKI.
RootsWeb Surname List: http://rsl.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/rslsql.cgi

Places

Ordnance Survey: http://www.ordsvy.gov.uk/
Free GB Maps - http://www.ordsvy.gov.uk/freegb/index.htm
Streetmap: http://www.streetmap.co.uk/
Multimap: http://uk.multimap.com/map/places.cgi/
Old-Maps: http://www.old-maps.co.uk/
Aerial Photos: Streetmap.co.uk has aerial views for some parts of the country.
e.g. http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll?
grid2map?X=415238&Y=280830&arrow=Y&zoom=1&largeuk=P

Streets and addresses

Royal Mail - postcode and address finder: http://www.royalmail.co.uk/quick_tools/postcodes/default.htm
Directory Enquiries, well almost - InfoDisk on-line: http://www.192.com/

Mailing lists
Regional lists OXFORDSHIRE-L@rootsweb.com Surname lists Mostly hosted by Rootweb private (members-only) lists http://members.oxfordshirefhs.org.uk General lists OLD-ENGLISH-L@rootsweb.com News lists SOG-NEWS-L@rootsweb.com FFHS-NEWS@maillist.ox.ac.uk Finding the list you want GenUKI: Area lists Rootsweb John Fuller's list of mailing lists Rootsweb lists have archives available Threaded mail archive Keyword search of a list archive

Mailing lists

Regional lists

OXFORDSHIRE-L@rootsweb.com

Surname lists

Mostly hosted by Rootweb

private (members-only) lists

http://members.oxfordshirefhs.org.uk

General lists

OLD-ENGLISH-L@rootsweb.com

News lists

SOG-NEWS-L@rootsweb.com
FFHS-NEWS@maillist.ox.ac.uk

Finding the list you want

Rootsweb lists have archives available

Shopping
SoG bookshop http://www.sog.org.uk/bookshop/ FFHS bookshop http://www.ffhs.co.uk/ TNA bookshop http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/bookshop/ GenFair http://www.genfair.com/ Individual Societies Some have their own online shop Some have a "stall" at the SoG or Genfair (or both) Those that don't probably have a price list online

This has, inevitably, been little more than an overview.
If you feel the need to read some more paper before starting your online reading have a look at Peter Christian's book entitled "Finding Genealogy on the Internet" and the associated "bookmark" page. If you want some more online reading to help you along the way, here are some useful starting out guides (not specific to Oxfordshire or the Internet): Welcome "Newbie" The GenUKI getting started guide TNA summary guide for FH research Emery Paper Bunting Paper

This has, inevitably, been little more than an overview.

If you feel the need to read some more paper before starting your online reading have a look at Peter Christian's book entitled "Finding Genealogy on the Internet" and the associated "bookmark" page.

If you want some more online reading to help you along the way, here are some useful starting out guides (not specific to Oxfordshire or the Internet):

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