National Archives UK

The National Archives is launching a new online catalogue at the end of January. Called Discovery, it will make it easier for people to search the online collections. Discovery will run in parallel with the old search catalogue until 31 March, at which time the old search methodology will be permanently disabled. There is a fee to access most of the extensive collections of the National Archives, which currently number over 11 million records.  Go to http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/

National Archives of Ireland

The website for the National Archives of Ireland has been redesigned to make it easier to navigate and more intuitive to understand. The new website also comes with expanded guides for people wanting to trace their Irish ancestors. Most of the records on the Irish National Archives website cover records from various Irish government departments from the twentieth century. Access is free.

Ancestral Atlas

Major plans for the UK-based genealogical mapping site include adding the ability for users to attach image, audio and video files to their events/locations ; adding new datasets to complement the user-contributed data ; and making the interface cleaner and more intuitive.  Explore the Ancestral Atlas at http://www.ancestralatlas.com/