Free BMD

FreeBMD is an ongoing project, the aim of which is to transcribe the Civil Registration index of births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales, and to provide free Internet access to the transcribed records.  The FreeBMD Database currently contains 214,279,072 distinct records.  While not complete the site, and its sister sites FreeCEN (Census data) and FreeREG (Parish Registers) are well worth checking.

Dead Pubs

Was your ancestor a Pubican?  Dead Pubs is a historical street & pub history directory of London, Essex, Kent, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Middlesex, Suffolk, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Sussex, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Devon, Somerset & Dorset.  Many listings even have photos of the pub.

Who Do You Think You Are Live 2012

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? LIVE 2012 has finished.

Many of the presenters gave handouts for their talks and workshops for 2012 to the Society of Genealogists, and these are now being made available FREE on the SOG website.  More notes and slides will become available in the coming weeks, so visit the SOG Family History Show page and take a look at what is available.

British Newspaper Archive

The British Newspaper Archive has come out of beta and is now live. This is a collection of some 65 million articles appearing in various British newspapers going back over 300 years.  It is free to search, although access to the actual newspaper article requires a subscription, and you can buy a two-day subscription if that is all you require.

Jewish Genealogical Society

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain has integrated their databases onto the JewishGen system to form one integrated database with JewishGen. The combined database lists more than 220,000 records of individuals from the United Kingdom as well as the Republic of Ireland. Included are various types of records such as birth, marriage, burials, census, trader lists, etc. Access is free.

Old Occupations

Family historians often locate records that list ancestors with unusual and intriguing occupations. Many of these occupations may have originated as far back as the Middle Ages and by the 14th century it was common for people to take their occupation as a surname. i.e. Skinner - Flayer of animal hides for leather or Fletcher – maker of arrows.


For a detailed list of old occupations have a look at the following websites, compiled from historical census returns, registers and voters lists.


• The 1891 London Census Transcription – Victorian Occupations
• Dictionary of Ancient Occupations and Trades
• Old Occupations in Scotland

Genealogy SA

Genealogy SA in conjunction with the South Australian Registrar of Births Deaths and Marriages has just announced that public domain South Australian Births, Deaths and Marriages Indexes are now available online via the new Genealogy SA website. Up until now these indexes have only been available in book form, on cd-rom and microfiche so great news for those of us doing SA research!


The indexes cover :

• Newspaper Birth Notices Index from 1960 onwards
• Newspaper Death Notices Index from 1972 onwards
• South Australia Cemeteries Index
• Birth Registration Certificates Index 1842 – 1928
• Death Registration Certificates Index 1842 – 1972
• Marriage Registration Certificates Index 1842 – 1916