Old Maps Online

The Old Maps Online portal allows you to search for and access old maps for free.  Type a place name into the search engine and thumbnail pictures appear.  You can then click on the one you want to view.  There is a list of collections from where the maps have been collated with links to the repositry holding the originals.

Valuation Office Survey

Part of the National Archives website, the Valuation Office Survey was carried out between 1910 and 1915 to assess all site values in the UK for taxation purposes.  The catalogue contains descriptions of nearly 50,000 Valuation Office Survey maps.  When searching you need to have an idea of where your ancestor was living, such as an address from the 1911 census.
The maps serve as the means of reference to more than 95,000 Valuation Office Field Books which contain descriptions of more than 9 million individual houses, farms and other properties, detailing the use and value of lands and buildings, and naming their owners and occupiers. Valuation Office Field Books can only be viewed at The National Archives.

Deceased Online

Deceased Online alows you to search registers by Country, Region, County, Burial Authority or Crematorium free - further information incurs a fee.  They now offer access to the digitised records of the Peterborough Cathedral - 1200 records from the 16th century to 1995.  Burial registers are included for most records and there are some photos of monuments.  Records include Mary, Queen of Scots and Catherine of Aragon.  The site has also started releasing data from its collection of records from London's Brompton Cemetery.

Welsh Newspapers Online

Welsh Newspapers Online is a free online resource from the National Library of Wales where you can discover millions of articles from the Library’s rich collection of historical newspapers. The site currently lets you search and access over 250,000 pages from 24 newspaper publications from 1844 until 1910 and will grow to over 1 million pages as more publications are added during 2013.  Search all newspapers or select specific titles, narrow by date or type of article, or browse through specific newspapers, dates or regions.  Searching is free and does not require users to register at all.

German Military Grave Registration Service

The German Military Grave Registration Service database contains more than 2 million names of missing and dead German soldiers from World War I and World War II. All that is necessary is a surname (nachname) to search. On the first visit you will be required to register with your name and address (Straße/Nr. - Street and Number, Land - Country, PLZ - Postal or Zip Code, and Ort - City) to view the search results.  Be aware the site is in German, which can make navigating the site challenging - my one year of high school German was not really adequate to the challenge!

Internment.net

Interment.net is a free online library of cemetery records for historical and genealogy research.  The database contains over 3 million records from over 5000 cemeteries worldwide and contains actual cemetery transcriptions as well as links to other cemeteries around the world. You can search cemetery burial records or browse records by region.  While coverage is not extensive in some areas it is well worth browsing their list of cemeteries to see what is available.

Free access to Irish Records with Find My Past

On June 30, 1922, the Public Records Office of Ireland, located at the historic Four Courts in Dublin, caught fire during the Irish Civil War. Tragically a considerable amount of Irish records were destroyed. The fire has had lasting effects – still felt today – as Irish family history requires a unique approach to research than other heritages. To commemorate this anniversary and encourage exploration of Irish genealogy, findmypast.com will offer its full collection of Irish Birth, Marriage and Death indexes free of charge from June 27 to June 30. Anyone searching for their Irish ancestors can access the full Irish record collection by registering for free at findmypast.com.