IT’S ALL ABOUT KNOWING WHERE TO LOOK
SORTING YOUR VIRTUAL REFERENCE LIBRARY
Genealogist and former librarian Alison Spring recommends a collection of indispensable reference works that every self-respecting family historian should know about – and use!
Alison Spring
Quite a lot of my career has been spent working in libraries, so knowing and finding the right reference tool for the job has been an important aspect of my work.
As a genealogist, I’ve recognised a similar need to identify publications and websites to support my research.
In this article I recommend some websites from my virtual “reference shelf ” that I find indispensable. Try them next time you’re stuck for information; genealogists are constantly having to look things up, whether it be dates for historical context, or the meaning of obsolete words and phrases. This list isn’t exhaustive, of course, so when you’re really stuck despite trying these, don’t forget that your search engine is your friend!
Family History Reference
FamilySearch Wiki https:// www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/ Main_Page
This is a real miscellany of useful genealogical resources.
You can learn about different types of records, find out what’s available for a specific country and where, or download forms and worksheets, to name just a few of its features.
GENUKI
https://www.genuki. org.uk/
FamilySearch Research Wiki: at https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Main_Page you will find more than 100,000 genealogy related wikis – search by place or topic worldwide.
Genuki.org.uk: Find the core basic details needed by beginners, plus find extensive details about records and local history coverage for extending and expanding your research. An extremely thorough website that often comes up trumps with the information you’re after.
The must-have in your toolkit for UK and Ireland research. It breaks the UK up into each of its constituent parts (not forgetting the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands), and each country into counties, with location and contact information for archives, libraries, family history societies, graveyards, parish churches, and more.
Relatedness Calculator
https:// tinyurl.com/452hbyaw
If you’re not really sure how you’re related to your third cousin twice removed, use this nifty visualisation tool to figure it out.
National Census Dates: UK, Ireland, US
www.oneplacestudy. org/free-guides/national-censusdates-uk-ireland-us
Bookmark this site (https://tinyurl. com/452hbyaw) so that you have it to hand to resolve the discussions about who is related to whom at the next family get-together.
When trying to work out the age of someone appearing in a census return, it can be useful to know on what date that census was taken. This table provides many of these key dates.