Family History research

Do you have to be a member of the church to join this site because every time I try to enter the word they tell you to, it will not let me sign on.

Since writing that, they no longer allow searches unless you have an account. You don't have to be a member of the church though to sign up and it's still free. familysearch.org/register

We are lucky that the LDS still enable us to access their records free and it is available online. When I first started doing family trees in the 1980's (to keep my brain working after I left work to have kids!) everything had to be sent for or a visit to a local record office was neccessary. The IGI was available from the Latter Day Saints but you had to pay for them to be printed out and you sent for a name in a county. In the end I treated myself to a second hand microfiche reader and sets of microfilm copies for Warwickshire, Staffordshire and several surrounding counties, which were for all the births and marriages in those counties. Sometimes it is easier to look through the name of a family you are researching and spot things. I still have these so if I can look up anything I am quite happy to. Incidentally the first family tree software I used was "Brothers Keeper" which was also free from the LDS. Don't forget that the IGI is only an index for the original parish register or bishop's transcript. You can't beat looking at the original document, sometimes more information is available on there and just knowing that your ancestors were there were the information was written. Ancestry do have the original documents for Warwickshire online.

Thanks MR

British Museum Makes 1.9 Million Images Available for Free "The British Museum has all sorts of photographs available and many of them may interest genealogists. The odds of having a photograph of your ancestors are slim, but you may find historic photographs of the town or other local areas where ancestors lived as well as photographs of military units, landmarks, clothing, and even the Admonitions Scroll made in China over 1600 years ago. "The British Museum has revamped its online collections database, making over 1.9 million photos of its collection available for free online under a Creative Commons license. (That license allows free non-commercial use of the photographs.) "Under the new agreement the majority of the 1.9 million images are being made available for anyone to use for free under a Creative Commons 4.0 license. Users no longer need to register to use these photographs, and can now download them directly from the British Museum. "Details may be found at https://bit.ly/2YiBW1k“

Who Do You Think You Are has announced that Ancestry celebrates the 75th anniversary of VE Day with free access from 4 to 10 May. UK records include census and parish records, military records, and the 1939 Register. Start searching here. Registration is required.

The Oxford Surnames Dictionary usually retails at £400 but until 21st of this month it has been released from a paywall. Giving many derivatives and the type of surname eg genitive, locative, occupational etc Link