Web Sites for Genealogists, 2008 edition. Click here for details.

Ordnance Survey, Britain's National Mapping Agency. This site offers a free search and download service and access to historical maps of Britain.

A Vision of Britain through Time (1801-2001). A unique site that uses census and other records to present the history of Britain through places. It includes maps, statistics and historical descriptions.

Mapco: Map and Plan Collection Online provides free access to rare and beautiful antique maps and views. A variety of 18th and 19th material for London and the British Isles is available.

Gardiner's Atlas of English History. A series of over eighty five historic maps dating from Roman Britain circa 400 are available online. This site is worth checking out.

Streetmap.co.uk. This site provides address searching and street map facilities for mainland Britain.

Curious Fox  is a village by village contact site for UK and Ireland villages, towns and counties. Family history, local history, surname and genealogy contact messages are arranged by place and can viewed and submitted. This site is free to use but the modest fee offers more privileges.

DocumentsOnline Selected First World War and Army of Occupation War Diaries  offers access to digitised copies of selected War Diaries for British and colonial units serving in theatres of operations 1914-1922. An online guide to these records is available.

The National Archives. Trafalgar Ancestors lists 18,000+ who served (on the British side) in the Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805. This ongoing project is adding service histories and biographical details as they become available.

Soldiers of the Queen in the Second Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902. This index to soldiers and nurses identifies the unit/regiment in which they served. Once the regiment is known further research can be pursued at The National Archives. This ongoing index currently covers under 50% of the 500,000 soldiers and nurses on the British side.

UK National Inventory of War Memorials. This site offers a search of the records of war memorials, commemorating all wars, located throughout the United Kingdom.

British Origins presented in association with the Society of Genealogists, offers online databases to 50+ million names (1209-1948). It includes marriage registers, census records, burial records, wills, passenger lists, militia, court and apprentice records plus more. There is a free name search and a range of subscription options.

Find My Past offers access to millions of family history records online. These include birth, death and marriage, census, military, migration and occupations. This site is free to search with a fee to view records and images. A range of subscription options are available. 

The Genealogist offers online searches of census, birth, marriage, death & parish record indexes and directories. A range of subscription options offer access to the records and images. 

Historical Directories offers free access to digitised local and trade directories for England and Wales (1750-1919). Searches are available by location, decade or keywords. Names, occupations, addresses and other key words can be located to their exact places on pages within the text of the directory. 

Family Deeds offers free transcriptions from old deeds and documents. It is searchable by name and county indexes. It is also possible to order an original document or transcription for a fee.

Victorian Crime and Punishment searchable database of 20,000+ prisoners from Bedford, Huntingdon, Cambridge and Ely gaols. Digitised images of original archive material and photographs are included if available. There is background information on the gaols, life inside a nineteenth century prison and the justice system. 

National Archive of Memorial Inscriptions (NAOMI) aims to provide access to UK memorial inscriptions. It currently lists 150,000+ inscriptions from Norfolk and Bedfordshire. New material is added regularly. A fee applies for access to the full inscription, a brief description of the memorial, a photograph of the church or chapel, a plan of the burial ground and historical information

British History Online digital library contains core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history arranged by county. Online transcripts include Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae and Gazetteer of Markets and Fairs in England and Wales to 1516 plus county histories and ordnance survey maps. 

National Archives Hospital Records Database with information on the existence and location of United Kingdom hospital records. Searches are available by hospital or town name.

Royal College of Physicians searchable Index to Munk's Roll, more formally known as Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians. This set of obituaries contains biographical details of Fellows of the College from 1518 to the present day. Some biographies are online.

Burke's Peerage and Gentry searchable database of one million+ names. Fees apply for access to the records.

Rootsweb United Kingdom and Ireland Records. This database currently contains 265,000+ contributed records with 47,000+ distinct surnames for selected counties and parishes.

British Pathe.This digital news archive offers previewing of items from the entire 3500 hour film archive which covers news, sport, social history and entertainment (1896 to 1970).

Images of England with  300,000+ images of England's built heritage from lamp posts to lavatories, phone boxes to toll booths plus thousands of bridges, historic houses and churches.

Wills and Probate Records
DocumentsOnline Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) Wills (1384-1858). A free detailed search by first and last names, occupation, place and other keywords is available. This allows for easy identification of relevant wills. Digital copies of the wills are £3.50 each.

DocumentsOnline. Death Duty Registers (1796-1811). These registers hold details of wills and bequests for estates liable to death duties. They cover the 'country court' death duty registers (ie Courts other than the Prerogative Court of Canterbury). Searches of the index are free and there is a fee of £3.50 to access the original document.

DocumentsOnline Wills of Royal Naval Seamen offers searches and downloads of the wills of 35,000+ men who joined the Royal Navy 1786 to 1882. Digital copies of the wills are £3.50 each.

London Signatures, the online database of the London Metropolitan Archives, offers a free online index to Wills from the Archdeaconry Court of Middlesex (1609 -1810). Digital copies of wills are available for £4 each. 

Surrey Plus Wills Index lists 38,400+ names of all people appearing in wills of testators residing in County Surrey (and some other counties). Links are provided to will transcripts where available.

British Origins, in association with the Society of Genealogists, online databases include the Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills index (1750-1800); Bank of England Will Extracts index (1717-1845); Archdeaconry Court of London Wills index (1700-1807); York Medieval Probate index (1267-1500), York Peculiars Probate index (1383-1883); Prerogative and Exchequer Courts of York Probate index (1853-1858) and Inheritance Disputes Index (1574-1714). Copies of many of the original wills can be ordered online. There is a free name search and a range of subscription options are available. 

Cambridgeshire Family History Society Cambridgeshire Wills Surname Index. This index has been compiled from submitted details and currently contains 2,816+ records.