Your Family History #1: Throstle Nest, Wortley

This week on the Secret Library we welcome guest author Tony Stead, whose personal research into his family tree and their connections to the Throstle Nest House of Wortley is reproduced below. This is the first in a projected new series, in which family historians will present the fruits of their labour. The Stead family…

Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes – A Beginner’s Guide

As part of a series examining family history resources for beginners, librarian Helen Skilbeck takes an in-depth look at one of the most useful resources for beginning your family history research: birth, marriage and death index records. You can find more information in our research guide.  One of the main resources you will use when…

The Leeds Folk Festival

This week on the Secret Library we hear from Karen Downham, Library Officer at the Central Library. Although most music events are cancelled at the moment, Karen gives us a fascinating look back to an event that took place in the 1980s – explaining, along the way, how The Rolling Stones’ 1982 European Tour caused…

Top Tips for Family Trees

Starting your family tree can be a daunting prospect but before you leap into action using Ancestry, here are some things you can do with your family to get your research off to a good start.  Dig out as many documents as possible especially birth, marriage and death certificates. Each paper certificate will cost upwards…

Ancestry for all!

As part of a series examining family history resources for beginners, librarian Helen Skilbeck takes an in-depth look at using our core genealogy subscription website, Ancestry.com… So, what is Ancestry…. Ancestry is one of the main genealogical websites in the UK. It has records that can help you to create your family tree and includes the UK census…

Visitations and Pedigrees

As part of a series examining family history resources for beginners, librarian Antony Ramm explores Visitation records – a largely neglected but extremely worthwhile set of genealogy records from the 16th and 17th-centuries… Family historians will be familiar with the difficulty of tracing ancestries prior to the almost-simultaneous start of Civil Registration and Census records in the…