To celebrate St. Patrick’s Day and Irish History Month we take a look at some of the key websites to use when researching your Irish genealogy. The National Archives of Ireland (Genealogy section) This site offers advice on how to get started, what records are available and provides links to free resources such as census…
Tag: Family History
Family History Resources: Military Records
This week on the Secret Library we hear from Local and Family History’s Josh Flint, who will be exploring the incredibly useful family history resource, military service records. This article will explore what military service records are, how to access them and how they can be useful for your own family history research. Military personnel records…
Family History Resources: Historical Trade Directories
This week on the Secret Library we hear from Local and Family History’s Josh Flint, who will be exploring the excellent family history resource, historical trade directories. This article will help family history researchers understand what trade directories are, how they can be useful for family history research and finally where to find them. This…
Maps for Family History
As part of a series examining family history resources for beginners, Librarian Antony Ramm explores the local map collection at Leeds Central Library and online, briefly showing how they can be used to support genealogical research… As well as being seriously fascinating in their own right, maps are one of the most important of what we…
Windrush Day 2020
On this day in 1948, 802 people arrived at the port of Tilbury onboard the Empire Windrush, a troopship that had docked in Kingston, Jamaica on its way from Australia to England. The arrival of the Windrush in the Caribbean had been preceded by a newspaper advertisement offering relatively cheap transport for those wishing to work in…
Family History Resources: Newspaper Microfilms and Online Newspaper Databases
As part of a series examining family history resources for beginners, Local and Family History’s Josh Flint takes an in-depth look at one of the most useful resources for your family history research: online newspapers databases. This article will discuss how Leeds Libraries members can use multiple newspaper databases online and then show in detail how to…
Black History at Leeds Central Library
This week on the Secret Library blog we have chosen to highlight past articles exploring the rich legacy of Black communities, locally, nationally and internationally – as seen in the collections at Leeds Central Library. We shall be publishing more articles along these lines over the coming months, because we firmly believe #blacklivesmatter. A permanent…
Census Records on Ancestry
As part of a series examining family history resources for beginners, librarian Helen Skilbeck looks in more depth at UK census records 1841-1911, which can be accessed through the Ancestry website. You can find more information in our research guide. What is the census? One of the most valuable resources for family historians, historic census…
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