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…
Tag: Family History
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 1841-1921, 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…
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…
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…
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…
Burial Records – An Introduction
The article below was originally published in 2017. It has been lightly-edited to fit our 2020 series exploring family history resources for beginners. This Saturday 25 March, our Local and Family History department will have a stall at the Be Curious festival at the University of Leeds. We were kindly invited by the Brotherton Library’s Special…
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