Introduction

GENUKI Book Chapter 1


Update information

Since the book was written in 2000, there have been many changes to Genuki and to genealogical information. Examples in the online version of the book will be amended to give a link to recent information, but text from examples in 2000 will remain


GENUKI is a Genealogical information service on the World Wide Web for the United Kingdom and Ireland. The name is derived from GENealogy, U. K., Ireland.

GENUKI contains over 20,000 web pages of structured information. It contains links to web pages of other organisations, but it also contains a great deal of information itself - and all information within GENUKI is available free of charge. It contains articles, and lists of topics with descriptions. It contains indexes and transcripts of original records. This book gives examples of the types of information provided.

The GENUKI web pages are held on many different computers, and are maintained by many people. Usually there is one maintainer for each county. But to the user, it is not apparent where pages are held - that is the beauty of the World Wide Web. There are standards for the structure and layout of pages, so they all look similar, whoever maintains them.

The GENUKI home page is at http://www.genuki.org.uk with links from this leading to all the other information. For the remainder of this book, domain names starting www will be given without the http:// in front, so the home page will be given as www.genuki.org.uk .

UK and Ireland United Kingdom
and Ireland
 
GENUKI
Contents
Contents
Guidance for
First-Time Users
of These Pages
GENUKI Logo Guidance for
Potential Contributors

to These Pages

Enter this large collection of genealogical information pages for England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man.

Getting started in genealogy Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Researching UK and Irish genealogy from abroad
World genealogy, newsgroups and bulletin boards, etc. Recent changes to these pages Upcoming UK & Ireland Genealogical events (GENEVA)

 

To report errors found in these pages, please use this list of GENUKI maintainers in order to find the appropriate email address.

Note: The information provided by GENUKI must not be used for commercial purposes, and all specific restrictions concerning usage, copyright notices, etc., that are to be found on individual information pages within GENUKI must be strictly adhered to. Violation of these rules could gravely harm the cooperation that GENUKI is obtaining from many information providers, and hence threaten its whole future.

GENUKI Home Page at www.genuki.org.uk/

Links from the GENUKI home page

United Kingdom and Ireland
Enter this large collection of genealogical information pages for England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man

Clicking on either of those on the GENUKI home page leads to the same place, a page with a list of regions and a list of contents. From here you can follow the links down to the area or place of interest, then look for the appropriate topic.

The GENUKI home page provides other ways in to the structured information, as well as leading to some separate articles.

GENUKI Contents and Search

Since the printed book was published, contents pages have changed. They used to have a list of topics and links available on a page. They now have a standard diagram of the hierarchy of Genuki - in effect a site map.They also link to the search facility on www.genuki.org.uk/search/ .

Guidance for First-Time Users of these Pages

This is an article describing the structure of GENUKI, with links.

Guidance for Potential Contributors to these pages

This is an article with links to standards, and a plea for more contributors. See more about this at the end of Chapter 5 of this book.

Getting started in genealogy.

This is a useful article with a few links, including some to further introductory articles:

World genealogy, newsgroups and bulletin boards, etc.

A short article including links to the newsgroups soc.genealogy.britain and soc.genealogy.ireland also links to the main lists of newsgroups and mailing lists, genealogy portals and directories like Cyndislist - so this article has many links useful in UK & Ireland Genealogy as well as world-wide genealogy.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

This leads to useful summary lists arranged by county, and text answers to questions. There is detail from this in Chapter 2.

Recent changes to these pages

Update This used to be a quarterly list of additions, but as the number increased it became impossible to maintain.

Researching UK and Irish genealogy from abroad

A helpful article with useful links

Upcoming UK & Ireland Genealogical Events (GENEVA)

There is an extract from this calendar in example 6.3. It also has links to other web pages with calendars for particular societies.

List of GENUKI Maintainers 

Please don't send them genealogy queries, but please do tell them about any errors and changed links you find on their pages.

Places and Topics - the structure of the main material of GENUKI

Information is associated with geographic levels. The first level is information about the British Isles as a whole. The second level is for "regions" of England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland (Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland), the Isle of Man, Channel Islands. The third level is for counties (or similar, e.g. islands). The fourth level is for towns and most parishes. Sometimes there is a fifth level, for parishes within a town. GENUKI uses the county structure existing before 1974; there were major changes in 1974/5, and others since.

The information is organised in the same way as the Family History Library Catalogue of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the LDS Church). (This can be searched on-line at www.familysearch.org - choose "custom search".) It uses the same subject categories or topics. Examples are census, probate records, church records, societies, archives and libraries.

The web page for a particular geographical area has a list of places at the next level down, and a list of topics with descriptive text.

There is a structure of topics at each level. For example we can have information about census:

  • for the British Isles - see example 1.2
  • for a region - see example 1.3 for the Channel Islands
  • for a county or island - see example 1.4 for Jersey
  • for a place or parish - see Example 4.7 for a complete index and transcript for 1851 in Llanbethian, Glamorgan, Wales.
  • Information is not repeated across levels. In examples 1.2 to 1.4 there is background information about the census for the British Isles, very little at the regional level except to say that the Channel Islands are included with the census for England and Wales, then considerable detail about each census for Jersey.

    At present there is a substantial list of topics at the British Isles, region and county level. The town/parish level is being added.

    Example 1.1 shows the complete list of topics. This example, and others in the book, are taken from GENUKI pages, or pages found as a link from GENUKI. For each, the caption gives the web address of the page, www.genuki.org.uk/org/user.html in this case. Sometimes there is a location (anchor) within the page, adding #subjects in this example. There is an acknowledgment to the name of the person or organisation contributing or maintaining the information. The examples are generally short extracts of text and may not preserve the appearance of the originals.

    There are instructions for reaching most examples from the home page, or from a major section like a region or county. To see the list of topics start at the GENUKI home page at www.genuki.org.uk and choose "Guidance for First Time Users". This leads to a page headed "How the information on this server is presented to the user". Example 1.1 is part of this.

    LIST OF SUBJECT HEADINGS

    This set of subject headings includes all those those found in the sections of the Family History Library Catalogue relating to the various major regions within the British Isles. (Following the practice in the Library's Research Guides, we have included a few "see under" entries to allow for differences in terminology on the two sides of the Atlantic.) Most of these entries are, we believe, self-explanatory. However if in doubt about the typical usage of a particular subject heading we would recommend checking how it is used in the Family History Library Catalogue.

    • Almanacs
    • Archives and Libraries
    • Bibliography
    • Biography
    • Business and Commerce Records
    • Cemeteries
    • Census
    • Chronology
    • Church Directories
    • Church History
    • Church Records
    • Civil Registration
    • Colonization
    • Correctional Institutions
    • Court Records
    • Description and Travel
    • Directories
    • Dwellings
    • Emigration and Immigration
    • Encyclopedias and Dictionaries
    • Ethnology
    • Folklore
    • Gazetteers
    • Genealogy
    • Guardianship
    • Handwriting
    • Heraldry
    • Historical Geography
    • History
    • Inventories, Registers, Catalogues
    • Jewish History
    • Jewish Records
    • Land and Property
    • Language and Languages
    • Law and Legislation
    • Manors
    • Maps
    • Medical Records
    • Merchant Marine
    • Migration, Internal
    • Military History
    • Military Records
    • Minorities
    • (Monumental Inscriptions - see Cemeteries )
    • Names, Geographical
    • Names, Personal
    • Naturalization and Citizenship
    • Newspapers
    • Nobility
    • Obituaries
    • Occupations
    • Officials and Employees
    • Orphans and Orphanages
    • (Parish Registers - see Church Records)
    • Pensions
    • Periodicals
    • Politics and Government
    • Poorhouses, Poor Law, etc.
    • Population
    • Postal and Shipping Guides
    • Probate Records
    • Public Records
    • Religion and Religious Life
    • Schools
    • Social Life and Customs
    • Societies
    • Statistics
    • Taxation
    • Town Records
    • Visitations, Heraldic
    • (Vital Records - see Civil Registration)
    • Voting Registers
    • Yearbooks

    Example 1.1 at www.genuki.org.uk/org/user.html#subjects - list of topics, prepared by Brian Randell


    Update information

    Example 1.2 showed the census topic for the United Kingdom and Ireland. From the GENUKI home page choose "United Kingdom and Ireland" or click on the link "Enter this large collection of genealogical information pages for England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man". This gives the main U.K. & Ireland page with a description, then a map, then a list of topics - click on "census".

    There have been many changes to availability of census indexes and facsimiles since the book was written - information formerly in Example 1.2 is now at http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/Census.html maintained by Brian Randell


    Example 1.3 is an extract from the page for the Channel Islands (reached by clicking on its name, or the relevant area of an outline map, on the main United Kingdom & Ireland page). It shows the general format - a list of standard topics (in this case Bibliography, Census, Genealogy). There is a description for each, containing relevant links with comments about them. If the description becomes more than a few paragraphs it is put on its own web page, with a link to it.

    Bibliography
     
    Channel Islands Genealogy includes a surnames list compiled by John Fuller of the Channel Islands-related research interests of a number of Internet and CompuServe users and many useful links.
    http://pages.ca.inter.net/~cjpicot/booklist.htm [page no longer available] - Books about the Channel Islands - Part of Charles Picot's Pages - a book list of essential reading about the Islands

    Census
    Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney and Sark are included in the Census for England and Wales.

    Genealogy
    L.R. Burness. "Genealogical Research in the Channel Islands" The Genealogical Magazine (March 1978).
    Research in the Channel Islands FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions). Civil Registration Details, Research Libraries and Family History Societies here - a growing site, includes links.
    Channel Islands Family History: Reading the Records

    Example 1.3 from http://user.itl.net/~glen/genukici.html Topics for the Channel Islands. Examples 1.3 to 1.5 are from GENUKI Channel Islands pages, maintained by Alex Glendinning

    The "Census" topic for the Channel Islands in example 1.3 had one brief piece of information, that they are included with the census for England and Wales. But there is comprehensive information about the census for the individual islands. Example 1.4 shows the information about census for Jersey (to reach it, choose that island from the list on the Channel Islands page). For each census year it says what index exists, and where it can be found. Some are published and available in many libraries, some available in only one or two libraries. In this case none of the indexes are available on the Internet - but this information service tells you precisely what exists, and where to consult it.

    Census

    Jersey is included in the Census for England and Wales - taken every 10 years from 1841-1891. All have been indexed.

    1841 (typed index by surname) and 1861 (full alphabetical transcript) presently only available in Jersey at the Library of the Société Jersiaise and the CIFHS Research Room.

    1851, 1871 and 1891 have been published - see About the Channel Islands FHS. Copies were sent to the British Library, the Society of Genealogists and the Public Record Office and have also been purchased by the LDS and various libraries around the world.

    1881 available through the LDS Family History Centres worldwide,including our own The Jersey Family History Centre of the L.D.S. Church.

    The 1891 Census Index is now out of print but plans are in progress to publish a working index on CD in 1999 to celebrate the 21st Anniversary of the Channel Islands FHS.

    During the Napoleonic Wars a census was taken of all the men available to defend the Island in the event of an invasion. More information at General Don's Militia Survey of 1815.

    Example 1.4. http://user.itl.net/~glen/jersey.html#Census Census topic for Jersey

    Descriptions of places

    Many county and parish pages have maps showing the location of the county within the region, or the parish within the county. If you have a place name but don't know the county, try the searchable database of places in the 1891 census or other gazetteers included in example 2.8

    The beginning of the web page for regions, countries, counties and many individual places has a description, mainly taken from historic reference books. Example 1.5 is the description of the Channel Islands.

    The Channel Islands

    [From the Harmsworth Encyclopedia,1909]

    A group of small rocky islands off the North West coast of France, and 90 miles South of England. The group consists of Jersey and Guernsey, two or three smaller islands - Alderney, Sark and Herm - and various tiny islets of rock or seacrags. The total area is about 75 square miles. The soil is fertile and exceptionally well cultivated. The islands send large quantities of early potatoes, tomatoes, grapes, and other fruits and vegetables to the English markets. Each of the largest islands possesses its own peculiar race of cattle.

    The people, who are of Norman descent, are industrious and fairly prosperous. Their numbers increased from 49,430 (excluding Alderney) in 1821 to 95,840 in 1901, giving at the latter date the great average density of 1,278 inhabitants to the square mile. The language of every-day intercourse is the Norman- French patois; of the popular assemblies, law courts, and churches, modern French. English, however, is taught in schools. The islands enjoy practically home rule. The chief executive officer in Jersey, and also in Guernsey and its dependencies, is the Lieutenant-Governor. The people are Protestants and the islands are attached to the diocese of Winchester.

    Example 1.5 from http://user.itl.net/~glen/genukici.html Description of the Channel Islands

    Societies

    One special case is the topic "Societies". This has links to the web pages of family history societies. These may themselves have lists of places, with information about the places. Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society and Cheshire FHS, for example, have information about each parish. North West Kent FHS has a West Kent Parish Gazetteer condensed from their published book of West Kent Sources. The pages for Societies may have similar information to that in the GENUKI pages, but in a different structure - for example Cambridgeshire FHS has a page on "Research in Cambridgeshire" with information and addresses for archives etc. It is always worth looking at both the GENUKI page and the relevant Society page.

    "Genealogy" and "Names, Personal" as topics

    The topic genealogy is used for information and links which are obviously useful to genealogists, but don't fit in to the other topics. Example 1.3 includes the topic genealogy for the Channel Islands. Example 2.5, contents for Ayrshire, shows mailing lists and look-ups under genealogy. Example 5.3 shows that the genealogy topic for Lincolnshire includes links to lists of convicts, the history of a prominent family, and a link to GenWeb which is a collaborative internet-based transcription and indexing project.

    The topic "names, personal" also includes links to lists of names. Example 3.3 shows the "names, personal" topic for Stoke Damerel (which includes Devonport) in Devon. This has links to a trade directory, and to a list of bicycle licences - sometimes there is information available which just doesn't fit into the categories available!

    Using your Web browser

    When using GENUKI web pages you are likely to link to a variety of sites - surfing the Web. You need to know some facilities of your browser. It is worth making sure you know how to do these before spending time on-line. Use the help pages of your browser to find the methods. This section is intended to list some facilities you may find useful.

    Back. If you are on a GENUKI page, buttons or links on the page will take you back to higher levels - e.g. from a topic to the page for the county, or region. If you link outside GENUKI, use the "Back" facility of your browser to return step by step to pages you have just been viewing. For example on Internet Explorer 5 (IE5) I can click on a left arrow on the toolbar, or press the Alt key and left arrow key together, or click on the View menu, then GoTo, then Back. Which of these are available depends on what I have made visible - using choices on the View menu. The more toolbars and similar you have visible, the less space there is for displaying information. It is worth experimenting to make sure your system has the control facilities you like to use, but leaves enough space for information from web pages.

    History, Favorites, Bookmarks: Your browser will automatically keep a record of the addresses of pages you have visited, and if there is space it will keep the actual pages so you can view them again without connecting to the Internet. On my system, clicking the history button on the toolbar shows what I have viewed for the last 20 days, clicking the history button again hides it. Altering this setting, and the amount of space allocated, is part of Internet Options on the Tools menu. (You can also use that to clear the history, if you have accidentally visited sites you would rather forget). If there is a web address you want to keep longer than the 20 or so days of history, add it to "favorites" on Internet Explorer, "Bookmarks" on Netscape.

    Disconnect and Refresh, Save and Copy: There may be a lot of information on one GENUKI page. You can disconnect while you read it or print it, then reconnect later. You may also want to "refresh" to make sure you have the latest version of a page. You can generally save the information from a page, for example using "save as" from a file menu; sometimes you will find that a page has been made read-only so it can be viewed and printed but not saved.You can also usually use the copy and paste facilities to select a part of a page, copy it, then paste it - for example into a word processor. You don't have to copy a whole page, just the small section of interest. When doing this, it is worth copying the web address and pasting that into the document with the information you obtained from it.

    Page not found: if you try a web link from this book and your browser tells you it cannot be found, it has probably moved. Try getting to it by the logical route through GENUKI, from the home page or the appropriate region or county page. I have described the logical route for obtaining many examples in this book. I will try to keep web links up to date on the version of the book at www.hawgood.co.uk/genuki/ - if one of these is wrong, please send an email to David Hawgood at David_Hawgood@Compuserve.com - and if you have found the new link please let me know.

    Email from the web page

    A link on a web page may have an email address preceded by "mailto:". If you click on one of these, your browser will open whatever email program is set as default, with a form for you to compose a message and send it.

    Please don't email your genealogy queries to the GENUKI maintainers. It may be tempting to click on the name of the person who maintains a page - but they are using their spare time maintaining GENUKI, and may not have any left for answering queries (or even doing their own research!).

    You will find many addresses of people who are inviting queries - for example, in surname lists. Give your message a meaningful subject, say where you got their email address, and put relevant forenames, dates and places. It helps to put surnames in CAPITALS - but don't use capitals for emphasis, they make the message difficult to read. Say where you live - they may be able to direct you to a library with more information.

    Mailing Lists and Newsgroups

    You will find many references to mailing lists and newsgroups. Both contain public email messages. For most of them, anyone can subscribe to the list, join the group. Any subscriber can send (post) a message which is available to all others, anyone can send a public or private reply. The messages are usually stored in an archive that anyone can search to see if the same question has been discussed before.

    Popular lists may have tens or hundreds of messages per day. Usually you can choose to receive a batch of messages as one email, called a digest. Sometimes you can choose to receive just a list of subject lines and retrieve only those of interest.

    Because of the volume of messages and number of recipients, there is a "netiquette" advising what to put in messages. For example: use a meaningful subject line; don't send HTML or attachments, just send text; when replying put a short quotation from the original message, but don't quote the complete message. There is a useful outline of netiquette from Albion.com.

    Individual mailing lists have their own information and advice which will be emailed to you when you subscribe. Read it, and keep it (among other things, it tells you how to leave the list, unsubscribe). Some lists invite surname queries, and have a set format for the subject line to include the surname. Others discourage surname queries. There is an introduction to mailing lists and newsgroups by Brian Randell in GENUKI at www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/genuki/faq.html#mailing and a link to descriptions of many lists in "Genealogy Resources on the Internet" pages at http://www.rootsweb.com/~jfuller/internet.html maintained by John Fuller and Chris Gaunt.

    For most newsgroups and some email lists there is a file of answers to "Frequently Asked Questions" (FAQs). See www.woodgate.org/FAQs/ (again by John Woodgate) for links to many of these. That web site also has a list of professional researchers who discuss or accept commissions by email.

    GENUKI was initially created in early 1995 to support a mailing list genuki-L which later split into two:

    for GENBRIT-L see:
    http://www.rootsweb.com/~jfuller/gen_mail_country-unk-gen.html#GENBRIT

    for GENIRE-L see:
    http://www.rootsweb.com/~jfuller/gen_mail_country-unk-irl.html#GENIRE

    Before you ask a question on a mailing list, see if you can find the answer already on a web page in GENUKI.


    Go to next Chapter, How to find information using GENUKI

    Go to Contents list

    This web page is part of the book "GENUKI", copyright David Hawgood 2000.

    It may be printed for personal use, but printing, sale or distribution of multiple copies is prohibited.

    End of Chapter 1 of GENUKI Book by David Hawgood. Update 26 Feb 2006, Valid HTML 4.0!