When my interest in family history began, in the mid 1970s, research was being made much easier as a result of the development of county record offices, and the deposit of parish registers in them. As a consequence, genealogy boomed, and hundreds of family history societies were founded. Publishers such as the Federation of Family History Societies and the Society of Genealogists issued numerous guides and handbooks, which were eagerly consulted by researchers. Now, family history societies are still active, but most are in a steady state, whilst sales of genealogical books have dropped. The Federation no longer publishes them. The internet (and the TV) has replaced the record office and the family history society as the driving force in the promotion of genealogical research. It does not occur to many beginning genealogists that they should consult books, or that it is worthwhile to join a family history society. They tend to think that. by using a search box on a website, they can almost instantly trace their family history.

It is not, of course, as easy as that. Yes, the internet does enable us to undertake research much more efficiently. But blindly using a search box on a website is not efficient. It means that you do not know the origin of the data being provided, how it was compiled, and whether it is accurate. Failure to obtain the advice available in books, or from family history societies, means failure to appreciate the pitfalls, failure to realise that there are various alternative routes for research, and failure to understand the ways in which it is possible to fill in the details of the family history. How many beginners think that they have completed their research when they have only scratched the surface? How many have traced a family which is not actually theirs?

The tyro researcher is best advised to begin by reading a good introductory guide, which explains the relative importance of archives, books, and the internet. Many very basic guides are available on the web, especially on the sites of libraries, record offices and family history societies. Few of these provide as much information and advice as you will find in books such as my Introducing family history (FFHS, 2006). Nevertheless, the introductory pages on sites such as Genuki (www.genuki.org.uk), Family Search (www.familysearch.org), and The National Archives (TNA) (www.nationalarchives.gov.uk) can sometimes prove invaluable.

TNA probably has the widest range of advice available on any website. Its 'Getting Started' page provides basic introductory information. Its 'research guides' provide more detailed and authoritative guidance on particular sources. There are numerous guides to sources for soldiers, for example, 'British Army Lists', 'British Army Officers' Records: First World War 1914-1918', British Army Soldiers Pensions, 1702-1913'. There are pages on divorce records, on inquisitions post mortem, on records of teachers, and on both immigration and emigration. It would be tedious to count them, but there must be over 100 such research guides, all of them offering vital information which you should read before consulting the original sources. All of this information, and more, is also contained in Amanda Bevan's Tracing Your Ancestors in the National Archives. The Website and Beyond (7th edition, TNA, 2006).

All of this guidance points to the original sources which must be consulted in order to trace family history. Many (but not all) of these are now available on the internet. There are innumerable web pages devoted to transcripts, indexes, and digitised images of original sources. It is important to appreciate the differences between these. A transcript provides a word by word, letter by letter, copy of the original document. An index is an alphabetical list of terms (in our context, usually surnames or place names) showing where they occur in a particular document. A digitised image is a photographic copy of an original document. Indexes and transcripts are terms which are frequently misused on websites. Both are liable to error, and both (but especially indexes) should be checked against the original source if at all possible. Digitised images generally provide accurate copies, but even they may miss pages.

The number of digitised images now available on the web is astonishing. The ease of digitisation tends to make new transcription redundant. Why make a transcript when it is possible to produce a digitised image? However, most major database providers include both digitised images and transcripts of sources amongst their offerings. They include:

The censuses and the General Register Office's indexes to civil registers can be found on many of these sites, some of which also host a wide range of other sources. Most make a charge for their services. Before you do a paid search, make sure that the same information is not available on a free site. Freecen (www.freecen.org.uk) offers free census information for the whole of the UK, although it is not yet complete. Family Search (www.familysearch.org) offers a free full transcript and index of the 1881 census. There are also many sites offering census information for particular towns and counties: combine the term 'census' with the name of the particular place that interests you in a search on Google (www.google.com) to discover what is available.

The civil registers cannot be consulted quite as easily. Only the indexes are publicly available; the registers themselves are not directly open to public use. Users must purchase certificates to see the information they contain. FreeBMD (www.freebmd.org.uk) is dedicated to providing free access to the indexes, although its coverage is not yet complete. The General Register Office (www.gro.gov.uk) is currently re-indexing its registers, as so many errors have been found in the original indexes; announcements about the progress of re-indexing will no doubt be made in due course on its website. It is worth bearing in mind that the GRO's registers are copies; the original registers from which they were made are still held by district registrars, or, in the case of most marriage registers compiled by ecclesiastics, by record offices.. An increasing number of registers held by district registrars are now being indexed online, and are mostly free. A gateway to relevant websites is provided by UK BMD (www.ukbmd.org.uk).

After the civil registers and the census, parish registers are probably the next most important source of genealogical information. They date from the sixteenth century, and are still compiled today. Sometimes, parish registers give as much information as the civil registers. Indeed, after 1837, ecclesiastical marriage registers are duplicates of the civil registers. Given the rate of digitisation now in progress, it is surprising that more have not been digitised. They are, of course, in the custody of county record offices, many of whom do not have the resources to undertake the major programmes of digitisation which would be involved. In Scotland, by contrast, the old parish registers are held centrally, and have been fully digitised. They can be seen at Scotland's People (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk). In England, the only record office, as far as I am aware, that has digitised its parish register is Medway Archives (cityark.medway.gov.uk), who secured a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to undertake this work. Archivists, please take note! (Since this was written, the London Metropolitan Archives has announced a major digitisation programme).

Few parish registers may have been digitised, but many have been transcribed and indexed for innumerable web-based databases. The most important index online is undoubtedly the International Genealogical Index (at www.familysearch.org), which covers thousands of birth/baptism and marriage records throughout the world. It does not, however, cover deaths. Consequently, the Federation of Family History Societies has compiled the National Burial Index (NBI) which is available on CD. A few county portions of the NBI are available on the Find My Past website (www.findmypast.com). Marriage indexes, both on- and off-line, are listed in Jeremy Gibson, et al, Marriage Indexes for Family Historians (9th ed. Family History Partnership, 2007). There is no adequate internet equivalent of this book.

There are so many web pages devoted to the registers of particular parishes that my listing of them, Births, Marriages and Deaths on the Web (2nd ed. FFHS, 2005) runs to two volumes. There are also innumerable pages devoted to monumental inscriptions (and especially to war memorials). Most parish register and monumental inscription web pages have been compiled by private individuals. Some of their work is very good, others not so. The information provided by these websites should always be checked against the original sources.

If a birth, marriage, or death cannot be traced in parish registers, it may be due to the fact that the family were nonconformists. Post-1837 nonconformist registers are either still with churches, or deposited in county record offices. The majority of pre-1837 registers were, however, deposited with the Registrar General, and are now in TNA. These form one of the most recent additions to the list of digitised records for genealogists. They are progressively becoming available on the BMD Registers site (www.bmdregisters.co.uk).

It may also be worth checking the India Office Family History Search (indiafamily.bl.uk/UI/). This indexes over 300,000 births, baptisms, marriages, deaths, and burials recorded amongst the India Office records, now held in the British Library.

Wills are another important source of genealogical information. Prior to 1858, they were mostly proved in ecclesiastical courts. They are now filed amongst the records of those courts, which are mostly to be found in county record offices. The researcher must consult Jeremy Gibson & Else Churchill's Probate Jurisdictions. Where to Look for Wills (5th ed. FFHS, 2002) in order to locate them. There is no web based equivalent of this Gibson guide, although many wills can be identified through A2A: Access to Archives (www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a). A number of major collections have, however, been digitised or indexed. Over 1,000,000 wills were proved between 1384 and 1858 in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. These are available on TNA's Documents Online service (www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline). This website also has the Death Duty registers, 1796-1811, which primarily consist of extracts from wills. Digitisation projects are currently in progress for hundreds of thousands of wills from Durham, Northumberland, and Wiltshire. The North East Inheritance: Durham and Northumberland Probate Records 1540-1857 site is at familyrecords.dur.ac.uk/nei, and the Wiltshire Wills Project at (history.wiltshire.gov.uk/heritage/). There are also a substantial number of sites with will indexes; these are listed in my Family History on the Web (5th ed. Family History Partnership, 2008).

A wide range of other sources have also been digitised. Many are on TNA's 'Documents Online' page just mentioned.. These include World War I Campaign medal cards, which provide the fullest listing of servicemen in that conflict. Other military records on this site include the service registers of more than 500,000 Royal Naval seamen, 1873 and 1923, of 50,000 Royal Naval Division officers and men 1914-19, of 7000 women who served in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps 1917-1918, and of the 5000 members of the Women's Royal Naval Service, 1917-1919. Non-military digitised records on this website include aliens registration cards, the records of the Southwell Union Workhouse, and a collection of medieval ancient petitions, amongst others.

Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) probably has the largest number of databases on any genealogical site. Many of them are based on published works which can also be consulted in libraries - a fact which is not made clear on the site. But there are also a number of important collections of digitised images, not least, the census. Other 'Ancestry' databases offer more unusual sources, for example, Australian convict transportation registers, British phone books, and World War I soldiers' pension records.

Find My Past (www.findmypast.com) also has many databases based on published sources. Soldiers Died in the Great War, for example, is widely available in libraries, and copies are also available for purchase. Like Ancestry, "Find My Past" offers the census and the civil register indexes. It also has a number of unique collections of digitised images. These include databases of 'Passenger Lists Leaving UK 1890-1960', and the 'Register of passport applications 1851-1903'. "Find My Past" has taken over the databases formerly hosted by Family History Online (www.familyhistoryonline.co.uk). This collection of databases consists primarily of indexes to a wide range of sources compiled by family history societies - especially to the census, and to parish registers.

A number of websites are solely devoted to digitising a specific source. Two of these can be picked out here. Historical Directories www.historicaldirectories.org has digitised several hundred trade directories published between 1750 and 1919. These generally list the more substantial inhabitants, including, gentry, tradesmen, and clergy, in each parish, and can provide much valuable information. Proceedings of the Old Bailey, London, 1674 to 1834 (www.oldbaileyonline.org) digitises accounts of over 100,000 trials held in the City. These offer wonderful pictures of life as it was lived in the capital. If a trial involving an ancestor of yours can be traced, you may discover much interesting personal information.

These are just a few of the many database websites which have been created in the past few years. Many more can be identified in my Family History on the Web. A Directory for England and Wales (5th edition, Family History Partnership, 2008). It would be possible to write entire articles devoted entirely to one or two of these websites. Indeed, I sometimes do precisely that in the 'Technofile' articles that I regularly write for TNA's Ancestors magazine. Here, however, space has run out. If you want to know more, my Netting Your Ancestors will answer many questions about internet research, and my Family History on the Web (with companion volumes Irish Family History on the Web and Scottish Family History on the Web) identifies the websites which are likely to be helpful to you.

To conclude, I must emphasise again the necessity of questioning the screen that you are looking at when you are doing internet genealogy. Who created this source? Why? Is it complete? Or are there gaps? What information should it provide? Am I looking at a digitised image, or is it a transcription? Did the original compiler have the correct information? How accurate was the transcriber? Has the indexer made spelling errors? Family history research is entirely dependent on evidence. That evidence, when it is found, must be checked for accuracy before you can legitimately add another ancestor to your family tree.

Introductory Guide to Family History

Everyone who wants to trace family history needs to read a good basic introduction. Familiarity with the internet is not enough. Much useful advice is offered in Stuart Raymond's Introducing Family History.

The Internet for Family Historians

This article summarises some of the information in Stuart's Netting Your Ancestors. This book places internet genealogical information under the spotlight, shows you how to use it, and makes you aware of the pitfalls..

Web Directories

There are a variety of web-based internet directories. However, none use any form of quality control, and none are adequately indexed. If you need a comprehensive listing of quality websites for family historians, then consult Stuart's Family History on the Web (now in its 5th edition).

There are a number of companion volumes:

Irish Family History on the Web

Scottish Family History on the Web

Births, Marriages and Deaths on the Web

These directories are the internet equivalent of the phone book for family historians. They list all the important websites, and give their URLs.