A quick search reveals that there were at least 10 million web pages with the word 'genealogy' in them and another 5 million for 'family history'. The problem lies with deciding which will be of use to you. Below are some web sites that we recommend:

Cyndi's List provides links to well over 150,000 genealogical web sites around the world, although it is particularly strong for the USA. There are many (mainly American) sites relating to immigrants and immigration. The site is arranged by subject and there is an index to help you find what you want quickly. The only drawback of this site is that it can take some time to load.

GENUKI has thousands of pages relating to almost every aspect of British local and family history. It can, however, be difficult to navigate as it is largely arranged by county or region. There is a search engine that searches the National Archives, Federation of Family History Society and various other web sites at the same time.

Familysearch is visited mainly by people wanting to search the 600 million names found on the familysearch/International Genealogical Index (IGI) database, which includes many Britis parish registers and records from other countries. However, there is a lot more besides, including guides to research in various countries (although they vary in usefulness) and the catalogue of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City (the largest genealogical library in the world).

Historical Manuscripts Commission provides links to most archives in the UK and many overseas. In addition the National Register of Archives provides a brief summary of collections held in local record offices. The Archives in Focus pages also include a useful introduction to family history. In April 2003 the Commission merged National Archives, please visit their website for more information.

The National Archives has a whole family of web sites, all of which contain valuable information. They are:

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