Birth, marriage and death records are key sources that form the foundation of accurate family history. If you are new to the hobby then you may feel bewildered by all of the advice and different records that are available online. The first question most novice family historians ask is, “Where do I start?” However, the answer to this is not the same for everyone.
The best place to start searching depends on when and where your relation lived and died. The date range for the search, indexes and the images available online also affect the search priority.
The website FamilySearch () holds billions of genealogical records from around the world, and is completely free to use although you need to create an account to access some of the collections. There are 252 indexed and image-only collections for England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, comprising 412,638 records (and growing).
