Europe

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Last Updated: 10 Aug 2022

HOME | GENERAL RESOURCES | NORTH AMERICA | OCEANIA | SOUTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA | THE MIDDLE EAST

EUROPE

  • Railway Work, Life & Death Project – “We’re making it easier to find out about railway worker accidents in Britain and Ireland from the late 1880s to 1939. We’re providing data about who was involved, what they were doing on the railways, what happened to them and why.”
  • Dubrovic, Ervin. From Central Europe to America: 1880-1914. Translated by John P. Kraljic. Zambelli, 2012.
  • Onlineprojekt Gefallenendenkmäler: Von Ahnenforschern für Ahnenforscher – “The collection includes names of soldiers, war victims and victims of violence from the following wars: Thirty Years War (1618-48), War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14), 7 Years War (1756-63), coalition wars against France, Napoleonic and liberation wars (1848-51), Schleswig-Holstein War (1866, 1870-71), Boxer uprising in China, Herero uprising in SW Africa, World War I and World War II, victims of the division of Germany, as well as a number of members of the Bundeswehr and the former National People’s Army of the GDR who died in service. The collection is generally limited to those killed in the German and Austria armed forces from all wars. Exceptions are only made for monuments and memorial stones for victims of the Nazi tyranny (including graves), as well as victims of the bomb wars and victims of the Stalinist tyranny of the post-war years.”
  • TCC Gallery – “The creation and administration of this web page will be for the exclusive purpose of historical education and genealogical research related to those individuals who were from the former Carpathian territories and were of Carpatho-Rusyn heritage.”

BULGARIA:

  • National Library of the Republic of Bulgaria
    • Archival funds, collections, and singles receipts – Access the nine “Overview of archival funds, collections and single receipts stored in the BIA” books from the main guide of the Bulgarian Historical Archive at the National Library here.
    • Digital Library – “By beginning of 2018, a total of about 400,000 files/manuscripts, old printed books, unpublished documents from the Bulgarian Historical Archives and the Oriental Department, portraits and photographs, graphic and cartographic editions, Bulgarian newspapers and magazines have been scanned and included in the Digital Library.”
      • Bulgarian Historical Archive – Documents
      • Bulgarian Historical Archive – Photographs – “Among the digitized documents are portraits of Bulgarian and foreign political, economic, cultural and church figures, including photographs of their families, relatives and colleagues; photos related to the Bulgarian Revival, new and recent history; views from Bulgarian cities, villages, historical localities, memorial sites related to certain people and events, leading institutions; views of cities and towns in Europe and the United States.”
      • Easter Manuscripts – This collection includes ~3,200 Arabic manuscripts and ~490 Turkish manuscripts.
      • Old Printed Books – This collection includes old Bulgarian printed books (1806-1878); Slavic Cyrillic printed books (XV-XX centuries); and foreign old, rare, and valuable books (XV-XXI centuries).
      • Periodicals
      • Slavic and Other Manuscripts – “The collection of Slavic manuscripts is the largest in Bulgaria and contains about 1500 manuscripts and fragments from the XI to the XIX century.”
    • Personal notebooks of prominent Bulgarians – This collection includes the personal notebooks of Vasil Levski, Hristo Botev, and Georgi Rakovski.

CZECH REPUBLIC & SLOVAKIA (FORMERLY CZECHOSLOVAKIA):

GERMANY:

  • Archion – “Research historical church registers online with Archion. For your family research, we already have over 100,000 church registers available online. [Additionally,] our partner archives mainly include Protestant archives, as well as diocesan, state, city and club archives. Research in one portal and yet in many archives from all over Germany at the same time.”
  • CompGen – “We support genealogical and family history research with our projects. We enable free access to the data and information generated in the projects according to the principle of “open access.”
  • Geogen Surname Mapping – “Geogen is the short form for “geographical genealogy” which means location-based ancestor research. On this website you can create maps which show the distribution of surnames in Germany. Significant concentrations can point to a local root of the family or of the family name.”
  • Kartenmeister – “Welcome to the most comprehensive database of its kind in the world. It contains 108,644 locations with over 45,115 name changes once, and 5,500 twice and more. All locations are EAST of the Order and Neisse rivers and are based on the boards of the eastern provinces in Spring 1918. Included in this database are the following provinces: Eastprussia, including Memel, Westprussia, Brandenburg, Posen, Pomerania, and Silesia. It currently lists most towns or points, points being: mills, some bridges, battlefields, named trees, cenotaphs, etc.”
  • Matricula Online – “Here you can find church registers (mostly books of birth, marriage and death)” from all across Germany.
  • Volksbund: Gemeinsam für den Frieden – “The Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge commemorates the dead from both world wars and the victims of tyranny. This database, which is linked to the function of a grave list, has a purely documentary character. We know that incredible crimes were committed through German politics and warfare, especially during World War II. The victims of war and tyranny deserve compassion and remembrance. The death of everyone in war is a reminder for peace. Even the dead who are guilty have the right to a grave. Therefore we document the names of all German war dead at this point. The Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge works for reconciliation and understanding and is committed to a united Europe.”

UKRAINE:

  • Scandinavia, Mission Emigration Records, 1852-1920 – “Records created by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of church members emigrating from the area of the Scandinavian Mission from 1852 to 1920. The mission covered Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The images show the person’s name, age, residence, occupation, name of mission conference where a member, destination in the US, and other miscellaneous information. The index was created by the Swedish American Center.”

DENMARK:

  • Find a will – Search for a will or probate in England or Wales.
  • FreeUKGenealogy – “Free UK Genealogy provides free, online access to family history records. We work with a team of dedicated volunteers to create high-quality transcriptions of public records from governmental sources, parish churches, and other trusted institutions.”
    • FreeBMD – “FreeBMD is an ongoing project, the aim of which is to transcribe the Civil Registration index of births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales, and to provide free Internet access to the transcribed records.”
    • FreeCEN – “The aim of FreeCEN is to provide free internet searches of the 19th century UK census returns. The first UK census to include names and other details of UK residents took place in 1841. Since then, a census has been held every ten years.”
    • FreeREG – “The aim of FreeREG is to provide free Internet searches of baptism, marriage, and burial records, which have been extracted from parish registers, non-conformist records and other relevant sources in the UK.”
  • General Register Office – “You can order birth, adoption, marriage, civil partnership and death certificates from the General Register Office (GRO) to help you research your family history and family tree. GRO has all the records registered in England and Wales from July 1837. You’ll need to look at parish records to trace further back.”
  • Medical Officer of Health reports – “The reports were produced each year by the Medical Officer of Health (MOH) of a district and set out the work done by his public health and sanitary officers. They provided vital data on birth and death rates, infant mortality, incidence of infectious and other diseases, and a general statement on the health of the population. The reports also allowed the authors to express the diversity of their local communities and their own personal interests so sometimes contained unexpected and quirky topics.”
  • The National Archives
  • Naval & Military Archive
  • Will Transcriptions Website

ENGLAND:

  • A Vision of Britain Through Time – “A vision of Britain from 1801 to now. Including maps, statistical trends and historical descriptions.”
  • Bath Record Office: Archives and Local Studies – “Explore the history of Bath & North East Somerset at Bath Record Office. We look after the Archives collections which hold Designated Outstanding status and the rich and varied Local Studies collections. Our collections are available to everyone, free of charge.”
    • Bath Ancestors Database – “The database covers the years 1603-1990 and contains over 76,000 records of people who lived in and around Bath, UK. Each record contains information from original documents held by the Bath Record Office.”
  • Boat Families of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and Connected Waterways – This site was launched “with more than 3,000 names, mostly families of canal workers on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, all connected by marriage… [the] tree has grown to more than 57,000 people as it continues to spread from Lancashire and Yorkshire into Cheshire, Staffordshire and beyond.”
  • British History Online – “British History Online is a collection of nearly 1300 volumes of primary and secondary content relating to British and Irish history, and histories of empire and the British world. BHO also provides access to 40,000 images and 10,000 titles of historic maps of the British Isles.”
  • The British Newspaper Archive – The British Newspaper Archive contains around three million pages of historic newspaper content from all over Britain and Ireland.
  • Buckinghamshire Council Victorian Prisoners: Aylesbury Gaol in the 19th Century Database – “Welcome to the online database with details of prisoners entering the County Gaol in Aylesbury in the 1870s. The information has been taken from gaol receiving books held at the Buckinghamshire Archives. Some entries may include photographs, whilst others just include basic details of the inmate’s crime, and their punishment.”
  • Catalogue of British Town Maps – “This Catalogue of British Town Maps locates town maps extant in UK public archives and libraries. It provides details of almost 8,000 maps and provides for each the key cartographical and other features and the location of publicly-accessible exemplars.”
  • Cheshire Archives & Local Studies Cheshire Tithe Maps Online
  • Dalton, Charles. English Army Lists and Commission Registers, 1661-1714. London: Eyre & Sporttiswoode, 1904.
  • England’s Immigrants Database – “Welcome to England’s Immigrants 1330-1550, a fully-searchable database containing over 64,000 names of people known to have migrated to England during the period of the Hundred Years’ War and the Black Death, the Wars of the Roses and the Reformation.”
  • TheGenealogist
  • Internet Library of Early Journals – “The ILEJ…aimed to digitise substantial runs of 18th and 19th century journals, and make those images available on the Internet, together with their associated bibliographic data.”
  • The Joiner Marriage Index – “Before 1837, when marriage certificates were formally introduced following the first Civil Registration Act, marriage records in England and Wales were kept in parish registers. This is Paul Joiner’s definitive genealogical resource for those marriage records, the Joiner Marriage Index.”
  • Layers of London – “Layers of London brings together, for the first time, a really important collection of digitised historic maps, photos and crowd-sourced histories provided by the public and key partners across London. This website allows you to interact with and contribute to many different ‘layers’ of London’s history from the Romans to the present day. These layers include: historic maps, old pictures of buildings, films, recordings, as well as stories about people who have lived and worked in London over the centuries – added to the map by Londoners themselves!”
  • London Ancestor Genealogy & Family History
  • MAPCO: Map and Plan Collection Online – “MAPCO’s aim is to provide genealogists, students and historians with free access to high quality scans of rare and beautiful antique maps and views. The site displays a variety of highly collectable 18th and 19th century maps and plans of London and the British Isles, and also 19th century maps and engravings relating to Australia.”
  • Medical Officer of Health reports, 1848-1972 – “This website allows you to search more than 5500 Medical Officer of Health (MOH) reports from the Greater London area. Find out more about the reports: why they were written; what can be found in them; and who was responsible for their creation.”
  • NCSE (nineteenth-century serials edition) – “The Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (ncse) is a free, online edition of six nineteenth-century periodicals and newspapers.”
  • The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913 – “A fully searchable edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing 197,745 criminal trials held at London’s central criminal court.”
  • Staffordshire Name Indexes
  • World War II units & histories British officers (including Commonwealth officers serving in British units)
  • York Castle Prison Database – “Our database lists almost 5000 convicted criminals, imprisoned debtors and victims of crime, mostly from the 1700s.”

NORTHERN IRELAND:

SCOTLAND:

  • Inveraray Jail Prisoner Records
  • National Library of Scotland
    • Map Images – “On our Maps images website, you can access and view over a quarter of a million maps as high-resolution, colour, zoomable images.”
  • National Records of Scotland
  • Old Scottish Genealogy & Family History – “Old Scottish provide a range of genealogical, family and local historical research services and packages.”
    • Anatomy Registers – “Indexes to the registers of the Inspector of Anatomy for Scotland, 1842-1949.”
    • Fathers Found – “We’ve been working to identify fathers of “illegitimate” children who are not named in birth records. So far we’ve found over 8,000 – is your ancestor among them?”
    • General Register of Lunatics in Asylum – “The index covers 193,606 admissions to asylums, involving 123,500 individual patients.”
    • General Register of the Poor – “Indexes to the General Registers of the Poor from 1865-1930. Index currently has around 8,500 entries from Wigtonshire.”
    • Registers of Deeds – “Deeds were legal documents that were formally registered for preservation or as a precursor to legal action. Fascinating, informative and diverse, we’ve indexed over 20,000 deeds recorded in Sheriff Courts and Commissary Courts across Scotland.”
    • School Leaving Certificate Exam Results – “The index currently covers 1908 to 1917 and contains over 130,000 entries.”
    • Sheriff Court Extract Decrees – “Sheriff Courts heard much more than just affiliation and aliment decrees. Our growing index, currently with over 30,000 entries, lists a wide range of civil court cases, and can provide fascinating information for local, family and social and economic historians.”
    • Sheriff Court Paternity Decrees – “The index now covers almost all extract decrees between 1855 and 1900, and includes over 33,000 entries.”
  • Ross & Cromarty Roots – “Here you’ll find records and photographs of inscriptions on headstones in burial grounds and cemeteries within Ross & Cromarty, Scotland. Eighty-one burial sites are covered (about 16,000 images).”
  • ScotlandsPeople – “The ScotlandsPeople website is the official Scottish Government site for searching government records and archives. It is used by hundreds of thousands of people each year to apply for copies of official certificates and to research family history, biography, local history and social history.”
  • ScotlandsPlaces – “ScotlandsPlaces is a free resource that lets you explore thousands of records about Scotland simply by searching for a place name, clicking on a map or typing in your postcode. Search results bring together three national collections so that you can easily find maps, photographs, and written records about your chosen place.”  
  • The Scotsman (Newspaper) Digital Archive – “The Scotsman Digital Archive allows you to search through decades of historic – high definition – digital scans from The Scotsman’s history.”
  • The Scottish Emigration Database – “The database seeks to identify patterns of movement from Scottish ports between 1890 and 1960 using information transferred digitally from the passenger manifests of the Board of Trade’s Statistical Department held at The National Archives in Kew, London. It contains the records of 21,090 passengers.”
  • Scottish Post Office Directories – “Scottish Post Office directories provide a perfect basis for researching Scotland’s family, trade, and town history. Over 700 digitised directories covering most of Scotland and dating from 1773 to 1911 are available here for you to use.”

WALES:

IRELAND:

  • Beyond 2022: Ireland’s Virtual Record Treasury – “Beyond 2022 is an all-island and international collaborative research project working to create a virtual reconstruction of the Public Record Office of Ireland, which was destroyed in the opening engagement of the Civil War on June 30th, 1922. The ‘Record Treasury’ at the Public Record Office of Ireland stored seven centuries of Irish records dating back to the time of the Normans.”
  • Digital Repository of Ireland – “The Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) is a national digital repository for Ireland’s humanities, social sciences, and cultural heritage data.”
    • The Capuchins and the Irish Revolution –  “The fonds consist of the correspondence and papers of Capuchin priests detailing their involvement with participants in the national struggle. The majority of the material dates from 1916-1925 and includes many records highlighting the role played by Irish Capuchins in ministering to Republican leaders and their relations. Of particular interest is a large collection of ‘prison letters’ including the correspondence of some of the leading figures of the Irish Revolution. The fonds also contains a large collection of Republican publicity material, newspapers and miscellaneous items of ephemera and artefacts mostly relating to the military and political campaign organised by nationalists for Irish independence.” 
    • Dublin Castle Tracts – “A series of bound pamphlets that formed part of the reference library of the Chief Secretary’s Office in Dublin Castle. The collection was transferred to the Oireachtas Library in 1924.”
    • Dublin City Council Manuscript Minutes 1841 – 1881 
    • Dublin City Surveyors Maps 1695 – 1827 
    • The Inspiring Ireland Project – National Archives of Ireland – “The collection includes documents, manuscripts, photographs, posters, maps, and census records covering major events, political movements, policies, and personalities in Ireland from the 17th to the 20th century.”
    • Irish Women at Work Oral History Project – “This collection includes 42 oral history interviews focused on the working lives of women (1930-1960) living in three counties of Ireland (Cork, Kerry, and Limerick).”
    • Post Office Irish Postage Stamp Collection 
    • The Second World War and Irish Women Collection – “A collection of twenty-three oral history interviews with Irish women in which they recount their experience of living through the Second World War/The Emergency between 1939 to 1945.”
    • Tulsk History Society: Letters from the 1880s – 1890s – “A collection of old letters which had been found under the thatch of a disused cottage on the lands of [a member’s] father in the early 1970s.”
  • Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives – “This site is a free repository of information provided by volunteers for use in genealogical research.” The site includes cemetery records, church records, censuses, directories, headstones, immigration records, newspapers, vital records, and more.
  • National Library of Ireland – “The mission of the Library is to collect, preserve, promote and make accessible the documentary and intellectual record of the life of Ireland and to contribute to the provision of access to the larger universe of recorded knowledge.”
    • Catholic Parish Registers at the NLI – “This website contains images from the NLI’s collection of Catholic parish register microfilms. The registers contain records of baptisms and marriages from the majority of Catholic parishes in Ireland and Northern Ireland up to 1880.”
  • The Schools’ Collection – “This is a collection of folklore compiled by schoolchildren in Ireland in the 1930s.”

ITALY:

PORTUGAL:

SPAIN:

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