Genealogy Resources: Introduction

Research Guides for Tracing Ancestors

Devon Record Office provide a page on the sources of materials available for those wishing to trace their Devon ancestry: Family History.  So whether you are new to researching your family history or an experienced genealogist, this is a useful and imformative place to start.

There are also a number of other sites with research guides that you might find useful in the future:

• A-Z of British Genealogical Research
• British-Genealogy.com
• Familybmd.com
• Family Records: Beginners Guide - A beginners guide to tracing your family tree from the Family Records Goverment UK Consortium website.
• National Archives: Research, Education and Online Exhibitions - With guides on family history, local history, house history, military history, reading old handwriting along with how to handle documents and how to look after them.
• RootsWeb Guides to Tracing Ancestors
• Society of Genealogists - The Society of Genealogists publish a number of free leaflets that are available to download as PDF files.

There are also many books that have been published about genealogy and researching your family history. But one that I would highly recommend:

Mark D. Herber (2004)
"Ancestral Trails: The Complete Guide to British Genealogy and Family History"
Sutton Publishing Limited
ISBN: 0-7509-3510-3

GENUKI - Genealogy in UK and Ireland

GENUKI is a wonderful site providing a wealth of information for genealogists researching their ancestry.  GENUKI-Devon is hosted by Brian Randell and through this section Devon Towns and Parishes you can find lots of links to information for a specific parish, along with transcribed material.

Here you can also find the Devon Gazetteer, an index constructed from the names of hamlets, farms, houses, inns, etc from Peskett's "Guide to the Parish and Non-Parochial Registers of Devon and Cornwall 1538-1837" and White's (1850) "History Gazetteer and Directory of Devonshire".   This is an alphabetical index and is a great way to find out the parishes or towns in which some of these places were situated.

GENUKI also has a Devon Online Parish Clerks and One Place Study Project co-ordinated by Deborah O'Brien.  The Online Parish Clerks or OPC's, as they are more commonly known are volunteers who have adopted a parish and they will do free look-ups from any records that they have accumulated.

Devon Family History Society

Devon Family History Society or DFHS is the family history society for the county of Devon.  They have transcribed various parish registers and produced many publications which can be purchased through their website.  DFHS are members of the Federation of Family History Societies and the South West Area Group of family history societies SWAG.