Online archives

Below is a list of some of the best online archive sites that would be of use to local and family historians.

We've selected these mostly by searching on the history section of the HUMBUL site and picking the ones that have most relevance to personal history researchers in the south east. You could conduct a similar search yourself using HUMBUL.

• Senate House Library's Archive catalogue is an extensive database offering conventional archival descriptions of SHL holdings.
• A2A is a searchable database of mostly collection level descriptions (but also occasionally item level) of archives held in record offices and libraries.
• British History Online is a digital library containing some of the core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles.
• The National Archives' cataloguecurrently offers 9.5 million piece and item level searchable descriptions. The Catalogue contains descriptions of documents from central government, courts of law and other UK national bodies. Visitors interested in Family History can search the Catalogue for service records, regimental information, ship's logs, naturalisation papers or chancery and assizes records.
• The National Archives' DocumentsOnline website is a growing collection of digitised public records with a Family History focus. Amongst the records digitised here are: wills, medal records and registers of seamen's services.
• AIM25 is a searchable database of collection level descriptions of archives held by universities and other educational establishments in the London area.
• The Welsh and English census information for 1901 permits searching by name or address or other placename using various criteria such as age & relationship to the head of the household. It's also possible, for a fee, to view images of the original documentation.
• The London Generations database developed by the London Metropolitan Archives allows you to find out which registers useful to family historians they hold.
• Cornucopia is a searchable database of records held mostly in UK museums and galleries.
• The Abney Park Cemetery Indexing Project describes a project to index almost 200,000 burials (between 1840-1978) in Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington.
• Ancestry is licensed to provide access to the census records of England and Wales from 1841-1891. As well as the 1891 census of England and Wales, Ancestry provides online access to millions of names extracted from sources such as immigration, parish, birth, marriage and death records from throughout the region.
• 1837onlineoffers indexes of births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales from 1837 to 2004.
• Scotland's people is the official government source of genealogical data for Scotland.
• Cambridgeshire History on the Net is a local history project to present the collection of photographs and text held in Cambridgeshire Libraries. This is designed to reflect Cambridgeshire as it was at the beginning of the twentieth century, circa 1900.
• The Digital Atlas of England is an excellent and straightforward site which aims to produce a detailed digital photographic record of every pre-1900 building of architectural significance in England. The survey is still being completed, but once finished this will be an invaluable resource for those carrying out research on local history.
• The East of England Sense of Place -- Essex site is a guide to the heritage of Essex and contains a diverse range of images and information to assist with research on family history; local history; and local geography.
• Hackney Archives Department has an extensive set of online materials, allowing you to view digitisations of archival material and see what materials are available in the archive department itself. It contains selections of records such as inventories, criminal records, and maps. This is an extremely good resource for those interested in London local history.
• Very international in character, the Archive Griddescribes itself as "an important destination for searching through historical documents, personal papers, and family histories held in archives around the world".