• LanguagesLanguages
  • Increase text sizeReset text sizeDecrease text size
  • Listen to pageListen to page

Contacts

Information Services Team
Kent Libraries & Archives HQ
Royal Engineers Road
Springfield
Maidstone ME14 2LH

Telephone icon01622 696438
Fax: 01622 696445

Email icon libraries.information services@kent.gov.uk

Family and local history

Most of the links on this page open in a new window.

For licensing reasons, some of our resources are only accessible from computers in particular libraries.

Ancestry.com (all libraries) - provides access to the 1841 to 1901 UK censuses and contains more than 4 billion names. A simple search using an ancestor's christian and surname can produce some interesting results, which can be viewed, printed or emailed.

credo logo Credo Reference (formerly Xrefer) - gives you access to 100 top reference books from some of the world's biggest publishers including Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage, Debrett's People of Today.

DNB logo Dictionary of National Biography - tells the stories of over 50,000 people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond, from the earliest times to those who died in the year 2004. It also includes over 10,000 portrait illustrations, and the complete text of the 33-volumes of the first edition of the Dictionary of National Biography.


Times digital logo Times Digital Archives - search through the digital edition of The Times (London) 1785 - 1985 using keyword or date searches to retrieve full facsimile images of either a specific article or a complete page. The entire newspaper is captured, with all notices, obituaries, advertisements and illustrations/photos divided into categories to facilitate searching.

Who's who logo Who's Who with Who was Who Online - Who's Who is the essential directory of

the noteworthy and influential in the UK and worldwide. Who Was Who includes over 100,000 entries from the archives of Who's Who dating back to 1898.

More specialised biographical resources can also be found in the Arts and humanities section.

Free websites

Kent-specific

Explore Kent's past - 'Explore England's Past' provides free access to 1000s of local history resources including images, transcribed wills and documents and town trails. The Kent section includes transcribed wills and a history of the papermaking industry and a history of people and work in the Lower Medway Valley is being prepared.

Hasted's 'History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent' - Search the volumes of the second edition (text and maps) of this major work on Kent history published between 1797 and 1801.

Kent Archaeological Society - Provides access to a range of electronic publication from the Society.

Kent birth, marriage and death - Allows user to search the registration indexes for births (1992 - 2002), marriages(1837 - 2002) and deaths (1992 - 2002).

National

A2A (Access to archives) - This database contains catalogues describing archives held locally in England and Wales and dating from the eighth century to the present day.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission - The "Debt of Honour Register" database lists the 1.7 million men and women of the Commonwealth forces who died during the two world wars and the 23,000 cemeteries, memorials and other locations worldwide where they are commemorated. You can also search the register for details of the 67,000 Commonwealth civilians who died as a result of enemy action in the Second World War.

Family search - FamilySearch.org is a non-profit service sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.The site provides access to "the largest collection of free family history, family tree and genealogy records in the world".

FreeBMD - access to partial indexes for 1837 to 1915 civil records of births, marriages and deaths.

Genealogy in the UK and Ireland (Genuki) - Search tool listing a wide range of British sources.

Victoria County History - Founded in 1899 and originally dedicated to Queen Victoria, the VCH is an encyclopaedic record of England's places and people from earliest times to the present day.


View other relevant pages on this website for more details about the resources held in libraries and archives centres to aid your research.

Connect with information branding

Print only content. Copyright 2005.