Last night at the Lake County (IL) Genealogical Society meeting, Maureen Brady gave an information-packed presentation on doing genealogy in the British Isles. If you have ancestors from the British Isles (loosely defined for our purposes as England, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland). Here are some of the databases she mentioned:

• GENUKI (UK and Ireland Genealogy), most useful for getting background information and learning about topics like the history and geography of the area you’re researching. Free.
• Deceased Online includes indexes and images of sexton records for cemeteries and churchyards for England, Scotland and Wales. It is not complete but being added to. Searching is free. To view the records you must buy credits or have a subscription.
• Findmypast is a good site but not easy to use. Useful for British military information. Subscription or pay-as-you-go, also free at Family History Centers.
• Scotland’s People is the official government site for all Scottish records. Pay-as-you-go with credits.
• IrishGenealogy.ie is a sort of “gateway” site. Use its index to find records in other databases.

In addition to the above databases, of course you will still want to use the old standbys: Ancestry, FamilySearch, CyndisList, and even Google.

And remember, these sites are adding new material and records all the time. Check them every week.
~Sonia