If you have come across a website that may be useful to other Devon researchers, or have a website of your own that you would like added to the site, please contact me.
Genealogy Resources: Introduction
Research Guides for Tracing Ancestors
Devon Archives and Local Studies provide a page on the sources of materials available for those wishing to trace their Devon ancestry: Research Guides. So whether you are new to researching your family history or an experienced genealogist, this is very useful and informative place to start.
The National Archives Records link provides a starting point in learning how to access records with guidance on reading old handwriting and how to handle and look after documents. There is also a more detailed section the National Archives A-Z Research Guides providing detailed information on finding and interpreting records.
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
- 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.
- Who Do You Think You Are? - The magazine and website which run alongside the TV series provide lots of useful hints and tips on tracing ancestors.
Future Learn offer a free 6 week online course periodically - Genealogy: Researching Your Family Tree.
There are also many books that have been published about genealogy and researching your family history. But one that I would highly recommend as an extremely good British genealogy reference manual is:
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 Studies 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 Devon FHS 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. Devon FHS are members of the Family History Federation and the South West Area Group of family history societies SWAG.