Family History information is mainly located at:
Learning and Information Library
Bishop Street
Leicester LE1 6AA
Tel: (0116) 299 5401
The information is arranged in the following sections at the library:
The Local Studies collection includes books about Leicestershire and Rutland towns and villages which may be useful for family history research. Books with a green spine label are available for loan.
Individual village and town histories are arranged in alphabetical order by place name. Information about villages is also contained in standard works such as Nichols’ History & Antiquities of Leicester and The Victoria County History for Leicestershire.
The library has a small selection of street directories, giving the names of householders and tradesmen in Leicester and Leicestershire in the 19th and 20th centuries. Some of these are available on microfiche, e.g. White’s Leicestershire & Rutland Directory for 1863 and Kelly’s Leicestershire & Rutland Directory for 1881.
Also of interest is Leicestershire Towns and Villages on microfiche, 1790 - 1846 and 1861 - 1892.
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This section of the library contains guides to family history research. Books marked with a green spine label are available for loan. Resources available include:
- Genealogical dictionaries.
- Bibliographies of books on family history.
- Information about websites.
- Contact addresses for family history societies, registry offices and record offices.
- Information about census records, parish registers and wills.
- Guides to using the National Archives at Kew.
- Books on naval, air force and army records.
- Guides to occupational records.
- Information about religious records.
- Some Family History Society publications for Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire & Lincolnshire, including census indexes and some printed parish registers.
- A selection of family history stock relating to Leicestershire.
- Information on family history in Scotland, Ireland & Wales.
- American and Australian genealogical guides, including lists of settlers.
- Published genealogies, pedigrees and visitation records (mostly Harleian Society publications).
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Local Studies (Ground Floor) holds files of the following family history journals:
Details of file length available on the Libraries' Catalogue.
The Times Digital Archive 1785 - 1985
Full text digital images of 200 years of British and world history as reported by the Times newspaper. This is an online service which is available free to all library members at libraries or from any computer with Internet access, through our Online Reference Room.
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The main section of the library also contains useful family history research material.
Collected biographies include:
English Local History Stock
Local history sources, town and village records, Guides to terminology of old records, Town and county histories, Place Names series.
Heraldry Collection
Guides to Coats of Arms.
Peerage & Landed Gentry
including Burke’s Peerage, Burke’s Landed Gentry, Debrett’s Peerage, Set of Complete Peerage.
Plus guides to identifying old photographs and Surname dictionaries.
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- Leicestershire Census 1841 - 1901 (CD-ROM or microfiche)
- IGI - International Genealogical Index for British Isles (microfiche)
- Family Search - CD-ROM version of IGI (1993 edition & addendum to 1997)
- Ancestral File database (1997)
- Parish Registers - copies of registers from Leicester churches (microfiche)
- Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914 -1919 (CD-ROM)
- Army Roll of Honour - World War II (CD-ROM)
- English Parish Records: Lincolnshire, Leicestershire & Rutland 1538-1837 (CD-ROM)
- National Burial Index for England & Wales (CD-ROM)
- The Battle Abbey Roll (CD-ROM)
“Finding East Midlands Ancestors” by Pam Fisher
Loan copies are available in the Local Studies department (shelved at G929.1072).
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Registered library users can use library computers to access family history websites on the Internet. It is advisable to book terminals in advance.
Some useful links to external websites are available at Family History Websites.
For further guidance, see The Genealogist's Internet by Peter Christian, shelved at G929.10285.
The Internet provides information about Record Offices, Family History societies, individual family histories, types of records and where they are located, cemetery records etc.
A useful starting point is the Genuki website which provides many links to other genealogy sites throughout the UK.
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A version of the well known Ancestry* website is now available free to members of Leicester Libraries at the following four libraries:
Learning & Information Library, Bishop Street, Leicester LE1 6AA
Tel: (0116) 299 5401
Evington Library, 200 Evington Lane, Leicester LE5 6DH
Tel: (0116) 221 1286
Hamilton Library, 20 Maidenwell Avenue, Leicester LE5 1BL
Tel: (0116) 221 2790
Westcotes Library, Narborough Road, Leicester LE3 0BQ
Tel: (0116) 299 5510
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