Federation Of Family History Societies

FamilyHistoryOnline

Over the last four years FamilyHistoryOnline (FHO) has helped nearly 200,000 researchers safely and securely search hundreds of indexes and transcriptions from family history societies and others. Some of these include images of churches, gravestones or documents.

As a registered user, you can search the 66 million records for free to obtain basic information, while more detailed information is priced at a few pence for each record — the 1881 census is free, while images have higher prices. To help you understand what you're paying for each database is fully described on a web page that shows the information on each record, the years covered for each place, the checking that's been done, and a web address or contact details for the provider of the data. Alternative ways of obtaining the information on CD, fiche, booklet or research service are also listed as they may provide you with a cost-effective alternative to using FamilyHistoryOnline.

Interest in parish register data continues to grow steadily and FHO offers over 15 million burials, including over a third of all burials between 1812 and 1837. Baptism indexes can normally be searched by child, mother and father and marriage indexes can be searched by bride or groom. Many users find FHO a useful independent alternative to the more comprehensive census indexes now offered on other web sites, and there is exclusive access to the unfilmed 1851 census returns for Manchester.

FHO continues to pay royalties to member societies (25%) and others (20%) for the tabular data (e.g. Excel) they supply. Multiple servers ensure that breaks in service average only a few minutes each month. Support is by email and almost all enquiries receive a reply within 24 hours.

The web site includes an illustrated tour showing how the service works and there are also basic steps to guide your family history research.

A list of surnames for each county are a recent addition — these pages will help you track down unusual spellings that arise through dialect and otherwise