Potentially useful online resources
…..compiled by Richard Clare and Kate Hurst – October 2019 (updated December 2025)
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North West Group of Family History Societies
British Newspaper Archive, searchpage
Leeds and Liverpool Canal sites:
Leeds & Liverpool Canal Society
Register of Canal Boats, Wigan Urban Registration Authority, 1878-1951
Boat Examiners Reports, Wigan Urban Registration Authority, 1879-1943
Leigh, Register of Canal Boats; 1878-1879 & 1879-1934
Leigh Canal Boats: Health Department Inspector’s Report Book, 1901-1960
SPELLWEAVER – Canal and River Boatmen
A Few More…
Old Mersey Times (various newspaper extracts relating to Liverpool and surrounding areas):
1871 Worrall’s Directory of Warrington
Lathom & Burscough Military Heritage (Richard Houghton’s site)
Scarisbrick family site : http://scarisbrickfamily.homestead.com/membersML.html
Scarisbrick Family Tree: http://scarisbrick.name/ (no longer active?)
Liverpool and SWL FHS website: https://www.lswlfhs.org.uk
Liverpool and SWL facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/groups/lswlfhs
St Helens History This Week facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/groups/sthelenshistorythisweekgroup/?ref=share
This is a page from a metal detecting site, which contains an extraordinary amount of the history of Halsall: http://www.metaldetectingagency.co.uk/history-of-where-i-come-from.html
The St. Chad’s Kirkby site: https://www.cofekirkby.co.uk/rosalindlloydspages/
Relevant to our meeting on the Norse heritage of West Lancashire: Wirral & West Lancashire Viking Research Page
Wigan Archeological Society, includes a great history of Wigan: http://www.wiganarchsoc.co.uk/index.php
Sutton Beauty; A fantastic site about the village of Sutton, just outside St.Helens: https://www.suttonbeauty.org.uk
The Ormskirk registers 1557 – 1626 from Archive.org : https://archive.org/details/registersofparis01orms/page/n7
On the subject of Archive.org, here is the returns page you get simply by typing “Ormskirk” in the search box! : https://archive.org/search.php?query=ormskirk
Lancashire Genealogy links: http://www.genealogylinks.net/uk/england/lancashire/
Maps:
Probably the most extensive collection of maps of U.K. available: https://maps.nls.uk
Another excellent U.K. map site: http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/
An excellent site of Liverpool maps: https://liverpool1207blog.wordpress.com/old-liverpool-maps/
Another site of Liverpool maps: http://historic-liverpool.co.uk/old-maps-of-liverpool/
ODFHS Members’ Websites
Kathryn Baird’s Memories of Aughton site: https://aughtonmemories.wordpress.com/
Finally…..
A page of old occupations: http://rmhh.co.uk/occup/index.html
A calendar, so you can work out the day of the week your ancestors were married: https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=1888&country=9