United Kingdom





The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, more commonly known as the United Kingdom or the UK, is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It spans the whole of the island of Great Britain and the north-east part of the island of Ireland (although the whole of Ireland was part of the United Kingdom between 1801 and 1922).

The United Kingdom is a unitary state consisting of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

It is governed by a parliamentary system with its seat of government in London, England, but with three devolved national administrations in Belfast, Northern Ireland; Cardiff, Wales and Edinburgh, Scotland. England does not currently have its own national administration.

The United Kingdom is a member of the European Union and the United Nations. The individual countries have no representation in these organisations.

The Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, of Guernsey and Jersey, are not part of the United Kingdom, but are British Crown Dependencies.

Genealogy
For genealogy purposes, see the individual countries:


 * England
 * Scotland
 * Wales
 * Northern Ireland

Wiki articles describing online collections are found at:


 * Great Britain Births and Baptisms (FSHR)
 * Great Britain Marriages (FSHR)
 * Great Britain Deaths and Burials (FSHR)
 * UK Chelsea Pensioners' Service Records (FSHR)

Websites

 * Free UK Genealogy, charitable organisation which offers free access to three search databases of high-quality transcriptions of family history data. FreeBMD (Birth, Marriage and Death index); FreeREG (Parish and Non-conformist Registers) and FreeCEN (19th Century UK Census returns).
 * UKBMD.org.uk - an extensive gateway to numerous online databases for countries and counties throughout the United Kingdom of Great Britain (many cost-free)
 * www.geograph.org.uk - a project which aims to collect geographically representative photographs and information for every square kilometre of Great Britain and Ireland
 * www.deceasedonline.com - The central database for UK burials and cremations
 * GENUKI UK and Ireland Genealogy
 * Land Registry Services
 * UK Census online free