Wales Genealogy

From the earliest times the social order in Wales, as elsewhere, was bound up with the division and occupation of the land. The laws of the medieval king Hywel Dda depict a semi-nomadic people with strong tribal affinities, practicing a pastoral economy. From the eleventh century the numerous Welsh princes attempted to Read more...

Beginners' corner
What do you want to learn about your ancestor?

Birth          Marriage         Death or burial

Featured content



 * Emigration: Record Selection Guide
 * Key Online Record Set: Welsh Probates
 * Browse by Topic: Pages for Wales
 * FamilySearch: Welsh Records
 * Article: Wales Missing Census Records
 * Research Places: Aberkenfig Resource Centre &amp; Cefn Mawr Resource Centre
 * National Library of Wales: Manuscript Pedigrees

News and events
News:


 * Records recently deposited for Bethania Chapel, Maesteg 1861-2005 at the Glamorgan Record Office.
 * Pre 1858 Welsh Probate indexes and free document images are now online.
 * The 1911 census is now available online for all of Wales. About 13% of the schedules are printed and filled out in Welsh.
 * Ordnance Survey Maps with registration district boundaries free to search online
 * Coleg Llandrillo - Abergele offers a course for beginning family history research for ;Deaf People. BBC, See, Hear is looking at doing a special documentary feature on the class. More information to follow.
 * Coleg Llandrillo - Abergele has signed a contract with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to host a Family History Library Center.
 * The National Library of Wales at Aberystwyth has begun a £20 million project to make large parts of its collection available on-line. The project will take 10 years to complete and will involve the digitising of millions of documents, newspapers and books.
 * The latest national Census in Wales took place on 27 March, 2011.
 * BBC Wales have relaunched their website on Welsh Family History
 * FamilySearch now has Welsh parish registers on microfilm.

Events:


 * Cwrs Cymraeg This year's Welsh course, Cwrs Cymraeg Dyffryn Shenandoah, will be at Shenandoah University in Virginia on July 17-24, 2011.


 * More events &amp; details ...

Things you can do

 * Join a Community of Wales researchers! Ask questions, help others, and share your research successes on Facebook and/or Skype. NEW!
 * Plan Your Research Trip to Wales
 * Take one of many Welsh Language Courses

Useful websites

 * BBC Wales - Family History
 * National Gazetteer of Wales
 * Graveyard Welsh
 * Welsh Mormon History
 * BYU Research Outline for Wales

more Wales Websites

Wiki articles describing these collections are found at:


 * England and Wales Nonconformist Index for RG 4-8 (Record Groups 4-8) (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Wales Births and Baptisms (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Wales Death and Burials (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Wales Marriages (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Wales Glamorgan Marriages (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Wales, Probate Abstracts (FamilySearch Historical Records)