If you’re looking for some useful resources and a few ideas to start researching, here’s a few websites I’ve found helpful.

www.ancestry.co.uk is my main source of information.  I use it to hold an online record of my family tree which helps you build up a good database and share with other researchers.  You can share your tree with other members of your family to view or add comments at no extra cost to them. The database of online records is amazing but you can only access all of it with a full worldwide subscription and it links to other useful sits o help extend your research.

www.findmypast.com is similar to ancestry in terms of functionality but does hold some different records. 1921 Census being one. I would start with this one or Ancestry first, depending on which one you like.  They both have subscriptions and you can get quite far without having to pay for both.

https://www.gov.uk/research-family-history – you can only access the birth marriage and death indices online and will need to order the certificates through the General Register Office.  This can get expensive, so be as  sure as possible that its the right person first.

www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk is the only way of accessing Scottish records online.  You can also order Scottish BMD certificates from this site. It is the website for the National Records Office of Scotland.  You need to buy credit bundles to view images online and have an expiration date after two years.  Again, this can get expensive so be sure you’ve got the right person.

http://archives.cotesdarmor.fr/ is the source I use for part of our french family info. French ancestry needs to be researched by department as the archives are held by the Mairies in each town.  So inevitably some are better than others and each one is of course different! Cotes D’Armor has an excellent search facility and the records are online but you need to search each volume page by page so takes a lot of time and patience!

www.fold3.com is a subsidiary of Ancestry and is the home for worldwide military records. Another subscription site but you can save records to your Ancestry tree.

https://en.geneanet.org/ – A recent discovery that has helped extend my European research.  Works in a similar way to other family history sites.  You can build your tree online, find online record matches, import gedcom files from other sites and share info with other researchers.  Has access to tons of info including European newspapers and cemeteries.  Ancestry also have a link to some of the family trees housed on this site.

https://www.findagrave.com/ – the world’s largest collection of gravesites.  This has been really helpful where there are family plots to help identify other family members and confirm dates.  Have been able to visit graves thanks to this site.  It is also linked to the Ancestry database.

https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/ This website is really useful for old maps and statistics about the the population over the last two centuries.

https://scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/ – useful websites with details of historical OS Surveys, land ownership and taxes. Hasn’t been updated since 2018 though.