Every family has a story buried in the records.
Census returns. Parish registers. Ship manifests. We piece together the fragments that have kept your ancestors hidden since 1840.
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Census Return, 1881
1840
The brick wall year
Family Bible, c. 1867
35+
Record collections
The name materialises on frame 47.
It's 11 p.m. You've been scrolling for two hours. The image is blurred, the ink faded to near-nothing — and then, in a cramped hand that hasn't been read since the vicar wrote it in 1843, a name appears. Your great-great-grandmother's name. This is what we help you find.
Lancashire Parish Register · LRO Ref. PR 3245/1
Lancashire Record Office · Microfilm Reading Room
The question that remains
If Mary Ann was baptised in 1843, where was the family in the 1841 census — and why does no Shuttleworth appear in Burnley that year?
Find the answer → Start Your SearchThe passenger list and the family Bible say different things.
His name is spelled three ways across four documents. The manifest says he was 28. The Bible entry says he was born in 1851. The census says 1849. One of these is wrong — or one was written by a man who had good reasons to lie at the dock. We show you how to reconcile the contradiction.
NARA Microfilm T715 · Roll 0042 · List 22
Passenger list cross-referenced with family Bible entry, c. 1879
The question that remains
If Patrick listed Cork on the manifest but the family Bible records Tipperary, which county holds his birth record — and does the discrepancy matter?
Find the answer → Start Your SearchThe headstone says one thing. The census says another.
You're standing in the long grass of a Norfolk churchyard, photographing an inscription worn almost smooth by two centuries of east-coast winters. The stone says he died aged 72. But the 1851 census gives a birth year that makes him 68. Four years — enough to hide a second marriage, a different parish, a family that doesn't know you exist.
Census Enumerator's Book · Norfolk · 1851
St. Andrew's, Holt · Norfolk · Photograph taken February 2026
The question that remains
George's headstone says he was born in 1803, but the 1851 census says 1803 too — so why does the 1841 census show a George Aldous in Holt aged only 30?
Find the answer → Start Your SearchBrowse the Archive
Six record collections, hundreds of investigative guides. Find the type that holds your missing ancestor — then follow the evidence.
Census Returns
1841 – 1921
Every household, every name, every occupation. The backbone of English and Welsh genealogy.
Parish Registers
1538 – 1900
Baptisms, marriages, and burials recorded by hand in crumbling vestry books.
Ship Manifests
1820 – 1957
Passenger lists that trace the moment a family name crossed an ocean.
Land & Probate
1600 – 1950
Wills, deeds, and estate inventories that name children no other record remembers.
Military Records
1760 – 1945
Service records, pension files, and medal rolls that follow soldiers home.
Adoption & Vital
1837 – present
Birth, death, and marriage certificates. The first documents, and sometimes the hardest to find.
The name you're searching for is in here somewhere.
Every brick wall has a crack. Every missing ancestor left a trace — a tax return, a burial entry, a scrawled note in a ship's log. Our investigative guides show you exactly where to look next.
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