All Findmypast record sets are broadly categorised into nine distinct, searchable categories so you can find what you’re looking for quickly and easily.
- Birth, marriage, death & parish records
- Census, land & surveys
- Military, armed forces & conflict
- Newspapers & periodicals
- Institutions & organisations
- Travel & migration
- Directories & social history
- Education & work
- Churches & religion
To search by category:
- Select ‘Search’ from the menu when logged into the site
- Select the category you want to search from the drop-down menu. You’ll be taken to a search page designed specifically for your chosen category
- Enter your search criteria and select the blue search button
Top tip: You can switch between categories, subcategories and countries using the filters or drop-down menus on each category search page.
Each record category is further broken down into a range of searchable subcategories, useful for when you need to focus your search even further. For example, the ‘Census, land & survey’ category contains the following subcategories:
Category |
Birth, marriage, death & parish records |
Census, land & surveys |
Military, armed forces & conflict |
Institutions & organisations |
Subcategories |
|
|
Category |
Travel & migration |
Directories & social history |
Education & work |
Churches & religion |
Subcategories |
Note: Newspaper and periodical searches are performed separately to the rest of the site’s record searches. See How to search historical newspapers for details.
To search by subcategory:
- Follow steps 1 and 2 outlined above for searching by category
- Use the drop-down menu or filters to select a subcategory within your chosen record category
- Alternatively, follow the link to the subcategory you want to search from the above table
- Enter your search criteria and select the blue search button