General Sources
Web sites
Ancestry provides message boards, maps, linked pedigree files, indexes, and original source records.

The Office of National Statistics is an official government agency that holds civil registration records.

The Public Record Office is the official agency that holds many public records collected by the government of the U.K.

The National Library of Wales has copies of many records located at the PRO.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints provides a thorough research guide to Wales with links to holdings in Family History Centres worldwide.

GENUKI is a volunteer organisation that has made thorough descriptions of parishes, Welsh history, and Welsh links.

Recommended Readings
Your English Ancestry: A Guide for North Americans, by Sherry Irvine, (Ancestry, 1993)

Welsh Family History, by John Rowlands, editor (GPC, 1999)

Ancestral Trails: The Complete Guide to British Genealogy and Family History, by Mark D. Herber (Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc.,1997)

In Search of the "Forlorn Hope", by John M. Kitsmiller, II (Manuscript Publishing Foundation, 1988)

Note: In general, English and Welsh records are available at the same location. Many of the locations listed below are for both.

Census Records
The first census that included names of the household was1841. A census has been taken every ten years since then except 1941. All of the available census returns have been microfilmed and are available from LDS Family History Centres and the Family Records Centre in London. The LDS Church has completed an index to the census of 1881.

The Hearth Tax was collected from 1662 to 1689, and is equivalent to a head of household index for all homes with a hearth. The information was gathered twice a year, on the 25th of March and the 29th of September. These and other assessment records are available at the Public Record Office.

Vital and Church Records
Parish Registers
Before 1837, the best records for births(christenings), marriages, and deaths(burials) were kept by the parishes. Surviving parish registers begin as early as the 1500s in some areas. The LDS Family History Centres have an extensive microfilm collection of these registers. Many parish registers have also been indexed in the International Genealogical Index (IGI), also produced by the LDS Church.

Nonconformist religious records, those not of the Church of England, have also been filmed and indexed by the LDS Church.

Civil Registration of Birth, Marriage, and Death
In July of 1837, civil registration of births, marriages, and deaths began in England and Wales. The Registrar General Office was created to accomodate these records as they were collected. These civil records are now held by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) and the Registrar General Office. Certified copies of an entry of birth may be obtained. A useful web site that describes how to best obtain copies is Barbara Dixon's site. Indexes are available from the Family Records Centre in London and LDS Family History Centres.

Compiled Genealogy
The Ancestry World Tree has more than 500,000 linked names of families from Wales in pedigrees submitted by contributors from all over the world. FamilySearch.org also has many thousands of contributed pedigree files.

Community and Message Boards
The largest message board for Welsh family history research is provided by Ancestry.

Military Records
Nearly all British military records from 1707 through World War II are held in the Public Record Office in Kew, London, England.

Reference and Finding Aids
Visit the Welsh Map Centre at Ancestry.

Gerry Lawson's Parish locator can help determine what county a parish is in.

Emigration
Emigration in the 1800s
To search emigration records effectively, you should know the approximate date of emigration, the name of the ship, the reason for emigration, or the emigrant’s previous residence in Wales. If you know the ship’s name, you might find additional details on the ship, including ports of embarkation and arrival, in Lloyd’s Register of British and Foreign Shipping. Fiche ed. (LaCrosse, Wis.: Brookhaven Press, 1981).

Passenger Lists
Pre-1890 passenger departure lists are rare. Post-1890 lists are arranged chronologically by port of departure. These lists usually give the emigrant’s name, age, occupation, address, and sometimes destination, and are kept at the Public Record Office in Kew, London, England.

Additionally, you may try searching immigration records of the United States, Canada, and Australia, where the majority of Welsh immigrants settled.

Court, Land, and Probate
Until 1858 the church was responsible for establishing the validity of wills. Within each Church of England diocese there was a Consistorial Court that proved wills of residents who lived in its boundaries. If property crossed diocese boundaries the will was proven by a Prerogative Court in York or Cantebury.

After 1858, wills were proven in probate districts. Surviving will documents were microfilmed and are available from LDS Family History Centres and the Family Records Centre in London.

There are also annual indexes that can be consulted in London at First Avenue House, in many regional archives in Wales, and through LDS Family History Centres.