Tracing your tree - using the Internet

Thanks to the Internet, it's now very easy to track your family back to the beginnings of the Victorian era.
And if you don't have a computer don't worry, because all Hull libraries have computers with free Internet access.
The problem is which websites to use.
Family history is so popular that there are thousands of sites to choose from.
At Hull History Services, we've made it simple by creating our own web page that gives you details of all the websites that are useful for people based in Hull, or who have Hull ancestry.
The page can be found on the Hull City Council website (www.hullcc.gov.uk *) and is called "Gareth's List of Useful Sources".
The quickest way to find it is to just type the words "Gareth's List" into the Google search engine.
The list will give you links to about 50 different family history websites, divided up into categories such as "Archives", "Birth, Marriage and Death Records", "Censuses", "Ships & Seafarers," "War Records" and "Wills."
In a few cases, there is a charge to access a particular site. Some of them (such as census websites) can be accessed by buying a £5 voucher from Hull Central Library.
Two sites I can recommend paying for are: firstly, Genes Reunited, which costs £9.50 per year and allows you to make contact with other people who are interested in the same names as you; and, secondly, there is www.ancestry.co.uk *, which has indexed all the individuals in all the censuses from 1841 to 1901. This costs £69 per annum – and would be the perfect Christmas present for the genealogist in your family.