Genealogy and Family History

Staff are working on our collections to check, document and repackage thousands of items ready for their transfer to the new building during this time. This work will be our major task and consequently we are not able to respond individually to enquiries until after September 2013.

However, if you are specifically requesting personal information held about yourself, a member of staff will contact you to discuss this further:

Email: archives.heritage@birmingham.gov.uk

For all other enquiries, please contact us again once we open in the new Library of Birmingham.

We regret the inconvenience this is likely to cause to our users. A new Library of Birmingham website will be launched soon. Details of the services we will be providing from September will appear in due course as well as contact details for the new Library.

Meanwhile to keep in touch with us, please follow our blog at: http://theironroom.wordpress.com/ and to follow the progress of the new library please see: http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/lob

Tracing your family history is a fascinating activity which needs to be done carefully and methodically in order to achieve results and may entail years of research using libraries and record offices nationwide.

Family History Research

For detailed research requests, we suggest that you seek an independent researcher. These can often be found advertised in family history magazines, or via organisations such as the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives www.agra.org.uk

Family History Helpsheets

We have put together some information sheets to help you with your family history.

Ancestry Library Edition is now available on computers in Birmingham Libraries.
Trace your family history using records from England, Scotland and Wales censuses from 1841 to 1911, birth, marriage and death records and UK parish and probate records.

Ancestry Libary Edition now includes theNational Index of Wills and Letters of Administration (Probate Calendar) from 1861 to 1941. Find out how much your ancestors left in their wills and to whom.

Please note We are not responsible for the content of other organisations' websites.