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Access local and family history at The Library.

Local & Family History Stock

  • Loanable collections available at all libraries
  • Plus reference collections at Cheltenham, Cinderford, Cirencester, Gloucester, Stow, Stroud and Tewkesbury
  • Books, including digital, can be found on the library catalogue. Including books on researching your family history!

 

Library computers give you free access to:

Ancestry, Findmypast & British Newspaper Archives

  • Birth, marriage & death records
  • Census (including 1921 & 1939), electoral & parish registers
  • Military & war, immigration & emigration records
  • Regional and national newspapers from 1700

Book a computer 

 

Pressreader gives you free access to:

  • ‘Who do you think you are’ & ‘Family Tree’ eMagazines
  • Sign in every 30 days with your library card & pin
  • Borrow individual issues, or use advance search for topics of interest

Discover Pressreader 

Helpful Links

Ancestry

Ancestry is a family history database that includes census, military and immigration records. This is the full version of the database providing access to all geographic content and records. Ancestry can be accessed for free at any Gloucestershire Library with a library membership. 

Support information on using Ancestry is available via their Support Centre pages and videos.  

Find my past

Findmypast is a family history database that includes birth, marriage and death records, census data (dating back to 1841, and including the 1921 Cenus), electoral registers and land tax documents. Findmypast can be accessed for free at any Gloucestershire Library with a library membership. 
 

Support information on using Findmypast is available via the Sitemap and videos.

British Newspaper Archive

British Newspaper Archive contains around 3 million pages of newspaper content from 742 local, regional and national newspapers dating from the 1700s. British Newspaper Archive can be accessed for free at any Gloucestershire Library with a library membership. Register with your email address and set a password. Sign in each time to access the full content for free. 


Support information on using BNA is available via their Frequently Asked Questions page

John Johnson Collection

John Johnson Collection is an archive of printed ephemera from the Bodleian Library in Oxford offering unique insights into the changing nature of life in Britain in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. 

The collection can be accessed for free at any Gloucestershire Library with a library membership. No log-in is required from a library computer.  It can also be accessed from anywhere online for free. To log-in:  Username:  GLOUCESTER  Password: LEARNING