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UNITED KINGDOM WEBPAGE

The following are links to our web pages for the constituent countries that comprise the United Kingdom.  Under each country are links to the counties in which one of our ancestors is known to have been born, married, or died.   A link to a town or locality in which the aforementioned events occurred is also provided, if known. In addition each web page contains a direct link to the Table of Contents of our Photograph and Image Galleries for many ancestral locations.

England

Northern Ireland

(Ulster)

Scotland

Wales

Gazetteers for Finding Locations in the UK

Image Galleries

ENGLAND WEBPAGE

     The counties of England are territorial divisions of England for the purposes of administrative, political and geographical demarcation. Many current counties have foundations in older divisions such as the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. The name county originates in the area formerly or nominally administered by a Count, although in Britain the situation is complicated by the fact that the title Count has been replaced in normal usage by the older Saxon title of Earl. An Earl's wife, however, bears the title of Countess.

     The names, boundaries and functions of these divisions have changed considerably in modern times. Indeed, a series of local government reforms from the 19th century onwards has left the exact definition of the term 'county' ambiguous. The term "counties of England" does not, therefore, refer to a unique canonical set of names or boundaries; in formal use, the type of county relevant to the specific task and period is explicitly stated e.g. ceremonial county, registration county, historic county or former postal county.

COUNTY: Gen-Site(s)

CUMBRIA: Penrith

DORSET: (Fordington, St. George)

GLOUCESTERSHIRE: Cirencester Parish;  

KENT: 

LANCASHIRE: Chipping; Forest Bowland; Goosnargh; Melling; Preston; Salterforth; Slaidburn; Over Kellet

NORFOLK: Norwich

NORTH YORKSHIRE: Burnsall Parish;   Clapham;      

SOMERSET: Wrington

YORKSHIRE: North Riding;   East Riding;   West Riding; 

NORTHERN IRELAND WEBPAGE

     Northern Ireland consists of six historic counties: County Antrim, County Armagh, County Down, County Fermanagh, County Londonderry, County Tyrone.

     These counties are no longer used for local government purposes; instead there are twenty-six districts of Northern Ireland which have different geographical extents, even in the case of those named after the counties from which they derive their name.

     The county boundaries still appear on Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland Maps and the Phillips Street Atlases, among others. With their decline in official use, there is often confusion surrounding towns and cities which lie near county boundaries, such as Belfast and Lisburn, which are split between counties Down and Antrim (the majorities of both cities, however, are in Antrim).

COUNTY: Gen-Site(s)

ANTRIM

DOWN: Newery

LONDONDERRY: Coleraine

SCOTLAND WEBPAGE

     From their earliest appearance the counties of Scotland have been called "shires". The word "county" did not become the usual usage until the nineteenth century.       The counties of Scotland were the principal divisions of Scotland until 1975. Scotland's current lieutenancy areas and registration counties are largely based on them. 

     The counties became a basis of local government, alongside burghs, when 34 county councils were created in Scotland by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889.  About 90 years later, under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, these county authorities were abolished as local government bodies and were replaced with regions and districts and island council areas.  Areas for Lieutenancy, areas similar to those of the counties, were created at the same time.  Local government was reorganised again under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 to create the currently existing council areas.  For more information about counties in Scotland see the following: Counties of Scotland until 1890; and Counties of Scotland from 1890 to 1975.

COUNTY: Gen-Site(s)

ABERDEENSHIRE:

DUMFRIES: 

Lankashire:

WALES WEBPAGE

     For local government purposes, Wales is divided into 22 unitary authority areas, which are responsible for the provision of all local government services, including education, social work, environment and roads services. Below these in some areas there are community councils, which cover specific areas within a council area.  The unitary authority areas are referred to in local government legislation as the principal areas of Wales, but are almost never referred to by that designation in Wales.  They are variously styled: nine areas are styled as counties, three as cities (two of which as City and County), and ten as county boroughs, although all authorities have equal powers.  All 22 authorities are regularly called counties in the Welsh media.  They came into being on 1 April 1996 by virtue of the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994.

COUNTY: Gen-Site(s)

Sources

General World Resources

·         Place Names - Gazetteer

·         Ancestry.com Library—Geography Section

·         Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

·         A Dictionary, Geographical, Statistical, & Historical

o Volume 1:  AA - Caspe 

o Volume 2:  Caspian Sea - Iona

o Volume 3:  Ionian Islands -  Poole

o Volume 4:  Poonah – Zytomiers 

·         JRC Fuzzy Gazetteer - Search over 7,000,000 place names using a phonetic transcription of the place. The search is spelling tolerant, with more emphasis on the vowels.  This site can be helpful when tracing obsolete or misspelled places.

·         Directory of Cities and Towns in World

·         Foreign Place Names Search (USGS-GNIS)

United Kingdom

·         List of places in the United Kingdom - Wikipedia

·         Directory of Cities and Towns in United Kingdom

·         Old Maps,com.UK Gazetteer - Selecting a place from counties as they were back in the mid 19th century will show the historical map for that area.

·        List of United Kingdom locations

·         Gazetteer of British Place Names – 50,000 entries that includes the historic county as well as modern administrative districts to determine what county each place was originally in, and where records might be found today.

·        GENUKI Church Gazetteer – This database contains the approximate location of the parishes that existed around 1837.

England

·         List of Places in England

·         Registration Districts: England & Wales (1837–1974) - These pages show composition of the civil registration districts. There is also an Alphabetical List of Districts and an Index of Place Names for the whole of England and Wales.

·        GENUKI 1891 Census Gazetteer

This database contains the names of places encountered in the 1891 census for England, Wales and the Isle of Man.

·        A Topographical Dictionary of England - Contains detailed topographical accounts of places, parishes and counties in England.

Northern Ireland

·       List of places in Northern Ireland

·        The Ireland Atlas / Database

Scotland

·         Gazetteer for Scotland

·        A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland - Contains detailed topographical accounts of places, parishes and counties in England.

·        List of Places in Scotland

·         ScotlandsPlaces - enter a place name or a coordinate to search across different national databases.

Wales

·         List of Places in Wales

·         GENUKI 1891 Census Gazetteer - This database contains the names of places encountered in the 1891 census for England, Wales and the Isle of Man.

·         Registration Districts: England & Wales (1837–1974) - These pages show composition of the civil registration districts. There is also an Alphabetical List of Districts and an Index of Place Names for the whole of England and Wales.

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-- This webpage was last updated on --

01 January 2012