GENUKI facts for kids
GENUKI is a special website that helps people learn about their family history. Think of it like a huge online library, but specifically for finding information about families from the UK and Ireland. It's run by a group that helps others, called a charitable trust. The website focuses on giving you access to original records, called primary sources, or telling you where to find them. This helps you do your own family research.
Contents
What Does GENUKI Mean?
The name GENUKI comes from "Genealogy of the UK and Ireland". Even though the name suggests this area, the website actually covers a bit more.
Countries and Islands Covered
For family history research, GENUKI includes:
- England
- Ireland (which means both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland)
- Wales
- Scotland
- The Channel Islands
- The Isle of Man
These places together are known as the British Isles. This is a geographical term for a group of islands near Europe. The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man manage their own laws and are not officially part of the United Kingdom.
How GENUKI Is Organized
The GENUKI website has a clear way of organizing its information. It's set up in four main levels, like a pyramid.
Levels of Information
- The first level has general information that applies to all of the UK and Ireland.
- The second level has specific information for each main area: England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man.
- The third level goes even deeper. It has information for each old county within England, Wales, and Scotland. It also covers all 32 counties of Ireland and each island in the Channel Islands. For example, you can find details for Cheshire in England, County Kerry in Ireland, or Guernsey.
- The fourth level is the most detailed. It provides information for individual towns or parishes, like Antrobus in Cheshire.
You can see how all these parts fit together on the website's "Contents and Site Map" page.
Topics You Can Explore
At each level of the website, you'll find information organized by different topics. These topics are similar to a list used by the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.
Here are some of the main topics you might find:
- Almanacs
- Archives and Libraries
- Biography
- Business and Commerce Records
- Cemeteries
- Censuses
- Church Records
- Civil Registration
- Court Records
- Directories
- Emigration and Immigration
- Genealogy
- History
- Land and Property
- Maps
- Military Records
- Newspapers
- Occupations
- Probate Records
- Schools
- Social Life and Customs
- Taxation
- Town Records
What You'll Find on GENUKI
Sometimes, GENUKI pages will have the actual family history information right there. More often, though, they will give you links to other places where you can find the information. These links might go to other websites, or they might tell you about books and places where physical records are kept.
For many locations, GENUKI includes descriptions taken from old books called gazetteers. These old descriptions are free to use because their copyright has expired.
GENUKI is run entirely by volunteers. This means that some parts of the website might have more detail than others, depending on how many volunteers have worked on that area. Remember, all the material on the GENUKI website is protected by copyright. You can use it for your own personal family research, but you should not copy it onto other websites.
