Help Searching

This section has over 50 articles with tips on searching the records in the Origins Network collection. The articles explain how the records are structured and what the various conventions mean.

You need to subscribe to one of our packages to get access to the actual collections. Having done this, you can search, view many original documents, order hard copies online if you want to, and get references to the source record archives.


Help searching British Origins
Get tips on searching our vast collection of British records including Census, Marriage, Court, Apprenticeship records and many more.

Help searching Irish Origins
Get help searching Griffith's Valuation (the census substitute), Electoral registers, Passengers lists and more.

Help searching National Wills
Wills are one of the most important source documents for the family history researcher. Find out how to get the most from your Wills search.

Viewing images
Origins Network images are TIFF format, get help with how to view these.

NameX
Name X is a name-matching tool which allows you to find records for names which may have been spelled incorrectly or have common variations in spelling.

General search techniques
Learn about Saving your Searches, using Wildcards, Narrowing your search and more.

Your FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions.