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  • Search over 3.6 million records, unique to MLFHS

    Manchester & Lancashire Family History Society

    Search Records

  • Search over 3.6 million records, unique to MLFHS

    Manchester & Lancashire Family History Society

    Search Records

  • Search over 3.6 million records, unique to MLFHS

    Manchester & Lancashire Family History Society

    Search Records

Our Free Drop-in Helpdesk at Manchester Central Library is open to all from 10.30am to 3.30pm Monday to Friday. The helpdesk will close for the Christmas break on Friday 13th December and reopen on Monday 6th January 2025. 

Eventbrite Booking Links

Wednesday 8th January 7.30pm

The Town That Vanished

"The Rise and Fall of The Town That Vanished. Bolton, Lancashire's Biggest Mill Town In 1937

Important News: Catholic Records

We are privileged to have become the custodians of the records and documents of the Catholic Family History Society. We still have work to do to complete the presentation of this important material, but you are welcome to preview our work here.

DATABASES

Unique resources for members

Join us and get access to our extensive databases. We specialise in indexing local resources which you will not find on other sites. How about virtually all the recorded memorials for Manchester's old churchyards? Or institutional records: Bolton Workhouse creed books, admissions to the schools for the blind and the deaf? Or the early motor vehicle registrations in Salford? There are hundreds of sources and over 3.5 million name references, and new data is being added all the time.

HELPDESK

Our friendly Helpdesk is Open!

Our knowledgeable and experienced Helpdesk volunteers help people from all over the world – members and non-members – to begin or expand their family histories, whether their ancestors originated from the Greater Manchester area or elsewhere. The Helpdesk sessions run from Monday - Friday, 10.30am - 3:30pm. Helpdesk volunteers can also help you to access the vast repository of microfiche and microfilmed records.

Our Virtual Helpdesk remains open for members only. Please Click Here for more information.

Books, maps, CDs and more

Visit our online shop!

Our MLFHS shop sells a large range of books, maps, CDs, downloads and books for recording your research. 

We stock local Alan Godfrey maps, a wide range of books published by Neil Richardson, the ever-popular Ancestral File for recording your search in a practical way, and CDs or downloads of records and transcriptions of Catholic church registers, Presbyterian records, monumental inscriptions, Manchester police, Rolls of Honour and much more.

Latest: All MLFHS CDs/DVDs are now available as downloadable files.

What We Do

MEMBERS' FORUM

Share your research problems via our online forum with hundreds of members worldwide who are prepared to help with look-ups and solutions.

More > Members Forum

VOLUNTEERING

Want to help the Society? We need help to grow. Here’s what you can do as a volunteer in one of our projects or other areas of Society activity.

 More > Volunteering

EXPLORERS

See how we encourage children and young people to discover their family histories with guidance, supervision, support and research strategies and techniques.

More > Explorers

THE MANCHESTER GENEALOGIST

Share your research, submit an article. Use our massive collection of back copies to learn from others how to knock down brickwalls, research obscure resources or overcome incomplete records.

More > Manchester Genealogist

Public Resources

Roman Catholic Records

Our shop sells CDs, DVDs and downloads of registers for over fifty Roman Catholic churches in and around Manchester. Click below to search our index of over 1.2 million names which appear in these records.

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Our Affiliates

MLFHS receives commission, at no cost to the user, on transactions completed using these links to affiliated organisations
[for more see Affiliate Links].

Findmypast (UK)

Findmypast (Ireland)

Findmypast (Australia)
Findmypast (USA)

British Newspaper Archive

Genes Reunited

Easyfundraising