Local And Family History
Local history
All Poole Libraries have books for loan about the local area. Poole Central Library also has large-scale maps of Poole, and the definitive footpath map of Poole. For detailed research, the Local History Centre in a separate building at the Quay has an extensive archive and expert staff who can help you find out what you need.
Family history on the internet
You should start by using the free resources that are available, such as Familysearch 
(which includes free access to the 1881 UK census) or Freebmd .
There is a wealth of useful information on the National Archives and BBC sites.
You should visit the CyberLibrary to see a comprehensive list of family history sites which have been evaluated, tested and recommended by librarians.
You can use Ancestry Library Edition free-of-charge in any Poole library (but not from home). It gives you access to all the UK censuses from 1841 to 1901, to births, marriages and deaths records, plus a wealth of other information from around the world.
Poole Central Library sells pay-per-view vouchers for 1901 Census Online (which now gives access to all the censuses), Ancestry.co.uk , and findmypast.com (which has burial records). These cost £5 each and enable you to carry out online searches from any computer. If you want to buy vouchers at any other Poole library, they can be ordered for you to arrive within a day or two.
Surname indexes, produced by the Dorset Family History Society and the Somerset and Dorset Family History Society are available for 1841 (almost complete), 1851 and 1891.
The Times Digital Archive is a unique online resource which you can access for free with your library card number. It is a fully searchable facsimile of The Times from 1785 to 1985.
Other ways of finding out about family history
You can borrow books from your local library to find out how to search. To see what we have, look at our catalogue . You can also visit the library to browse through Family History magazines (check with your local library what they have).
Family history CD-Roms at Poole Central Library can provide valuable extra information. They include:
- Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-19 - a list of around 635,000 soldiers and 37,000 officers.
- Army Roll of Honour: Soldiers Died in the Second World War 1939-45. A searchable database of casualties. Also see Poole at War
- People Finder. Useful for tracking down living relatives.
Poole register Office can supply local birth, marriage and death certificates.
Local History Centre
You should visit the Poole Local History Centre to research local families. It has an extensive collection of information on microfilm, such as parish registers for the Borough of Poole, the complete Dorset census for 1841, 1891, 1901, the Poole and Eastern Dorset Census for 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, and archived local newspapers.
There are also street directories listing residents and tradesmen, electoral registers and poll books. You can also use 'Mentor', a large and growing database of Poole information containing thousands of references to people, places and events.
There are also files of information generously donated by local people.
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