British Research Notes

This is mainly for my convenience, but you can play along, too. I want links to various databases, so I can just check them off one at a time.

Find each known individual in every census throughout their life. They may have been visiting family on the night of the enumeration - the directions told the enumerator to count everyone in the home on that evening. It's worth it every time.

England and Wales 1841 Census, FamilySearch, Ancestry

England and Wales 1851 Census, FamilySearch, Ancestry

England and Wales 1861 Census, FamilySearch, Ancestry

England and Wales 1871 Census, FamilySearch, Ancestry

England and Wales 1881 Census, FamilySearch, Ancestry

England and Wales 1891 Census, FamilySearch, Ancestry

England and Wales 1901 Census, FamilySearch, Ancestry

England and Wales 1911 Census, FamilySearch, Ancestry

Census, Land, & Substitutes, FindMyPast

U.K. & Ireland Census, MyHeritage

After 1837, check the BMD or civil registration. This can be done in many places.

FreeBMD

LancashireBMD - just Lancashire and easily ordered.

UKBMD for all the counties.

Before 1837, check parish registers. Every parish is not in every database. I think FindMyPast had the best collections of bishop's transcripts and parish registers the last time I checked.

Birth, Marriages, and Deaths (Parish Registers), FindMyPast

If you cannot locate your person in a parish where they were supposed to be, try non-conformist records and a radius search five miles from the parish. The maps.familysearch.org map was once a helpful tool but seems to be malfunctioning as of 16 February 2019.

This book from 1865 will help you get your bearings on the town and its surroundings:

A topographical dictionary of England comprising the several counties, cities, boroughs, corporate and market towns, parishes, chapelries, and townships, and the islands of Guernsey, Jersey, and Man, with historical and statistical descriptions; illustrated by maps of the different counties and islands, a map of England, showing the principal towns, roads, railways, navigable rivers, and canals; and a plan of London and its environs, and embellished with engravings of the arms of the cities, bishopricks, universities, colleges, corporate towns, and boroughs; and of the seals of the several municipal corporations / By Samuel Lewis.