Useful URLS for instant gratification of one-namers

The URLs listed below are some that I have used in my search for Gumbletons and may be of use to others. Most one-namers, when faced with any list of names, will have a quick look, just to see if their favourite name is represented: these sites are online sources for such random searching for one's name of interest. In order to feature on this page, the sites should meet the following criteria:

Access to the site is free. I don't pay unless there is a good chance of finding particular individuals.
It provides enough online information to be useful (so I have excluded sites which are merely indexes to offline or commercial sites).
There is a substantial body of information. Random sightings of the 'Gumbleton' surname (my one-name study) are unlikely in lists shorter than, say, 100,000 names.
They are not accessed by general search engines. Searching for occurrences of a particlar name on plain HTML pages is best accomplished by using a search engine such as Google, which regularly crawls the web, indexing pages. However, if data is stored in some kind of database, it is inaccessible to ordinary search engines.
Some reasonable chance of finding people of British origin...because that's where the Gumbletons come from.

For the one-namer with a few minutes to spare, the following sites are worth a few mouse clicks to search for your favourite name.

Name	URL	No. of entries	Comment
Familysearch	http://www.familysearch.com	Millions	The LDS site, including the IGI and lots more
Rootsweb	http://www.rootsweb.com	Millions	Miscellaneous sources. Make sure you use the Rootsweb search facility, not the ancestry.com one, which will take you to a commerdcial site.
Free BMD	http://freebmd.rootsweb.com	About 80 million and rising	UK births, deaths and marriages from the GRO indexes. Has its own search engine, separate from the general one at Rootsweb.
Ellis Island	http://www.ellisisland.org	22M	People arriving at Ellis Island and the Port of New York between 1892 & 1924. Not just immigrants to the US, but also visitors and ships' crews, many from the British Isles.
The National Archives	http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/	About 10 million	Three areas are of particular relevance: Follow links to Catalogues. The main catalogue "Procat", "Access to Archives" and several other catalogues can be searched for free, and include enough information to be useful Follow links to "Online records" and then "Documents online". Again there is a useful catalogue (including PCC wills) and there is free access to a small subset of documents. Again from the "Online records" area you can access the 1901 census online. Although the full records are pay-per-view, the free catalogue provides a lot of information.
National Portrait Gallery	http://www.npg.org.uk	49,000	Searchable index to the national collection of portraits. Worth checking out...there is one Gomeldon here!
Historic Manuscripts Commission	http://www.hmc.gov.uk		National register of archives, which allows for a search by family name
Commonwealth Wargraves Commission	http://www.cwgc.org	1.7m	Commonwealth Wargraves Commission's Debt of Honour register of service men and women who died in the two World Wars
British Library Public Catalogue	http://catalogue.bl.uk	12m	British Library Public Catalogue. Make sure you search the catalogue, rather than using the search engine that just searches the pages on their website!
Historic Directories	http://www.historicaldirectories.org		Excellent collection of searchable online directories at Leicester University.
Cheshire wills	http://www.cheshire.gov.uk/Recordoffice/Wills/Home.htm	130,000	Index to wills 1492-1857 proved at the Chester diocesan consistory court and now held at the Cheshire Record Office
Canadian Immigration	http://www.ingeneas.com/free/	15,000	National Archives of Canada Miscellaneous Immigration Index
Gloucester County Record Office	http://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/		Gloucester county record office has a searchable index to all wills proved at Gloucester between 1541 and 1858; Nonconformist baptisms and Gaol registers (all prisoners held in the county gaol from 1815 to 1879) Follow links to "Record Office" then "Genealogical database"
FreeCEN	http://freecen.rootsweb.com	3M	Free UK census online. In its early days but growing
Canadian Soldiers of WWI	http://www.archives.ca/02/020106_e.html	350,000	attestation papers of Canadian soldiers
National Archives of Australia	http://www.naa.gov.au/	2.5M	Follow links to Record Search. There is also a Photo Search option which searches some 80,000 images
New South Wales State Archives	http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/default.htm		In particular there is an online index to NSW 1841 census. Follow links to Online indexes
Tasmanian Archives Office	http://www.archives.tas.gov.au/genealres/default.htm		Several online databases
Scottish wills	http://www.scottishdocuments.com/content/default.asp	500,000	Although you have to pay for copies of the wills, the index is free and contains useful information
Newcastle Record Office	http://www.durham.gov.uk/		In the process of indexing local births and marriages, 1837 onwards. Follow links to "Online Services" and then to "Restrar's Certificates"
National Archives of South Africa	http://www.national.archives.gov.za/naairs_content.htm		Several searchable databases
Family History in India	http://members.ozemail.com.au/~clday/		Many names of the British in India
Database of Church of England Clergy	http://www.theclergydatabase.org.uk/		Church of England clergy between 1540 and 1835
Jersey Heritage Trust	http://www.jerseyheritagetrust.org/		Searchable Database of Jersey records - follow links to the Catalogues
Proceedings of the Old Bailey	http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/	100,621	Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674 to 1834. Well-indexed by name (including witnesses) and has detailed information about the trials.
British history online	http://www.british-history.ac.uk/		Excellent digital library with free text search capability.
Richmond (Surrey) cemeteries online	http://www.richmond.gov.uk/depts/env/envplanning/cemeteries/genealogy.htm	140,000	Online database of records for East Sheen Cemetery (from 1905); Richmond (from 1876); Hampton (from 1879); Twickenham (from 1868); Teddington from (1879) and Old Mortlake Burial Ground (from 1909).

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