A biography is a brief history of a person’s life. In a biography you may find the person’s birth, marriage, or death information, the names of family members, or highlights of a person’s life. Use the information carefully since there may be inaccuracies.

Thousands of biographies have been gathered and published in collections, sometimes called biographical encyclopedias or dictionaries. These collections usually include only biographies of prominent or well-known British subjects. Prominent residents of Wales may also be listed in English sources. Other works contain biographies of specific groups, such as painters, ministers, architects, and so forth. Important biographical sources include:

Dictionary of Welsh Biography Down to 1940. London: The Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, 1959. (FHL book 920.0429 C992c; fiche 6026369; computer number 0273117.)

Roberts, T. R. Eminent Welshmen: A Short Biographical Dictionary of Welshmen. 2 vols. Cardiff and Merthyr Tydfil: Educational Publishing Co., 1908. (FHL book 942.9 D34r; film 599808; computer number 0220998.)

Index to British and Irish Biographies. Manchester: Chadwyck-Healey, 1990. (FHL microfiche 6342001; computer number 0473339.) Indexes printed biographies published between 1840 and 1940. Biographies relating to the index are also in the library collection, found in the Author/Title Search of the microfiche version of the Family History Library Catalog under British and Irish Biographies.

Glasgow University, Humanities Reference Systems Unit, ed. British Biographical Index. London: K. G. Saur, 1990. (FHL book 942 D32bb; computer number 0526508.) This is a surname index to the more than 1200 microfiche which comprise the British Biographical Archive. The British Biographical Archive indexes 324 biographical works published between 1601 and 1929. Biographies referenced in this index may also be in the Family History Library’s collection. The British Biographical Archive can be found in the Author/Title Search of the microfiche version of the Family History Library Catalog under British Biographical Archive.

Other sources are listed in the Locality Search of the Family History Library Catalog under:

GREAT BRITAIN - BIOGRAPHY WALES - BIOGRAPHY WALES, [COUNTY] - BIOGRAPHY

Return to top of page

Previous Document   Next Document

©1998, 2001 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA. No part of this document may be reprinted, posted on-line, or reproduced in any form for any purpose without the prior written permission of the copyright holder. FamilySearch is a trademark of Intellectual Reserve, Inc.
[FamilySearch^TM: Research Guidance
Version of Data: 6/9/2001]