AGRA

 The Association of Genealogists and Researchers

They are one of the professional body for researchers. If you want to pay someone to do research they will be able top nominate a capable person to carry out your enquiry.

ANCESTRAL FILE

This is the genealogical record system preferred by the Church of the Latter-day Saints who provide the biggest and best free search records.

CENSUS

Census's have been carried out by governments for many years mainly for taxation purposes. Since 1841 the UK government has carried out a census every 10 years and have kept the records as a public document. The Census records the name,age,occupation and relationships of everyone living an each house in the UK on a given night.

CWDC

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

ENUMERATION DISTRICT

This relates to a small area covered by a Census

FFHS

Family History Federation. The FFHS is a national group although every area has its own FHS which is made up of local family history enthusiasts,

FHC

Family History Centres are run by the LDS to help trace ancestors.

FRC

Family Records Centre in London with indexes of births,marriages and Deaths since modern records began in 1837.

FREEBMD

A free record of births,marriage and Death records- Not yet complete.

FTM

Family Tree Maker is one of the most popular software programs and provides the format FTM which is used for the majority of data disks.

GEDCOM

Gedcom is the standard file format used on the internet to exchange information between different programs and web sites.

GRO

The General Record Office. This is sited within the Family records Centre and carries out he official side of the work.

IGI

International Genealogical Index is maintained by the LDS  from church registers and information supplied by the public. The database is very large and is held in awe as it was the first large database available to the public.

LDS

Church of the Latter Day Saints , often known as the Mormon Church. The church believes that it is import to it's members that they trace their ancestors for religious purposes and offered family history research before the internet became popular. They now have the biggest and best free databases of information

NAI

The National Irish Archive maintains records for Ireland

NAS

The National Scottish Archive maintains records for Scotland

SOG

Society of Genealogists provide training and maintain records many of which are unique

TNA

The National Archives is at Kew in London. This contains official national records ranging from the Domesday book to lists of sailors serving at Trafalgar.