Local and family history services

Future Events - Local and Family History talks

• All are welcome to the free talk by Judith Dennis of the National Coal Mining Museum for England on the topic of 'Resources for family historians at the National Coal Mining Museum for England'. The event will take place on Wednesday 17th March at 3.00pm in the 3rd Floor Meeting Room at the Leeds Central Library.

• Look out for our new series of lunch time talks, beginning on Friday April 9th at the Leeds Central Library, with Kitty Ross from Leeds Museums speaking on the subject of 'Leeds in Victorian Paintings'.

The Local and Family History Library aims to acquire, conserve and make available to the public all materials published on Leeds and significant publications on Yorkshire, with the emphasis on West Yorkshire. The library holds about 180,000 items including books, journals, directories, maps, photographs and prints, playbills and microfilms.

The library is concerned with two distinct subject areas

Local History - anything to do with Leeds and Yorkshire – history, geography, religion, education and natural history.

Family History – a fast-growing area of popularity, for which we have a wide variety of resources.

Research services
If you are unable to visit the library, staff will answer quick enquiries received by e-mail, letter or telephone free of charge. For more detailed research requests a charge is made, £5.00 per 30 minutes for Leeds residents and £10.00 per 30 minutes for customers who live outside Leeds. Contact the Local and Family History Library for more information.

You can use our online form to make a request for local and family history information.

News

Leeds Libraries offer free online access to the British Library's Nineteenth Century British Newspapers archive and The Times Digital Archive 1785-1985

Leeds Libraries is delighted to announce free online access to Nineteenth Century British Newspapers and The Times Digital Archive 1785 - 1985. These two online resources are now available to access in all Leeds libraries and from home. Access is via www.leeds.gov.uk/onlineresources, click on the relevant link and type in library membership number. The Nineteenth Century British Newspapers archive has over 2 million pages of searchable text by keyword. It includes the Leeds Mercury January 03, 1807 - December 31, 1900. No doubt a wonderful resource for local and family historians.

Contacts