General Sources
Web sites
Ancestry provides message boards, maps, linked pedigree files, indexes, and original source records.

Manx National Heritage web site

The Office of National Statistics is an official U.K. government agency that holds civil registration records.

The Public Record Office is the official agency that maintains many public records collected by the government of the U.K..

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints provides links to holdings in Family History Centres worldwide.

GENUKI is a volunteer organisation that has made thorough descriptions of parishes, Isle of Man history, and Isle of Man links.

Recommended Readings
Your English Ancestry: A Guide for North Americans, by Sherry Irvine, (Ancestry, 1993)

Genealogical Resources in English Repositories, by Joy Wade Moulton (Hampton House, 1998)

Ancestral Trails: The Complete Guide to British Genealogy and Family History, by Mark D. Herber (Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc.,1997)

In Search of the "Forlorn Hope", by John M. Kitsmiller, II (Manuscript Publishing Foundation, 1988)

Note: The Isle of Man is not part of the United Kingdom, but is a dependency of the Crown.

Census Records
The first Isle of Man (or Manx) census that included names of the household was1841. A census has been taken every ten years since then except 1941. All of the available census returns have been microfilmed and are available from LDS Family History Centres and the Family Records Centre in London. The LDS Church has completed an index to the census of 1881.

Vital and Church Records
Parish Registers
Before 1878, the best records for births(christenings), marriages, and deaths(burials) were kept by the parishes. Many surviving parish registers have been microfilmed and are available from LDS Family History Centres. All of the recorded marriages have been indexed and appear in the Isle of Man section of the International Genealogical Index (IGI). Many baptisms have also been indexed in the IGI.

Civil Registration of Birth, Marriage, and Death
Civil registration of births and deaths began in 1878. Civil registration of marriages began in 1884. Manx registers are held at General Registry, Deemster's Walk, Bucks Road, Douglas, Isle of Man. The public can inspect the registers and order certified copies of certificates.

Compiled Genealogy
The Ancestry World Tree has more than 12,000 linked names of families from Isle of Man in pedigrees submitted by contributors from all over the world. FamilySearch.org also has many thousands of contributed pedigree files.

Community and Message Boards
The largest message board for Manx family history research is provided by Ancestry.

Military Records
Nearly all British military records for Isle of Man are held in the Public Record Office in Kew, London, England.

Reference and Finding Aids
Visit the Isle of Man Map Centre at Ancestry.

Emigration
Emigration in the 1800s
To search emigration records effectively, you should know the approximate date of emigration, the name of the ship, the reason for emigration, or the emigrant’s previous residence in the Isle of Man. If you know the ship’s name, you might find additional details on the ship, including ports of embarkation and arrival, in Lloyd’s Register of British and Foreign Shipping. Fiche ed. (LaCrosse, Wis.: Brookhaven Press, 1981).

Passenger Lists
Pre-1890 passenger departure lists are rare. Post-1890 lists are arranged chronologically by port of departure. These lists usually give the emigrant’s name, age, occupation, address, and sometimes destination, and are kept at the Public Record Office in Kew, London, England.

Additionally, you may try searching immigration records of the United States, Canada, and Australia, where the majority of Manx immigrants settled.

Court, Land, and Probate
Until 1884 the church was responsible for establishing the validity of wills. The Consistorial Court for Isle of Man was the Court of Sodor and Man or the Archdeaconry Court of the Isle of Man, which proved wills of residents living in its boundaries. If property crossed diocese boundaries the will was proven by the Prerogative Court in York.

After 1884, wills were proven in the Manx High Court of Justice.

Changes in land ownership were recorded from 1511 to 1916 in the Liber vastarum. The Manx Museum has microfilm of these records.