Family history resources at the Parliamentary Archives

Jodie Kidd, model and TV personality, visited the Parliamentary Archives to trace her ancestors for the BBC's 'Who Do You Think You Are?'

Jodie Kidd's great-grandfather Rowland Hodge is mentioned in two letters in the Lloyd George papers at the Parliamentary Archives.

She found him by searching the Parliamentary Archives' online catalogue, Portcullis.

Find out about how she did it and watch clips of her in the Parliamentary Archives on the BBC's Who Do You Think You Are site.

The whole programme is available to watch on the BBC's iPlayer until Mon 6 October.

You don't have to have famous ancestors to find them in the Parliamentary Archives!

Maybe your ancestor was an MP, or peer, or worked in Parliament.

But even if not, the decisions taken by Parliament affect the lives of everyone. Thousands of ordinary people appear in documents in the Parliamentary Archives, for many different reasons.

Perhaps they :

• Were naturalised as British citizens before 1848
• Took the oath of allegiance to the Protestant religion in 1642
• Were a Catholic in 1767
• Gave evidence on proposed roads, railways, canals and other public works, from 1774
• Lived in a place affected by a proposed road, railway, canal or other public work, from 1794
• Signed a petition to Parliament

I want... information on someone naturalised by Act of Parliament.

The document pictured to the left is a rare naturalisation Act dating from after 1844.

An Act to naturalise Isaac Aaron Abensur and to grant and confer upon him all the rights privileges and capacities of a natural-born subject of Her Majesty the Queen, 1896.

Parliamentary Archives, HL/PO/PB/1/1896/59&60V1n272

Sources for Family History in the Parliamentary Archives ( PDF 4.1 MB)