About Biography
Biographical dictionaries
Important and well known people often warrant entries in national publications. Some useful sources for family historians include:
-
Dictionary of national biography
The first volume was published in 1885, the last in 1900 totalling 63 volumes. The entire dictionary was reprinted into 22 volumes at a later date, covering over 30,000 people, many of them important to American and Canadian colonial history as well as to British history. Seven supplements update the collection to 1970, covering another 6,000 biographies. -
Who's who
Lists living men and women of importance. -
Who was who
Contains entries for many of those who formerly appeared in 'Who's who', but are now dead.
Page last updated: 16th May 2005
