BRITI SH BIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE
and

BRITISH BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX

There are thousands of biographical sources that may contain information about some of your ancestors. The problem for most of us is finding the entry in one of the many such sources and deciding if the persons position warrants spending time looking through so many sources. The idea behind the British Biographical Archive (BBA) was to combine many biographical sources into one alphabetical series so that one could search many sources at one time.

             The BBA contains the biographies themselves as pulled from many sources (see below for sources). Each extract takes at least one page (more if needed), as if clipped out of the original source and then put in proper alphabetical order. The result is on microfiche (FHL #6029710-6029732, 1244 fiche) in one A to Z series.

The entries were pulled from 324 sources. The sources are given on a separate "Source Works" list on 16 fiche (FHL #6029709), where the title page and any introductory pages have been reproduced on the fiche. Each source work is numbered (numerical list on first fiche of "Source Works ") and the title page and introductions follow in numerical order.

           The BBA itself has 170,000 entries reproduced in full. The title bar of each fiche gives the first and last name that appears on that fiche. Each page on the fiche is numbered (restarts at 1 for each first letter of the surname), and the pages go from top left down the first column, then to the top of the second column. The source of each entry is cited at the end of the entry. When the name also appears in the Dictionary of National Biography (not one of the sources), the DNB cite is handwritten after the cited source.

The British Biographical Index (BBI) is a published annotated index to the archive (FHL book Ref 942 D32bb, 4 vols.). Volume one of the Index also contains information about the archive and a list of all 324 sources (in the same order they appear on the "Source Works" fiche). The "annotation" is simply the individual's occupation and life span (e.g., 1863-1895 - Chemist, lecturer, writer). The index also gives the source(s), the BBA fiche number and frame number on the fiche.

          Rather than further explain the Index, I have included the "Notes for Users" explanation from vol. 1 of the Index.