LINK: Companies House

[Boongie Pam]

http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/

The main functions of Companies House are to:

>> incorporate and dissolve limited companies;
>> examine and store company information delivered under the Companies Act and related legislation; and
>> make this information available to the public.

Why is this useful?

If you had an ancestor who worked for a registered business you can search business names for free at their website to see if teh company is still extant.  They have a "webcheck" section were you can search ...

1.  Current / recently dissolved names
2.  Dissolved names
3.  Previous names
4.  Proposed names

Number 3 will bring up historical names for companies given you the new name and registered head offce.  Many companies keep records in small archives so yuo may find novel resources on your folks.

I hope this helps,
Pam