It's never been easier to trace your ancestors. At the touch of a button you can go back a couple of centuries to find out what kind of home your family lived in, their socio-economic class, and how they lived, worked and died.

"Sometimes I think it's a bit too easy these days," laughed Carol Greenwood, Bradford Central Library's senior information officer for local studies.

"Once you had to spend hours leafing through dusty tomes, now it's all online. The internet has made records more accessible."

Researching a family tree is now the third most popular internet pursuit, behind porn and personal finance.

From September 1 library-users have been able to access genealogy website ancestry.co.uk for free after Bradford Central Library subscribed to it. The website includes the major Census returns from 1841 to 1901, and access to the General Register Office index to Births, Marriages and Deaths in England and Wales from 1837 to 2003.

"Census forms list everyone in the house, their relationships, ages, occupations and where they were born," said Carol. "They reveal the kind of house your family lived in and whether they had servants. The houses may still be standing."

Also from this month, phone books dating back to 1880 have been made available online, making it easier to trace family histories. BT joined forces with ancestry.co.uk to launch the new service, which will also help anyone wanting to explore the history of previous residents of their homes.

It's hard to imagine, in a world where famous people, (and some ordinary ones), wouldn't be seen dead listed in the telephone directory, that not so long ago you could ring the likes of Sir Winston Churchill, Sir Laurence Olivier and Alfred Hitchcock, who were all listed!

Since phone ownership was limited to the rich until the mid-20th century, being in the directory was something to be proud of.

Josh Hanna, managing director of ancestry.co.uk, said: "British phone books are a fascinating, important addition to our online records and provide family and social historians with 20th century information which has been very difficult to find until now. They contain very particular details about the lives of the famous, and the infamous, including the likes of Sir Winston Churchill and Bram Stoker."

The BT collection of telephone directories are public records up to 1984, the year of BT's privatisation, and are held and safeguarded by BT Archives.

David Hay, head of heritage at BT Archives, said: "Since their introduction in 1880, phone books have provided a unique snapshot of communities in Britain in a regular and familiar format, making them an ideal source for both family and social historians."

Another useful route for genealogy enthusiasts and local historians is Bradford Central Library's sixth floor. From mid-October it will be home to Bradford-related documents, from school records to parish registers, which have been moved from West Yorkshire Archive Service's Canal Road site to the library.

The archive material has been at Canal Road since 1985. Before then it was kept at the Central Library as part of its archive department, founded in 1974.

"Having it all back under one roof, as an addition to the local studies information we currently have, widens our service," said Carol. "Before we were constantly referring people to Canal Road, now we have a one-stop shop.

"We've spent 12 months making room in our basement for the archives. That won't be open to the public but if people tell us what they want in the search room we will help them access the relevant records."

The West Yorkshire Archive Service material includes original records of businesses, local family papers, council documents, school records, parish registers and minutes from old clubs and societies.

Information already available at the Central Library includes the General Register Index for Births, Marriages and Deaths for England and Wales from 1837 - when records were first kept by the state - to 1980 on microfiche, as well as a wealth of background information for research.

This week actor Robert Daws visited the Central Library to look at the 1891 Census as part of research into his family tree. As reported in the T&A today, Robert, currently in Bradford filming the new series of ITV medical drama The Royal, discovered that his great-great grandfather, Frederick Daws, moved to Bradford in the mid-19th century and ran the Bradford Boot Shop on Kirkgate.

"I've had a portrait of Frederick all my life and now I'm finally finding out who he was," said Robert, who discovered his great-great grandfather lived on Albert Road in Saltaire, after moving here from Middlesex. Carol said he may have been one of the first workers at Salts Mill, built in 1853, or been involved with creating the village of Saltaire - now a World Heritage Site - that Sir Titus Salt had built for his mill workers.

"Many people moved to Bradford for work then because there were so many mills here," said Carol.

Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman's great-great grandfather, Thomas Paxman, also moved to Bradford, from Suffolk, seeking mill work.

Earlier this year Carol helped Jeremy trace his family history for the BBC's Who Do You Think You Are?

He discovered his great-grandparents died of tuberculosis in their 30s in the 1880s, leaving a young son who became Jeremy's grandfather, Arthur. Wiping away tears, Jeremy said on the programme: "He lost both his parents by the time he was ten, both to TB and exhaustion. He got a job in a woollen mill aged 12. A very hard life."

Carol said unearthing uncomfortable facts can be upsetting. "Something that happened to your relatives makes it more real. Jeremy knew that children worked in mills and people died of TB, but discovering his own relatives were among them made him very emotional.

"The current series of Who Do You Think You Are? has sparked lots of interest in family trees. We have an urge to find out about our roots."