The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is the national record of men and women who’ve shaped all walks of British life—from the Romans to the 21st century. Published online, and extended three times a year, the Oxford DNB includes more than 57,000 life stories.

Public libraries in Bedfordshire subscribe to the Oxford DNB, which means you can look for people either in the library or from home (or anywhere, anytime) using your library membership number, and a Personal Identification Number (PIN) as a log-in.

You can gain access to the Oxford DNB via Bedfordshire libraries’ Online Resources where you can also obtain a PIN. With access lives from Bedfordshire, Britain — and indeed the world — are just a click away.

1. Bedfordshire lives
2. Finding people near you
3. Topical and local history in the Oxford DNB

1. Bedfordshire lives

The Oxford DNB includes more than 500 men and women with connections to Bedfordshire from John Bunyan (1628-88), author of Pilgrim’s Progress, and brewer Samuel Whitbread (1720-96) to Mary Tealby, founder of Battersea Dogs’ Home in 1860, and the Olympic athlete Harold Abrahams (1899-1978). More specifically you can focus in on places to find 25 people with links to Leighton Buzzard, including Mary Norton, and 30 with ties to Dunstable, including Katherine of Aragon.

You’ll find many sons and daughters of Luton, including the medieval churchman, Simon of Luton, and the novelist Arthur Hailey, author of blockbuster novels such as Hotel and Airport. From Bedford there’s the polar explorer Apsley Cherry-Garrard and, of course, comedian Ronnie Barker.

You can also search across the county for specified links to Bedfordshire, allowing you to find 200 people educated or trained in Bedford—including novelist Ivy Compton-Burnett and Christopher Cockerell, inventor of the hovercraft—alongside 11 one-time residents of Sandy, and more than 100 famous people buried in the county’s churches.

Across the Oxford DNB’s 65 million words, you’ll also find nearly 50 references to the R101 and Cardington, 2 to Luton Town FC, and many more to Woburn, including Ian Russell, the colourful duke of Bedford, who turned the park into a famous visitor attraction.

It’s easy to search by place in the Oxford DNB as the following section explains.

2. Finding people near you

The Oxford DNB includes the life stories of more than 57,000 men and women. Online you can search for where they were born, baptized, lived, died or were buried, searching by county, town, village, church, and street.

	Here are some tips for how to find people near you—be they one-time residents of Princes Street, Edinburgh (45), sons and daughters of Whitby (24), or those buried in Exeter (112)—and how this can be used for school projects or family history.
	Text searching across the Oxford DNB’s 65 million words, you can also make links between people and places: for example, we’ve 92 references to Clapham Common, 23 to the River Trent, and 40 to Snowdonia.

3. Topical and local history

Try a map—from British brewers, to gardeners and seafarers.

Listen to a life

	Every two weeks the Oxford DNB releases a biography podcast. There are more than 100 episodes to choose from, including John Lennon, Madame Tussaud, Morecambe and Wise, Roald Dahl, and Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
	Browse the episodes by list or by place.

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> Read the Oxford DNB, free and at home, using your library's subscription

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