USER GUIDE 11 Sources for Family Historians
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USER GUIDE 11 Sources for Family Historians Contacting Us This guide will help to explain some of the more commonly used records for researching family history, including some Please contact us to book a place useful records which are not held by West Yorkshire before visiting our searchrooms. Archive Service [WYAS]. WYAS Bradford Please contact us using the ‘contact us’ details if you would Margaret McMillan Tower Prince’s Way like to visit WYAS to look at any of the records we do hold Bradford that are mentioned in this guide. BD1 1NN Telephone +44 (0)113 535 0152 There is no charge for personal visits to our searchrooms e. [email protected] except for copies of documents and photography fees. We WYAS Calderdale can also arrange for groups visits and offer a 30 minute Central Library & Archives research service. Square Road Halifax HX1 1QG If you are researching local history you may wish to look at Telephone +44 (0)113 535 0151 User Guide 16 ‘Sources for Local Historians’ User Guide e. [email protected] 10 ‘Sources for House History’ and User Guide 7 ‘West WYAS Kirklees Riding Registry of Deeds Service for Family and Local Central Library Historians’ are useful if you are researching the history of a Princess Alexandra Walk building. Huddersfield HD1 2SU In this guide you will find information on: Telephone +44 (0)113 535 0150 e. [email protected] Getting started [Civil registration and census] WYAS Leeds Pre 1837 registration records Nepshaw Lane South Leeds Wills LS27 7JQ School records Telephone +44 (0)113 535 0155 Adoption e. [email protected] Crime and punishment WYAS Wakefield Hospitals and health West Yorkshire History Centre 127 Kirkgate Taxation Wakefield WF1 1JG The history of every family will be unique. To help with your Telephone +44 (0)113 535 0142 research we have listed in this guide records that may help e. [email protected] you. You may need to look at a number of different records in the course of your research. 1 26/03/2018 Reference Libraries in each of our five GETTING STARTED districts. Once you have spoken to your family and CENSUS found out what you can there are two particularly useful places to start. The West Yorkshire Archive Service does not hold The other main source is the records of the Either of these sources but details of where census listing the names of those living at to find them are given below: an address. There has been a census in England and Wales every 10 years since 1801 but the first census to list everyone CIVIL REGISTRATION living at a particular address was in 1841. Census records are closed for 100 years so Civil registration of births, marriages and the most recent census currently available deaths in England and Wales began on is the one from 1911. July 1st 1837 so after this date you ought to find baptism, marriage and burial In 1841 the census entries showed whether Certificates. The indexes are arranged someone had been born in the County they alphabetically under quarters of the year were living in, gave ages rounded down to and give the registration district rather than the nearest 5 years (apart from children) the actual place where the event took and did not show who was the head of the place. household or relationships between residents. The indexes for Yorkshire can be accessed at - www.yorkshirebmd.org.uk Free online Later censuses give ages, occupations, access to the national civil registration place of birth and relationships. Ages and indexes (often known as the General places of birth are of help in tracing families Register Office indexes) is available back through the different census records. on: http://www.freebmd.org.uk/ The WYAS does not hold copies of census returns; however census records are coverage is not yet complete but most of available in the National Archives; and the earlier records have been transcribed. copies are available in local libraries on Or you can pay for access at one of these microfilm, microfiche or you can get access sites: online. http://www.ancestry.co.uk/ Free access to the 1881 census is available http://www.findmypast.co.uk/ at: http://www.bmdindex.co.uk/ http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/Fr ameset_search.asp Microfiche copies of the indexes are available locally at the Local Studies and 2 26/03/2018 Or you can pay for access at one of these Most West Yorkshire parishes have sites: deposited their records with the West Yorkshire Archive Service. http://www.ancestry.co.uk/ 1841-1901 censuses. See Collections Guide 1 – ‘Parish Registers’ for a list of the parish registers http://www.findmypast.co.uk/ for all census held by the West Yorkshire Archive Service. returns from 1841-1911. The registers are being made available to search online via Ancestry.co.uk, free access is available in all our searchrooms. RESEARCH BEFORE 1837 Another useful source you can try searching if you are not sure where a baptism took place is the International Census and civil registration records will Genealogical Index (IGI) which is available help you to get back to 1837; before that at: date you will need to look at other sources http://www.familysearch.org/ of information. The main sources for family history before 1837 are registers of Copies of the parish registers were sent to Baptisms, marriages and burials for either the Bishop and are known as Bishop’s the Church of England or non-conformist Transcripts; they are useful when the chapels and churches. Original register has been lost or is difficult to read. See Collections Guide 3 – ‘Bishop’s Transcripts’ for a list of Bishop’s Transcripts CHURCH OF ENGLAND PARISH held by the West Yorkshire Archive Service. REGISTERS Many of those for West Yorkshire are held by the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York: Church of England Parish registers have http://www.york.ac.uk/library/borthwick/. been kept since 1538 (although not all Survive from this date) and record baptisms (not births), marriages and burials (not deaths). NON CONFORMIST RECORDS Early registers only give names and dates; later registers give more information and from the mid nineteenth century baptism Non-Conformists are members of a registers may give the date of birth. Some religious organisation that does not parishes have ‘Dade’ registers which ‘conform’ to the Church of England. The provide much more detailed information term covers Protestants including Baptists, than ‘normal’ registers. They are particularly Methodists, Presbyterians, Independents, useful as for baptisms they give not only the Congregationalists, Quakers etc. and name of the father but the mother’s name, Roman Catholics. By 1851, a quarter of the father’s occupation, and the names of both English population were nonconformists. grandfathers and parishes of residence. 3 26/03/2018 In 1837, nonconformist churches were The records of Undercliffe Cemetery asked to send their registers to London. (originally privately owned by the Bradford These pre-1837 registers are now held by Cemetery Company) have been deposited the National Archives in Kew with WYAS, Bradford. (see http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk for further information) For other cemeteries you should contact the Local Authority which owns and and can be searched on line at maintains the cemetery. Leeds and Huddersfield Local Studies libraries do http://www.bmdregisters.co.uk. have copies of the cemetery records for their districts. West Yorkshire Archive Service holds registers from over a thousand nonconformist chapels. ADDING DETAIL AND CONTEXT See Collections Guide 2 – ‘Nonconformist Registers’ for a list of those held by the Once you have got the basic information West Yorkshire Archive Service. about your family tree you can start to try and find out more about the lives of your These registers are also being made ancestors. available to search online via Ancestry.co.uk, free access is available in There are a number of sources you can all our searchrooms. look at to add detail to the information you already have. Not all the sources detailed below will exist for your ancestors but CEMETERY RECORDS where they do they can be invaluable. During the nineteenth century the WILLS Churchyards in large towns and cities became full and had to be closed; and cemeteries were opened either by private Wills are drawn up by an individual wishing companies or by local authorities. to settle his or her affairs prior to death and can provide information about social status, The majority of the records of local authority furniture and possessions [through an cemeteries in West Yorkshire have not inventory of the estate] and family been deposited with the West Yorkshire relationships Archive Service. Exceptions are the records of Beckett Street Cemetery which have Before 1858 there was no one place at been deposited with WYAS Leeds and the which wills were proved. Most Yorkshire records of Halifax General Cemetery wills for the period before 1858 were proved which have been deposited with WYAS in the courts of the Archbishop of York. Calderdale. WYAS Calderdale also has These wills are now held at the Borthwick microfilm copies of cemetery records from Institute for Archives: Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council. http://www.york.ac.uk/library/borthwick/ 4 26/03/2018 An index to the Borthwick wills 1688-1857 School log books are a day-to-day record is held on microfilm at WYAS Wakefield. of events at a school kept by the head teacher. They include information on For wills proved after 1858, if you know the activities outside the normal timetable: name of the deceased person, the place official visits, inspections, outings, staff and the date on which probate was granted, appointments and absences, incidents of a copy of the will can be purchased by: misbehaviour, reorganisation of classes, and reasons for low attendance (harvesting or illness being the most common).