Newman Information Sources


I have used a variety of information sources for this project, which I will outline as best I can below.

Non-Newman information sources include:


General Genealogical Sources

England and Wales

Central government - National Archives, Kew. This includes Census, Chancery, Exchequer, War Office for Army, Cabinet Office, Admiralty for Navy, Air Force, Board of Trade, Bankrupts, etc. And also things like railway records for the companies before nationalisation. See nationalarchives.gov.uk.

County government - County archives. This includes anything generated by the county, including Assize records, poor law after 1832, quarter sessions records.

Probate Office, York: Keeps wills and probate records for people who died in or after 1858. See https://www.gov.uk/search-will-probate.

Diocesan records - usually county archives, including marriage licences, wills.

Parish level - usually county archives including registers of baptisms, administration of the poor law before 1832.

Private estate papers - often county archives or still in private hands as in the case of the Oxford college estate records (they held lands all over the country)

Outside all of this Births, Marriages and Deaths are administered by the Office for National Statistics. These are now only available online.

The British Library has a large manuscript collection of all sorts of things - anything that is not central government.

The Society of Genealogists Library acts as a repository for papers deposited by genealogist, and has a large library full of books relating to family history and local history

London Gazette: source of a wide range of miscellaneous information. See Thegazette.co.uk

Parliamentary Records: - see History of Parliament On-line

 

Scotland

Scottish Records Centre: indexes to births, marriages and deaths from 1 January 1855, as well as images of the actual records on a pay-per-view basis; all census records for Scotland from 1841-1911; old parish registers of baptisms and marriages from 1553-1854, and Wills and Testaments. Wills up to 1925 including soldiers’ wills. Upstairs for later wills. See Scotlandspeople.gov.uk

National Library – George IV Bridge: newspapers, old maps, town and city directories and countless other records - www.nls.uk/

Central Library – George IV Bridge: ??? - yourlibrary.edinburgh.gov.uk/

Commissary Court – Chambers Street: “An extremely valuable source for family history, but also for local, social and economic history. The earliest surviving records of testaments begin before the Reformation. For the early modern period there is no other record group which gives such an all round picture of the lives of ordinary Scots, their standard of living, business and personal contacts and patterns of agriculture.” Records from 1514; recent wills (up to 2005). - nrscotland.gov.uk/research/guides/commissary-court-records

Parish libraries and record offices – (e.g. Haddington; Berwick-on-Tweed): Local newspaper and other records.

Borders Genealogy Society - www.bordersfhs.org.uk/

Aberdeen & North-East Scotland Family History Society - www.anesfhs.org.uk/

 

Military Records

National Archives

MoD Glasgow

Military Museums

 

India

Families in British India (FIBIS) - fibis.org/

Indiaman Magazine - indiaman.com (seems to have become a dead link - may now be incorporated in FIBIS)

India Office Records (British Library) - indiafamily.bl.uk/ui/IorIntro.aspx

British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia - bacsa.org.uk/

USA

Ellis Island Records - https://www.topviewnyc.com/packages/new-york-city-and-the-historical-ellis-island (recommended by Ava Gray).

On-line Databases

Ancestry.co.uk Online access to digitized images of all census returns from 1841 to 1901 for England, Wales, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man, and are in the process of adding these for Scotland as well. Other available records for British genealogy include early parish registers and a copy of the FreeBMD database mentioned above

FreeBMD.org.uk: A large portion of the Civil Registration Index of births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales have been transcribed by volunteers and can be searched online for free at FreeBMD. Images of many of the original BMD indexes can also be viewed.

FamilySearch.org: A huge (and FREE) database from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) containing baptism and marriage records transcribed directly from parish records around England and Wales. Check the source to see if the information was taken from the original parish records, Bishops Transcripts, or was provided by a church member researching his/her own family history. Most of these parish records are from the 1850s and earlier.

TheGenealogist.co.uk: Offers excellent value for its wealth of genealogy databases, including the full index of births, marriages, and deaths; census records; parish registers; directories; and a variety of specialty databases. The BMD site (www.bmdindex.co.uk) is also affiliated, as is the volunteer indexing site UK Indexer (www.ukindexer.co.uk).

Scotlandspeople.gov.uk: offering access to records held at the Scottish Records Centre.

County Archives such as Somerset Records Office. Others like Dorset History Centre have less information available on-line, but will no doubt catch up in time.

Friends Reunited - http://www.friendsreunited.co.uk/

Genes Reunited - http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/

Find My Past - http://www.findmypast.co.uk/

Genuki - http://www.genuki.org.uk/

One Name Studies - e.g. Newman One Name Study - http://newman.one-name.net/

Google Books -

Old Maps - Old-maps.co.uk and http://maps.nls.uk/

Professional Researchers - Susan Moore

 

On-Line Family Tree Packages

Ancestry offers a free Genealogical Tree builder at http://trees.ancestry.co.uk/.

 

Genealogy Software Packages

Family Tree Maker - http://www.familytreemaker.com/

The Next Generation - http://www.tngsitebuilding.com/

My Brother’s Keeper - http://www.bkwin.org/

Software reviews – e.g. http://www.gensoftreviews.com/

Friends Reunited

Genes Reunited

Find My Past

Genuki.org.uk


General Guides to Genealogy

The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide To Genealogy recommended by Maria Jones.

The Ultimate Genealogy Guide recommended by Denise Morgan.

Home Adviser Guide to Genealogy recommended by Sabrina Doyle.

"A Genealogist's Guide to Tracing People from Our Past" (with a US focus) recommended by LouAnne and Allison from booklicious.net..

Genealogy & Ancestry Guide - How to find your family history - a comprehensive guide recommended by Emily Fletcher. Guidance is broken up into the following sections and subsections:.

    1. Approach Your Family
    2. Begin the Family Tree
    3. Key Family Tree Information
    4. Online Investigations
      4.1 Where to Start
      4.2 Census Records
      4.3 Other Important Information Sources
    5. Using Offline Resources
    6. DNA Tests
    7. Genealogy Top Tips
    8. Seeking Help
      8.1 The Society of Genealogists
    9. Start Putting Together Your Pieces of History Today.

Page uodated: 31 Jun 2020 - link to "The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide To Genealogy" website added
Previous update 15th Jun 2019