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

• My father's type-written version of the family tree which I have in my possession. He credits his information on the early part of the tree (from Robert Newman d. 1402 to Frances Holles Newman 1671-1714) to a distant cousin Rev Grosvenor Bartelot F.S.A. Bartelot wrote a book called "The History of Fifehead Magdalen Church and Manor" though I have not yet been able to discover a copy of it. My father credits the latter part of his tree (from Francis Holles Newman onwards) to Somerset Archeological & Natural History Proceedings for the year 1890 which may well be the same Proceedings of Somerset Archeological Society reference that appears below.
• Latterly, I have rediscovered a number of papers that my father collected which contain lots of information which meant little to me at the time of his death, but which has provided me with a lot of useful leads. Amongst these is a hand-drawn pedigree which I have included in these pages, and several letters and other documents which I have either transcribed or scanned and incorporated in what I hope are appropriate (and discoverable) places.
• Information supplied to me by Somerset Records Office has come from from:
  1. Photocopy of Burke's Commoners, ii, pp 111-113, covering the "Newmans of Thornbury Park" who derive from the same ancestry as myself;
  2. Photocopy of Pedigree of Newman Proceedings of Somerset Archeological Society Vol XXXIX pp 156-159 (according to Somerset Records Office; Raymond Mercier found it to be Vol XXXVI); and
  3. Photocopy of John Hutchin's History of Dorset (Third Edition 1870) pages 57 and 58 describing Fifehead Magdalen and including a Pedigree of Newman. [In my notes about Robert Newman of Fifehead Magdalen (d. 1556) I record that the three above sources contradict one another in relation to his wife and children, and it is John Hutchins History of Dorset which comes closest to the information that was passed to me by my father.]
  4. Yeovil census records for 1851, 1861, 1881 and 1891.
• I have received massive amounts of information from people (mostly distant relatives) who have found this website and who have contacted me as a result. These have included Jerry Gandolfo in New Orleans USA, John and David Newman in Devon UK, Clifford Ranson in Cheshire, Raymond Mercier of St Ives, Cambridgeshire, UK, Scott Nourse of Austin, Texas, Geoffrey Newman of Ontario in Canada, Helen Proctor of the UK, Campbell Newman of Queensland, Australia and more recently Jonathan Newman-Rogers. All have contributed valuable information and leads to other people, including cousins in New Zealand with whom I am now also in frequent contact. In addition, I have to thank my cousins Ian Caldwell in Surrey, UK, and Oliver Suffield in the West Midlands, UK, and Ray Farnsworth in Northumberland, for providing me with huge amounts of useful information.
• Research work has been undertaken for me by Di Clements, Jennifer Day, and Susan Moore, all professional researchers based in Somerset. Amongst the sources that Di has used in researching some of the Newman estates for me is Collingson's "History of Somerset"published in 1791. My father also quotes from Volume II of this work, but I have not yet seen it for myself.
• A large amount of information about the Newman family may be available through the Newman Name Society with whose permission I have copied a fascinating letter from Wayne Dexter Newman that was published in the April 1998 issue of The Newman Chronicle.
• [Added Oct 2011] In addition to the above, a new Newman resource has been established by Robert Newman in the form of a Newman One-Name Study that can be found at http://newmanonenamestudy.tribalpages.com/.
• Useful information about the Newman-Paynter law firm has been gleened from the London Gazette website.

Non-Newman information sources include:

• http://caldwell.freeservers.com/ for Ian Caldwell's web pages about the Paynters, Colemans and others
• http://www.nelsonfamilies.com/ for David Nelson's web pages about Nelson families.
• http://www.archerfamily.org.uk/ for Jeremy Archer's web pages about Jekyll and many other families.

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