England

A Vision of Britain Through Time

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A Vision of Britain Through Time is a very interesting website. It is a snapshot of Britain from 1801 to 2001 and includes maps, statistical trends and historical descriptions.

Whenever I go to websites like this I put in Stalybridge in Cheshire. It is a small village and a good test for this kind of site. There is a small map showing its location in Cheshire. You have subtopics of location, historical writing, units and statistics, related websites and places names. There is a link to the website Ancestral Atlas.

Location provides a small map and an entry from John Bartholomew’s Gazetteer of the British Isles from 1887. There is a note that suggests the information for the modern district of Tameside should be examined. The area of Stalybridge has changed and this is where additional information may be found.

If you click on the map you are taken to a page with links for ten topographic maps, thirteen boundary maps and three land use maps. The first part of the page contains the links and then there is a table of the maps with more details, thumbnail pictures and links below. If you click on the thumbnails you get a larger searchable map.

Using the link to Tameside you get historical statistics such as population, industry, social class, learning and language, agriculture and land use, life and death, work and poverty, housing and roots and religion. These links are the most useful to the family historian.

You will find a boundary map, unit history and boundary changes and related higher and lower level units.

Back to Stalybridge under historical writing you find descriptive gazetteer entries and entries found in travel writing. Under travel writings you find an entry from John Wesley, 1744-45.

Under units and statistics you have election results for three constituencies for Stalybridge. You will find six different administrative areas for Stalybridge and historical statistics with the same topics as Tameside. If you click on the area you want to examine it takes you to another page. There is a note above the table to be careful as a unit may cover a town, village or larger surrounding area. Units with the suffixes of RD or RSD may exclude the place they are named after.

Related websites had one entry for Genuki with two links to different pages. Then there are links to other websites that have information that is geo-referenced and covers Stalybridge. I chose Flickr where you find some photographs relating to the general area of Stalybridge. They are modern photographs and provide a look at the village today.

Place names provide the different references for the village. There is a link to the travel writing or descriptive gazetteer where the place name is found. There is a listing of names found in administrative units which are associated with Stalybridge.

Other general topics include statistical atlas, historical maps, census reports, travel writing and learning resources. Statistical atlas contains the same topics found in Tameside under historical statistics but it is more general in nature. Historical maps contain maps from places such as England, Wales, Scotland, Great Britain and Europe.

Census reports cover the years 1801 to 1971. Each year contains different statistical information but it would be worth investigating to find out more about your geographical area of interest.

Travel writings cover England, Scotland and Wales. The works of James Boswell, Samuel Johnson and John and Charles Wesley, amongst others, can be found under this heading. The writings range from Gerald Wales description of Wales in the 1190s to George Borrow’s trip through Wales in 1854.

The last general topic is Learning Resources. Here you can view E-learning tutorials for agricultural changes, travelling, mapping boundaries, census taking and changing constituencies.

This website will provide family historians with a good idea of how their ancestors may have lived and the times in which they lived. The maps are a good resource to help you with your research and the notes on boundary changes are invaluable.

©2011 – Blair Archival Research

The England Jurisdictions 1851 Map at Family Search

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The England Jurisdictions 1851 Map at Family Search is an invaluable tool for those doing research in England.

First you see a map with all the counties of England highlighted in colours. Click on your county of choice. I chose Cheshire. You then get a list of options such as: List all parishes in Cheshire, list all counties contiguous to Cheshire, search the Family History Library Catalog, search the FamilySearch Research Wiki and the option to remove selection.

If you click on list all parishes you get an alphabetical listing of the parishes in Cheshire. I decided to click Stalybridge, St. Paul, Cheshire. The map then hones in on Stalybridge and highlights the parish. There are three tabs: Info, Jurisdictions and Options.

Info tells me that it is an “Ecclesiastical Parish in the county of Cheshire, created in 1840 from Mottram in Longendale Ancient Parish” I also get the years when records began. The parish register [PR] began in 1839 and the bishops transcripts [BT] began in 1782. If you scroll down further you find a listing of the Non-Church of England denominations in Stalybridge.

Jurisdictions tells me the place, county, civil registration district, probate court along with dates and names of the courts, diocese, rural deanery, poor law union, hundred and province. This information will help with further research.

The Options tab provides five choices: list contiguous parishes, radius search, search the Family History Library Catalog, Search the FamilySearch Research Wiki and remove selection.

The radius search is another great tool. You can do a radius search of Stalybridge for ¼, ½, 1, 3, 5, 10 and 15 miles. I chose a five mile radius. The map now provides a red circle with the highlighted parish of Stalybridge in the centre with a cross marking the centre of the circle. On the left hand side of the page is a list of parishes within a five mile radius of Stalybridge. It gives you the distance of these parishes from Stalybridge. If you click on the name of another parish the map will move to that parish and provide information relating to it.

If you click on the centre of the red circle you get more options: move radius, search here, add another radius search of – miles, remove radius search.

On the left hand side is a tab called layers and you can add extra layers to the map. You already have parish (Chapelry and Extra Parochial) and county but you can add civil registration district, diocese, rural deanery, poor law union, hundred, province, division and ordnance survey. You can also decide to change the map to a Google Street Map or a Google Satellite map.

In the top right corner you have three options: zoom to selection, reset view and reset map. You can zoom into the map to get closer to the parish. This is really useful when you have Ordnance Survey map as the choice. It will only let you zoom in so far which means you can not get down to street level. To get to street level use the map navigation bars and zoom options on the left hand side of the map. The red background of the Ordnance Survey map does make it a little difficult to read the black lettering on the map. The purple highlight over the parish makes it even more difficult again to read the names and markings on the map.

You have the choice to link or print and save the map. There is a feedback option to help Family Search gather our comments on their products. The last option is a question mark for help.

When you click on search Family History Library Catalog it will show you if there are any records available in the library for that parish.

This is a great tool for any family historian researching in England. It provides information on available church records in England. I have family in Stalybridge but they are not always found in the records. This provides me with information on surrounding parishes and those parishes that are not Church of England but another denomination.

Why not go in and play with this map and see what new information you may be able to find about the area in England where your family originated.

A2A – Access to Archives – The United Kingdom Archives Network

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The National Archives of England have a database called A2A or Access to Archives. It is part of the UK archives network. The database is made up of catalogues which describe what is in many local archives across England and Wales. The records go from the eighth century to modern day.

The information comes from local record offices, libraries, universities, museums and national and specialist institutions across England and Wales but it is not all inclusive.

No new information being added to the database but that does not diminish its importance.

When you click on a reference found in A2A you will find a link to the repository holding the original documentation. This link will provide you with the information needed to contact them and what you need to know if you decide to go there to view the documents.

The amount of detail found in the descriptions depends on the originating facility. If you want to find more information on the catalogue entry then contact the relevant repository.

You can not view any images on A2A but you can contact the repository to see if a copy can be made of the document and what the reproduction fee would be.

I have used this database many times. Once I found a record and when I contacted the repository they told me that all the family detail was in the description on A2A and that the record would not be able to be copied because of preservation reasons. Still I was able to get the family details from the document.

Once I found a real gem, a letter from an ancestor requesting a person of nobility’s support in obtaining a post at Dublin Castle. This and other information in the letter was fantastic not to mention the letter was written by my ancestor in 1767. As a result I have his signature and a sample of his handwriting which is something rarely found for that time period.

When searching A2A you may find something in Derbyshire that seems to relate to your family but they lived in London. Remember that family papers and other items were not always placed in a repository near where they lived. They may have had dealings with someone whose home was in another county so therefore their papers were placed in that family’s home county archives or local record office.

Keep an open mind and follow up every lead.

©2011 – Blair Archival Research