Rootschat - A site to discuss Wiltshire genealogy
The following websites have all been provided curtesy of
Richard Heaton:
North
Wilts Muster 1539
An
Early Deed from Swindon
Letter
from Devizes
Bond
from Sherston
Part
of a Deposition at Aldbourne
Letter
on Pewsey (from the Times)
Reference
to surviving Poor Law Record for Pewsey Church
Restoration list for Pewsey
Formerly
the Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office at Trowbridge, they were
relocated in 2007 to a new facility in Chippenham. They are
the repository for many of the records of interest to genealogists,
including parish records, Bishop’s transcripts, censuses, and an
extensive collection of wills. They have an online catalogue
of their record collections, and instructions for obtaining copies:
WSHC
- on-line catalogues
Their
wills catalogue is included as a searchable database on their website,
and they have begun scanning some of them, and attaching the images as
links to the catalogue listings – truly valuable, since many early
wills pre-date the parish records. They may be found here:
Wiltshire
Wills Catalogue search
Moonrakers Wiltshire Genealogy
This website has a wealth of information for Wiltshire: history, maps, photos, more useful links, and an interesting collection of downloadable documents, including parish information and GEDCOM files.
In particular, they have downloadable Word versions of the All Cannings parish records. To find these, click the “Uncatalogued Files” link under “Downloads” in the list at the left of their home page. On that page, click on “Miscellaneous documents in various formats”. Some caveats about these files: 1] Do read the Copyright Notice for appropriate use; 2] These files are formatted in such a way that each year is a separate section, with the year as a page header. If you try to change the font, or print to a different paper size [as I did], this may change the pagination, and all your years will be incorrect!Wiltshire Family History Society
They offer many published records as books or CDs, as well as research services, a variety of contact information, tours, and links to some pay-per-view records collections, like monument inscriptions and Salisbury marriage licenses.The
“Search” tab on their home page gives access to a number of searchable
resources, including the 1881 UK census and the International
Genealogical Index [IGI]. The latter contains a
combination of extracted and member-submitted records. The
extracted records were transcribed, indexed [and often microfilmed] by
the LDS church, and have a higher level of accuracy than
member-submitted records. Extracted records always have a
batch number, and a list of the batch numbers for Wiltshire, with links
to the records, can be found here:
IGI
Batch numbers for Wiltshire
This database is searchable by name, date, etc. It will give you a listing of individual census records, and the actual records can be obtained for a fee. It will not give you entire households, as can be found in the 1881 census online at FamilySearch.org.
1901 census of England and WalesFreeBMD is an ongoing project, the aim of which is to transcribe the Civil Registration index of births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales, and to provide free Internet access to the transcribed records. It is an index to the actual records, so you won’t find parents names for instance, but it gives you the reference to obtain actual records. Wiltshire has pretty good coverage so far, up to about 1910, and some of the later birth records [after 1900 or so] give mother’s maiden name, which is helpful in finding the right marriage, or siblings.
They claim to offer more than 20,000 items from over 120 suppliers of Family History and Local History publications. The offer atlases & maps, books, censuses [transcripts, indexes, & images], directories, military records, parish records, wills, etc. Searchable catalogue and reasonable prices.
Francis Frith collection - photographs, maps and books for Wiltshire
Francis Frith was a wealthy Victorian, who founded a world-famous photographic archive. For over thirty years in the late 1800s, he traveled all over Britain with the intention of photographing evey city, town, and village in Britain [his archive includes over 7,000 of them]. His collection now has over 120,000 images, many of which are browseable and can be purchased through this website.