Genealogy Chat

Are there any places where parish records can be viewed online? I find visiting records offices difficult if not impossible! I'm thinking in particular of gloucestershire and wiltshire. Many thanks Lisa

have you tried the Hugh Wallis site?

You really need to google the parish name and/or check Genuki for info. http://www.genuki.org.uk/ Unfortunately the counties you mention seem to fall in the ''poor'' catagory for online records!! I know because they are two of my main counties for research!! (When you say ''Glous'', do you mean Bristol, or other places??) Sarah

HI all Have tried Hugh Wallis, wasn't particularly successful! For Glos, Oldland Common, Bitton, Keynsham which I think are more 'Bristol' than Glos, and also Chew Magna and Dundry which are Somerset. I think its a lost cause! Lisa

I tried to add this once but it didn't work - look at Family History Online and also at the Bristol & Avon Family History Society website and maybe you will find something of use. Kate.

B****y H*ll, Lisa - surely we should be related!! Just about all those parishes you list are where my dad's rellies have lived!!! I have mostly only had access to PR's via my cousin in Australia!! She lives close to a LDS centre. My nearest one is only about ten miles away, but they are only open for an absolute max of two hours per day and the two times I have tried to visit, the volunteer(s) forgot to turn up so it stayed shut!! It's a bit much when you have to ask someone in Queensland to do a lookup in Keynsham for you!! I have the 1851 census for all those places should you need them. Plus there are some burials on the Bristol and Avon FHS website. (google it!). They also have records for Oldland 1881 census which is missing from ALL other versions of the 1881. Happy Hunting! Sarah

Kingston upon Thames has a good selection of parish records on line - cant for the life of me remember where, but I think I found them via the genealogy links on the GR homepage. Bev x

Keynsham and bitton sometimes come under somerset (the other side the river). Are you looking for Brittons? - there is a book of Briton family history in Kingswood library which should be obtainable through thel ibrary service they were a very well known local family as they owned a Boot and shoe manufacturing firm. I even worked there for a couple of weeks when I was a student, I have the same problem with parish records currently looking for Kelston, Bitton and Southstoke. I olso had relatives near chew magna. Its a small world.

Hi Lisa This site has wills. http://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleID=1335 and this for the Cotswolds...wish all my other places were like this...lovely http://members.shaw.ca/panthers5/Census.html Sylvia

HI all Sarah, I'm looking for Harvey, Saunders, Woodman, & Barnett - got anyone of those names?! The Woodmans began life in Old Sodbury, Glos, then moved out to Oldland/Bitton/Keynsham. The Harveys started off in St George, Bristol - one married a Welsh girl. The Barnetts originally came from Cirencester - then moved down to Oldland, and the Saunders started off in Chew Magna, somerset. I'm told that there have been Saunders in Chew Magna since Tudor times - haven't got mine back there yet! Its just really difficult to get to records offices - I can't drive, husband, well probablywould take me but not all the time, and when I did get there I wouldn't have a clue how to find anything - I can't even find things on Ancestry or 1837, so daft am I. If some parish records were online, well, I could have a go..... My Britton connection, well, I'm not really a Britton at all. Its my married name, but hubby changed his name to Britton from something else, so he's nothing to do with the shoe people! Lisa

Hi Lisa! Only matching surname is Saunders!! I have Elizabeth Saunders born abt 1823 in Bitton, father John Saunders. She was my gg-grandmother and married Charles Burchill 19th Nov 1854. I have never investigated her Saunders family, because I cannot identify her or her father (if alive) in 1851. Sarah

Shame about the Brittons. I have a friend who is related to Kingswood Brittons and she is always keen to find other relatives. My great grandmother was a Harvey but she came from Eddington and went to live in Stanton Drew when she got married.

Lisa, Sorry to go off at a bit of a tangent, but I married into the Woodman clan - eventually came to my ssenses and divorced it. I am currently researching my family - from the other end of the country in Durham, but the Woodman's I was briefly related to were from a small village near Hereford. I understand my ex-mother in law has researched some of the family and I am trying to get my hands on it to add to mine (to make a more complete picture for my children). If your Woodmans extend as far as Hereford let me know and I'll try harder to get my hands on their tree for you. Cheryl