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Links to External Websites which may be of interest to you

 Family History    Census    Certificates    Genealogy    Tewkesbury    Britain    Gloucestershire    Military    Miscellaneous       

Family History:

Family historians should find the following links of great use in their research. Most are free, but some do charge. Our President of THS, John Dixon, feels that the sites highlighted in red are essential and urges you to try them if you have not already done so. 

 

Census Returns:

• 1881  (free)

• 1841-1901  (Ancestry.com - not free).

• 1901  Better search engine than Ancestry (not free.)

• 1861 for Tewkesbury  (RG9/1806) is available for free thanks to Mike English.

• Scotland 1871-1901  (not free )

• The 1911 census is now available for all of England. Searching the index is free but any more information requires payment. Also "sensitive information" has been covered up until 2012. If anyone invests in the census for Tewkesbury and would be kind enough to paste the information into 'Word' or send it as an attachment to johnhistory@o2.co.uk THS would be very obliged and will add the information to the our database.

Birth, Marriage and Death Certificates:

• Free BMD free, but not comprehensive.

• Try Genes Re-United which is trying to build on success of Friends Reunited. Its index is a good supplement to FREEBMD which is weak after 1937.  Remember all BMD for Tewkesbury after 1937 registered in Cheltenham. If you wish to see detail, then you will need to subscribe.

• BMD Registers In association with National Archives (not free):  BMDregisters.co.uk have added more than 100,000 records of births, baptisms, marriages, deaths and burials of British subjects overseas and on board ships to their website. The records mostly date from the 19th and 20th centuries; if your ancestors travelled the world or married at sea during this period, you may find them here.  Make sure you explore the rest of BMDregisters too. With records ranging from Methodists and Baptists to Presbyterians and Quakers, this website is good for tracing non-conformist ancestors.

• Find My Past  (not free) comprehensive official records 1837-1983.

• Buying Certificates on line - Office of National Statistics - currently £9.25 per certificate and around 2 weeks wait).

       Genealogy:

• Gloucestershire Family History Society 

• www.ancestry.co.uk This website is increasingly adding data - they now have the 1911 census (but not yet indexed). You have to subscribe for the full service.

• A new website www.ancestor-search.info  let John know what you think.

• Need research in Gloucestershire? Try Gloucestershire Genealogical Research

• Try Genes Re-United which is trying to build on success of Friends Reunited.

• Forest of Dean Family History pages

• Mike English's parish register transcriptions Tewkesbury and the surrounding parishes are all included.

• GENUKI Gloucestershire section

• Members may be interested in this new website, http://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies

• to gain help from recent BBC2 series "Who do you think you are?" http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/familyhistory/index.shtml

• www.familysearch.com: Probably the most useful site on the web, the LDS pioneers in the field of genealogy, the International Genealogy Index (IGI) + 1881 census.

• Glosgen - Stuart Flight's extensive Gloucestershire ancestry plus much more.

• Comprehensive Scottish online resources at Scotlands People.

• Commonwealth War Graves Commission  (free and even includes civilian dead in WWII).

Tewkesbury:

• Tewkesbury Railway Society programme of events

• Draft Tewkesbury Conservation Area Appraisal

• Merchant House Project Church Street 

• Tewkesbury Net Website

• Tewkesbury Library  (Computers in the Library can be booked on-line via this page using Library Card and follow links)

• Tewkesbury School

• Tewkesbury Borough Museum

• Photos of the last barge to leave Healings Mill on 25 March 2007.

• Jack Boskett's photo website - has pictures of the floods and many railway photos.

• 1984 BBC 'Day Out in Tewkesbury' 30 min video

• 1977 BBC 'Six English Towns' 30 min film on Tewkesbury by Alec Clifton-Taylor 

• Vol I of Bennett's Register available on-line via Google Books.

• Bennett's History of Tewkesbury available on via Google Books (plus many other very useful historical publications).

• James Bennett's Memorandum - the family history James Bennett.

• Tewkesbury Now and Then - a good deal of historical information, particularly on Tewkesbury's pubs.

• Tewkesbury Town Band - history, photos and current information on the band.

• Tewkesbury Borough Council

• Tewkesbury Town Council

Britain:

• The National Archives claim that you can find details of everything on the statute book, in one place and free of charge on http://www.legislation.gov.uk/

• Access to On-line Reference Library using your Library Card. Includes Oxford Dictionary of Biography, Times Archives, 19th century newspapers archive, and more. (Note: you may have to preface your library card number with '77').

• British Pathe Database - view and download movie clips from the database of the famous newsreel company. Search on "Tewkesbury" and you will find several items, including Princess Alice opening the Hospital. 

• Vision of Britain  www.visionofbritain.org.uk - historical facts, figures, maps and viewpoints covering almost every settlement in Britain, providing seven centuries of comment and observation by artists, authors, preachers, social reformers and agitators. Full listing of every General Election result, 1832 to the present. Historic boundary maps, details of land use, labour market trends, travel writing.

• www.rgs.org The website of the Royal Geographical Society. 

• National Archives formerly known as Public Record Office.

• National Archives (PRO) on-line:  (access for free and £3 for certain documents: wills from 1820-1829 and 1840-1858 (£.3.50 per will); miscellaneous images (free).

• National Archives (ex-PRO) Local History Catalogues   (including GRO) - A2A: The A2A database contains catalogues of archives held across England and dating from 900 to the present day.  

• London Gazette on-line (free)

• www.workhouses.org.uk   A complete history to the workhouse, search by county and town, includes residents in censuses.

• What to see, where to stay ­ www.information-britain.co.uk

• British Postal Museum and Archive

• The Defford Airfield Heritage Group seeks to record, research and preserve the history of Defford Airfield in Worcestershire.

• BBC 1986 Domesday Project on-line (Tewkesbury related material to be found there)

Gloucestershire:

• 2011 Cheltenham Literature Festival

• Gloucestershire Archives

• Friends of Gloucestershire Archives

• The Bristol & Gloucestershire Archaeological Society now have the complete contents of a total of 113 volumes (1876-1995) of their Transactions journal available online, thanks to Ray Wilson. You can search the index or browse the full List of Contents using this link - TBGAS-Online

• Gloucestershire Society for Industrial Archaeology - includes all of their journals on-line

• Gloucestershire Local History  (advice from Hugh Conway-Jones: As many will know, there is a page on the Gloucestershire Local History Website that provides links to a range of websites that are useful for local history research. The page includes specific Gloucestershire sites and also national sites that have relevant Gloucestershire information. 

• Cheltenham Local History Society 

• Gloucester Civic Trust   Interesting and educational content on the heritage and history of Gloucester.

• Cirencester Archaeological and Historical Society

• BBC Gloucestershire

• Geoff Sandles comprehensive Gloucestershire Pubs website

• County Library Service information finder, LOCATE:

• Gloucestershire volumes of The Victoria County History can be accessed via http://www.british-history.ac.uk/subject.asp?subject=5&gid=13  

• Gloucester - extensive site on the city of Gloucester both contemporary and historic

• John Wilkes's collection of Gloucestershire photographs

• Friends of Purton Hulks

• Friends of Deerhurst Committee

• Gloucestershire Archaeology Service

Military: 

• G.I. Gateway John Dixon's website concerning GI's at Ashchurch during World War II. 

• Commonwealth War Graves Commission  (free and even includes civilian dead in WWII - now with information about cemeteries.)

• Australian War Memorial website with extensive details of the Australian involvement in World War I

• Army Website - includes in formation on Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment 

• British Army World War I service and pension records are online for first time via The National Archives website. You can now search for surnames beginning with the letters A and B. When the project is complete you will be able to search c.2.5 million soldiers' records. Searching the name index is free. Pages from the original files are available by subscription or with Pay per View from Ancestry.co.uk  Search WW1 Soldiers' Documents Online 

• British Prisoners of War - interviews and reports are online via The National Archives

• The Western Front Association (Cheltenham & Gloucestershire)

• The fight for 'Gloster Hill' in the Korean War.

Miscellaneous:

• Historical value currency converter http://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/ppoweruk/

• Wills: There is National Archives advice on http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/looking-for-person/willafter1858.htm - the bad news is that you cannot view online or at NA.

• Almost any reference you need scanned and copied on to cd. http://www.familyhistoryresearch.org/cdindex

• Useful dates http://www.johnowensmith.co.uk/histdate/

• For those who like their history a bit more left of centre there is a Radical History Group in Bristol with an apparently good programme of events. Their website is http://www.brh. org.uk

• Associated with our Sponsers - visit Walk In Baths for Disabled Bath Aids and Walk In Showers.

• Do you use Microsoft Excel for historical dates?

  • Untried advice from Glos.History Yahoo-Group

  • Have you discovered to your cost that Microsoft Excel has problems working with dates prior to 1900? This feature has caused me (John Dixon) problems over the years and like most people I have resorted to a solution of placing the year in its own column and treating the year as a number. Recently I came across a solution called XDATE (stands for Extended Date) that I wish I had discovered sooner. This is a free plug-in for Excel that will permit dates before 1900 to be calculated. Rather than describe the whole utility, why not download it for yourself? A full explanation is given by the author on www.j-walk.com/ss/excel/files/xdate.htm According to the author XDATE will handle dates back to 0100, however it may be prudent to accept accuracy from 1752 when the Gregorian calendar was introduced in England, Scotland and Wales.