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"A maritime and border county of England [Map (above) shows location], having the counties of Dumfries and Roxburgh on the north, Northumberland and Durham on the east, Westmorland and Lancashire on the south, the Irish Sea on the west, and the Solway Firth on the NW.; length, NE. and SW., 75 miles; extreme breadth, E. and W., 45 miles; average breadth, 22 miles; coast line, about 75 miles; area, 970,161 acres, population 250,647. The coast on the Solway is low and sandy, but on the Irish Sea it is lofty and rugged; chief promontory, St Bees Head. In the NW. the country is open and flat; it is watered by the Eden and other streams, and consists chiefly of verdant meadows and good arable land. From this plain the surface rises towards the east and south into a region with deep defiles or dales, which form the mountainous district of "The Lakes". Coal and iron are extensively worked in the west, the coalfield stretching from the neighbourhood of Whitehaven to that of Maryport. Numerous blast furnaces are constantly at work. Plumbago or black lead is obtained in considerable quantities near Keswick. Slate, limestone, and sandstone are abundant. Copper, cobalt, antimony, manganese, and gypsum are also found. Owing to the general elevation of the land, and the moisture of the climate, the cultivation of the soil is less attended to than the rearing of sheep and cattle. The dairy produce is very considerable. Woollen manufactures are carried on to some extent at Carlisle and some other places The County comprises 5 wards, 208 parishes, the parliamentary and municipal borough of Carlisle (1 member), and the parliamentary borough of Whitehaven (1 member). It is mostly in the diocese of Carlisle. For parliamentary purposes it is divided into 4 divisions, viz., Northern or Eskdale, Mid or Penrith, Cockermouth, and Western or Egremont, 1 member for each division." [Bartholemew's Gazetteer of the British Isles, 1887]
Note on using IGI Batch Numbers:
It is not always easy to locate your ancestors in the IGI using the search mechanisms provided at the above LDS site. Manually typing the batch numbers into the IGI search screen can be tedious. Hugh Wallis has made an exhaustive search of the likely ranges of batch numbers and created a database of those numbers and the source records that they apply to. A very powerful feature included is a hotlink from each batch number to the actual search engine provided at the Family Search site, including the ability to enter the surname you are looking for. This makes it very easy to search all the batches for a particular geographic location using just the last name you are searching for - something that is not possible directly from the LDS site without doing a lot of typing. This is Hugh Wallis's site.
Certificates of birth, death and marriage can be obtained from the Superintendent Registrars at the following District Register Offices:
Note: Certificates of birth, death and marriage can be obtained locally only from the Register Office for the District in which they were issued - or if the District no longer exists, the Office to which its registers have been moved.
If ordering from a District Office, please note the following:
You can obtain a GRO reference in several ways:-
Admission to the museum is by appointment only, please contact:-
The Curator,
HM Prison Service Museum,
Newbold Revel,
Rugby,
CV23 0TH
Tel: 01788 834168
[Information compiled from "The Penal Lexicon Home Page", formerly at www.penlex.org.uk/pages/index.html.]
Kain, R.J.P., Oliver, R.R., Historic Maps of England and Wales: Boundaries before 1850. Available on CD from History Data Service, UK Data Archive, 17 May 2001. SN: 4348.
David Hawgood has produced Maps of Cumberland with Braille labels (large print labels) to help people with visual disabilities, with similar Tactile and large print Maps for other English counties.
There is an article on David's website, Production of Tactile maps with Braille labels explaining how these maps have been produced.
The Regency Collection has a section on Postal History, and also includes other interesting material relating to the Regency period - e.g. Turnpike Trusts, Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire, and more.
Records from 1548 to 1858 include original wills, letters of administration and inventories, although there are significant gaps in the years before 1661. These are deposited with the County Record Office at Carlisle.
Comprehensive indexes exist, at the Carlisle CRO, in card files easily accessible in the reading room. The indexes cover from 1617 to 1941, listing the year of probate and the residence of the deceased. This is extraordinarily helpful in distinguishing between many individuals of the same name. Microfilm of many of these records, and a partial typescript of the indexes, is available at the Kendal office of the CRO.
[Beginning on 8th September 2004. Page originated by Don Noble and updated 31 Aug 2004 - David Hawgood]
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[Adopted 8 Sep 2004. Last updated 2 Jul 2008 - 10:50 by Rosemary Lockie]
