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More detailed information about holdings at the Hereford Record Office and the Worcester Record Office may be obtained directly from their web pages.
I would be pleased to hear of any errors or omissions, but please note I do NOT hold copies of any of the sources mentioned, nor can I offer assistance with individual research queries.
Some transcripts of the sources mentioned may be available online but they should be considered the exception rather than the rule, and most can only be consulted at the appropriate Record Office or Reference Library. In particular, please note that the original registers for parishes administratively within Gloucestershire, but ecclesiastically within the Diocese of Bristol (roughly speaking, those within the former county of Avon) are held at the Bristol Record Office.
The following abbreviations are used in the table of sources:-
As well as the originals available in the Gloucestershire Record Office, reprints are also available, republished by the Gloucester Record Society, details as follows:-
Historical, Monumental and Genealogical Collections relative to the County of Gloucester, ed. B. Frith, 1989-95, published by the Gloucester Record Society. (ISBN 0 900197 28 5, 0 900197 30 7, 0 900197 34 X and 0 900197 40 4), UK £30 each.
The Gloucestershire Record Office holds original Bishops' Transcripts (BTs) for all parishes which were originally in the Gloucester Diocese. BTs for parishes in the Bristol Diocese are held at the Bristol Record Office. Note also that all, or most Bishops' Transcripts ceased to be kept after 1866 (the earliest date of any would be 1597).
Most of the above Bishops' Transcripts will have been filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah. The films are also usually available for order from your local Family History Centre.
For Gloucestershire, these transcriptions cover just the parishes which are not available elsewhere - for instance, in the IGI, or in Phillimore, and for the period 1800-1837 only.
The Bristol and Avon Series covers all parishes in the Bristol
Diocese including all Bristol City Churches. The period
1813-1837 is available on CD for a modest price, and the period
1754-1812 is to follow shortly (February 2007).
Gloucestershire was sub-divided into 40 Hundreds.
The IGI needs no explanation!
"The names and Surnames of all the able and sufficient men in body fitt for his Ma'ties service in the warrs within the City of Gloucester and the Inshire of the same, wherein are contayned the City of Glouc' and the Hundreds of Dudstone and Barton Regis, with their ages, personable Statures and Armours viewed by the Right honorable Henry Lord Berkley Lord Lieutenant of the said City and the County thereof by direction from his Ma'tie in the month of September, 1608."
The original manuscript of Men and Armour is now on deposit at Gloucestershire Record Office. The printed version - Reference: Author(s): Smith, John, b.1567 [compiled by] John Smith - was republished in 1980 by Alan Sutton: ISBN/ISSN: 0904387496 as a limited edition of 400 numbered copies.
The ones listed as GNQ are mostly from Phillimore's
"Gloucestershire Notes & Queries",
and are available online on Stuart Flight's
web site, and the ones listed as GFHS are available
from the
Gloucestershire Family History Society.
("Yes" following GFHS in brackets indicates copies
are available for purchase, in hard copy).
Please note the ones taken from "Notes & Queries" are usually from inside the church only.
The dedication of the Church (eg: St Mary, &c.) when it is known, follows in brackets.
These printed volumes contain full details of each marriage which took place, sometimes including the names of Witnesses, and other detail (of signatories, &c.) Note: some parishes appear in more than one volume. The occurrence in the second volume may be a series of additions, or amendments to the first, or a separate time-period.
Copies are available in various places, including the Gloucestershire Record Office and the Society of Genealogists' Library in London.
Covering dates including "(X)" indicate these are extracts only.
In particular, these may be extracts which have been printed in Phillimore's "Gloucestershire Notes & Queries"; some of which have been transcribed by Stuart Flight, and are available online.
These are start and end dates, and should not be construed as indicating that a record of ALL events is available for the complete range of dates. For instance, in the "modern" period, the most complete record is likely to be of Marriages, as the registers are filled more quickly, and so likely to be deposited at the Record Office sooner; whereas Baptism and Burial registers may be still in use, and therefore still in the possession of the Incumbent of the parish.
If no covering dates are listed, this would probably indicate that either the records are still with the Incumbent of the Parish, if the parish is obviously still in Gloucestershire, or else - as is the case with parishes in the Bristol Diocese - the records are elsewhere, and details are yet to be added.
A statutory fee (set by the Church of England Commissioners) is usually charged for consulting records still at the church.
On the other hand, be aware that whilst the older parish registers are deposited with the Record Office, in Gloucester at least, very few them are now released to the public for searching, so the available dates will usually indicate a source on microfiche.
This should not be a great problem, as the microfiche are self service, and as with microfilm, it is possible to take photocopies.
These films may have been (but not always) produced by the Genealogical Society of Utah, in which case they are also usually available for order from your local Family History Centre.
These volumes are Gloucestershire's answer to the better known Boyd's Marriage Indexes. They represent in the main, an index to the Phillimore's Gloucestershire Marriage series (see above). There are separate volumes for Brides and for Grooms.
The volumes indicated are available on open shelves in the Gloucester Record Office. Copies are also available at the Society of Genealogists' Library, in London.
Please note however that generally speaking, many of the marriages in both the Boyd's and Roe's Indexes are incorporated into the IGI - www.familysearch.org (FamilySearch), or go direct to the Custom Search IGI Page. The printed indexes may however give you additional information on where the parties were resident and on their marital status, so they are worthwhile consulting, if you are able to.
Nearly every parish should possess a Tithe Apportionment Map, or simply Tithe Map, dated approximately 1840. Each parish was surveyed in detail, to include woods, fields, gardens, and buildings; and an accompanying "apportionment" listed the type of plot, and ideally, its owner and occupier.
Three copies were made of each map, one for the church, one for the County Record Office, and one of the Tithe Redemption Commission Office in London.
The latter are held at the Public Record Office in London, and microfilmed copies of these are available locally, filling the gap if an original parish or diocesan copy is unavailable, or its state of repair renders it unsuitable for searching.
Whilst microfilm copies may be more troublesome to search than the originals, they have the advantage that you can obtain photocopies!
The War Memorial transcriptions have usually been transcribed by either MJF (Malcolm Farmer), SF (Stuart Flight) or JH (John Hyde), and are available online.
Please note that I cannot provide assistance with individual research queries.
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[Created 16 Jan 1999. Last updated 8 Feb 2008 - 15:20 by Rosemary Lockie]