HEREFORDSHIRE

The information on this page, and on the accompanying Town & Parish pages is organised by the set of subject headings which the LDS Family History Library use for categorising genealogical research material. Below are the available headings for Herefordshire; but see How the information on this server is presented to the user for further details, and for an overall list. [Hint: Press the "Back" arrow on your browser's toolbar to return to this page after reading, as there is no return link.]

Archives and Libraries Bibliography Cemeteries Census Church History Church Records Civil Registration Correctional Institutions Description and Travel Directories Emigration and Immigration Encyclopedias & Dictionaries Dwellings Gazetteers Genealogy History Historical Geography

Land and Property Law and Legislation Maps Medical Records Military History Names, Geographical Names, Personal Occupations Poorhouses, Poor Law, etc. Postal and Shipping Guides Probate Records Religion and Religious Life Schools Social Life and Customs Societies Taxation Towns & Parishes

Description in 1887

"HEREFORDSHIRE, an inland Co. [Map (above) shows location], on the SE. border of Wales, and bounded N. by Shropshire and Worcestershire, E. by Worcestershire and Gloucestershire, S. by Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire, and W. by Monmouthshire, Radnorshire, mid Brecknockshire; greatest length N. and S. 38 miles, greatest breadth E. and W. 35 miles; 532,918 acres, population 121,062. The Co. is almost circular in form, and its surface shows a series of quiet and beautiful undulations. It is watered by the Wye, Lugg, Monnow, Arrow, and Frome, also the Teme, which flows on the NE. boundary. All these streams are well stocked with fish. Of late agriculture has been greatly improved in the Co. the soil is peculiarly suitable for the growth of timber, which is very abundant. The pear and apple orchards of Herefordshire are famous; while the luxuriant meadow-land affords pasture for a well-known breed of oxen. Marl and clay form the chief part of the soil; the subsoil is mostly limestone. There are no valuable minerals, and the manufactures are insignificant."
[Extract from Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles, 1887]

INFORMATION RELATED TO ALL OF HEREFORDSHIRE

1. All Herefordshire pages may be searched using the GENUKI Search engine.

2. Researchers may find one or more of the Herefordshire Mailing Lists useful in their research; and Herefordshire Surnames being researched are listed within Graham Jaunay's On-line English Names Directory.

3. Volunteers are being sought to help to transcribe the 1871 Census for Herefordshire, to make the whole part of a free searchable database online. Visit the FreeCEN web site for more details, and if you'd like to volunteer.

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Archives and Libraries

• Herefordshire - Archives and Libraries - links and information.

• An archival resource covering the history of canals - The Waterways Trust - Museums and Archives.

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Bibliography

• Botzum, Richard & Catherine - The 1675 Thomas Blount Manuscript History of Herefordshire. Lapridge Publications, 25 Church St. Hereford, HR1 2LR. £10.99.
  • ISBN 1 899290 04 4

  The extant portion of the original source from which this translation is derived (covering places K-Y) is at Hereford City Library. The first part of the original history (A-K) went missing during the 1700s, but, as the translation explains, some of it survived in extracts by others, and these extracts (Aconbury to Kinnersley) have also been included in this publication as Section I. Places K-Y constitute Section II, and a third section provides information about Hereford Cathedral, Bishops of Hereford, Nobility of the County, 'Wonders', Sheriffs of Herefordshire, and Mayors of Hereford, and there is an overall surname index.

• Crow, Alan - Bridges on the river Wye. Lapridge Publications, 1995.
  • ISBN 0-951858-99-8

  This is a very entertaining little book, painstakingly researched and documenting all known bridges on the Wye, past and present. Begins with bridges in the upper reaches, where the railway bridges and landowners building private footbridges to reach different parts of their estate hold sway, through to the bridges in the City of Hereford, and on to the mouth of the Wye where the possible crossing built by the Romans sits close by the new road bridge.

• Eisel, John and Shoesmith, Ron - The Pubs of Bromyard, Ledbury & East Herefordshire. Logaston Press, 2003.
  • ISBN 1-873827-63-6

  Another entertaining book. Almost every other building in Ledbury seems to have been a public house at some time in the past!

• Harnden, J. (Ed) - The Parish registers of Herefordshire. Published by The Friends of Hereford Record Office, 1987.
  • ISBN/ISSN: 0951234706
  Contains a map showing parish boundaries, and notes on other source material, such as Directories, Poll Books and Newspapers. Out of Print, but may be available in Reference Libraries.

• Perry, Raymond - Anglo-Saxon Herefordshire. Published by the Oxengard Press.
  • ISBN 0-9543287-0-1
  For more details see www.anglo-saxonherefordshire.co.uk

• Salter, Mike - The Old Parish Churches of Herefordshire. Folly Publications.
  • ISBN 1-871731-32-1
  I can recommend this book personally - like others in his Old Parish Churches series, it is extremely well-researched, and for me, a regular source of reference.

• Salter, Mike - The Castles of Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Folly Publications.
  • ISBN 1-871731-05-4
  Another excellent and interesting book from Mike.

• Shoesmith, Ron - Castles & Moated Sites of Herefordshire. Logaston Press.
  • ISBN 1-873827-59-8

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Cemeteries

• Photos and transcriptions of notable church monuments, provided by the Church Monuments Society. Added 28 Aug 2007.

• Roll of Honour - Herefordshire - War Memorial Selection. Added 5 Aug 2005.

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Census

• Herefordshire Census - links and information.

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Church History

• Guide to a selection of Herefordshire Churches - Visit Herefordshire Churches. Added 6 Oct 2010.

• Resource for Family Historians - Herefordshire Church Images. Added 29 Sep 2010.

• Search database of Church & Parish details on The Diocese of Hereford website. Added 15 Jun 2007.

• 'SMR' - Sites and Monuments Record - Gazetteer of Herefordshire Chapels.

• The Britannia, "America's Gateway to the British Isles" Index of Parish Churches features about 20 Herefordshire Churches.

• You may also find it worthwhile searching in the GENUKI Church Database. Enter the name of the place in which the church is located:

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Church Records

• Some Herefordshire parish registers (in PDF format, at a modest price) are available from the English Parish Registers website. Added 22 Nov 2008.

• Transcriptions (in progress) of Parish Records of the Forest of Dean for the period 1813-1901 - Forest of Dean Family History. Includes some Herefordshire parishes, and results are free to access after a simple registration process. Added 22 Nov 2008.

• Transcriptions of Hereford Bishops' Registers, and in particular the names of Rectors (or Vicars) and their Patrons for each Benefice of Hereford Institutions, provided by Mel Lockie. Added 9 Oct 2007.

• The searchable LDS website - IGI and Familysearch

  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.

• Stephen Karner is transcribing a series of entries from Herefordshire Parish Registers for the purposes of his own research. Although the entries he's transcribed should not be construed as complete for any parish, they cover a wide range of surnames, and his site is very well worth a visit.

• The Society of Genealogists web site has a list of their holdings of Parish Register Copies for Herefordshire.

• Information on the location of Quaker Records in Herefordshire provided by the Quaker FHS.

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Civil Registration

Civil Registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths in England and Wales began on July 1st 1837. Copies of certificates may be obtained from either the General Register Office (GRO), or from a Superintendent's Registrar's Office of the District at which the event was first registered. If the District no longer exists, this would be the Office to which its registers have been moved.

• Obtaining a certificate from a Superintendent Registrar's Office.
  
  • The original records of events, completed by the Registrar of the time, have always been retained by the District Registrar. In Herefordshire, these records were held in several different locations within the county, and in the past an application would be made to the Superintendent Registrar at one of these locations to search the local indexes he or she holds to the registers, and produce a certificated copy from the original record of the event. However in recent years all registers have been moved to the Herefordshire Register Office in Hereford Town Hall, and applications should now be made to that office.

    The details required for such a request are name and surname, the event type (ie birth, marriage or death), and the year the event took place, and a search will be made of 5 years either side of that year, if an entry for that year isn't found. Please consult Herefordshire County Council's Family Records and Copy Certificates service for more details. The cost of a certificate obtained this way is £9.00.

    Details of all districts to handle Herefordshire registrations prior to centralisation may be found in Brett Langston's list of Herefordshire Registration Districts (1837-1974).

• Obtaining a certifcate from the GRO
  
  • Certificates from the GRO are issued from copies of the original records; however there is considerable advantage in being able to search indexes to the whole country in one place, so many people prefer to do this, rather than risk a protracted search locally. The first step is to obtain a GRO reference to the event. You can then order certificates online via the Certificate Ordering Service of the General Register Office website. From 6th April 2010, the cost of a certificate obtained this way is £9.25.

    You can obtain a GRO reference in several ways:-

    1. Searching microfilm or fiche at a Library or LDS Family History Centre.
    2. FreeBMD is an ongoing project to make the General Register Office (GRO) Indexes freely available online. More volunteers are needed and details of how you can help are available on-site.
    3. findmypast.co.uk (formerly 1837online) - images of the complete BMD indexes from the GRO online. Fee payable
    4. The images are also available on Ancestry.co.uk for which a subscription provides access to a wide range of other records.

• Obtaining a certificate for a recent event
  
  • The cost of a certificates issued at the time of registration of a current birth, death or marriage is £3.50 for each copy.
  • After registration (for instance, the following day) the cost is £7.00, providing the register is still current (within 28 days of the last entry in the register)
  • After a registration book is complete, 28 days later, the register is deposited with the Superintendent Registrar of the district. Until recently, this was one of the district offices referred to above, but there is now just one district for the whole of Herefordshire, and the place to apply to is the Herefordshire Register Office in Hereford Town Hall. From that point onwards, certificates will cost the same as any 'old' certificate obtained locally - £9.00.

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Correctional Institutions

• The Prison Service Museum near Rugby houses HM Prison Service's historical collection of exhibits, illustrating the history of imprisonment from medieval times to the present day. Housed in a converted stable block, the museum contains reconstructions of Victorian prison architecture, and exhibits include the last set of Gibbet Irons used in England. Smaller items include bone carvings and paintings made by prisoners in their cells, and a nineteenth century sampler embroidered by a female prisoner from her own hair

  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.]

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Description and Travel

• The Geograph British Isles project - "aims to collect geographically representative photographs and information for every square kilometre of the UK and the Republic of Ireland..." Added 16 Jun 2007.

• Whilst mainly featuring Hereford town, some History, and Information about Travel and Tourism for some places within Herefordshire is available on the Hereford Web Pages.

• The Fidelis Information Service for Worcestershire and Herefordshire "The Internet Guide to Worcestershire & Herefordshire" has useful information about several Herefordshire towns.

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Directories

• Pigot's Directory of Herefordshire 1830 and Pigot's Directory of Herefordshire 1840 provided by Nicholas Adams.

• Leicester University's Digital Library of Historical Directories for England and Wales.

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Dwellings

• Herefordshire has many Timber-Framed Houses - most noticeable in its so-called "Black and White" Villages.

  These buildings may be found dating from the fourteenth century, but often as late as the nineteenth. The timber they were made of was usually oak, but with elm used occasionally for partitioning internally, and floor boarding. An underlying platform, 2 or 3 feet high, built of of stone, is common.

  "Pre-fabricated" would be an apt description of their building. The master carpenter would pre-cut all the sections of wood, together with (presumably) all the necessary jointing requirements. The cross frames were then raised into position and linked with the pieces prepared for the side walls. The spaces were then infilled with lath and plaster or daub on wattle. Today's 'black and white' is thought to be a comparatively modern feature - originally the timber would be left untreated, and the infill would be either ochre-coloured or lime washed. (Ref: Sanford, Anne - Old Herefordshire Photographs. Published by Hendon Publishing Co. Ltd. 1985. ISBN 08606709882888)

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Emigration and Immigration

• For help finding your ancestors onboard ship - The Ships List - of particular interest are the large number of transcribed passenger lists, and records of some Marriages at Sea. Added 10 Dec 2007.

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Encyclopedias & Dictionaries

• Entry for Herefordshire, 1911 in a 1911 Edition Encyclopedia. (the beginning of information about Herefordshire is part-way down the webpage).

• A Dictionary of Genealogy & Archaic Terms, Dick Eastman/Randy Jones. Added 3 May 2007.

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Gazetteers

• Nigel Batty-Smith's site providing UK Genealogy Archives of Herefordshire has a description of the county from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England and Wales, 1894-5.

• The transcription of the section for Herefordshire from the National Gazetteer (1868) provided by Colin Hinson.

• The transcription of the section for Miscellaneous Descriptions from the National Gazetteer (1868) provided by Colin Hinson. Included here are the descriptions of major topological features (rivers, hills &c.) and a descriptions of the county hundred divisions.

• You may also find it worthwhile searching in the GENUKI Gazetteer:

  The GENUKI Gazetteer covers the whole of England, Wales and Scotland and can be searched by place-name (or part of a place-name) or Ordnance Survey Grid Reference (six-figure, eg SO510400). If there are multiple place-names matching the name you enter, you will be presented initially with a drop-down list of the matching place-names, and (when known), their nearest identifiable place.

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Genealogy

• RootsChat Messaging Forum - Herefordshire section. Added 10 Mar 2009.

• The Herefordshire section of 'Curious Fox' - "The village-by-village contact site for anybody researching family history, genealogy and local history in the UK and Ireland". Added 29 Nov 2006.

• Graham Jaunay's Online English Names Directory covers this county.

• Details of Herefordshire Mailing Lists.

• The Herefordshire Look-Up Exchange - a list of volunteers who hold reference material relating to Herefordshire and who are willing to undertake small searches. Updated 23 Jan 2008.

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Historical Geography

• Transcribed text of the Herefordshire section of Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England (1831). Added 28 Jan 2011.

• English Heritage Viewfinder - site with historic photographs, searchable by county. Has some unusual ones of the Industrial Age which won't be found amongst the more usual postcard collections!.

• The Francis Frith Collection - a collection of over 700,000 photographs of the UK, Europe and the Middle East taken by the Victorian photographer Francis Frith.

• A Vision of Britain Through Time - information about your home area from the 2001 census, and from each British census back to 1801. Presented both as maps of the whole country and as graphs showing change over time.

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History

• A digital library of medieval and modern sources of the history of the British Isles - British History Online. Notable sources include Journals of the House of Commons and House of Lords, Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae, and the Victoria County History. Added 14 Oct 2005.

• 'SMR' - Sites and Monuments Record - Herefordshire Through Time - a record of all known archaeological and historic sites in Herefordshire.

• An Encyclopaedia of British History: 1700-1950 - useful for seeing local events against a national perspective. Scroll down the introductory page on this site to see topics - Monarchy, Child Labour, The Railways, &c.

• The Domesday Book Online "to enable visitors to find out the history of the Domesday Book and to give an insight into life at the time of its compilation". Note this site does not provide the original text, but does include a list settlements existing in 1086.

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Land and Property

• Some abstracts of Herefordshire Feet of Fines (land conveyances) of various dates - on Chris Phillips Medieval English Genealogy web site. Added 22 May 2007.

• Mike Durtnall is providing a country-wide collection of Historical Manuscripts Pages recording details of deeds that have been offered for sale on eBay and in auction catalogues. In most cases whereabouts of the documents will be unknown, but sufficient details of the property involved and of buyers, sellers, mortages, &c. is provided to make them a useful research tool. Added 9 Mar 2007.

• Pat Johnson has a large collection of original Family Deeds. Abstracts, with name and parish indexes are provided onsite, with transcriptions of the full documents available for a modest fee. In addtion, the original deed may also be available for purchase if required. Added 3 Mar 2004. Updated 19 Sep 2007.

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Law and Legislation

• The Equity/Chancery Court Pleadings Database (on the Public Record Office's website) provides an online index to some of the Chancery Pleadings in series C6. Searches can be made by both name and place.

• Names from Criminal Registers (PRO Class HO 27) 1805-1816 are available for purchase on floppy disk or microfiche through Family History Indexes (the link to Criminal Register Indexes is part way down the page).

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Maps

• British History Online - Ordnance Survey 1:10,560 Maps - The County Series of Ordnance Survey maps for Great Britain. Begun in 1840, this is the first comprehensive historic mapping of England, Scotland and Wales. Added 11 Mar 2009.

• Access to various satellite map sites (Google, MS Live, &c.) via the convenient front end of Flash Earth. Added 16 Jun 2007.

• The London Ancestor site has maps from the 1885 Boundary Commissioners report for all parts of the British Isles, including Herefordshire (Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1885)

• The Old Maps web site has a wonderful series of 1:10,560 scale historical maps for the whole of the UK available on-line.

• Genmaps - a collection of 'Old and Interesting Maps of England, Wales and Scotland' for Genealogists and Historians.

• The above Genmaps Links pages lists Great Britain - Medieval Maps, which in turn provides several maps including an intriguing Ecclesiastical Map of the British Isles in the Middle Ages, which shows the principal Monasteries, demonstrating some of the earliest centres of habitation and influence.

• Detailed Maps of the area you may be interested in Herefordshire are viewable at the UK Street Map Page. The site provides a most useful service, with superb address searching and street map facilities for anywhere in mainland Great Britain.

• Clear, Large Type and Braille Maps. Added 11 Feb 2006.

  David Hawgood has produced Maps of Herefordshire with Braille labels (large print labels) to help people with visual disabilities, with similar Tactile and large print Maps for other English counties.

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Medical Records

• Holdings of Lambeth Palace Library - a Directory of medical licences issued by the Archbishop of Canterbury 1535-1775 lists some early practitioners in Herefordshire.

• Medical Heritage of Great Britain, a site produced by the Bath & Wessex Medical History Group, providing detailed information on a county level of the history of medical treatments, and locations of some associated buildings.

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Military History

• Two very comprehensive sites featuring Castles and Fortifications - CastleUK.net, and The Gatehouse. Added 3 Sep 2005.

• The Age of Nelson - a website providing general information about the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars 1793-1815, and specifically searchable databases of those present at Trafalgar (and more) and of all Commissioned Naval Officers 1787-1822.

• Names from Musters of the Herefordshire Militia 1781-82 are available for purchase on floppy disk or microfiche through Family History Indexes (the link to Militia Musters is part way down the page).

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Names, Geographical

• Bannister, the Rev. A.T. (Arthur Thomas, 1861-1936) The place-names of Herefordshire : their origin and development. Cambridge: Printed for the author (by J. Clay), 1916.

  The above source is now available online, transcribed by Mel Lockie - Herefordshire Place Names. Added 6 May 2009.

• Coplestone-Crow, Bruce - Herefordshire place-names. BAR British series ; 214 : Oxford : B.A.R, 1989. ISBN/ISSN: 0860546888

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Names, Personal

• Graham Jaunay's Online English Names Directory covers this county.

• Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section: Indexes to parish returns towards the rebuilding of St Paul's Cathedral, ca.1678, with their Library Reference numbers. The returns themselves, which need to be consulted by personal visit, promise to be useful, as a record of those individuals who contributed, and in a number of instances those who did not. A number of the returns indicate status of the contributors, e.g. widow, or servant.

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Newspapers

• The Newspaper Library at Colindale - my current information (October 2007) is that the BL is going to close Colindale, transferring its archives to Boston Spa. Newspapers will be viewable on film only at the British Library, until such time as their holdings are digitised. See the British Library's Newspapers Digitisation Project for up-to-date details of research facilities. Updated 25 Mar 2011.

• For other English Newspapers see OnlineNewspapers.com - England.

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Occupations

• The Worshipful Company of Curriers - information about the history of this trade. Added 1 Apr 2008.

• Pubs and Breweries of the Midlands past and present - select 'Pub Histories' for listings by county. Added 2 Nov 2005.

• Registers of the Company of Stationers, London : Apprentices from Herefordshire, transcribed by Leslie Mahler.

• The Society of Brushmakers' Descendants assists those with Brushmaking Ancestors, or with an interest in discovering more about the brushmaker's trade.

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Poorhouses, Poor Law, etc.

• A site "dedicated to the Workhouse - its buildings, its inmates, its staff and administrators, and even its poets..." - The Workhouse - created by Peter Higginbotham.

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Postal and Shipping Guides

• 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.

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Probate Records

• An index to Probate Records 1700-1858 is available as one of the research services provided by Jean Dobson - herefordshireresearch.com.

• Rosemary Lockie's collection of pages listing abstracts of Herefordshire Probate Records. Many thanks to all the kind people who have contributed their ancestors' Wills to this project!

• See also Herefordshire Probate Records Online for an overview, and links to online collections elsewhere.

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Religion and Religious Life

• Information about the Society of Friends (Quakers) on the Hereford & Mid-Wales Area Meeting website - includes mention of burial grounds at Almeley Wooton, Bromyard, Hereford, Leominster, Ross. Added 10 Oct 2007.

• The General Commission on Archives and History (GCAH) of the United Methodist Church has a list of John Wesley's Preachers, 1740-1791. Added 10 Jul 2006.

• John Blaylock provides Definitions of (Ecclesiastical) Words and Phrases used in his account of the History of Boulton St Mary's Parish Church (Derbyshire) - for example 'Advowson' , 'Curate', 'Rector', 'Tithes', &c.

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Schools

• A brief history of Education in England (3 parts).

• If you are interested in finding out whether your dearest school friends are also researching their family trees, check out Friends United, a site devoted to reuniting old school and college friends.

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Social Life and Customs

• Mother Bedford - "a website devoted primarily to the history of Old-Bedford County, Pennsylvania during the American Revolutionary War period" - a fascinating site including items of general historical interest eg:
  1. Apposite to the time of adding: The Celebration of Christmas.
  2. Examples of music our ancestors may have enjoyed: The Music of the 1770s: a Directory.

• Gazetteer of Markets and Fairs in England and Wales to 1516 - The Gazetteer, compiled by Dr Samantha Letters is a catalogue of Markets and Fairs in Medieval England and Wales. First comprehensive National Survey, with detailed information about grants of Charters to all Market Towns. Mentions some names of grantees - eg for Brampton Bryan, "gr 6 Feb 1252, by K Hen III to Brian de Brampton".

• Costume History - from Ancient Babylon through to 1990s - a very comprehensive site on Fashion and Dress through the ages.

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Societies

• Herefordshire FHS.
• The Woolhope Club. Their website has a searchable list of contents of their Transactions from 1852-2004. Added 28 Feb 2008.

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Taxation

• The E 179 Database (on the National Archives website) contains detailed information about over 26,000 documents relating to the taxation of lay people in England and Wales between c.1200 and c.1700. These documents are likely to contain many names.

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INDIVIDUAL TOWNS AND PARISHES - See Alphabetical Listing

This county is maintained by **Job vacancy** with help and information provided by a number of other volunteers.

GENUKI contains many hyperlinks and directives to sites developed by others. They are provided for your convenience only. We do not control nor guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of such sites, and in the event of a link to such a site being 'broken', or otherwise unavailable, our only recourse is to remove that link.