FH wish list

[Kit]

What records do you wish you could see to help you in your research? I'm thinking online as I'm sure the records are available somewhere if we had the time ad money to get to them.

let's keep it to records we know exist, or think could exist, rather than records that have been destroyed for whatever reason.

I'd like marriage licences to be available. I know some are online but I'd like more.

I'd also like familysearch records to be available online to everyone, rather than just members or having to go into a centre.

I also think a google cemeterys app would be great too. If they can drive around the world photographing houses then why not walk or cycle through a cemetery?

[rainbowdragon]

Digitised copies of Worcestershire wills from the 16th to 18th centuries. I keep having the nagging feeling my ancestors may be mentioned in some wills, but I don’t have the mental energy or the money to get copies of all of them “just in case”

Ditto on marriage licenses.

And transcriptions of Worcestershire and area parishes that haven’t been indexed, or which haven’t had their burials transcribed. I recently got copies of transcriptions from Feckenham, Worcestershire, fulfilling one item on my wish list, and I have a lot of transcripts of other parishes in the county, but there’s a lot I haven’t got yet.

[Janet]

I wish I could see the dusty pile of ancient wills and deeds rolled up on the top of my third cousin's armoire in her bedroom in Staffordshire, the ones she's afraid to touch for fear they'll turn to dust between her fingers.

[Merry]

Digitised Bristol area PRs.

Digitised Stratford upon Avon PRs

Probably numerous other counties and areas where the only way to access PRs is to pay a fortune for a CD of the records only to find your relative must have been born/married/died in a different parish - then to decide which one to pay for next. I can't afford to even start on areas like that!

Standardisation of will indexes pre 1858 across the country - some archive offices have great indexes and others none or indexes that don't help you to identify the testator.

Access to the photo of my great-grandmother apparently in the attic of a relative in America, though I understand she has now moved house, so where is the photo now I wonder?

Janet - usually old wills and deeds are pretty hardy as long as they have not been kept in a really poor environment. Being afraid to touch them seems pointless they may as well have turned to dust already if they will never be looked at!

[Kit]

I'd prefer images to transcriptions so I want all transcriptions to have images attached.

One of Dad's cousins has a suitcase full of photos, I'd love to see them.

Janet I have a deed from 1858 I have no idea where it was stored but it is in perfect condition. I bought it online.

[ElizabethHerts]

I'd also like familysearch records to be available online to everyone, rather than just members or having to go into a centre.


Toni, if you sign in there are a lot of Family Search records you can view via the catalogue. You need to look for the camera symbol beside the record details.

[kiterunner]

But there are also lots which you can't view unless you are a member or are at a FamilySearch Centre, Elizabeth, which is what Toni was talking about.

[ElizabethHerts]

I realise that, Kate, but I don't think many people are aware of how much is available to view on the Family Search website.

[Nell]

I would be quite happy if what is already in existence online was expertly indexed and transcribed!

I think we are very lucky, there is so much online now. Years ago when I started this lark familysearch just had the 1881census transcription and Ancestry only had 1871 and 1891. I had to go to lots of records offices and fiddle about with microfilm. Luckily it's only a half-hour train journey to London for me and it used to be very convenient to go the London Metropolitan Archives, Islington Local History Centre and the Family Records Centre, all walking distance of eachother - and not far from the Pakenham Arms pub which my ex's family used to run!

[kiterunner]

I would like to see more wills go online, especially the Prerogative Court of York ones.

[Janet]

Janet - usually old wills and deeds are pretty hardy as long as they have not been kept in a really poor environment. Being afraid to touch them seems pointless they may as well have turned to dust already if they will never be looked at!
Good point, Merry, you're quite right. But I think I would have to be there in person to make her unroll them. :(

Janet I have a deed from 1858 I have no idea where it was stored but it is in perfect condition. I bought it online.
I remember that, Toni, and I was intrigued when you found success. The problem for me is knowing which deed, where. I should try recontacting my cousin.

I like this thread. :)

[Margaret in Burton]

Rotherham workhouse records from the 1880’s and 1890’s to see if the elusive Peter Henry Harrison was brought up in there, perhaps a founding and given that name. Certainly nobody of that name had a birth reg in Rotherham.

[Jenoco]

I think we are very lucky, there is so much online now. Years ago when I started this lark familysearch just had the 1881census transcription and Ancestry only had 1871 and 1891. I had to go to lots of records offices and fiddle about with microfilm. Luckily it's only a half-hour train journey to London for me and it used to be very convenient to go the London Metropolitan Archives, Islington Local History Centre and the Family Records Centre, all walking distance of eachother - and not far from the Pakenham Arms pub which my ex's family used to run!

I remember transcribing the 1881 census before it went online, nearly 30 years ago.
I'd like to see Berkshire and Suffolk PRs digitised and more wills; marriage licences would be nice too :)

[Olde Crone]

Yes, I am not sorry to see the back of microfilm and microfiche.

Many years ago I made a herculean effort involving three childminders and gave myself a whole day at a family my history centre in order to look at an early church register filmed by the LDS. When I finally managed to get the film on the reader, blush blush, I almost wept with disappointment and frustration. The clerk concerned had used a tablecloth sized piece of parchment, folded like a map, and had just carried on writing on the next available blank bit. He then cross hatched it. Whoever had filmed it had given up the struggle to do it consecutively and so there were random pages and half pages and upside down bits. I must say though, that the ink was remarkably black!

I reeled out of the place like a drunk and had a splitting headache for days. I also had to be very grateful to all the babysitters and pretend it was all worth it!

OC

[marquette]

I would love to see the original (or images of) the registers of St Nicholas Brighton - I would love to scan through and see if I can find out why there is no indexed baptism for my 4g grandmother Sophia Linn, around 1800. Is it squashed at the bottom of a page, nibbled by the mice ? Large inkblot ? Written in the margin ?

Maybe the same for St Margaret Buxted, so I can see if there are any notations on the 1839 baptism of William Martin, son of William Martin, carpenter of Brighton and his wife Elizabeth nee Berwick. A scribbled record of the marriage of William and Elizabeth ?

These Sussex ancestors of mine have been eluding me for years and years.

[kiterunner]

The St Nicholas parish registers are viewable on FamilySearch, Marquette. Hopefully this link will take you to the start of the baptisms for 1800 (if not, go to image number 71):

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-D49L-NB?i=70&cat=214220

You may need to log into FamilySearch to view them. Also, if it doesn't work on one browser, try a different one. I would look through for Sophia Linn but I have to go out shopping now!

Edit I had a look through 1797-1802 and didn't find her.

[kiterunner]

And the Buxted images are also on FamilySearch - here is William's baptism (image no 89):

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-D4VY-TQ?i=88&cat=244730

[ElizabethHerts]

I would like more work to be done on indexing the records that the Record Offices hold, because I am certain that there are thousands I would be interested in if only I were alerted to them.

Kate, I agree about the Yorkshire wills. An absolute must-have for me.

[Mary from Italy]

I would like more work to be done on indexing the records that the Record Offices hold

Have you thought of volunteering to index for FamilySearch or FreeReg?

[ElizabethHerts]

No, Mary, as I am already transcribing for Cornwall OPC. I have done quite a few wills and also am doing PRs.

[marquette]

And the Buxted images are also on FamilySearch - here is William's baptism (image no 89):

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-D4VY-TQ?i=88&cat=244730

Thanks Kiterunner
I had looked in the FS catalogue, but there was no indication that the images were available. I guess I should remember to log in when I go there !
I will have a look for Sophia as well. If, as I think, her parents were Nicholas and Sophia, I dont understand why she would not have been baptised, with the children either side of her appearing in the records.

Di

[Phoenix]

I wish that TNA would sort out their website, so I can actually locate all their goodies.
There is a database, listing all the villages in E179, but it's not readily accessible.

It would also be nice if record offices had the funds to catalogue all their holdings, so we knew what they hold.

[Kit]

Toni, if you sign in there are a lot of Family Search records you can view via the catalogue. You need to look for the camera symbol beside the record details.

Thanks Eliza. I do know to log in but everything I get really excited about says I have to go to an office.

I have found some very good information online though to be fair.