| Cheshire / North West |
Note: "comments" are the personal view of the Webmaster. |
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The Family History Society of Cheshire (FHSC) was founded in 1969 to advance the study of family history and genealogy, and we now have around 3000 members worldwide. As well as helping people with ancestors in Cheshire, we also assist members living locally whose ancestors originated elsewhere.
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| North West Group of Family History Societies |
A non-profit making concern established in 1980 to provide education services to the furtherance of research into genealogy and family history and to support the work of the regions societies, libraries and record offices. |
| Cheshire Births, Marriages and Deaths |
The county's Family History Society is collaborating with the local Registration Services to make the indexes to these records freely searchable via the Internet. |
| Cheshire Records |
A variety of old records for more than twenty places around north east cheshire. |
| Stockport Heritage Library |
Stockport Heritage Library's website. To view and download their latest newsletter visit: http://www.stockport.gov.uk/services/leisureculture/libraries/other_library_services/heritage_library/?view=Standard
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| The Stockport Image Archive |
Stockport Local Heritage Library is pleased to announce the launch of the new online Stockport Image Archive.
From Public Houses to Churches and Festivals to Transport the archive gives a fascinating insight into life in Stockport from the late 1800's right up to the present day. Containing around 8000 images so far Stockport Local Heritage Library plans to keep adding to this valuable resource, both from its own collection and with images kindly donated by the public.
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| Stockport Historic Environment Database (SHED) |
The Stockport Historic Environment Database contains information on statutory and locally listed buildings, conservation areas, Article 4 directions, scheduled monuments and registered historic parks and gardens.
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| Cheshire West and Chester Record Office |
The Service collects and preserves historical records relating to both the ancient and modern county of Cheshire, the diocese and the city of Chester. It makes the records available for study free of charge by members of the public.
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| Tameside Local Studies and Archives Centre |
Material relating to the history of Tameside's nine towns is centralised at Tameside Local Studies and Archives Unit |
| Cheshire Parish Register Project |
Liverpool University's Cheshire Parish Register Project. This has databases for a number of Wirral parish registers. |
| Stockport Heritage Trust "blog" |
This blog is for anyone with an interest in Stockport's heritage and environment. It is a forum for news, discussion, and information. |
| Patents applied for by Cheshire residents |
This list provided by one of our members, Bob Dobson, a well known regional bookseller, shows patent specifications in the names of Cheshire-based inventors. |
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More Than a Name
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The stories of the men from the Stockport area who fought and died in the Great War 1914-1918. |
| The Story of Early Woodford |
The text of a talk by Joan Bower, with links to all the referenced documents. |
| St. Mary's Church, Bowdon |
Take a virtual tour of St. Mary's Church, Bowdon online. |
| Cheshire Memories |
"Delve into our nostalgia archive and share your memories from Cheshire, Flintshire, Wrexham and North Shropshire, plus local history items on the area's rich heritage." |
| Poynton Web |
An interactive website and guide to Poynton village amenities, clubs and business activities in the village for the benefit of the local residents and visitors. NCFHS meetings are advertised on this site. |
| National / General |
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FFHS is an international organisation, established in 1974 in the UK as a non-profit making charitable company. It's principal aims are: to co-ordinate and assist the work of societies or other bodies interested in family history, genealogy and heraldry; to foster mutual co-operation and collaborative projects to help researches; and to represent the interests of our members, and family historians generally, especially in the preservation and availability of archival documents.
The Federation of Family History Societies has an Ezine (email magazine) which is disributed by email every two months. It contains brief news items about what is going on in the Federation and the world of British Genealogy in general and is intended to keep you up-to-date on all the important issues and events. Visit the website for more details.
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Society of Genealogists |
"The Society of Genealogists offers a unique combination of research material, guidance and support for those interested in family history and the lives of earlier generations. It is a charity whose objects are to 'promote, encourage and foster the study, science and knowledge of genealogy'." |
| Ancestry.co.uk |
Comprehensive site offering pay-per-view or subscription based searches of many databases, notably UK Census and BMD Index information. The subscription based service can be particularly cost effective if you have a requirement to perform many searches.
Comment: I have subscribed to this service for the last couple of years and consider it good value for money for the access to Census information alone. However, bear in mind that the BMD index information is sourced from FreeBMD, which you can access for nothing! |
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FreeBMD stands for Free Births, Marriages, and Deaths. The FreeBMD Project's objective is to provide free Internet access to the Civil Registration index information from England and Wales. The coverage is still far from complete, but this is nonetheless a valuable starting point when searching for index entries. |
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The aim of GENUKI is to serve as a "virtual reference library" of genealogical information that is of particular relevance to the UK & Ireland. It is a noncommercial service, provided by an ever-growing group of volunteers in cooperation with the Federation of Family History Societies and a number of its member societies. |
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Pay-per-view site. This site provides a record of all the BMD indexes in England and Wales since 1837 and up to 2002. Records for British nationals overseas from 1761 to 1994 may also be found here, especially useful for those tracing ancestors in the military who died in the two world wars. These records include regimental registers, returns from army chaplains and shipping records. |
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General Register Office for England & Wales
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General Register Office for England & Wales website - online certificate ordering service.
Comment: Whilst it is very convenient to be able to order a copy of any UK BMD certificate from one location, at times this service has undeniably been overwhelmed in the recent year and it has taken several weeks for certificates to be dispatched. Consider contacting local Register Offices to obtain copies of certificates (details of local Register Offices are available on the GENUKI site). One potential advantage of using the GRO site is that the certificates are images of the originals. Those ordered from local register offices will normally have been transcribed by hand, which can sometimes lead to transcription errors on hard to read certificates. |
| 1901 Cenus Online |
1901 Cenus of England and Wales online. Searching by name or address is free, but viewing the census information is chargeable. |
| Family History Fairs |
Alan Quatermain Family History Fairs website. "If you are a beginner to family history and want to trace your family tree, or already an experienced genealogist then Family History Fairs are for you. Check now to see if there is a Family History Fair near you." |
| ancestry-search.info |
This site has been set up to provide guidance on where to find information on your ancestors in England and Wales. |
| familybmd.com |
A site that promises to guide newcomers to family history research through the basic steps in layman's terms. |
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www.howto.co.uk/family/family-genealogy-tree/
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Diane Marelli's free online "How To" book, "At Home With Your Ancestors" provides you with the knowledge you need to build the history of your ancestors from the comfort of your own home.
Please note that the society is in no way recommending this company only making people aware that it may provide a useful resource to those who are new to family history research. |
| http://www.halsted.org.uk/ |
The Halstead Trust
The Trust is a non-profit making educational charity, governed by a Declaration of Trust that states its Objects to be:
"to advance the education of the public in the study of and research into family history, genealogy, heraldry and local history through one-name studies generally, but in particular with reference to all persons having the surname of Halsted, and to promote the preservation, security and publication of the useful results of such research."
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| http://www.mlfhs.org.uk/ |
The Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society website. This site has lots of useful information for those researching their family tree in the Manchester and Lancashire area, including a free genealogy toolbar to download, how to become a member, and lots of information telling you about the society and what they do. |
| http://hazelgrovereformclub.co.uk/history.aspx |
Website belonging to the Hazel Grove Reform Club which has some interesting information about the history of the club, which has been well researched. Well worth a look. |
| http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/?category_id=58 |
Pen and Sword Books. A wide selection of family and local history books, well worth a browse. Very useful books for the beginner and experienced historian alike. |
| http://www.irishrootsmedia.com/ |
Irish Roots magazine. A useful magazine for those with Irish ancestry and need help researching their family tree. |
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http://northcheshireradio.co.uk/default.aspx
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New website for a proposed radio station which will cover the local area of North Cheshire. They are interested in hearing from people in the locality for opinions of what kind of programme content you would like them to have on their shows. Hopefully family history will be one topic! |
| http://www.johnhulley-olympics.co.uk/index.shtml |
This is a wonderfully informative website created, by NCFHS society member Ray Hulley, to the memory of John Hulley who was instrumental in the formation of the National Olympian Association at his Liverpool Gymnasium on 6th November 1865. It contains all the information collected about him from his birth in 1832 to his death in 1875. It also lists the acknowledgments and tributes to him during and after his lifetime. These may be summed up by Don Anthony, a former Olympic athlete who wrote in 2001:
"Hulley was certainly a tour de force. He began to define Olympism long before the formation of the International Olympic Committee. Like Brookes and Ravenstein he influenced the thinking of the young Coubertin."
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