Worcestershire, England Genealogy

England Worcestershire

Guide to Worcestershire ancestry, family history and genealogy parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Worcestershire, or County of Worcester, is an inland county in the lower western part of England.

Did You Know

 * The book series "Britain in Old Photographs" highlights thousands of towns, villiages through out Worcestershire. Each town book has early photographs of local buildings around the town that were part of the lives of the people of that community.  Each town book is filled with photos of the citizens that lived in their community.  The writer found photographs of a number of relatives.  This is possible because her grandparents left Worcestershire at the beginning of the 20th Century after cameras were more common.   The books highlights township scenes, churches, schools, civic life, industry (events and personalities).   New community books are complied regularly, some books are now in Family History Centers, many books are now out of print.  Other community color books offer a look at the past with photos and histories of our ancesteral homes.  Locating your community books can be successful if quote marks are put around the subject and add book after the last quote mark.  Such as "Halesowen, Worcestershire" book.


 * Worcestershire is divided into areas that have been given descriptive titles mark the area that were linked by a common thread. The Black Country describes an industrial area south and west of Brimingham.  The black is from the sky color generated by the foundry smoke stacks.  Area terms help finding an ancestral home. Books that have been writen about the Black Country offer genealogical information.  Present residents of Worcestershire have written books on court cases, this writer found an account of the trial and gossip surounding the philandering of Edward Perrins, her second great grandmother's cousin.   Edward Perrins is not famous but his actions were the subject of local color.  In this book I found a researched pedigree of the Perrins Line between 1746 and the middle of the 19th Century, and photos of family business. The title of this book is "In the Shadow of the Monument" that title did not reveal any of the family research treasures that were found in this book.

Another book "Black Country Criminal Ancestors 1787-1868" contained and explains court records. Court notices transcribed as they were written up in local newspapers. The book lists names, dates, crimes, the sentence, and if they were reprieved. England commonly transported a large number of crimals during the last few Centuries. Court records can help family research if it possible ancestors may have ended up in any of the areas that criminals were transported to: Georgia in the United States, Australia, and others. Example: Zachariah Guest, for stealing a wip from John Jays, [in] Dudley. 7 years transportation.

If the researcher can find a time periond the Public Records Office at Kew, is where the court records are stored and the orginals can be copied.

Jurisdictions
Use an interactive mapto find jurisdictions for each parish in Worcestershire.

Civil Districts
When civil registration of births, marriages and deaths began in 1837, Worcestershire was divided into a number of registration districts, each containing several parishes. The index to the civil records gives the name of the district where an event took place. Click here to see a list of the civil districts in Worcestershire and the parishes covered by each. Read more about England Civil Registration.

Parishes
The Worcester Branch of the Birmingham &amp; Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry has excellent information on most of the parishes and many links to records.

Probate Jurisdictions
Before 1858, every town and parish in Worcestershire was under the probate jurisdiction of several ecclesiastical courts. To read more about probate records and see a list of Worcestershire towns and parishes and the probate courts that had jurisdiction over them, go to Worcestershire Probate Records.

Websites

 * Worcestershire Resources and help pages on RootsChat Worcestershire Resources and help pages. (Free).


 * www.ukgenealogy.co.uk/wor.htm website for United Kingdom research
 * http://fhlfavorites.info/Links/British/England/worcestershire.htm FHL Favorite's Various websites for Worcestershire research
 * http://freebmd.rootsweb.com searchable all County, district, etc. web site for UK vital records [marriage, birth, death] the data will be up dated on regular periods when volunteers are done with more information.
 * http://www.blackcountrybugle.co.uk/ newspaper web site contains family history queries, stories, photo postings for the area around Birmingham. Small townships can be searched in this newpaper chain.
 * http://www.cwgc.org/ Commonwealth Members War Graves site more than WW 1&amp;2 search for graves, individuals, units, cemeteries, etc. Usually gives two reports on personal information of dead &amp; wounded and the grave finder information.
 * http://www.dudley.gov.uk/community-and-living/deaths-funerals--cremations/genealogy-research-service data base of cemetery and creamatory records for Dudley/Stourbridge area that the City Counsel was left to take care of.
 * http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/WOR/
 * Contains many resources used for genealogical research in Worcertershire
 * CD set "National burial index for England and Wales" information about the CD's can be found in the SLC card catalogue on www.familysearch.org The CD set contains transcribed burial records for indexed cemeteries updated by the CD orgainzers. Records can be searched by county, cemeteries, and surname variations. Available in SLC and Oakland Family History Center and maybe other Libraries. Well worth a search for unusual Surnames or for known ancestral locations.
 * To view an more extensive list of web sites and/or web pages for Worcestershire and many of its parishes, visit FHLFavorites.info.