Wednesday, April 24, 2013

ENGLAND PROBATE RECORDS RESEARCH--MADE EASIER?!!

Probate (i.e. wills) researching in England heretofore has been a fairly complex research process. For drawing accurate conclusions and connections to prior generations in especially the pre-1858 and/or pre-civil registration (pre-1837) era, few records do so any better than wills. Where extant, they often play a major role in genealogical provenance.

Recently, however, the 'difficulty' level has just been majorly adjusted and turned down a couple of notches! Why?
Did you know that just about all of England's counties now have indexes--most of them quite significant--available online?

Those who use and research in England's probate records--including wills, administrations/admons, inventories, codicils and etc., may also be very pleased to learn that wiki.familysearch.org (click "England", then click the county of interest, then "Probate") gives quick step-by-steps for researching in and pointing you to each rich online county resources to these records.

The key to using probate records is knowing in and by which probate court jurisdiction your ancestor's parish of residence at death--was covered. And the Wiki provides you not only with one but several (ranked) possible probate court jurisdictions in which the target parish comes under--critical information for deciding which court[s] to search. For example: The F.S. Wiki points you to David Wright's all-London Wills Index ~1750 to 1858 (now at FindMyPast).
The Wiki is updated with similar information on all new critical online resources researchers need to more quickly locate wills, by displaying and sharing links to these online indexes to wills (and other records). And the best part? Most of them are free or at low cost to you.

Thanks to the Wiki, you can easily determine that most England counties now have online indexes to wills, admons and other probate records. Amazingly, only a few counties do not offer much online, but which is constantly changing. 

Current online Internet offerings, would you believe, renders finding probate records in England significantly easier, thus making research in original probate records themselves, a lot more fun!

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

London Huguenot Record Treasures at FamilySearch

England and the especially the greater London region by 1686 became a vast refuge for many French Huguenots. France's King placed a virtual death warrant on all Huguenots, declaring each person in a sense, as 'enemies of the state', and which flushed numerous among their flocks, out into the world, including North America, South Africa, West Indies, Scandinavia, Russia and other places.

Records of the French Huguenot chapels in the Greater London region are quite extensive. Over a century, these registers have been published by the Huguenot Society of Great Britain (London). They have also been microfilmed formerly by the Genealogical Society of Utah (now FamilySearch.org). In particular, the christenings now, like never before, have been mostly indexed and transcribed and made available online at FamilySearch.org.

The following is a list of those French Huguenot chapels of Greater London and the ranges of years, for which christenings are now available to be searched--at FamilySearch.org. Note that most marriages after 1754 were required by the law to have been performed in Anglican or that is--Church of England parishes; as well, burials of Huguenots also often occurred in the local parish churchyard; or in (Greater) London Nonconformist burial grounds such as Spa-Fields, Bunhill Fields cemeteries:


1. Chapel register  of Spitalfields, London, England, (La Patents French Huguenot), christenings, 1689-1785
2. Chapel register  of Spitalfields, London, England, (Wheeler Street French Huguenot), christenings, 1703-1742
3. Chapel register  of Spitalfields, London, England, (Saint Jean French Huguenot), christenings, 1687-1823
4. Chapel register  of Spitalfields, London, England, (The Artillery, French Huguenot), christenings, 1691-1786
5. Chapel register  of Stepney, London, England, (Crispin Street French Huguenot), christenings, 1694-1716
6. Chapel register  of Stepney, London, England, (Swanfields, French Huguenot), christenings, 1721-1735
7. Chapel register  of Stepney, London, England, (Bell Lane and Browns Lane and Marche Church, French Huguenot), christenings, 1709-1740
8. Chapel register  of Westminster, London, England, (West Street, French Huguenot), christenings, 1706-1743
9. Chapel register  of Westminster, London, England, (Hungerford Market or Castle Street, French Huguenot), christenings, 1688-1756
10. Chapel register  of Westminster, London, England, (Patente Soho or Le Temple, French Huguenot), christenings, 1689-1782
11. Chapel register  of Westminster, London, England, (Petit Charenton, French Huguenot), christenings, 1701-1705
12. Chapel register  of Westminster, London, England, (Rider Court, French Huguenot), christenings, 1700-1738
13. Chapel register  of Westminster, London, England, (Carre Street and Berwick Street, French Huguenot), christenings, 1690-1788
14. Chapel register  of Westminster, London, England, (Tabernacle Milck Alley, French Huguenot), christenings, 1696-1719
15. Chapel register  of Westminster, London, England, (Glasshouse Street and Leicester Fields, French Huguenot), christenings, 1688-1783
16. Chapel register  of Westminster, London, England, (Chapelle Royale de Saint James, French Huguenot), christenings, 1738-1756
17. Chapel register  of Westminster, London, England, (Pearl Street Chapel, French Huguenot), christenings, 1698-1701
18. Chapel register  of Westminster, London, England, (Swallow Street Chapel, French Huguenot), christenings, 1689-1708
19. Chapel register  of Westminster, London, England, (Savoye De Spring Gardens and Des Grecs, French Huguenot), christenings, 1680-1871
20. Chapel register  of London, London, England, (Threadneedle Street, French Huguenot Church), christenings, 1600-1840
21. Chapel register  of Hoxton, London, England, (French Huguenot), christenings, 1751-1783

To obtain further information about your Huguenot ancestry and to access numerous additional records which provide important perspectives and clues about them, be certain to contact the Huguenot Society of Great Britain. They hold online treasures as well for ancestry among this very fascinatingly conscientious and passionate group of Christian followers--including the Quarto Books (now online) and more.