BERKSHIRE (abbreviations:
Berks, BRK)
1887, John Bartholomew's Gazetteer of
the British Isles
Berkshire, one of the inland cos. of England, lying between
Hants and the river Thames, bounded on the N. by Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire,
and Bucks, E.
by Surrey, S. by
Hants, and W. by Wilts; greatest
length, E. and W., 53 miles; greatest breadth, N. and W., 30 miles;
area 462,210 ac., pop. 218,363. It is intersected in a westerly
direction by a line of chalk hills, a continuation of the Chilterns,
the highest elevation being White Horse Hill, alt. 893 ft. N. of this
is the White Horse Vale (so called from the figure of a horse cut out
on the hill-side), and to the S. lies the Vale of Kennet, watered by
the Kennet stream. These tracts are well cultivated, and produce good
crops of grain, &c., especially in the Vale of the White Horse.
Dairy farms and commons abound; much of the surface is under woods,
chiefly of oak and beech. Windsor Forest, covering upwards of 50,000
ac., lies in the E. (For agricultural statistics, see Appendix.) The
Thames flows along the entire N. boundary (100 miles in extent); its
tributaries are the Kennet, Lambourn, Ock, and Loddon. The mfrs. are
unimportant, being chiefly agricultural implements and malt. The Great
Western Ry., the Thames, and 2 canals are the chief means of transit.
The co. contains 20 hundreds, 193 pars. with parts of 4 others, the
parl. and mun. bors. of Reading (1 member) and New Windsor (1 member),
the mun. bors. of Maidenhead, Newbury, and Wallingford, and the greater
part of the mun. bor. of Abingdon. It is almost entirely in the diocese
of Oxford. For parliamentary purposes it is divided into 3 divisions,
viz., Northern or Abingdon, Southern or Newbury, and Eastern or
Wokingham, 1 member for each division.
See also general descriptions about Berkshire from Berkshire
FHS, Pigot's 1830 Directory,
The National Gazetteer
of Great Britain and Ireland (1868), Cassell's
Gazetteer of Great
Britain and Ireland, 1899
. Other descriptions can be
found from other periods in various trade
directories
covering Berkshire from the early 19th century onwards and from A Vision of Britain Through Time.
What
is Berkshire? The
geographic extent of the county has changed over the centuries (more
about
boundary changes... and also see
Historical
Geography below). For
the purposes of these pages, Berkshire
is the pre-1974 county defined by the Towns
and Parishes list and this map
of the ecclesiastical parishes
of 19th century Berkshire.
If
in any doubt, consult the GENUKI
Gazetteer
to determine on which county page your place of interest is located.
See Berkshire
Genealogy to understand how
these Berkshire pages are structured
and how do we fit into the rest of GENUKI.
- Their online
search
only searches their website, not their catalogue. An online
catalogue search will be
available in
time.
- Search the parish
registers, non-parochial
registers, other
church records, C of E parish records, borough & town records,
court records.
- Some holdings are featured in online
galleries.
- Catalogued holdings:
use Access
to Archives advanced search and
select Repository = Berkshire
Record Office, or use Google
(or similar) and include "Berkshire Records Office" (with quotes) in
the search field.
- Un-catalogued holdings:
can
only be identified by contacting or
visiting the BRO. Some are listed on this, and linked, pages under the
relevant section (e.g. Business and
Commerce, Schools,
Courts, Towns
& Parishes).
- Berkshire
FHS's website provides an
extensive collection
of information and resources for the whole of Berkshire and
their Research
Centre in Reading is open for members (and non-members for a small
fee).
The library
and shop
catalogue are searchable online.
The society also maintains these Berkshire pages of GENUKI.
- The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints offers a
wide
range of genealogical resources at its Family History Centers around
the world. For contact details, click
here and search for the
centre nearest you. Reading FHC is the only centre in Berkshire.
They are best known for the IGI, see Church Records,
below.
- Reading
Central Library has family
history and local
history sections with much useful
information, including
approximately 8000
photographs and illustrations of
the Reading area to view online.
For books about a Berkshire organisation, church, town or
parish, search the library catalogue.
The library offers a research
service, for which there is
a charge. See also Bibliography. They publish these factsheets:
Family
History, Electoral
Registers, Aerial
Photographs, Useful
Local Maps,
Local
Newspapers.
-
Royal Borough of
Windsor and Maidenhead (RBWM
) Libraries have local
studies libraries at Maidenhead
Library (recently
refurbished); Windsor
and Ascot
Libraries which cover each of their local areas. This
list
summarises their local studies holdings. As well as the
borough-wide catalogue
which is useful for local studies queries about items stocked.
The
above libraries also each maintain their own substantial databases
of local information. The libraries offer a research
service, for which there can be a charge.
- Other record repositories and organisations
that hold Berkshire-related records or copies (others are
mentioned on individual Parish pages):
- The
National Archives (TNA)'s Access
to Archives (A2A) provides a
single point from which to search the
catalogues of all subscribing archives held locally in England and
Wales, including most in Berkshire, from the eighth century to the
present day. It is a good starting point if you are uncertain
where records could be held. Use their Discovery
catalogue
to search their own holdings. Some TNA records are
digitised and can be
searched and downloaded. They publish
many Research
Guides.
- National
Register of Archives (NRA) from TNA is
particularly useful for finding the location of the archived records of
a named organisation (e.g. The
Abingdon Railway Company or Robert
Adams, blacksmith).
- Similarly, the Archives
Hub provides a gateway to hundreds of other archives in over 180
colleges and universities in
the UK.
- And AIM25.
- Family Search provided
by the Church of Latter-day Saints
or Mormons (Genealogical Society of Utah). They also offer an
incomplete Research
Wiki
for Berkshire.
- Bracknell
Library.
- Bodleian Library,
Oxford.
- Maidenhead
Heritage Centre is the museum for Maidenhead and the surrounding
villages.
- Museum
of
English Rural Life (MERL) of University of Reading (previously the Rural
History Centre, see
description from Berkshire
FHS) is a specialist museum of farming and rural life in England.
NOTE that their website is being modified and some links may be
broken, if so, try
this link.
- Museum
of Berkshire Aviation.
- Newbury Library has Local
History and Family
History information.
- Oxfordshire
History Centre (combining the Oxfordshire Record
Office (ORO), Oxfordshire Studies and Oxfordshire Health Archives).
- Oxfordshire
Family
History
Society (OFHS) publish data for parishes that were in historic
Berkshire and
are now in present day Oxfordshire.
- Reading Museum has a
number of online
collections.
- Society of Genealogists
(SoG).
- Swindon
Library's Swindon
Collection offers local studies
and family history material, some specific to Berkshire. They
have published some historic photographs on Flickr.
- Thames Pilot
– a collection of documents and images charting the
history of the River Thames.
- University of Reading's Special
Collections.
- Vale and
Downland Museum in Wantage has a
particularly good set of articles
on local
history.
- West
Berkshire Museum in Newbury is
currently closed and is not expected
to open until 2014.
- Wiltshire
and Swindon Archives holds Bishop's Transcripts for Berkshire (to
1835/1836), wills and probate documents from the Diocesan Court, and
some Berkshire family and estate records.
- Windsor
and Royal Borough Museum.
- Windsor
Castle - St George's Chapel Archive and Chapter Library (The
Aerary).
- Wokingham
libraries.
Bibliography
- Reading
Central Library has a
particularly good selection of
Berkshire-related books and, even if you cannot visit, their catalogue
can still be used to identify titles that can then be sourced
elsewhere (see below).
- Online
books
are
available from various websites
that provide free digitised
copies of out-of-copyright books
that can be downloaded or read online, some relating to Berkshire
history. When searching, beware of hits relating to Berkshire in the
USA. They are
particularly useful to
find
local history written in the 17th, 18th and early 20th centuries,
magazines, professional & army listings. Because they
are
fully text searchable, they are useful for finding passing
reference to events, people and places without having to know the title
of the book. Be aware that these files can be large.
- Open
Library
(e.g. Bygone Berkshire, 1896, P. H.
Ditchfield).
- Project
Gutenberg (e.g. Ballad of Reading Gaol
by Oscar
Wilde and The War Service of the
1/4 Royal Berkshire
Regiment (T. F.)
by CRMF Cruttwell).
- Internet
Archive (e.g. Berkshire
Parish
Registers, 1908, Volume
1
and Volume
2).
- Google
Book Search (e.g. The Journey Book of
Berkshire,
1840, Charles Knight). See article about Google Book
Search in Berkshire
Family Historian, Jun 2009, Vol 32, page 10.
- HathiTrust Digital Library
- nearly three milllion volumes are either in the public domain,
or are in-copyright and the rights holders have made them
available, more...
- Online sources of new and
secondhand books for purchase:
- John
Townsend deals in second-hand genealogy books.
- Francis
Frith
sells new books about the history of Berkshire places.
- Archive CD
Books USA
and Archive
CD Books UK sell digital
reproductions of old books.
- BookButler is a portal
to over 60 online book stores, many specialising in second-hand texts
and avoids searching each store individually. Select in the
relevant boxes, "search by Keyword", "Catalogue UK", "Shipping to UK",
"Currency £ Pound Sterling" and you will get sensible results.
- Bookfinder.
- Amazon.
- The British Library's Catalogue
Search allows you to
search through over 13 million books in
their collection.
Business
and Commerce Records
- Many records are
held by the BRO
but some are un-catalogued.
For catalogued records, use Access
to Archives advanced search and
select Repository = Berkshire
Record Office. Some un-catalogued records appear on this
list and others are listed below:
Berkshire
Printing
Company, Reading, 1900-2001 (D/EX1667); Blatch’s
Brewery,
Theale, 1763-1972 (D/EX 1639); S & E Collier Ltd of
Reading,
brick and tile makers,
1902-1964
(R/D 130); Henry Bird & Sons, brewers of Reading,
1738-1867
(D/EX 1668); S H Higgs Ltd, brewers of Reading,
1937-1960s (D/EX 1668); John Hooper of Reading, pill
manufacturer 1787-1849 (D/EX 1830), see
also Vol 26 2004 page 3 of the
Berkshire
Echo; Strange
& Sons, brewers of Aldermaston, 1818-1999
(D/EX 1668); Thomas Wethered & Sons,
brewers of Marlow,
Buckinghamshire,
1580-1983 (D/EX 1668); Heelas & Co of
Wokingham,
department store 1798-1919 (D/EHS); Huntley, Boorne &
Stevens
of Reading, tin box manufacturers, 1878-1959 (D/EX 1745);
Maidenhead Waterworks Company, 1874-1957, and Wokingham
District
Water Company, 1926-1934 (D/EX 1913).
- Trade directories can provide some
information (including advertisements) about businesses, large and
small, through the years, see sample pages
from a 1915 directory.
- Agricultural
business records of farms and Berkshire firms in agricultural
engineering, processing, and farm and garden seed
production are held by MERL (part of
University of Reading), including: Gascoignes, Reading; Goodenoughs,
Reading;
Nalder & Nalder
Ltd,
Wantage; Suttons Seeds, Reading (see also below); Wantage
Engineering Company;
Thomas Baker of
Newbury; John Wilder of Reading.
- Canals:
- The BRO have archives of
the Kennet and Avon canal and Reading Borough’s register of
canal boats, 1879-1921 (see the Berkshire
Echo Vol 60, 2012, page 4).
- Railway
& Canal Historical Society.
- Kennet & Avon
Canal
- see the Museum
which describes
the way the canal was planned, built and worked during its 200 year
history and Wikipedia.
- The novel The Cry
Of The Heron by Dick Allan (ISBN 0-9533291-2-7) has a
background on the River Wey and Basingstoke Canal in the
late 18th and early 19th centuries, available from Reading Central Library.
- Cookham Bridge Company
operated a private toll bridge over the Thames at Cookham until 1947,
when it was nationalised. Their archives are held by the BRO (see the Berkshire
Echo Vol 60, 2012, page 4).
- Huntley
& Palmer (biscuit manufacturers):
- Peek
Frean (biscuit manufacturers) in
the University of Reading
archive.
- Plenty of Newbury
(lifeboats, marine steam engines, and latterly,
pumps), 1746-1997, records are held by the BRO (D/EX1739, 1771, 2097). See
article in Berkshire
Family Historian, Dec 2012, Vol 36, page 12.
- Reading Gas Company and
Reading Gas Works, 1899-1965. -
records are held by the BRO
(D/SG 8 & D/EX 1593). Reading
Gas Company
1862 -1912 Douglas H Helps,
1912
available from Reading
Central Library
and Berkshire
FHS library.
- Reading Iron Works - Barrett,
Exall & Andrews' Reading Iron Works,
an article in Berkshire
Family Historian, Dec 2010, Vol
34, page 19 describes the
life of this agricultural equipment manufacturer 1858 -
1872.
- Suttons
Seeds
was formed in 1806 to sell corn, moved to Market Place, Reading in
1832. Their website
provides a brief
history.
Sutton's
Seeds - The
History 1806-2006, Earley
Local History Group, 48 Harcourt Dr, Earley, Reading RG6 5TJ,
ISBN
0954004124 (available from Reading
Central Library).
Records 1860s-1940s are held by the The
Rural History Centre of University of Reading.
- Taylowe (printers)
founded in Slough in the 1930s and moved to
Maidenhead in the 1950s -
records are held by the BRO
(D/EX2012).
Cemeteries
(including church yards)
- Monumental Instriptions (MIs):
- Berkshire FHS
shop sells transcriptions
of MIs for Berkshire (mainly on CD and a number of which also
contain photographs) and
many war
memorials.
- Some are also available for reference at Reading
Central Library.
- The Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies (IHGS)
publishes free online transcriptions
of a limited number MIs, including some from Berkshire.
- For Berkshire parishes now located in modern Oxfordshire, some
MIs have been transcribed by OFHS.
- See also burials under Church
Records and War
Memorials below.
- Deceased Online are
indexing cemetery and crematoria records from the mid 19th century to
the present, although no records for Berkshire yet, see their coverage.
- The Church Monuments Society provides photographs of the
more interesting monuments (NOT monumental inscriptions, MIs) in a
limited number of church yards, including 20 in Berkshire.
- The Monumental Brasses of
Berkshire, William Lack, H Martin Stuchfield & Philip
Whittemore, (Monumental Brass Society, 1993. ISBN 0 9501298 8 7). 194
pages; over 200 illustrations, see
online name
index.
- FreeCEN is a volunteer
project to provide free online access to transcriptions of the
censuses. There is very little coverage of
Berkshire at present.
- The BRO
hold all the census
enumerators' returns for Berkshire
1841-1901 on microfilm or fiche, with indexes for 1851 and
1881.
- Joseph Toomer's census of
Newbury 1815 - a full transcript and
index is available from Berkshire
FHS
shop.
- For the years for which census returns are not available,
consider
the Electoral Rolls.
The book is a transcription of the
entries of Berkshire churches in the full
Ecclesiastical Census Returns HO 129
which is available as a series of free downloads from
TNA containing the returns
for all of
England and Wales,
arranged by registration district. The handwritten returns can be
difficult to read (see
sample page),
so the transcription may be easier to use.
This was the first and only
census of places
of worship in England and Wales and was made alongside the
population census of the same year with the same registration
districts. It was not compulsory and only about 80% of Berkshire
churches seem to have responded, the C of E being particularly
reluctant. All the Berkshire churches listed in the census are in
the
Genuki Church Database above and are identified as such.
See article
in
Berkshire
Family Historian, Mar 2008, Vol 31, page 8.
- Berkshire Nonconformist
Meeting House Registrations 1689-1852 in 2 parts, editor
Lisa Spurrier, Berkshire
Record Society, 2005, ISBN 0952494698,
copies available for reference in Reading
Central Library and the BRO.
It is a transcription of the applications to
register the places of worship in historic Berkshire of Protestant
Dissenters (those who
dissented from the Church of England) and also some Roman Catholic
churches, as a result of the Toleration Act . See sample
record. Most of
the 366 entries are for a room in a private house, and therefore
often do
not show in other records of the time. It also provides
useful descriptions of the different denominations in Berkshire at the
time:
Methodists
(Wesleyan, Primitive and Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion), Baptist
(Particular, Strict, General), Presbyterians,
Independents/Congregationalists, (Plymouth) Brethren).
- Thumbnail descriptions of church buildings and their histories
can
often be found in trade directories through
the years, see sample pages
from a 1915 directory.
- Church
of England (C of E):
- The Church of England was a key
secular
(as well as religious) institution until the Victorian period. As
part of local government, it was responsible for poor relief, running
local charities, and even local roads and law enforcement. As a
result, the 'parish chest' contains a lot more than just the
registers of christenings, marriages and burials. Their registers
also often contain records of
adherents to
other (non-C of E ) religions.
- Church of
England Record Centre.
- A Church Near
You
lists the existing
churches in the C of E
with current information, maps, contact information, often
with links to the churches' own websites.
- Berkshire C of E churches come under the Oxford diocese, see map of
the parishes with links to individual churches.
- The Churches
Conservation Trust (formerly the Redundant Churches Fund) protects
historic churches that have been made redundant but not sold off by
the C of E. There are currently four
in Berkshire.
- This list of redundant
churches within the diocese of Oxford (which includes
Berkshire) also lists those sold for other uses (e.g. to other
religions or as private houses).
- The Incorporated
Church Building Society's
archive includes over 15,000 files
relating to applications by parishes for grants from the
Society 1818 to 1982. Individual files may include application
forms, correspondence, plans, building specifications, engravings or
artists' impressions, certificates of satisfactory completion,
parochial subscription lists, parish magazines, and photographs (from
1867 onwards). Their online
database
lists the archive contents and, perhaps most usefully, links to online
copies of plans and drawings of many of the C of E churches. The
society is now part of the National
Churches Trust.
- The Clergy
of
the Church of England Database includes background
information on
particular dioceses, cathedrals &
collegiate churches and non-diocesan locations (as well
as historical information
on the careers of some C of E clergymen).
- Presbyterian Church:
In 1972, they joined the Congregationalists (see
above) and others to form the United
Reform Church. They were influenced by Calvinism which rejected
bishops and believed that the church should be governed by their
ministers and members.
- Religious
Society of Friends
(Quakers):
- Baptist
Church:
- The General Baptists and Particular Baptists came together in
1891
to form the Baptist Union of Great Britain. Their Baptist
Handbook of 1896 is
available free from Internet
Archive and contains, among other things, lists of officers, member
churches, ministers and personal members.
- The Baptists of Berkshire Through Three
Centuries by Ernest A Payne, 1951, copies held by Reading
Central Library. Describes the history of the church in
Berkshire from 1600s to 1950s, with a table listing churches existing
in 1949
with the name of pastor, number of members, etc. Includes
pictures of famous ministers of the Reading King St Church: John Howard
Hinton, William Anderson, Robert Gordon Fairbairn.
- A Brief History of Baptists in Reading.
- Baptist Historical
Society provides research advice and a database of obituaries
of ministers.
- Strict
Baptist Historical Society has an online Pastor & Chapels
database, library catalogue and a brief history
of the church.
- Centre
for Baptist History and Heritage.
- Unitarians
- Unitarian
Historical Society include an online index to obituaries of
Unitarian ministers, 1800-2004, and bibliography of Unitarian
congregations since 1800.
- Find a Church is a directory of
modern churches
of Christian denominations in the UK. It offers no
genealogical information, but does have links to the individual
churches' websites which may hold such data.
- For churches that are
Listed Buildings, see also Dwellings.
- Photographs of churches,
see:
- Parish
Registers: Before
English & Welsh Civil
Registration started in July
1837, baptisms,
marriages and burials were only recorded by the churches in the Parish
Registers.
- BRO:
- They hold the
originals and microfilms
of most Berkshire
parish
and non-parochial registers for
baptisms/births, marriages, and burials/deaths.
- Their online guide to Parochial
(i.e. Church of England) registers covers
all
parishes past and present in the Archdeaconry of Berkshire and parishes
in the Archdeaconry of Buckinghamshire that are within the present
Berkshire borders. The English parish church was a key secular
(as well as religious) institution until the Victorian period. As
part of local government, it was responsible for poor relief, running
local charities, and even local roads and law enforcement. As a
result, the 'parish chest' contains a lot more than just the
registers.
- Maidenhead
Library: the
Brooks Collection: transcripts of registers
for all Maidenhead parishes except Waltham St. Lawrence, and
transcripts of registers for a number of other parishes in former
Berkshire, but not including Windsor, for the period from
1500s to 1837. It is hoped that a full list of which registers
are available at Maidenhead Library, will be online late
2013.
- Windsor
Library: St.
John the Baptist, New Windsor only: Baptisms
1559–1837; Marriages: 1559–1837; Burials: 1560–1837;
Index: 1559–1837.
- OFHS publish
data about the Parishes of north Berkshire (i.e., those parishes that
were
formerly in Berkshire and are now in Oxfordshire):
- Index
to the Parish Registers:
- The International
Genealogical Index (IGI)
contains many, but not all, indexes to
the records of 131 Berkshire towns and villages, and is a useful
finding aid. IGI
Batch Numbers: It is not always easy to locate your
ancestors in the IGI using their search. Manually typing in the batch
numbers can be tedious. Hugh Wallis has created a database of those
numbers and the source records that they apply to. A very powerful
feature includes a hotlink from each batch number to the IGI search,
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.
- Berkshire FHS's Berkshire
Baptisms 1st edition CD contains
indexed transcriptions of 160,000 baptisms and 477,000 names from
58
parishes.
- Berkshire FHS's Berkshire
Marriages 2nd edition CD contains indexed transcriptions of
the marriages (both Anglican (Church of
England) and nonconformist) in all pre-1974 Berkshire parishes (see
their coverage).
Those Berkshire FHS transcriptions
of events more than 85 years old are also available online from Findmypast
(see their coverage).
- Phillimore's marriages transcripts for Berkshire are sold on CD
by Archive
CD Books for most, but not all, parishes.
- Some parishes
that were formerly in Berkshire and now in Oxfordshire are on the North
Berkshire
Marriage Index compiled by the OFHS.
- Berkshire FHS's Berkshire
Burials 11th edition CD contains
over 830,000 entries (see their coverage).
Those transcriptions of events more than 50
years
old are also available online from Findmypast
(see their coverage).
NOTE: inscriptions on gravestones (memorial inscriptions, MIs)
are not the same as
burial records, see Cemeteries.
- For deaths, see also Coroners
Index below.
-
For
post-July 1837 English & Welsh
civil records of births,
marriages and deaths, see Civil
Registration.
-
Some
other
church records (e.g. records of
meetings) are also held by
the BRO and may be listed on the NRA.
-
The Archdeaconry of
Berkshire was part of the Diocese of
Salisbury until 1836 when it was transferred to the Diocese of Oxford.
As a result of this, Bishop's Transcripts and items, such as some
wills, which came under the jurisdiction of the diocesan courts are
found in the Wiltshire
and Swindon History Centre or the Oxfordshire
Record Office. There are three Peculiar jurisdictions.
- Oxfordshire
Archdeacon's Marriage Bonds index is available free online and,
because of boundary and jurisdiction changes, contains some prospective Berkshire
marriages.
-
Map of the ecclesiastical
parishes of 19th century
Berkshire from Berkshire
FHS.
- A comprehensive listing of
Parish Registers, Monumental
Inscriptions and transcripts can be found in the National
Index of
Parish Registers Volume 8 Part 1 - Berkshire, 2nd edition,
compiled by Anthony Wilcox and published by the Society of Genealogists
in
2003 and available from the Berkshire FHS
shop.
-
Births, marriages and
deaths (BMDs) in England and Wales post-July 1837 were
recorded by
local Register
Offices (even those marriages conducted in church), with copies also
held by the General
Register Office (GRO).
See explanation of Civil Registration
in England and Wales and how to order certificates. Indexes
are available:
- FreeBMD
offer free online access to the GRO indexes for the whole
of England
and Wales (not just Berkshire), presently
covering 1837 to the
1960s (see current
coverage), with more being added.
- The BRO (and
other offices in the UK and overseas, see
list) hold
microfiches of the GRO indexes for the whole of England and Wales,
although these are now less necessary (and less convenient) as the
FreeBMD coverage expands.
- BerkshireBMD offer
free online access to some local
indexes
for Berkshire
for the period 1837 to mid 20th century.
- See explanation
of
the difference between local indexes
and GRO indexes.
- Ancestry
and Find
My Past provide online subscription access.
- For deaths, see also Coroners
Index below.
Court
Records
-
Archived
court petty
sessions records are held by the BRO
for the following : Abingdon
County Division, Faringdon Division, Forest Division, Hungerford and
Lambourn Division, Hungerford Division, Ilsley Division, Lambourn
Division, Maidenhead Borough, Maidenhead County Division, Maidenhead
Division, Moreton and Wallingford Division, Moreton Division, Newbury
Borough, Newbury County Division, Reading Borough, Reading County
Division, Slough Division, Wallingford Borough, Wantage Division, West
Berkshire Division, Windsor Borough, Windsor County Division and
may be listed on the NRA.
- Descriptions of the county
and its towns and parishes from
different periods can be found in various trade
directories, from the
early 19th century
onwards, including:
- Hearth tax returns,
1662-1664 are held by
the BRO.
- Jurors lists (those
qualified to serve on a jury) are held by the BRO, including the period 1897-1922
(ref. Q/RJ/1 to 19). They typically list just the names and
qualification.
- Protestation Returns
for
Berkshire, 1641/1642 - copies are held by the BRO
(T/A 40) and the originals are held
at the House of Lords Record Office. On the eve of the
English
Civil War, Parliament ordered that a protestation be made as an oath of
allegiance to the King, to Parliament and to the established church.
Signed initially by members of Parliament in 1641, the order to take
the protestation was later extended to all males in England and Wales
over the age of eighteen. The officials of the parish were required to
make the oath in front of the Justices of the Peace of the hundred, and
then in turn the parish officials administered the oath of loyalty for
their parishioners. The returns usually take the form of a list of the
names of all of the men in the parish over the age of eighteen who took
the protestation. Very occasionally, children and servants
are
listed, as in the case of Sutton Courtenay; or women took the
protestation, as in the case of West Shefford. Those who refused to
take the oath also had their names listed. The returns were later used
to identify Roman Catholics by their refusal, who were
then subject to increased taxation. The returns that
survive
for
Berkshire offer partial but substantial coverage, with most of central
Berkshire extant. See article in the Berkshire
Family Historian, Vol
23, Sep 2009, page 15.
- Rate Books
record taxes
paid to a local
authority. Entries typically include owner’s name,
address
and type of property, rateable value and amount levied and sometimes
the occupier. Used with other
sources, rate books can be useful for: studying all kinds of
property, residential, commercial and industrial.; filling
gaps
between the publication of trade directories and
censuses; tracing
owners and occupiers before 1918 who do not appear in electoral
registers; finding the rough age of a property, its relative
value and size, changes to street names and numbering, and the number
of occupied houses and tenements in a locality. For the
archived
records held by the BRO, see Town
Records
below.
- Telephone Directories
- Ancestry
provide subscription
access to British phone books published between 1880 (the year
after the public telephone service was introduced to the UK) and 1984.
- Your own local library will probably hold some hard copies.
- Trade
Directories
- British Genealogy describe
what is typically
found in trade directories and
why they are useful. See also sample pages
from a 1915 directory.
- The University
of
Leicester's free online Historical
Directories
collection includes Kelly's Directories of Berkshire 1848,
1914
and 1915,
the Berkshire Commercial Directory 1833,
and
Slater's
Directory of Berkshire 1852, Webster's Reading Directory 1874,
Harrod & Co's Directory of Beds, Bucks, Berks, etc 1876,
Pigot's
Directory 1844, Post Office Directory of Berkshire, etc 1854.
TIP: when searching for a person
under Find By Keywords, "John w/2 Smith" will find
"John
Smith", "John A
Smith" and "Smith, John" (w/2 means "within two words of").
If
you know his occupation, try "Smith w/2 candlestick maker".
(
More
about searching...).
- Tracing the History of Your
House, Nick Barratt, TNA,
2002, ISBN 1 903365 22 8, a detailed description of how to trace the
history of a building.
- Lost
Heritage lists significant English country houses which have
been demolished, severely reduced in size, or are ruin, including many
in Berkshire, some with pictures.
- British
Listed
Buildings Online is
an online database of buildings and
structures of architectural and historic interest with data
for
each building, some photographs, location on a
map, Google
Streetview and Bing Birds Eye View.
- Berkshire Return of Landowners,
1873 (of land over one acre) is held by the at TNA. Ancestry
provide subscription access. An extract is available
on both microfiche and CD from Berkshire
FHS.
- For books about a building, or perhaps just a passing reference,
try searching online books, see the Bibliography.
- Help from Genuki to get started:
- Professional
research: For
those thinking of using the
services of a paid researcher, and only in response to a prior written
application, Berkshire FHS
can return a short list of names and contact
details of researchers who undertake commissioned projects. This
information is offered by the society purely as a public service.
Inclusion of a researcher on a list neither constitutes nor implies
recommendation, endorsement or warranty of any kind by the society.
Client and researcher should always negotiate any commissioned work
directly and in entirety.
-
Mailing lists, message
boards and forums for Berkshire:
- Berkshire FHS runs for
its members the most active forum to discuss issues concerning
Berkshire
genealogy and to solicit help and advice.
- RootsChat.
- RootsWeb.
- Berkshire
Local History Association.
- British
Genealogy.
- Curious Fox
is
a village by village contact site for anybody researching
family
history, genealogy and local history in the UK and Ireland. Every UK
county, town and village has a page for family history, local history,
surname and genealogy enquiries.
-
Researchers may be
interested in the Berkshire
Genweb pages.
- Nigel Batty-Smith has
scanned the entire volumes I and II of the
Visitations of Berkshire, 1532, 1566, 1623, 1665-66 Harleian Society
volumes 56 & 57 old series and they are now available to view
free online
on his website. It is also available online
(possibly more accessible) from the Open
Library.
- The Genuki
Gazetteer shows the location of
places and lists neighbouring
places with links to online maps and to Genuki pages that may contain
information about that place and the genealogical resources which are
available for it.
- A similar facility is provided by the LDS Family Search's England
Jurisdictions 1851 where the boundaries of parishes,
civil registration districts, C of E dioceses, rural deanerys, Poor Law
Unions and Hundreds can be superimposed on maps.
-
List of Berkshire hundreds,
the historical sub-divisions of counties, introduced in the 10th
century primarily as a unit of taxation but also having administrative,
judicial and military functions.
-
The local government
reorganisation of 1974 brought major
changes to the boundaries of Berkshire with parts being lost to
Oxfordshire and others gained from Buckinghamshire. Further changes in
1998 finally abolished Berkshire as an administrative unit and replaced
it with six Unitary Authorities - Bracknell Forest, Reading, Slough,
West Berkshire, Windsor and Maidenhead, and Wokingham. More
about
boundary changes... N.B.
Information on GENUKI pages
is organised on the
basis of the pre-1974 counties.
- Enclosures:
- Enclosure in
Berkshire, 1485-1885, ed.
Ross Wordie, Berkshire
Record Society, vol 5, 2000.
Between 1600 and 1900 the
landscape and agriculture of Berkshire was transformed. In
1600,
three quarters of the county was covered by large open fields, common
land or waste. By 1900 all but 4% was in the form of small
enclosed, hedged fields, owned by individual landowners.
- See
also New
Landscapes:
Enclosure in Berkshire in Maps
below.
-
British
History Online is the digital library containing some of the
core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern
history of the British Isles, including Volumes 2, 3 and 4 of the Victoria
County History of Berkshire.
Internet Archive have published Volume
1.
-
A more recent history is A
History of Berkshire by Dr.
Judith Hunter, published by Phillimore
in 1995.
-
David Nash Ford, history
editor at Britannia.com,
is the author of Royal
Berkshire History, a
website "featuring details of all aspects of the Royal County's
fascinating & historic past."
- Francis
Frith
sells modern books about the history of Berkshire places.
- For the history of religious denominations and individual
churches, see Church
History.
- Many older historical books are available free online, see Bibliography,
for example:
- Bygone Berkshire by P. H.
Ditchfield, 1896, from Open
Library.
- A History
of Berkshire (1887), Charles Cooper King, from
Internet Archive.
- The Antiquities of Berkshire
(1723), Elias Ashmole, from Internet Archive.
- Topographical Dictionary of England,
Samuel Lewis, 1845, from Internet Archive, provides a description
of each English Parish and County in alphabetical order: Vol. 1 A-C,
Vol. 3 L-R and Vol. 4 S-Z. Vol 2 is not currently available.
- Volume 1 of Magna
Britannia
by the Rev. Daniel Lysons and his
brother Samuel Lysons, published in 1806 and re-issued in 1813, is
perhaps the most famous
history of Berkshire, from Open
Library (and also from Archive
CD Books)
- Trade directories provide a description of the places listed,
see Directories.
- Historical
photographs are
available from:
- Reading Central Library.
- Reading Museum holds the Reading
Chronicle Collection of over 40,000 negatives taken by the
newspaper between 1938 and 1964, and has published many of them online
on History
Pin.
- Swindon
Library
have published some historic photographs on Flickr.
- Mary Evans
Picture Library.
- Francis
Frith.
- The BRO.
- MERL has a collection
of photographs of English rural life.
- TNA
has brief
guide to researching photographs.
- Heritage Images.
- English Heritage's ViewFinder shows
historic photographs of England from the 1850s.
- Badger's
Heritage (line drawings).
- History Pin offers
user-submitted historical photographs.
- Britain From Above
provides free aerial photographs of Britain from 1919.
- For images in books, see also Bibliography.
- For monuments and monumental inscriptions (MIs, gravestones),
see also Cemeteries.
- For churches, see also Church
History.
- For railways, see also Business and Commerce
- For buildings, see also Dwellings.
- For public houses, see also Licenced
Victualers.
- For modern photographs, try:
- Flickr, Panoramio and Geograph
have user-submitted photographs.
- Google Streetview (through Google Maps)
will provide modern photographs of buildings if you know their location.
- Images of
England
provide a ‘point in time’ photographic library of
England’s listed buildings, recorded at the turn of the 21st
century, with over 300,000 images of England’s built heritage
from lamp posts to lavatories, phone boxes to toll booths, milestones
to gravestones, as well as thousands of bridges, historic houses and
churches. Note that this website uses the current boundary of
Berkshire, not the historic ones used by these pages, see more
about
boundary changes...
- Google
Images.
Manors
- At the time of the Domesday
Book in 1086, the manor was the basic
unit
of local government. The manor court evolved as the forum where all
matters relating to the manor were dealt with, including property
transactions, byelaws and local disputes. Records of these courts,
surviving from the mid thirteenth century, tell us much about
how
society was organised at a local level. They can
reflect the impact of national events and movements like the Great
Plague or Tudor enclosure. They are arguably at their most informative
in the medieval
period, when the power of the manor was at its height. It was later
supplanted by the parish vestry and local magistrate. However, the
manorial court system
survived officially until 1922 when the Law of Property Act abolished
both the courts and the manorial land tenure called copyhold. Manorial
records can be a great way to find out information on individuals
beyond their birth, marriage and death dates. Going back in time much
before census, electoral register and civil registration, manorial
records can fill in where other records are
patchy or non-existent,
with so many interesting notes of family relationships, abodes,
occupations and life events. Manorial
Documents
Register (MDR) is published by TNA
and most
of the records of the 350 Berkshire manors are at the BRO,
with others at TNA
and in public and private repositories.
-
Digital Ordnance Survey
maps of Berkshire (and elsewhere) from the mid 19th
century to 1970s are available online at Old
Maps. Although
intended for the sale of maps, the free on-screen images can still be
useful. An article in the Berkshire
Family Historian, Vol
33, Sep 2009, page 18 describes how good
use can be made of them.
TIP 1:
It can also be accessed via
the
Genuki
Gazetteer:
Enter the place name and click Search; click the pin on the
map
(NOT
the single item on the list top right); pick the third item
"Other
maps"; pick "OldMaps" (not "Old Maps On Line"); zoom in as
necessary; pick a
suitable date and
scale from the maps along the right hand edge.
TIP 2: If looking for the location of a church on a map, use the
Genuki Church Database and follow the
links to OldMaps.
- 6 inch
and
25 inch to the mile Ordnance Survey sheets from
the first edition in the 1870s to the 1930s.
- New
Landscapes:
Enclosure in Berkshire, a joint
project with the Museum
of
English Rural Life, makes use of
the latest digital technologies to
display historic manuscript maps and land awards and thus document the
process of enclosing the common fields of the county of Berkshire
between 1738 and 1883.
- Tithe maps (best source for finding who owned/farmed what
land and how in the early Victorian period), and manuscript and printed
maps, indexed by place. See description
from the TNA.
- Enclosure
Maps free online showing the process of enclosing the common
fields of
Berkshire between 1738 and 1883, particularly useful for finding older
place names.
- Deposited Plans (plans required to be submitted for
major infrastructure projects (e.g. a new railway line)) which include,
not only the map itself, but also details of the ownership of the land
affected. E.g. the Deposited Plan of Great Western Railway at time of
widening of the line from Maidenhead to Reading in 1890, ref. D/P
113/28/4.
- Reading
Central Library: See
their Factsheet.
- A selection
of maps from 1574 for reference,
including enormous 1:500 Ordnance
Survey maps of Reading in the 1870s.
- The Rocque maps of 1761, see article in Berkshire
Family Historian, Dec 2008, Vol 32, page 12.
- Free online estate maps
for
Hardwick, Rose Hill, London Street, Good
Rest, Castle Hill, Earley, Burfield and Shinfield estates.
-
Maidenhead,
Windsor
and Ascot
Libraries hold a large selection of printed OS maps for each of their
distinct
areas from 1868 to 1993.
-
An Historical Atlas
of
Berkshire,
editor Joan Dils and Margaret Yates, Berkshire
Record Society, 2012
shows maps of:
parishes, geology, administration divisions, agriculture, country
houses, Poor Law areas, railways, roads, population, etc.
Copies are
held by Berkshire
FHS and Reading Central Library.
- Cambridge
University Library have
digitised John Speed's Theatre
of
the Empire of Great Britaine
published in 1611/12 of the UK,
including a map of Berkshire.
TIP: It can also be accessed via
the
Genuki
Gazetteer:
Enter the place name and click Search; click the pin on the
map
(NOT
the single item on the list top right); pick the third item
"Other
maps"; pick "Old Maps On Line" (not "OldMaps"); zoom in as
necessary; pick a
suitable date and
scale from the maps along the right hand edge.
Medical
Records
- Early Medical Services :
Berkshire and South Oxfordshire from 1740, by Railton, Margaret.
Polmood Publications, 1994, available from Reading
Central Library.
A history of medical treatment for the poor, from the Old Poor
Law in 18C to health care under the New Poor Law from 1834, with the
development of hospitals, dispensaries and medical societies on which
the NHS was built.
- Medical officers,
hospital staff:
- Trade directories can
provide some information (including those in private practice),
see sample
pages
from a 1915 directory.
- See the Hospital
Records Database below and Doctors below.
- Some hospital staff will be listed in the censuses.
- Dentists
- the General
Dental Council hold
registration records which show the original application, list of
addresses, correspondence, etc going back to the compulsory
registration in
the 1920s.
- Doctors
- See Tracing
Your
Medical Ancestors from the Royal
College of General Practitioners.
- Researching
Your Family Tree for Medical Ancestors from the Royal College
of Physicians, who also provide the Munk's Roll which
is a near-complete online index to the obituaries of past fellows
from
1518 to the present (and licentiates from 1518 to 1825)..
- Google
Books have full
text of the London
Medical Directory (a
commercial, and therefore voluntary.
register) for 1846
and
other years which include some
doctors outside London.
- Ancestry
provide subscription access to UK Medical
Register
(a compulsory register published by the General Medical Council)
1859-1959 listing the doctors who were licenced to practice in
the
UK, with each doctor’s residence, qualification, and date of
registration.
- Medical Licenses Issued by the Archbishop
of Canterbury 1535-1775 lists twenty names for Berkshire.
- For hospital medical
staff, try the Hospital Records Database
above.
- The archive of the British Medical Journal
allow
free full text search of articles since 1840 for those who may have
written, or been mentioned in, their articles
- Nurses:
- District Nurses
- healthcare for the poor in the first half of
the 20th century was often provided by District Nurses who were funded
by District Nursing Associations.
- These District Nursing
Associations' records are available
from the BRO: The
Bagley Wood Nursing Association (for Kennington, Radley, Sunningwell
and Wootton), 1923-1948, (D/QNA/BW); and the Wantage District Nursing
Association (for Grove and Wantage, and from 1940 Letcombe Bassett and
Letcombe Regis), 1928-1942, (D/QNA/WT). Also available are the minutes
of Sonning Deanery Moral Welfare Association, 1934-1938 (D/RDS) which
helped unmarried mothers, fallen women and deserted wives
by providing financial assistance, places in homes, referrals to the
police, and assistance with prosecutions for maintenance, although the
names of its clients are omitted.
- Records may be listed on the NRA.
- Binfield
Park Hospital, Binfield was built in 1775 for
Onesiphorus Elliot, became a military hospital in the Second
World War and from 1949 to 2000 an NHS hospital. After
the closure of the hospital, the house remained empty until it was
converted into housing.
- Historic archives are
held by the BRO,
including some inmates'
stories and a free ebook Broadmoor
Revealed: Victorian Crime and the Lunatic Asylum.
- Broadmoor
Hospital from Berkshire FHS.
- Article
about
inmate Emma Greenwood in Berkshire
Family Historian, June 2011, Vol
34, page 27.
- Interpreting Mental Health
Records article in Berkshire
Family Historian, Dec 2006, Vol
30, page 12.
- BBC article.
- Wikipedia.
- Broadmoor: A
History of Criminal Lunacy and its Problems, Ralph Partridge,
1953, available from Reading
Central Library.
- Church
Hill
House Hospital, Bracknell, based in the former Easthampstead Workhouse, records are
held by the BRO (ref. D/H8),
including the admission register, 1929-1933.
- Downs Hospital, Wantage -
was built as Wantage Workhouse, now closed
and the the site has reverted to agricultural use.
Records are
held by the BRO.
- Fair
Mile
Hospital, Moulsford - was
opened in 1870 as the
Moulsford
Asylum, Cholsey, later became the County Mental Hospital,
Fairmile.
- Littlemore Hospital,
Oxfordshire, provided care to Berkshire residents between 1847 and
1870.
- Maidenhead hospitals:
- Maidenhead General
Hospital registers of operations, 1966-1970, archives are
held by the BRO (ref. D/H 1).
- St Mark's Hospital, 1946-1978 (previously Cookham
(later Maidenhead) Workhouse), archives are
held by the BRO (ref. D/H 3).
- Maidenhead Isolation
Hospital,
1940-1978, archives are
held by the BRO (ref. D/H 3).
- Newbury District Hospital
- Historic
archives are
held by the BRO
(ref. D/H4).
- Built in 1884 in Andover Road, Newbury,
to meet the medical needs of the people of Newbury and Newbury Rural
District following the closure of the Nurses Home and Navvy Hospital in
Bartholomew
Terrace. The hospital originally housed 12 patients,
but
various
additions
were made from 1894 onwards, with a major building programme in 1936-7.
- Old Windsor Unit of the King
Edward VII Hospital - was built as Windsor
Workhouse in 1840, closed in 1991 and converted to
housing. Records are
held by the BRO.
- Park Isolation Hospital,
Prospect Park, Reading. The original buildings are now demolished
and
replaced by Prospect Park Hospital. 1910-1931 records (subject
to a hundred
years’ closure) are
held by the BRO
(ref. D/H 11), including
diphtheria and scarlet fever case books.
- Royal Berkshire Hospital,
Reading:
- St Andrew’s Convalescent
Hospital, Clewer, built in the 1860s, archives are
held by the BRO, including
photographs of several wards (ref. D/EX2183).
- St Mary's Hospital,
Wallingford - was built as Wallingford Workhouse,
becoming the Berkshire County Council Institution in 1930. Closed and
demolished in 1982. Records are
held by the BRO.
- Waylands
Hospital - was built in 1835 as the Bradfield Workhouse and became
Waylands Hospital in
the 1900s. In 1990, the hospital (and associated SS Simon and Jude
chapel of ease) was demolished except for the front which is
incorporated into a new housing development. Records are
held by the BRO.
Monumental Inscriptions (MIs) -
see Cemeteries.
Military
Records
- The Rifles Museum
provides information about the
Royal Berkshire Regiment (and its predecessors the 48th and 66th
Regiments) and the Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment, the
Wiltshire Regiment, and the Royal
Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment. Much of their
archive is searchable online. See article in Berkshire
Family Historian, Sep 2007, Vol 31, page 24.
- 66th Berkshire Regiment, 1887,
J Percy Groves, a brief history 1758 to 1881, free download from
Internet
Archive. See also Maiwand Lion
below.
- Some war
diaries from the First
World
War for operations between 1914 and 1922
have digitised by TNA;
they contain
daily
reports on operations, intelligence summaries and other
material for Berkshire (and other) regiments.
- Reading
Central Library holds
many books about local regiments and
militia, including the war
diaries of the Berkshire Regiment from the World
War I.
- History of the Royal
Berkshire
Militia: (now 3rd Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment), Emma
Elizabeth Thoyts, 1897, 349 pages, is available from Reading
Central Library.
- Berkshire
Yeomanry Cavalry Museum.
-
War Memorials
-
The UK National Inventory
of
War Memorials, based at the
Imperial War Museum, London, is
compiling
a record of all war memorials in the UK to promote their
appreciation, use and preservation. Their database includes
the
location, type, inscription and historical details of memorials, but no
names of the dead and no photographs.
- The
West Berkshire War Memorials Project.
-
The Maiwand Lion
war
memorial in Reading for the Afghan War of
1880 is described by the British
Empire site, Reading
Museum and Roll
of Honour (with photo and list
of the dead). Maiwand:
The
Last Stand of the 66th
(Berkshire) Regiment in Afghanistan, 1880
by Richard J
Stacpoole-Ryding, ISBN 978 0 7524 4537 3 (available from Reading
Central Library) aims to be the
definitive
description of the battle and associated campaign, with a full list of
participants and many photographs, very useful for anyone with
ancestors involved.
-
Windsor
& Maidenhead memorials.
-
The names on some
Berkshire war memorials are available
from Roll
of Honour.
- World
War II records held by the BRO.
Highlights include a scrapbook from Oakfield Hostel in
Wokingham
for children evacuated from London, 1940-1951 (D/EX1362/1), a service
register for Remenham parish annotated with commentary on the war,
1939-1945 (D/P99/1B/4), and local government efforts for the home
front, such as Maidenhead Borough’s Holidays at Home and
Entertainments Sub-Committees, 1943, 1945 (M/AC2/3/2). It is
also
worth searching the BBC
which includes this about ARP
in Berkshire.
- The London Gazette
records the promotion of officers and the award of medals and
is fully searchable free online.
-
The Hundreds
of Berkshire.
-
Extra-parochial
places
for Berkshire.
-
Berkshire place-names and
landowners in Domesday
Book
Online.
-
The
Place-names of Berkshire - an
essay by Frank Merry Stenton, Research Fellow in Local History,
University College,
Reading. Published 1911 by University College Reading; free online from
Internet Archive.
- English
Counties, Parishes, etc. for Genealogists
- describes the meaning
of various geographic terms
(e.g. Hundred, Wapentake, Parish, Tything,
Borough,
Urban and Rural District Council) from Jim Fisher.
- Thames Pilot
provides historical information about the river.
- The BRO
has the archive of the Thames
Conservancy and an early 17th
century map showing the River Thames
and its channels and islands at Cookham (D/EZ 132).
- Thames
Navigation Commission Minutes, 1771-1790
from the Berkshire
Record Society.
- The Royal River:
The
Thames from Source to Sea was
first published in 1885 (and
re-published by Bloomsbury Books in 1985, ISBN 0 906223 77 6)
provides a description of the river as it was, with maps and wood
engravings, available in Reading
Central Library.
- A
Picturesque Tour of the River Thames in its Western Course: including
Particular Descriptions of Richmond, Windsor, and Hampton Court,
by John Fisher
Murray 9 editions, first published in 1845,
from Open
Library.
- Commissioners’
minute books are held by BRO
(D/TC) and record battles with vested interests, problems with
barge-owners, negotiations with riverside landowners, struggles to
raise the capital required (and problems caused by financial
mismanagement), as well as the technical problems encountered in
building the new locks.
- River &
Rowing Museum, Henley
- Down by the River: the
Thames and Kennet in Reading by Gillian Clark, 2009, childhood
memories of millers, bargees, lock-keepers, boat builders etc,
available from Berkshire FHS shop and Reading Central Library.
- Richard Barry (seventh earl
of Barrymore) was a reckless Georgian
rake - see article in Berkshire
Family Historian, June 2011, Vol
34, page 19.
- John Soane (1753-1837)
is
regarded as one of England’s
finest architects. He grew up and went to school in Reading and
designed, among other things, the Simeon Monument in the
Market
Place, Reading.
- The BRO have portraits
of the following: George Charles Cherry (1822-1887), Richard
Benyon (1811-1897), Lord Wantage (1832-1901) (Robert James (Loyd)
Lindsay), James Herbert Benyon (1849-1935), Robert Palmer (1793-1872),
William George Mount (1824-1906).
- Amelia Dyer
née Hobley (1837 – 1896) "Ogress of Reading" was
the most prolific baby farm murderer of Victorian England.
- The location of archived personal papers may be listed on
the NRA.
- Trade directories can
provide some information through the years of people, both high and
low, especially those in official positions. See sample
pages from a 1915 directory.
- Biographies
- Who Was Who
(the
compilation of entries in Who's Who of people alive after 1897) (and
similar published biographical summaries) from most libraries.
- Wikipedia
- Obituaries from Ancestry,
Rootsweb.
- For ministers of religion, see Church
Ministers.
- For those who may have
been mentioned, even if only in passing,
in books, see Bibliography.
- For people famous or
infamous enough to get their names in the
newspapers or to have obituaries, or posh enough to announce their
births, marriages and deaths, see Newspapers.
- Search engines like Google
are always worth a try, although you
may have to scroll through many pages of hits.
- Library catalogues
usually have
synopses which will often allow you to find a name even if it is not in
the book title.
- For those who may have
appeared at the Old Bailey.
- For the posh (e.g. the lord of the manor), local
officials,
businessmen, C of E ministers, see Trade Directories.
- TNA and Access to
Archives
(A2A).
- If you know their
occupation, see Occupations.
- Search other
people's
published family trees: Genes
Reunited,
Rootsweb/Ancestry,
Mocavo
search of searches (but be careful to verify what you find).
- The British Library
provide
searchable online access
to selected
newspapers (some free) but none currently for Berkshire, the nearest
being Hampshire Telegraph, Jackson's Oxford Journal, Sussex Chronicle
and Bristol Mercury. Their reading
room at Colindale provides free access to all their hard copies and
Berkshire FHS
provide a list
of Berkshire historic newspapers
that are available there. Their most accessible archive is
subscription online access with
Brightsolid of the British
Newspaper Archive (see their coverage)
which includes the Reading
Mercury from 1790 to
1900 and Windsor and Eton Express
1839 - 1876 in Berkshire, available at the Berkshire FHS Research Centre.
- Reading
Central Library holdings are described in their Factsheet,
and includes:
- Various unindexed historic
Berkshire newspapers on
microfilm for reference.
- The Illustrated London News (1842-2003
incomplete).
- Full
text search online
access to The Times
1785-2007 and Proquest
(for more recent UK newspapers & magazines) for
library
members. This will also be available to members of other
libraries that subscribe.
- The
Early Newspaper Press
in Berkshire 1723 - 1855, KG
Burton, Reading, 1954 describes
the history and development of newspapers in Berkshire (i.e.
mainly Reading).
- Bracknell
Library has past copies of Bracknell News
and Wokingham Times (not at
Wokingham Library, as might be expected).
- Newbury
Library has past copies of the Newbury
Weekly News from February 1867 on microfilm. A copy of the
memoir
relating to the setting up of the newspaper written in
1917 by founder Thomas Wheildon Turner is held by BRO (D/EX
1755).
- The Guardian
and Observer
archives offer online
every page of the Guardian
since 1821 and the Observer
since 1791. It is free to search, but they charge to read the articles.
- Google provides a searchable
worldwide newspaper
archive,
although there are no Berkshire newspapers currently.
Occupations
- TNA's Discovery
facility allows you to search their records of a person by occupation
(try
"apothecary AND richardson") and may be listed on the NRA.
- The Clergy of
the Church of England Database
will ultimately contain information
on the careers of all Church of England clergymen between 1540 and
1835, see their coverage.
- Many early
ministers of the
Church of England were graduates of Cambridge or Oxford
Universities - see Universities.
- Crockford's
Clerical Directory: first published
in 1858, contains biographies of over 26,000 clergy of the Church of England, the Church in
Wales,
the Scottish Episcopal Church and the Church of Ireland. Copies
are held
by many libraries,
including Reading
Central Library. Also available
free for different years from
various online
books sites (e.g.
this 1865
edition from Google
Books). Clergy since 1968 are also listed online.
- The Church Times is a
weekly C of E newspaper which often
contains obituaries; a full set is archived at the Church of
England Record Centre.
- The Surman
Index is an online biographical card index of
Congregational ministers which "includes the names of about 32,000
ministers, and, where known, their dates, details of their education,
ministries or other employment, together with the sources used. It
covers the period from the mid-seventeenth century to 1972".
- The Dictionary
of Quaker Biography consists of approximately 20,000
biographical entries of prominent British and American Friends from the
17th to the 20th centuries.
- Trade directories can
provide some information about ministers through the years, see sample pages
from a 1915 directory.
- See also Church
History.
- Dentists, Doctors, Nurses - see Medical.
- Horse racing and training
is well established in Berkshire, see sketch map.
- The Sport
of Kings (and Queens) from Berkshire Family
Historian, June 2002.
- Reading Racing article
in Berkshire
Family Historian, Mar 2008, Vol 31, page 18.
- The Running Horses - A Brief
History of Racing in Berkshire from 1740, 1978, 29pp
booklet by David Boyd, ISBN 0905538307 is available from Reading
Central Library.
- Horse Racing in Berkshire
by James Douglas-Home, 1992, ISBN 0-7509-0138-1 is available from Reading
Central Library.
- National Horseracing Museum
have an online
archive of some jockeys, horses etc. The Jockey Club no
longer
regulates the industry.
- Trade directories and
local newspapers can
provide some information through the years.
- The Cox
Library is a collection of books and other printed material
related to the worldwide history and organisation of horse racing and
thoroughbred breeding.
- Licenced Victualers (aka public
house (pub)
landlords, licencees):
- The records of their licences issued by the local
authorities are held by the BRO.
Search their holdings using Access
to Archives advanced search and
select Repository = Berkshire
Record Office.
- See this description
from TNA.
- Details of the location of Victuallers' Licences can be found
in the book VICTUALLERS'
LICENCES - Records for Family and Local Historians by Jeremy
Gibson and Judith Hunter, published by the Federation of Family History
Societies, ISBN 1 86006 048 X. This book contains details and
descriptions of all records held for the Victuallers' Licences.
- Historical Street & Pub History
provides details (and some photographs) of pubs and their licencees in
Berkshire (and
elsewhere).
- Lost Pubs
Project is a volunteer contributed list of closed pubs,
including many in Berkshire.
- Directory
of historic pubs in Berkshire uses information from censuses, trade
directories, etc. to list licensees, bar staff, lodgers and visitors.
- Trade directories can
provide some information through the years, see sample pages
from a 1915 directory.
- Trade Union
records
- BRO hold records
of the Reading Typographical Society, 1898-1970 (D/EX1941);
and the Reading branch of the GMB union and its predecessors
(originally the National Union of Gasworkers and General Labourers),
1911-1988 (D/EX2017).
- Warwick University's Modern
Record Centre holds UK trade union, employers' and trade
association archives.
- Union Ancestors has background
information on unions and their history.
- The location of archived papers may be listed on
the NRA.
Organisations,
Other
See below for records of organisations other than Business and
Commerce Records, Schools, Courts, Military, Newspapers.
Check the
links
below and the catalogue at Access
to Archives advanced search and
select Repository = Berkshire
Record Office.
- Charities: Robert
Palmer’s Almshouse Charity in
Sonning, 1815-1958 is held by BRO
(D/QX
24).
- Police
- Berkshire
is currently policed by the Thames
Valley
Police, formed by the amalgamation of various local forces:
- Abingdon Borough Police
1836-1889 amalgamated with the
Berkshire Constabulary.
- Newbury Borough Police
1836-1875 amalgamated with the
Berkshire
Constabulary.
- Reading Borough Police
1836-1968 amalgamated to form the
Thames
Valley Constabulary (now Thames Valley Police).
- New Windsor Borough Police
1836-1947 amalgamated with the
Berkshire Constabulary.
- Wokingham - policed from
Reading.
- Berkshire Constabulary
1855-1968, amalgamated with the
Buckinghamshire Constabulary, Oxford City Police, Oxfordshire
Constabulary and Reading Borough Police to form the Thames
Valley
Constabulary (now Thames Valley Police).
Sources
of historical information:
- The Thames
Valley Police Museum is located
within Sulhamstead House, known
locally as the 'White House', at Sulhamstead, Berkshire,
open
by
appointment. Surviving personnel records are
patchy, Berkshire
Constabulary records were destroyed by flood, Reading personnel records
survive.
- Was Your Ancestor a
Berkshire Policeman?,
article in Berkshire
Family Historian, Vol
14, page 112 gives a brief history of
the Berkshire police
forces.
- Queens Peace, a History
of
Reading Borough Police 1836-1968,
Alan Wykes, 1968, available from Reading
Central Library.
- Short History
of the
Berkshire Constabulary, 1856-1956,
1956, ISBN: 9999043185, available from Reading
Central Library.
- The BRO (Q/APE
series)
hold examination records for many police officers
1856-1929, including details of age, address, previous jobs, reading
ability, etc. Search
by name at TNA.
- Genuki
- Wikipedia
- Sports clubs - The BRO hold records of a number of
Berkshire sports clubs, see the Berkshire
Echo Vol 60 of 2012.
Parish
Records -
see Church
Records.
- The Berkshire
Family Historian is published
quarterly by Berkshire
FHS for its members.
All issues from its first publication in 1975 are available
in their
Research Centre and (for members only) online.
- Berkshire
Echo is published quarterly free
online by the BRO
with articles about their
holdings, in particular new additions. The best way to search
the
articles seems to be using Google
(or similar) and include "Berkshire Echo" (with quotes) in
the search field.
- Peter Higginbotham's The
Story of Workhouses
provides a detailed description
of each poorhouse and the location of
their archived records, including these serving Berkshire: Abingdon,
Bradfield,
Cookham (later
re-named Maidenhead),
Easthampstead, Faringdon,
Hungerford (and
Ramsbury),
Newbury,
Reading,
Wallingford,
Wantage,
Windsor and Wokingham.
- Many records are
held by the BRO
and, where they
exist, may contain: lists of inmates, register of Apprentices, register
of
births,
register of deaths, rate books, admission and discharge registers,
Board of Guardians' records. A useful source of information on those at
the bottom of the social heap.
- If you are looking
for someone who was in a
workhouse, it is worth also checking if they also appear in the Quarter
Sessions records, also held by the BRO.
- Explanations about probate
and wills are provided by TNA.
Copies of post-1858 wills can be ordered from the Probate
Service or from UKDocuments
for a fee. Wills, administrations and
other probate records before 1858
will be found in the Record Office holding the documents of the
ecclesiastical (church) court where the will was proved:
- Berkshire was an
archdeaconry in the diocese of Salisbury in the
archdiocese of Canterbury until, in 1836, it was moved to the diocese
of Oxford.
- Transcriptions of some Berkshire wills are available online:
- OFHS publish transcriptions of mainly Oxfordshire wills, but
also some for testators who were born or lived in historic Berkshire.
- Surrey
Plus Wills Index provides an index to the location of some
wills from Berkshire, in some cases with online transcripts.
- Nick Hidden has provided a
collection of about 1000 abstracts
of probate documents
from c1500 to 1858 (when civil probate
registries came into being in England & Wales) relating to
testators from the
neighbourhood of Hungerford and Wantage in Berkshire. There is some
spread into Wiltshire and to a lesser degree Hampshire and
Oxfordshire.
- Probate documents from
'peculiars' (parishes in one archdeaconry
or diocese but subject to the religious or lay authority of another
archdeacon, bishop or other body or person) may be found elsewhere. The
following Berkshire parishes were 'peculiars' of the Salisbury Diocese:
Arborfield, Blewbury, Hurst, Ruscombe, Sandhurst, Sonning &
Wokingham, with the Chapels of Upton and Aston Upthorpe. Probate
documents for Hungerford, Langford, Shalbourne, Wantage (early) and
West Ilsley can be found at the Bodleian
Library
in Oxford. Wills of
the few inhabitants of Windsor Castle are kept at The
Aerary in Windsor
Castle.
- Indexes to 1858 to 1943
wills and admons for England and Wales
(also known as the National Probate Calender) can be
viewed on microfiche at the BRO.
(A less
complete version of the calendar can be viewed on Ancestry.)
Schools
Beech Hill Church of England
School, 1951-1967 (D/EX 1864); Mrs Bland’s
School, Burghfield Common, 1904-1991 (D/EX2082); Bradfield CE Primary
School, 1921-2000s (SCH24); Wildmoor Heath (formerly Broadmoor) Primary
School, Crowthorne, 1873-2000 (SCH29); Princess Margaret Rose
School (formerly St Stephen’s Senior Girls’
School),
Clewer, 1889-1983 (SCH8); St Mary’s School, Datchet, 1844-1980s
(SCH30); St Nicolas’
Primary School, East Challow (2003/SCH/1 & 21?); Maidenhead
Infant School, Brock Lane,
1870-1884 managers’ minutes (D/P 194);
Reading schools: the British Infants School (later
a Board
School) in Southampton Street, 1870-1907, and George Palmer Infants
School, 1907-1996 (2001/SCH/3); Battle Mixed/Senior/Secondary Modern
School, 1891-1968, Wilson Mixed, Central and Senior Schools, 1905-1972,
and Meadway Comprehensive, 1972-2001 (2001/SCH/4); and Christchurch C
of E Primary School (now New Christ Church CE (VA) School), 1983-2000
(2001/SCH/5); Katesgrove Primary School, Reading 1872-1987 (SCH6);
Reading and Earley Board School (later New
Town Board School and New Town Secondary Modern School) and Alfred
Sutton Secondary Girls’ School, Reading, log books, 1877-1895
and
1949-1973 (D/EX2015); plans for several Reading schools, 1851-1872
(D/EX2009); Reading Teachers’ Centre,
1970-c.1983 (D/EX2081); Battle
Primary School, Reading,
1893-2000 (SCH20); Wilson Primary School, Reading,
1904-c.1990s (SCH14); and Churchend School, Tilehurst, 1962-2008
(SCH15); Letcombe Bassett
National school, 1864-1926 log books (D/EX 1904); Newbury County
Grammar School for Girls, 1950-1961 (D/EX2308); Newbury County
Girls’ Grammar
School,
1904-2003 (SCH12 and D/EX2060); St Bartholomew’s Grammar
School,
Newbury, 1945-1975 (SCH11); St Bartholomew’s School, Newbury
admission
registers, 1975-1998 (2004/SCH/1); St Bartholomew’s
[Comprehensive]
School, Newbury, 1975- 2001 (SCH13); Winchcombe Junior School, Newbury
records, 1950-2005 (SCH2); Winchcombe Infants’
School,
Newbury, 1964-1981 (SCH10); Streatley C of E School
1873-2003 (D/EX2127); photographs of Courtenay Lodge School,
Sutton Courtenay and Maiden Erlegh School, Earley, 1930s-1950s
(D/EX1914); Lambs Lane Council School, Swallowfield 1908-1916
(SCH19); Sir Charles Russell's school, Swallowfield 1873-1908
admissions register (SCH17); St
Mary’s Church of England Junior School, Thatcham, formerly
Thatcham National School, 1883-2005 (SCH4); Parsons Down Junior School,
Thatcham, 1997-2004 (SCH27); West Hendred School admission register,
1904-1966,
(SCH1/11/1); St John’s Primary School, Wallingford,
1863-2010 (SCH22); Robert Piggott Church
of
England Junior School, Wargrave,
1993-2000 log books (2001/SCH/2); Lambrook School, a
private preparatory
boarding school for
boys in Winkfield, 1870-1997 (D/EX1832); Winkfield St Mary’s
Church of England
School 1943-2003 (SCH18); Ranelagh School, founded as
an elementary charity school in Cranbourne by the Earl of Ranelagh in
1709, refounded as a grammar school in new premises in Bracknell in
1908, and since 1981 a comprehensive school (SCH5) and Cranbourne
Ranelagh School, Winkfield, 1904-1942 (D/EX1979).
- School Records at the BRO
article in Berkshire
Family Historian, Dec 2006, Vol 30, page 21.
- Their album of early 20th century photographs of Berkshire
schools (D/EX1964/1), see the Berkshire
Echo Vol 62 of 2013 and the links below.
- The location of archived papers may be listed on
the NRA.
- Radley College, Radley
(St Peters): Reading
Central Library hold a number of books about the college,
including St Peter's College, Radley
Register 1847-1962.
- Reading Mechanics Institute:
records are held by the BRO
(D/EX1431).
- Royal
Military Academy, Sandhurst:
- Universities:
- University College, Reading (now the University of
Reading) was established in 1892. The holdings of their
archives are
described
in the relevant sections of this page. The names of senior staff
can often be found in trade
directories,
see sample
pages from a 1915 directory. The book The University of Reading: the first fifty
years, Holt, J.C. (Reading, Reading University Press,
1977), is available from Reading
Central Library.
- Brief biographical details of graduates of Cambridge or Oxford
Universities are
provided in either Alumni
Cantabrigienses by JA Venn
(ISBN: 9999087002 & 9999087003)
or Alumni Oxonienses : the
Members of the University of Oxford,
by Joseph Foster (ISBN:
9999086980 & 9999086981) respectively, which are particularly
useful for C of E ministers.
They are available in various forms:
- Oxfordshire FHS also covers the northern part
of the historical
area of Berkshire.
- For societies covering specialist subjects,
see under the related subject sections
on this page.
- For more local societies, see the:
- A Vision of
Britain
Through Time from the University
of Portsmouth provides a vision of
Britain between 1801 and 2001, including maps, statistical
trends (from 1801
to 2001 census data) and historic descriptions.
Taxation
- Death
Duty records kept by TNA
have useful genealogical information,
often including: the name of the deceased, with address and last
occupation,
the date of the will, the place and date of probate, and the names,
addresses and occupations of the executors, the date of death,
and information about the beneficiaries. See article in
Berkshire
Family Historian, Dec 2009, Vol 33, page 19.
- The E179
database by TNA
is
a searchable index to the "King's Remembrancer, particulars of account
and other records relating to lay and clerical taxation",
containing detailed information about over 26,000 documents
relating to the taxation of lay people in England and Wales between
c.1200 and c.1700, which are likely to contain many names. Click
here for Berkshire
documents.
- The Hearth Tax was levied
between 1662 and 1689 on each householder according to the number of
hearths in his or her dwelling. The Centre for Hearth Tax Research
at Roehampton University is publishing hearth tax records in hard copy
and limited records online. Unfortunately, Berkshire is not yet
covered. Location of the records and other later Stuart Tax Lists
and the Association Oath Rolls can be found in the book THE HEARTH TAX and other later Stuart Tax
Lists and the ASSOCIATION OATH ROLLS compiled by Jeremy Gibson,
2nd edition 1996 published by the Federation of Family History
Societies.
- Land Tax and Window Tax records can be found
in the book LAND and WINDOW TAX
ASSESSMENTS compiled by Jeremy Gibson, Mervyn Medlycott and
Dennis Mills, 2nd edition 1998 and published by the Federation of
Family History Societies.
- Protestations
Returns 1641-42: On the eve of the English Civil War,
Parliament ordered that a protestation be made as an oath of allegiance
to the King, to Parliament and to the established church. Signed
initially by members of Parliament in 1641, the order to take the
protestation was later extended to all males in England and Wales over
the age of eighteen. The officials of the parish were required to make
the oath in front of the Justices of the Peace of the hundred, and then
in turn the parish officials administered the oath of loyalty for their
parishioners. The returns usually take the form of a list of the names
of all of the men in the parish over the age of eighteen who took the
protestation. Very occasionally, children and servants are listed, as
in the case of Sutton Courtenay; or women took the protestation, as in
the case of West Shefford. Those who refused to take the oath also had
their names listed. The returns were later used to identify Roman
Catholics by their refusal, who were then subject to increased
taxation. BRO has a copy of the
Protestation Returns for Berkshire (reference T/A 40) for consultation;
the originals are held at the Parliamentary
Archives. The returns that survive for Berkshire offer partial but
substantial coverage, with most of central Berkshire extant.
See articles in Berkshire
Family Historian, Sep 2009, Vol 33, page 15 and Vol 31, 2005 of the
Berkshire
Echo.
- Rates (local property
tax): An article in Vol 63, 2013 of the Berkshire
Echo explains their history and what records are held by the BRO.
Town
Records
-
Archived
town
and borough records:
-
BRO
hold the following: Bracknell Development
Corporation, Maidenhead Borough, Newbury
Borough, Reading
Borough 1850-1962 (R/FR1-5), Slough Borough, Windsor
Borough, Wokingham
Borough.
-
Search also the catalogue at Access
to Archives and
select Repository = Berkshire
Record Office.
-
The location of archived records
may be listed on the NRA.
Voting
Registers
- Electoral Registers/Rolls (lists
of those eligible to vote):
- Poll Books (lists
of
those who actually voted, and often how):
Berkshire
Towns and Parishes
are
listed on a separate page.
