Research Services

We provide the following 'research' services. Please follow the links for more details:

Berkshire Name Search	County Census Indexes
BerksFHS members Birth Briefs Index	Monumental Inscription (MIs) enquiries

Berkshire Name Search

Our Berkshire Name Search service can be used to search the following indexes:

• Berkshire Miscellaneous Index
  
• Berkshire Marriage Index (BMI)
• Berkshire Burial Index (BBI)
• BerksFHS Strays Index
• Berkshire Census (1851, 1861, 1871)

BerksFHS members Birth Briefs Index

Birth Briefs are five-generation ancestral charts that members of the Berkshire FHS are given the opportunity of submitting. Fully completed charts contain the names and vital records - birth/christening, marriage and death/burial - of the submitting member and up to 30 ancestors.

The index can be searched on-line and PAF ancestral reports provided at a charge of £2 for each Birth Brief. See details.

County Census Indexes

We hold copies of census indexes, mainly 1851, for many UK counties and provide a search service. We can provide print-outs and/or photocopies of name indexes for many UK counties but not all. The service works for those counties where the Society has in its Research Centre copies of complete indexes. You can browse the Research Centre Library Catalogue to see what can be searched.

The charges depend on the medium on which the data is held and range from £3 to £10. The charge for a search and an estimate of the cost of any printouts is £3 per county searched per surname including two sample prints. Charges thereafter will depend upon the type of A4 - 8.3in x 11.7in - size copies to be made and the number of printouts involved. 

Since the results will in some cases involve print outs from microfiche the service can only operate by post.

For an estimate of the charges please write, enclosing the search fee and a stamped self-addressed envelope (large enough to contain several A4 - 8.3in x 11.7in - sheets of paper) or 2 International Reply Coupons (IRCs), to:

County Census IndexSearch
BerksFHS Research Centre,
Yeomanry House, 131 Castle Hill
READING, RG1 7TJ, United Kingdom

Monumental Inscription (MIs) enquiries

David Watkins has offered to consult his database for the following churchyard monumental inscriptions free of charge for BFHS members. These have not yet been put onto fiche as they have no maps. David will answer telephone enquiries only. The churchyards concerned are:

Aldermaston, Avington, Compton Beauchamp, Hurst, Mortimer and Twyford.

David Watkins may be contacted by telephone (tel: 0118-966-1401)

Personal Research Services

We have a list of people in the society prepared to undertake personal research for Berkshire people and places.

Please address your specific enquiries, enclosing a stamped self-addressed envelope (large enough to contain several A4 - 8.3in x 11.7in - sheets of paper) or 2 International Reply Coupons (IRCs), to:

Research Services
BerksFHS Research Centre,
Yeomanry House, 131 Castle Hill
READING, RG1 7TJ, United Kingdom

updated 31 July 2007