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Tracing your Warwickshire Ancestors
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| Researching your family history takes time, and may require you to visit record offices around the country. Warwickshire County Record Office holds many records that can be used for family history research and guidance on using these is provided below.
To start your family history research, collect information from your family members and then work backwards from the earliest event for which you have definite evidence (e.g. a birth certificate). There are a number of online resources you can use (see the Useful Links section below) but you will also need to visit record offices to continue your research. If you can't visit Warwickshire County Record Office in person click here for details of our enquiry and research service.
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Follow the links below to find out more about the records you can use for your family history research.
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Church of England Parish Registers
Indexes to Parish Registers
Bishops' Transcripts of Parish Registers
Marriage Bonds and Allegations
Nonconformist and Roman Catholic Registers
Poor Law Records
Civil Registration
Monumental Inscriptions
Municipal Cemeteries
Census Returns
Wills
DNA tests for tracing ancestry
Other Useful Records
Other Local Record Offices
Useful Books
Useful Links
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| Church of England Parish Registers | | |
These are the most important single source of information for anyone tracing the history of their family. They contain entries for baptisms, marriages, and burials back to 1538, although early registers have often been lost, and in many parishes they do not start until after 1600 or even 1700. Even allowing for these losses the registers give some information about most Warwickshire people in the past, and the record office has most of the registers not in current use for parishes in the historic County, including Coventry, but excluding Birmingham. The only exception to this is Stratford-upon-Avon where the original registers are held by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Record Office. However we do hold microfilm copies of the majority of these. Click here for a list of parish registers held at the record office.
Click here to view a map showing the Civil Parishes in Warwickshire.
You will need a copy of the Adobe Acrobat reader to view this file. Click here to download Adobe Acrobat reader.
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| Indexes to Parish Registers | | |
To make proper use of this information indexes are essential, and the IGI (International Genealogical Index compiled by the Mormons) will be the starting point for many. The current edition of the Index has nearly 2 million entries for Warwickshire people, and although it is by no means complete and deliberately excludes burials, it does cover a high proportion of baptisms and marriages between the 17th century and the 1870s. The current IGI indexes for the whole of the United Kingdom and Ireland are available on microfiche, and for the whole world on CD-Rom at the Record Office. This information is also available on the internet at www.familysearch.org. An index to Warwickshire burials 1813-1837 is complete, and one for the period up to 1813 is in progress. These are not available at the County Record Office, but are administered by the Birmingham and Midland Society of Genealogy and Heraldry. The County Record Office holds a CR-Rom of the National Burial index, this second edition contains over 13 million burial records.
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| Bishops' Transcripts of Parish Registers | | |
Where the registers contain gaps, or are missing altogether, it is worth checking the Bishops' Transcripts. These are held at Worcestershire Record Office for parishes in the south west of the County and at Lichfield Record Office for the north and east.
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| Marriage Bonds and Allegations | | |
Many people chose to marry away from their home parish, especially in the 17th and 18th centuries, and records of these, (where the survive), containing more information than is found in parish registers, are at Worcestershire Record Office and Lichfield Record Office.
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| Nonconformist and Roman Catholic Registers | | |
Although Nonconformists (Methodists, Baptists, Congregationalists etc.) and Roman Catholics usually had their baptisms, marriages and burials recorded in the Church of England parish registers, they often kept their own registers from the late 18th century onwards. Some of these Nonconformist and some of the older Roman Catholic registers are at the Record Office. For information about Catholic registers and their whereabouts contact the Catholic Archivist at Cathedral House, St Chads, Queensway, Birmingham B4 6EU Tel: 0121 236 2251. For information about Nonconformist registers see 'Tracing Nonconformist Ancestry' by D J Steele. Click here for a list of nonconformist and Roman Catholic church registers held at the record office.
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| Poor Law Records | | |
An index to the majority of Poor Law documents held by Warwickshire County Record Office is available at Midlands Historical Data.
An index of parish Poor Law documents, from 1660 to 1835, containing over 80, 000 names, is administered by the Birmingham and Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry.
Click here to view a map showing the Poor Law Unions and Registration Districts in Warwickshire.
You will need a copy of the Adobe Acrobat reader to view this file. Click here to download Adobe Acrobat reader.
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| Civil Registration | | |
From 1st July 1837 every birth, marriage and death in England and Wales should have been registered with the local Registrar. Name indexes were compiled quarterly, and microfiche copies of these from 1837 to 1983 can be searched at Warwickshire County Record Office (Bookings are advisable.) Postal inquiries should be sent to the General Register Office, Smedley Hydro, Trafalgar Road, Southport, Merseyside PR8 2HH, Tel: 0870 243 7788 (Mon-Sat). Applications from the UK can be made on the General Register Office website. It is also possible to search the indexes to births, marriages and deaths in Warwickshire, and apply for copy certificates online via the Warwickshire Registration Service website.
Poor law unions and civil registration districts map
You will need a copy of the Adobe Acrobat reader to view this file. Click here to download Adobe Acrobat reader.
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| Monumental Inscriptions | | |
Information from most of the surviving tombstones in Warwickshire churchyards is available at Warwickshire County Record Office. Most of these are indexed.
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| Municipal Cemeteries | | |
By the mid nineteenth century churchyards in the towns and cities were becoming very full. As a result public, or municipal cemeteries were introduced. Initially these were generally established and run as commercial ventures, but after the passing of legislation in the 1850s and 1860s enforcing the closure of urban churchyards, municipal cemeteries became the rule. Records of some Warwickshire municipal cemeteries have been deposited at the record office, others are held at the cemeteries. The record office's reference library includes a useful publication 'Warwickshire Cemetery Records' , which lists the whereabouts of these records. This publication can be found on the reference shelves.
An index to many of the burials in Warwick Cemetery can be found at Midlands Historical Data.
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| Census Returns | | |
Returns for 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891 and 1901 for the historic County, excluding Birmingham and a small number of fringe parishes, are available at Warwickshire County Record Office. We also hold indexes to the 1851 census for Warwickshire, Devon and Norfolk and to the 1881 census for for the whole country. Censuses from 1851 onwards are particularly useful because they give the age and place of birth of each person. We also hold a small number of earlier censuses for some parishes, which vary in their content. Click here for a list of census returns that are available, arranged in alphabetical order by parish.
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| Wills | | |
Wills made since 1858 are available at the Principal Registry of the Family division, 1st Avenue House, 42-49 High Holborn, London WC1V 6NP, (020) 7947 6000. An index of these wills dating from 1858 to 1943, called the National Probate Index, is available on microfiche at the record office. Before 1858 wills were dealt with by the diocese. Most wills made by Warwickshire people were proved at the Dioceses of Worcester or Lichfield and will be found either at Worcestershire Record Office or Lichfield Record Office. Published indexes are available up to 1652. The civil parishes map above shows the diocesan boundary. The Record Office holds some wills, mostly copies, and also original wills for 5 small parishes around Temple Balsall. These have been indexed.
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| DNA tests for tracing ancestry | | |
DNA tests are used not only in modern paternity testing but also to confirm or reject family relationships which lie many generations in the past. For example, if you are a male and suspect that someone else with the same surname might be related to you along your male line many generations ago, you can send in a simple saliva sample from you and a sample from your namesake for a Y chromosome test. Or for example, if you are female and suspect that a woman in your maternal ancestry may have come from an exotic country, you can provide a saliva sample for an mtDNA test. For more information, see the roots for real website.
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| Other Useful Records | | |
Hearth Tax returns from 1663 to 1674 (the latter year has been indexed), Land tax Returns from the 1770s to 1832, Electoral Registers from 1832, and Rate Books, (most of these have not been indexed). We also hold Trade Directories for the whole of Warwickshire, Street Directories (limited holdings) and School records.
Some trade directories and street directories for Warwickshire can be viewed on-line at Midlands Historical Data.
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| Other Local Record Offices | | |
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Records Office, Henley Street, Stratford-upon-Avon CV37 6QW (01789) 204016, holds most of the town's records as well as a number of important estate and solicitors' collections containing records from many parts of central and south Warwickshire.
Coventry Archives Bayley Lane, Coventry CV1 5RG (024) 7683 2418 holds Coventry’s archive collections, although the Warwickshire County Record Office hold the Coventry parish registers.
Birmingham City Archives, Chamberlain Square, Birmingham B3 3HQ (0121) 303 4217 holds Birmingham records and parish registers as well as a number of collections relating to Warwickshire.
Worcestershire Record Office, County Hall, Spetchley Road, Worcester WR5 2NP (01905) 763763 x 6350
Lichfield Record Office, Lichfield Library, The Friary, Lichfield WS13 6QG (01543) 510720 hold wills of Warwickshire people before 1858, as well as Bishops' Transcripts of parish registers and Marriage Bonds and Allegations.
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| Useful Books | | |
Parish registers, Nonconformist registers and Census returns in the Warwickshire County Record Office. In the office it costs £1.50 and £2.00 by post or £2.50 overseas. You can also access the information in this booklet on our website, click the links for Church of England parish registers and census returns and nonconformist church registers
Tracing Your Ancestors in Warwickshire (excluding Birmingham). By June Watkins and Pauline Saul. Published by Birmingham & Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry, 361 pages £9.00.
Beginning your Family History. By George Pelling. Published by the Federation of Family History Societies, 88 pages £4.50.
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| Useful Links | | |
Here are some useful websites to help get your research started:
Family Search - database of parish register entries
Ancestry.co.uk - censuses, births, marriages and deaths, and much more. You can access Ancestry Library Edition for free when you visit the record office or a Warwickshire Library!
Free BMD - free partial General Register Office index online
Genuki - comprehensive guide to UK family history resources
Familyhistoryonline - access to pay per view databases for England and Wales. Includes indexes to baptisms, marriages and burials, census returns and monumental inscriptions.
Cyndi's List - lists over 250,000 family history websites.
Community Information Database - search for details of Warwickshire local and family history societies
The Guild of One Name Studies - research the history of a surname and those who have held it
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