Ancestors Magazine

September 2006

Kathy Chater takes a journey round some recent CDs

Past Records

Radley, near Oxford, is not the most famous of public schools. The writer of the foreword to St Peter's Radley School Register 1847-1923 (S&N, £19.95) admits that only a few of its pupils "attained eminence".

Second World WarDrawn largely from the middle classes, the boys went on to have solid careers, sometimes abroad. Originally published in 1925, the biographical information on Old Boys takes their stories up to 1923, and gives their addresses at the time.

They are arranged by date of admission, but the index allows individuals to be located. There are also sections on masters and administrative staff, scholarships and prizes awarded to pupils, plus lists of those who became cadets in the army of Royal Navy. Such information will allow their descendants to fill in some biographical details and pursue other lines of research.

Originally published as a quarterly magazine between 1834 and 1843, the Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica is a selection of important documents generally relating to the medieval and early modern periods, seemingly chosen almost randomly. Each volume also has a name and place index for easy reference. Available from S&N, each CD costs £22.45 or £72.45 for the complete set of eight volumes.

Volume 1 includes details of the sales of bishops' lands, church notes from Staveley and Crich in Derbyshire, extracts from parish registers, and extensive family trees showing marriages between nobility and royalty.

Volume 2 includes details of roll of arms, registers, pedigrees, deeds, wills and a list of monastic cartularies.

Volume 3 contains registers, pedigrees, deeds, an evaluation of the estates of the bishoprics of England and Wales, and descriptions of banners, standards and badges from Edward III to Henry VIII.

Volume 4 includes rolls of arms, pedigrees, funeral certificates, burials, parish register extracts, deeds, charters, wills.

Volume 5 has parish register extracts, wills, baptisms, burials, deeds, epitaphs, pedigrees, and names of pilgrims from England to Rome.

Volume 6 includes pedigrees, charters, an abstract of a cartulary of Hexham Abbey, and additions to Dugdale's baronage.

Included in volume 7 are pedigrees, registers, memorials, church notes, muster rolls, and transcripts and extracts of wills.

Volume 8 has pedigrees, church notes, residents in Warwick, wills, and burials.

Census Indexes

Earlier recent census indexes from S&N cover South East and Northern counties. These include:

  • The Middlesex 1841 Census Index
  • The Lancashire 1851 Census Index
  • The Yorkshire 1851 Census Index

All are searchable by forename, surname and age, while wild cards let you hunt for variants. Each is priced at £22.50.

The London 1881 Census (£52.45) consists of 41 CDs containing high quality images, which are bookmarked by folio and include street indexes, where available, allowing you to find any omissions or transcription errors from database style services.

No online access is required, as everything you need is in the box.

S&N are also tackling Welsh censuses. Recently published CDs cover Anglesey, Brecknock, Cardigan, Carnavonshire, Denbigh, Flint, Merioneth, Monmouthshire and Pembroke. Most are devoted to the 1851 census, but there is coverage for other years as well.

Home Counties Directories

Compiled three years before the 1901 census, entries in Kelly's Essex, Hertfordshire & Middlesex 1898 Directory (£19.95), could help anyone trying to track down ancestors in the region.

As well as the standard lists of residents and tradespeople, it contains historical and topographical information about local towns, villages and parishes.

The directory, published on CD by S&N, is supplemented by colour maps and even geological information for the counties.

Find Military Histories:

St Peter's Radley School Register at GenealogySupplies.com

Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica at GenealogySupplies.com

Census Indexes: Middlesex 1841, Lancashire 1851, and Yorkshire 1851 at GenealogySupplies.com

Kelly's Essex, Hertfordshire & Middlesex 1898 Directory at GenealogySupplies.com

Search for more Directories, Census Indexes, and Genealogical Research Data CDs