How do I get started?
The BBC website has a really useful guide to beginning your family history. The National Archives website also includes many guides and useful links for genealogists. Links to these websites are provided on this page.
If you are visiting Shropshire Archives, you can talk to members of Shropshire Family History Society at their advice desk on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays (10am-1pm). See below for more information about the Society.
What's on the Shropshire Archives website for family historians?
Why not make a start by visiting the page What we hold at Shropshire Archives. This contains links to:
- ‘guides to sources at Shropshire Archives’. These give you background information about wills, newspapers, parish registers etc and tell you how to find them at Shropshire Archives.
- our online catalogues which you can search for specific names and get references of documents that you might like to view.
- lists of parish registers and non-conformist registers held at Shropshire Archives, so you can check what we have before making a visit.
We are putting some images onto our online catalogue (see www. shropshirehistory.org.uk), however most of the time you will need to visit to see the documents for yourself. The Visiting Shropshire Archives pages contain essential information about making the most of your visit.
If you have got beyond the basics and want to use sources such as accounts and taxation records, then it’s well worth buying a copy of our A-Z of family history sources at Shropshire Archives. This is available online from our Shop.
If you aren’t able to visit in person, then why not follow the link to our Research Service and commission our researcher to do work for you.
How can I obtain a birth, marriage or death certificate?
Shropshire Archives does not hold birth, marriage and death certificates. There are held by at the General Register Office. You can purchase birth, marriage and death certificates on the General Register Office’s website. Select the link to find out more.
Each certificate has a reference (volume and page number). Shropshire Archives holds an index to the birth, marriage and death certificates from 1837-1980 which can help you find this reference.
There are also some on-line indexes – please see our free short guide to the internet for family and local history (guide no. 20) for more information about these sites. To access this click on Archives and select the link to What we hold at Shropshire Archives.
Certificates are also held by the relevant local registrar. Certificates for births, marriages and deaths in Shropshire (except Telford and Wrekin) can be purchased from:
Certificate Applications
Shropshire Registration Service
PO Box 4661
Shrewsbury
SY1 9AL
Tel: 0845 678 9016
Or you can purchase them on-line - select the link to the Copy certificates web page.
Certificates for birth, marriages and deaths in Telford and Wrekin can be purchased from:
Telford and Wrekin Register Office
The Beeches
29 Vineyard Road
Wellington
Telford
TF1 1HB
The Genuki website has a list of registration districts and shows the parishes in each district. Select the link to find out more.
If you apply for a certificate from the local registrar, you need to know the full names, date and place (as they have separate indexes for each sub-district).
The system of civil registration for births, marriages and deaths began in 1837. Before this date there are no certificates.
How do I find out about my ancestors before 1837?
The most useful source of information is likely to be the parish registers. These contain baptisms, marriages and burials. Shropshire Archives holds most Anglican parish registers for Shropshire and some Roman Catholic and non-conformist registers on microfiche. To see a full list of parish and non-conformist records, please click on Archives and select the link to What we hold at Shropshire Archives.
If the registers aren’t deposited at Shropshire Archives, then they may still be at the church. For Anglican Churches, you will need to find out whether the church is in the Lichfield (mostly the northern half of the county) or Hereford Diocese (the southern part) and then check the diocesan websites to find out contact details for the relevant minister. Links to these websites are provided on this page.
If you don’t know what parish your ancestors came from, then the International Genealogical Index (IGI) on the Family Search website is worth checking. Do bear in mind that this isn’t complete and does contain some information which has not been verified.
For further sources of information, why not buy Shropshire Archives’ Guide to family history sources? This is available from our Shop.
Can you recommend any good family history websites?
There is a lot of useful information for family historians on the Internet. This includes background information as well as on-line indexes.
Our source guide no. 20 Guide to the Internet for family and local history is a good starting point. To access this click on Archives and select the link to What we hold at Shropshire Archives.
In particular, the GENUKI website is a great starting point for family history. It consists of links to hundreds of websites containing family history information. The National Archives website contains excellent information for beginners and experienced researchers alike.
The website Ancestry.com has a wealth of information - for example you can search all census returns for England and Wales from 1841-1901. There is a subscription fee for this site, but you can access the Ancestry Library Edition for free at Shropshire Archives and Shropshire libraries.
My family doesn't come from Shropshire. How can you help me?
Although most of the information at Shropshire Archives relates to Shropshire, we do have some material for nearby counties and we also hold some national sources.
The national sources include a microfiche copy of the General Register Office index to birth, marriage and death certificates, 1837-1980.
We also have free Internet Access as well as CD ROMs containing some national indexes such as the 1881 Census, the International Genealogical Index, National Burials and Rolls of Honour for the First and Second World Wars. Shropshire Archives has a subscription to Ancestry Library Edition, providing customers with free access to the website. For more information about Ancestry Library Edition and our CD ROM collection, click on Archives and select the link to What we hold at Shropshire Archives.
Is there a local family history society?
Shropshire Family History Society has been running since 1979. It is a Registered Charity with over 2,000 members around the world and is a member of the Federation of Family History Societies.
The Society holds regular meetings and produces indexes to many useful sources.
Volunteers from the Shropshire Family History Society are on-hand to help at Shropshire Archives on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings from 10am-1pm.
For more information, select the link to their website on this page.