Updated and new collections added to the Online Genealogical Index on 26th January

Greetings to my fellow genealogy enthusiasts!

Some updates this week include Herefordshire collections from findmypast, memorials from gravestonephotos, Lancashire Online Parish Clerks updates and more.

The findmypast collections which have been updated (they all existed previously) are:

• England, Greater Manchester Baptisms 1571-1910
• Hertfordshire Banns & Marriages
• Hertfordshire Baptisms
• Hertfordshire Burials
• Hertfordshire, Parish Registers Browse, 1538-1988
• Northumberland and Durham Memorial Inscriptions
• Yorkshire Memorial Inscriptions

FamilySearch.org updated collections include:

• England, Lincolnshire, Parish Registers, 1538-1990
• England, Warwickshire, Parish Registers, 1535-1984

Rootsweb have replied to my message regarding their broken links.  They are working on restoring lost links as soon as possible (though this has been their explanation since 9th January).  The majority of Rootsweb links in the OGI are in Derbyshire and most parishes and year ranges are available elsewhere.  I am still hoping that Rootsweb will come through and get all their genealogical links fixed soon.  For now, I am leaving them in place on the site hoping they will start working in the next few weeks.

I have had an average of 10 people a day leave their name and email to become a "friend" of the Online Genealogical Index which is most appreciated.  If you haven't yet left your information, please consider it an advantage.  

Thank you for your interest and use of the site.  I am devoted to finding quality data to help you in your research.

Have a good week,

Tim Manners

http://ogindex.org

A Guide to using the General Register Office (GRO) Index

As promised, I have created an 11 page guide to using the General Register Office Index.  

It includes step-by-step examples and lots of screen shots.

You will learn how to use the GRO Index to locate missing maiden names, find missing children (born and died between census years), find death ages and birth years of those born before 1837.

The guide is a PDF which can be downloaded by clicking HERE.

I hope this guide helps you use the GRO Index to its full advantage.

Thanks again for your interest and use of the Online Genealogical Index.  Combined with the GRO Index, FreeBMD and the UK census (1841-1911 free at FamilySearch.org), you will find further generations of your ancestors quickly.

Best regards from a fellow genealogist!

Tim Manners
OGI Creator

OGI total passes 370,000 data sets!

Today's update of 410 additional data sets has pushed the total over 370,000!  Now my goal is to reach 400,000 by the end of the year.

I hope you are all having a good 2018 so far and finding some time to research your ancestors.  The OGI continues to save hours of time by showing me exactly which sites have the data I need.

I enjoyed using the GRO Index this past week to verify some maiden names and find missing children (who were born and died inbetween censuses) so I have decided to create a detailed step-by-step guide on how to use the GRO Index.  That will be uploaded to the blog this month.

This weeks updates include the first part of the FamilySearch Lincolnshire Parish Registers collection which is slow going as each place (and there are over 600 parishes in that county) need to be manually searched and the start and end date ranges tested.  The first batch added to the OGI today is 108 parishes, 508 left to check!  I will upload another section next week.  This allows you to know if your Lincolnshire ancestors from a specific place are included in this collection by searching for the town in the OGI.

The Norfolk Baptisms Project site has added another set of baptism transcripts from Norfolk, namely Ovington, St John the Evangelist from 1813-1880.

There are also new collections added to the OGI from Findmypast:

The Norfolk Monumental Inscriptions 1600-1900's Image Browse includes 14,000 headstone transcriptions for 260 Norfolk cemeteries.

The Lancashire, Oldham Cemetery Registers 1797-2004 Image Browse which guides you immediately to the films you need to view cemetery and burial registers along with other related material for the city and suburbs of Oldham.

The Middlesex Monumental Inscriptions 1485-2014 collection has been updated to include date ranges for each of its 23 cemeteries.  

Findmypast also announced the addition of the Wiltshire parish baptisms index 1538-1917 collection but, yet again, this is not new and has been on their site for a number of months already.  I have asked them why they do this and their answer was they wanted to "highlight" existing collections.  Fair enough, but I don't think they should be marketed as "New Records".  It is misleading and untrue.

Rootsweb are still recovering from their security concerns and according to an update on 9th Jan, they are trying to activate a lot of personal genealogical sites a few hundred at a time.  More info here.  If you find a reference to a rootsweb site on the OGI and you cannot see the correct content, remember to use the amazing Internet Archive Wayback Machine that can show you backed up copies of websites.  The OGI actually includes 1,939 sites which are no longer online thanks to the Wayback Machine!  I am unaware of any other genealogical website offering links to dead sites.  If you find some which are not included on the OGI, please let me know!

I hope the new additions will be of use to you and will add to your research resources.

Best wishes for a successful week of genealogical research!

Tim Manners

First additions of 2018!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years!

This weeks new additions brings the data set total to 369,757 and includes the following:

England, Cheshire School Records, 1782-1950 from Findmypast (120 sets of school records).  These often include the student's full name, birth date and father's name.  This collection has been available for a while on FamilySearch.org for free but now Findmypast has released the same data.  This is an example of where data was exchanged between the two organizations.  The advantage for us all is more paid collections appear for free on familysearch.org!  All locations have been added to ogindex.org.

FamilySearch has released the collection, England, Surrey Parish Registers, 1536-1992.  I have spent many hours going through this in detail to determine which parishes and year ranges are available and these have now been added to ogindex.org.  I will be doing the same for the new England, Lincolnshire, Parish Registers, 1538-1990.

And, as usual, I have caught the new entries added over Christmas to the thorough Norfolk Baptisms Project site which is indexing all baptisms throughout Norfolk between 1813 and 1880. (see Tinstaafl Transcripts).  This past weeks addition was Hindringham, St Martin.

Have a great January!  I hope to add more records to the site for your research this month and will add a new blog entry with details each time that occurrs.  

If anyone has electronic copies of transcriptions, graveyard surveys, etc and is willing to share them with the world, they can be hosted by ogindex.org!  Just contact me at admin@ogindex.org with details. 

Thanks for your support and use of the site!

Happy hunting (for ancestors),

Tim