Tuesday 12 November 2019

Problem for NowTV Broadband customers and the OGI

Just a quick note to let you know if you have NowTV Broadband (amazing deals, I am saving 30% over TalkTalk) and try to view a web.archive.org site linked from the OGI, that site is being blocked.  They claim it has been labelled as being used by hackers.  This is not correct.

I had to contact them through their online Chat and they got it turned off for me (the setting is called Broadband Buddy) and the menus are not working today.

Just thought this may be useful for some of you!

Friday 8 November 2019

Hundreds of new resources for Yorkshire

Dear users of the OGI,

Another week has flown by and another update has been added to the site today.

This weeks major addition boosts resources for Yorkshire.  I was guided to a set of memorial inscriptions with individual photos of each headstone on genuki.org.uk.  A link to each location has now be added to the OGI.

Check out the index here: https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/YRY/ERY/GraveIndex

The updates this week are listed below.

  • Isle of Man Parish Registers from archive.org (6 data sets)
  • Lancashire Civil Registration Marriages (3 data sets)
  • Shropshire Civil Registration Marriages (77 data sets)
  • Yorkshire Civil Registration Marriages (2 data sets)
  • Yorkshire Memorial Inscriptions and Parish Registers (481 data sets)
  • Yorkshire War Memorials from rootsweb.com (5 data sets)

New total of 402,011 data sets.  

Findmypast updated their Dorset collections combining some together. These have now been updated on the OGI.  

Had a great experience researching with my friend Andy this week.  We struggled to find the christening of an ancestor in Lowthorpe, Yorkshire with the name Elizabeth Ellerley as recorded on her marriage entry in the parish register of Beverley, Yorkshire.


On reviewing the birth registration of her children in the General Register Office, we saw that they were recorded with a mother's maiden name of Hillaby.  



We then cross-referenced the marriage entry for Elizabeth Ellerley and noted that she had not signed her name and simply marked it with an X.  This made us think that phonetically, Ellerley and Hillaby sound similar and the parish clerk could have transcribed the name she said at the time of the marriage.

Upon seeking an Elizabeth Hillaby in Lowthorpe at the right birth year (using the OGI), we found Betty Hillaby's birth date, christening, parents and, sub sequentially, all her siblings. We then linked into another tree taking the line on Elizabeth Hillaby's father's side back to the 1500s.  



This experience was a good reminder how the GRO Index is an excellent tool for breaking through brick walls such as the previous example.  Don't forget to download my free guide on using the GRO by clicking here.  It includes many examples and step-by-step instructions of how to find more ancestors using this resource.

Currently working on a transcription of the contents of Pallot's Marriage Index which can be found on Ancestry (but with no contents).  I found an old typed manuscript on a digital film made many decades ago and have been working on getting it transcribed.  This resource will add thousands of links to the OGI.

Until the next update,

Tim Manners
Creator and Owner
http://ogindex.org

Friday 1 November 2019

Two more updates added

Dear fellow genealogical researchers,

I have uploaded two batches of new and updated record sets over the past week.

The new total of data sets hosted on ogindex.org is now 401,670.


Findmypast have been busy releasing new and updated collections that are now available on the OGI.

  • Dorset Memorial Inscriptions (268 parishes)
  • Norfolk Parish Registers and Memorial Inscriptions (additions and changes to 2,150 parishes)
  • Cornwall Burials
  • Kent Burials
  • Kent County Council Parish Register Browse (228 data sets)
  • Middlesex Monumental Inscriptions
  • Westmorland Baptisms
  • Westmorland Marriages
  • Westmorland Burials
Other recent additions include:
  • Lancashire Online Parish Clerk (14 new data sets)
  • Shropshire Civil Registration Marriages (39 new data sets)
  • Gravestonephotos.com (12 new locations)
  • Wakefield Council Burial Database (15 cemeteries)
I hope these updates will help you find your ancestors quickly.

Just a reminder to download my free guide to the General Register Office Index available here.

This step-by-step guide will show you how to use the GRO Index (free registration) to find mother's maiden names for any child born from August 1837 to 1918 (use FreeBMD for years up to 1984 then FindMyPast to see births up to 2008).  Also learn how to use this data to find marriages.  Deaths ages are also shown from August 1837 to 1957.  FreeBMD only shows deaths from 1866.  

There are many new collections from FamilySearch.org including Bedfordshire, Oxfordshire, Herefordshire and Surrey.  These do not currently have an obvious index of included parishes but some have linked images to the results of your search.

I hope to return very soon with more records to improve your search results!

Best wishes,

Tim Manners
Creator and Owner

Monday 7 October 2019

Another 600+ new data sets added

Dear users of the OGI,

Today's updates include new collections from Ancestry covering many Bristol area parishes.  The Ancestry collections alone have added 462 data sets to the site.


Gravestonephotos.com added 26 new memorial inscriptions for English and Welsh cemeteries.

New Findmypast collections for Cumberland added 38 data sets to the site.

Lancashire Online Parish Clerk has been growing and added 43 new parish ranges of data.

The Hardwicke Marriage Index has added another 9 marriage parish records.

Additional sets have been uploaded from durhamrecordsonline and opcdorset.org.

New total of data sets on the OGI is 401,929.  

I hope these new sets will help you find more ancestors.

Until next time,

Tim Manners
Creator and Owner
http://ogindex.org





Friday 13 September 2019

New updates today

Dear users of the OGI,

Just to let you know I am still alive (4 weeks post surgery) and have updated the database today with over 500 new data sets. 

The new total available on the OGI is now 401,324

Many new records are from Findmypast who have updated their Berkshire Marriages Index and Derbyshire Deaths and Burials collections.

The Hardwicke Marriage Index site has continue to grow and adds new data sets multiple times a week so deserves a regular visit.

Gravestonephotos also added many new graveyard transcriptions.

DurhamRecordsOnline has also included new parish indexes.

I hope you will continue to see success with your research as you turn to the OGI to help you find the records you need!

Kind regards,

Tim Manners
Owner and Creator
http://ogindex.org

Friday 19 July 2019

Online Genealogical Index now has over 400 Thousand Data Sets!

Dear Friends of the OGI!

Happy to finally reach the goal of passing 400,000 data sets today!


Findmypast had a large addition with 1,924 new parish transcriptions.
Other notables are 166 IGI batches from FamilySearch for the county of Hertfordshire.  These are batches linked to specific places but without dates.  I have been going through these sets for the past few years and finally finished Hertfordshire today.  This helps find specific events within a year range in that county.


Lancashire Online Parish Clerk site added 21 new transcription sets.

And the ever-growing Hardwicke Marriage Act site added another 4 locations.  This is an amazing resource for finding maiden names of your female ancestors before the beginning of civil registration in the summer of 1837.  The range of marriage years on the site is 1754-1837.  In August, the final county of Yorkshire will be made available.  New additions are posted on the home page and the site will continue growing for years to come.

The total on the site today has reached 400,917.

I will soon be away for some family holiday time in Devon and Somerset.  I then have a surgery on 16th of August and a number of weeks of recovery time.  As soon as I feel able, I will continue searching and adding new data to the OGI.  

Thank you all for your support.  Would love to hear from you sometime.  Any good experiences with breaking down genealogical brick walls or finding an ancestor using the site would be very welcome.  This project started as a selfish reference but has grown to be a labour of love and my life's work.

Wishing you all success in your searches,

Tim Manners
Creator and Owner
http://ogindex.org


Friday 12 July 2019

Corrections and updates boost total OGI data sets closer to 400K

Hello friends of the Online Genealogical Index,

A quick note to let you know I have added an update of 894 records today bringing the total data sets on the site to 398,779!

I had to remove a collection then reupload the latest version to catch all changes (Findmypast's Middlesex Baptisms)

Big additions are details of each parish for FamilySearch's Bristol, Non-Conformists and Westminster, Parish Records.  You will now go immediately to the correct image set directly from the OGI, a feature not available at familysearch.org for these collections.

Wishing you all a pleasant and renewing summer,

Tim Manners
Creator and Founder
http://ogindex.org

Friday 5 July 2019

Big summer update!

Dear users of the OGI,

I have been working hard looking for new content and today's update adds 1,116 new data sets to the site.

I have decided to highlight updates by county this week:

Bedfordshire - 62 parish register collections from www.stevengibbs.me.uk
Derbyshire - 12 parish register and memorial inscription collections from web.archive.org
Durham - 18 parish register collections from www.durham-images.org
Essex - 18 parish register collections from wwwe.lib.cam.ac.uk
Gloucestershire - 3 parish record collections from michaelcooper.org.uk
Hampshire - 3 parishes from michaelcooper.org.uk and 9 from web.archive.org
Herefordshire - 17 parish register collections from familysearch.org
Lancashire - 21 civil registration record sets from lancashirebmd.org.uk
Somerset - 7 memorial inscription surveys from gravestonephotos.com
Staffordshire - 760 parish register image collections from familysearch.org and 16 civil registration sets from staffordshirebmd.org.uk
Wiltshire - 32 marriage data sets from www.tinstaafl.co.uk/eandwhmi
Worcestershire - 32 marriage data sets from www.tinstaafl.co.uk/eandwhmi
Yorkshire - 29 parish register collections from vitaldb.moorlandit.com

This latest update brings the total of data sets on the OGI to 398,157

In the next few weeks, the final county of Yorkshire will be added to the amazing site mentioned on previous posts, "Hardwicke Marriage Index" found here

This site already has 469,801 marriages from England and Wales between 1754 and 1837.  This can certainly extend your family tree by showing the maiden names of your ancestors married before the start of Civil Registration in July of 1837.

New data sets coming soon for Bristol and Westminster.  These are collections already available on FamilySearch.org but have no labels.  

There are so many people gathering and transcribing information who then share it with the world online.  My goal has been to make those records and websites more accessible to others.

I wish each of you a wonderful summer.  Maybe you will take some time to visit a cemetery or ancestral locations.  I still have fond memories of visiting the town of Belford in Northumberland and finding the headstone of my great-great-grandparents, Joseph John and Eleanor Mary Manners.  

  


He is the end of our family tree on the Manners side.  Hope to find his parents one day.

Until next time,

Tim Manners
Creator and Owner
http://ogindex.org

Tuesday 18 June 2019

10th Update of the Year

Dear users of the OGI,

Today is the 10th upload of new data in 2019.  Today's additions total 1,654 data sets.

Findmypast has claimed the release of a new collection which actually came out a number of months ago, don't believe everything you read!  Their Phillimore Marriage collection has been on their site for a long time.  But they did release the actual PDFs for browsing.

I found this information about William Phillimore on parishrecord.org.

W.P. Phillimore, born William Phillimore Watts Stiff, was the son of Dr Stiff, a Nottingham Doctor. He later took the name Phillimore from the family of his grandmother. While educated as a lawyer, he was also a publisher of books. In later life, he began to transcribe marriage registers, which he later printed in book form. When he died in 1914, he had covered 1,200 parishes from different counties in 200 volumes. He founded Phillimore & Co. Ltd in 1897, which have been publishing British local and family history for over a century.

Phillimore Marriage Records are a series of books published in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Phillimore & Co. Ltd. They cover marriages from various parishes from each county, however there may be some omission as some of the registers have not survived. In some counties, the coverage of parishes is very good, whereas in other counties just a few parishes were transcribed - most counties do not have every parish transcribed.

All his available publications are online, the majority are found at archive.org and FamilySearch.org.  Click HERE to view a list of free online copies of Phillimore's registers.

If you would like to know which parishes are included in his publications, there is an index available HERE.  Note this was published in 1913 before additional volumes were added.

And on to the details regarding today's additions...

CemeterySearcher is a new system allowing the searching of memorial inscriptions and is now available for a total of five cemeteries in Buckinghamshire, Dorset, Northamptonshire and Suffolk.  Check out this example here.

CheshireBMD - Civil Registration Marriages (5 data sets)

Lancashire Online Parish Clerk (38 data sets)

Dorset Online Parish Clerk (5 data sets)

Hardwicke Marriage Act Index (10 data sets).  Westmorland was released this week.

Durham Records Online (5 data sets)

FindmypastEngland, Phillimore Marriage Registers, 1531-1913 Browse (1504 data sets)

Gravestonephotos.com (10 new cemeteries)

ManxBMD.com - Isle of Man Civil Registration (66 data sets)

I am glad to see that the total of data sets on OGIndex.org is now 397,070.

I will be removing the broken Ancestry collections in the next few weeks.  This may reduce the current total but I would rather have working data than a high number.

Thanks to the generous donation from the creator of ldsgenealogy.com, I have renewed the hosting of the OGI for another 4 years.  Hope you will be along for the ride!

Until the next update,

Tim Manners
Creator and Owner

Thursday 13 June 2019

OGI now fully functional

Just wanted to notify everyone that the problem with Wales and the Isle of Man has now been resolved.  Big thanks to my fellow creator, David Sheppard, who has spent time on this issue finding and resolving the problem.

New updates coming soon will allow filtering of record type from the search screen and more accurate results based on year (instead of the + and - 40 year filter currently in place).

Hope you are enjoying all the latest data added this week.

Until the next update,

Tim

Monday 10 June 2019

Biggest update of the year!

Dear fans of OGI,

Today I was able to upload the largest update for a LONG time.  4,922 new record sets!

Here is the breakdown by website name.

Sheffield Indexers (16 new record sets)

Gravestone Photos (25 new record sets)

Tinstaafl Norfolk Baptisms (2 new parishes)

Tinstaafl Marriage Index (92 new parishes covering Suffolk, Surrey, Sussex, Warwickshire and Worcestershire)

Ancestry
Essex Parish Registers (1,848 record sets)
Norfolk Bishop's Transcripts (890 parishes)
Norfolk Archdeacon's Transcripts (656 parishes)

Findmypast
Great London Burial Indes (66 new parishes)
Cardiganshire Parish Records (46 new record sets)

FamilySearch
Herefordshire Bishop's Transcripts (374 parishes)
Norfolk Bishop's Transcripts (890 parishes)

Durham Records Online (6 new parish record sets)

An additional few record sets were found for Lancashire Civil Registration and Dorset Memorial Inscriptions.

I was disappointed to see the new FamilySearch Herefordshire collection has been indexed WITHOUT a place name.  You can only search by name then look at the linked image to see if it your ancestor.  I was able to find the master list of the coverage of this collection so you will know which parishes are included.  (Unique to ogindex.org)

The Ancestry Essex collections added last week also had no coverage table so I contacted the Essex Record Office and they guided me to their content given to Ancestry so I could add a breakdown of parishes to the OGI!  (No one else has that info!)

We are still trying to fix the problem with Wales and the Isle of Man.  The hosting company has added some additional security which has broken the drop-down list.  

If you want to search for a place in Wales, you can use this text as the address and add the name of the place to the end:  https://ogindex.org/search?country=Wales&town=

For the Isle of Man, use this text (add the place name at the end and paste it into your address bar):  https://ogindex.org/search?country=Isle+of+Man&town=

I hope we can find a solution very soon.  Thanks for your continue patience.

Best wishes for a wonderful summer ahead.  I am sure there will be new updates soon.

Kind regards,

Tim Manners
Creator and Owner
http://ogindex.org

Friday 24 May 2019

Huge collection of 1754-1837 marriages added for England and Wales


Dear users of the OGI,

Firstly, I must apologize that searching Wales and the Isle of Man is not working as it should but we are working on it today.  Hopefully, you will see the county list for both appear later.


The big news, and reason I am doing another update so soon, is the amazing content at my fellow researcher friend, Steve, at TINSTAAFL Transcripts

Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke (1690-1764)
His new project is to transcribe marriages from 1754-1837 in England and Wales.  This period of record keeping was started by the Hardwicke Marriage Act.  This is described on Wikipedia as follows:  "The Marriage Act 1753, full title "An Act for the Better Preventing of Clandestine Marriage", popularly known as Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act, was the first statutory legislation in England and Wales to require a formal ceremony of marriage. It came into force on 25 March 1754."

Steve has already transcribed close to half a million marriages!  He adds new transcriptions every few days.  The full site will be live by the end of August but currently includes marriages for most Welsh counties and English counties from Berkshire to Staffordshire.  Suffolk through Yorkshire coming in the summer.  Visit his site hereI have linked his existing parishes and added them to the Online Genealogical Index.  

This week also included some new headstone photos and transcriptions from gravestonephotos.com and billiongraves.com.  Also, another set from Steve's other site, Norfolk Baptism Project for the parish of King's Lynn, St Margaret covering baptisms from 1813-1880.  Also, three more parish record indexes from durhamrecordsonline.com

It is always a pleasure to locate these amazing projects and link them to the database for all to find and appreciate.

The full total of data sets added on 23rd May is 658.  New total of records on the OGI is 390,547.  Maybe I will reach my goal of 400,000 this year after all!

I know you will find the content on Steve's marriage site very useful and hope you enjoy using it in the future.  I will keep all new parishes added to the OGI for easy access.

Until the next update,

Tim Manners
Creator and Owner
http://ogindex.org

Friday 17 May 2019

Lots of new records for Lancashire, Lincolnshire and Somerset

Dear fans of the Online Genealogical Index,

Another update of 190 data sets today including parish registers, memorial inscriptions and gravestone photos.  This brings the total number of data sets on the site to 389,898.

Here is a summary of today's new additions:

Berkshire
Parish Registers on Genuki.org.uk (7 sets)

Devon
Memorial Inscriptions found on a "dead" website using web.archive.org (2 sets)

Lancashire
Parish Register transcriptions from lan-opc.org.uk (74 sets)

Lincolnshire
New Parish Record additions by Findmypast (50 sets)

Somerset
Parish Register Transcriptions on Genuki.org.uk (84 sets)



There are a few parish register and memorial inscription additions for Durham, Gloucestershire, Kent, Norfolk, Nottinghamshire, Rutland and Suffolk.

Ancestry recently updated their URLs for all collections in the catalog.  I have discovered 16 collections are now unusable (missing or broken) and have reported this to Ancestry this week.  If you would like to see which collections are missing, here is a list:

  1. Bedfordshire, England, Extracted Church of England Parish Records
  2. Berkshire, England, Extracted Church of England Parish Records
  3. Devon, England, Extracted Church of England Parish Records
  4. Durham, England, Extracted Church of England Parish Records
  5. Kent, England, Extracted Parish Records
  6. Lancashire, England, Extracted Church of England Parish Records
  7. London Churches, Christening and Baptismal Records
  8. London Churches, Burials and Deaths Records
  9. Norfolk, England, Extracted Parish Records
  10. Somerset, England, Extracted Church of England Parish Records
  11. Suffolk, England, Selected Church of England Parish Registers, 1558-1778
  12. Suffolk, England, Extracted Church of England Parish Records
  13. Surrey, England, Extracted Church of England Parish Records
  14. Westmorland, England, Extracted Church of England Parish Records
  15. Wiltshire, England, Selected Church of England Parish Registers, 1591-1812
  16. Wiltshire, England, Extracted Church of England Parish Records
I have left these in the OGI for now hoping the problem will be fixed soon.  

I appreciate all those reading the blog and using the site.  I know it is saving you all time in your research and, hopefully, guiding you to little-known sources.  You are welcome to leave comments on the blog. I love hearing from those using the site.

Please help by passing the word around to others engaged in family history research!  

Regards,

Tim Manners
Creator and Owner

Tuesday 30 April 2019

New and updated collections for Kent, Norfolk and Somerset

Hello fellow researchers,

Today's update includes 1,150 data sets.  Some are updates where a website address has changed.

Ancestry have completed bishop's transcripts for Norfolk which added 259 data sets to that collection.  They have also released a Kent Parish Register collection of 355 data sets.  The results are text only and you are unable to view the original parish registers.  Good news is that this is a copy of the collection found on FamilySearch where the transcriptions and images are free to view.



I have used the wonderful web.archive.org (which backs up websites) to recover lost data on the defunct Online Parish Clerk site for Kent.  I was able to add 88 data sets that are no longer found outside of archive.org.

The largest collection updated and re-added to the OGI today was from the Somerset site wsom-opc.org.uk.  They have recently changed their addresses and now the 433 data sets are working properly again.




Other additions include new baptisms in Norfolk, gravestones throughout the country and a new data set from opcdorset.org.

I hope you have had success this past month with the data referenced on the OGI.  I certainly have and saved hours of research time!

This week, Jeniann from ldsgenealogy.com kindly donated some funds towards the upkeep of ogindex.org.  Her website is similar to mine for the United States and is an excellent resource for those of you researching the USA.  Anyone can donate using the link at the bottom of the home page.  Every pound helps keep the site running!




New total of OGI data sets is 389,805.

Until next time,

Tim Manners
Creator and Owner
http://ogindex.org

Friday 19 April 2019

Big news for Durham, Northumberland and Yorkshire

Dear Fellow Genealogical Researchers,

Findmypast has released a large collection of Durham Bishop's Transcripts covering Durham, Northumberland, Cumberland and Yorkshire.  These are transcripts of their Durham Bishop's Transcript Image collection which was released last year.


They have also released an update to The National Burial Index.  This has added hundreds of records for Durham, Essex and Yorkshire.  These have all been updated on the Online Genealogical Index today making the total of available data set links 389,090.  The goal of reaching 400,000 this year is still in my sights!

Here is the breakdown of what was added today.



Total sets added/updated today was 1,883.  As many of the National Burial entries were updates of year ranges to existing locations, I removed them and uploaded the new details.

I know there are some major collections coming this year from FamilySearch and will add the links to the OGI as soon as they are available.

I wish all of you a wonderful Easter and look forward to informing you of the next updates.

Kind regards,

Tim Manners
Creator and Owner
http://ogindex.org

Friday 5 April 2019

Large updates for Kent Parish Registers

Hello fellow genealogical researchers,

A quick entry to inform you all about the large release of Kent data from Findmypast that was announced today.  I have now updated all the Kent Baptisms, Marriages and Burials on the Online Genealogical Index to include these entries.  


The total number of data sets referenced on the OGI now totals 388,235.

There are also some new memorial inscription data sets for Derbyshire, Dorset, Suffolk, Sussex and Yorkshire as well as some parish register sets for Dorset, Durham and Suffolk.

I am committed to finding more resources to improve the options a researcher has to find data quickly.  Personally, using the OGI this week has been very successful and I was able to locate ancestors in minutes.  I hope you are having similar experiences.

Easter greetings to all.

Regards,

Tim Manners
Creator and Owner
http://ogindex.org


Friday 29 March 2019

Over two hundred new resources added today!

Hello friends of OGI,

The website has now been recommended by the Family History Guide and links their researchers to the resources found at ogindex.org.  Glad to know others in the genealogical community recognize the contribution of this site!

New data sets uploaded today:

Berkshire

8 new Berkshire Baptism sets from findmypast

Cumberland/Cumbria

78 digital Parish Register books from FamilySearch Books

Dorset

7 digital Parish Register books from FamilySearch Books
2 transcriptions from opcdorset

Durham

12 new data sets from FamilySearch, DurhamRecordsOnline and gravestonephotos.com

Gloucestershire

1 new cemetery from gravestonephotos.com

Hertfordshire

7 digital marriage registers from FamilySearch Books

Lancashire

4 new births and deaths data sets from Lancashire BMD

Norfolk

39 Memorial Inscription collections from FamilySearch
1 baptism set from Norfolk Baptism Project
1 set from gravestonephotos.com

Northumberland

7 new parish register data sets from DurhamRecordsOnline

Shropshire

29 parish registers from FamilySearch Books
3 memorial inscription collections from gravestonephotos.com

Surrey

2 Memorial inscriptions collections from gravestonephotos.com
1 digital parish register from FamilySearch Books

Sussex

7 new memorial inscription record collections from gravestonephotos.com

Westmorland

6 digital parish registers from FamilySearch Books

Yorkshire

25 digital parish registers from FamilySearch Books
9 digital Memorial Inscription collections from FamilySearch
4 new marriage data sets from Yorkshire BMD

Total items added is 214.  

As you can see, I have been busy using FamilySearch Books who recently changed their search page and image browser.



I highly recommend you take a look and experiment with the search options to find what you need.  I hope the filtering options will improve over time but it is a lot more user friendly than the previous version.  You will only be able to view items marked as 'Public'.

I am confident there are thousands of other digital books in this resource which contain vital and church records for England, Wales and the Isle of Man.  I will continue looking through this collection and adding links to the Online Genealogical Index.

Hopefully, these new records will help you find your ancestors and complete branches of your family tree.

With kind regards and thanks for your support,

Tim Manners
Creator and Owner
http://ogindex.org