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

Large update for March

Greetings fellow researchers,

I have had a busy few months with a visit to Salt Lake City for RootsTech 2019.  

I was pleased to meet with many of the top data website companies and tell them about the Online Genealogical Index.  Many were invited to advertise the OGI on their sites and also inform me about updates to their own databases.  This bodes well for the OGI to stay up to date with changes at Billiongraves.com and findagrave.com.

I briefly met Dick Eastman, famed genealogist, and thanked him for his excellent newsletter and blog.  If you are not familiar with it, take a look here.

Findmypast have been especially busy releasing new record sets and I have added them to the OGI today.

Here is my detailed list of what has been added to the database.

41 new cemeteries from gravestonephotos.com

Dorset

• 6 new parish record sets from the Dorset Online Parish Clerk site

Durham

• 4 new indexes from the Durham Records Online site

Lancashire 

• 4 new parishes included in the Lancashire Civil Registration site
• 57 new parish record sets added by the Lancashire Online Parish Clerk site
• 107 Catholic record sets from Findmypast
• 506 Parish Record sets from Findmypast
• 112 new school record sets from Findmypast

Norfolk

• 3 new parishes added from the Norfolk Baptism Project

Northumberland

• 6 new parishes added from the Durham Records Online site

Staffordshire

• 9 new parish record sets added to Staffordshire Civil Registration site

Yorkshire

• 3 new parish marriage record sets from Yorkshire Civil Registration site
• 313 new parish record sets from Findmypast
• Sheffield Telegraph Obituary Index from 1850 to 1970

The total of added record sets was 1,180 bringing the total sets available on the OGI to 386,796.

Big Thanks to user Michael Jones who sent a donation in appreciation for the website.  I am glad he finds it useful.  It does cost a few hundred pounds a year to keep the site running and every donation is greatly appreciated by me.

I have high hopes for new data being made available in 2019 and commit to adding as much as I can to the Online Genealogical Index for your easy access!

Until the next update!

Tim Manners

Creator and Owner

http://ogindex.org

First additions of 2019

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year.  I am excited for all that 2019 has to offer (a little nervous about the effects of the type of Brexit we eventually will have to live with) and know that the Online Genealogical Index will continue to grow and offer more resources for your research success!

As we look forward to Spring, I would like to share a photo from the River Trent passing through Burton on Trent, where I currently reside.  We look forward to seeing this type of rejuvenation of nature in the next few months.

Things seem to slow a little in regards to new collections but I have just uploaded over 400 new record collections today.  Here is the list of details.

• Berkshire - Parish Records for Sunninghill from FamilySearch.org (19 batches)
• Berkshire, Hertfordshire, Middlesex, Oxfordshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Yorkshire - England Roman Catholic Parish Records from Find My Past (202 batches)
• Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Dorset, Durham, Norfolk, Suffolk, Yorkshire - Memorial Inscriptions from Gravestonephotos.com (14 batches)
• Cumberland/Cumbria, Durham and Lincolnshire - National Burial Index additions from Find My Past (81 batches)
• Durham and Northumberland - Parish Record Transcriptions from Durham Records Online (6 batches)
• Kent - Parish Records from Find My Past (7 batches)
• Lancashire - Parish Records and Memorial Inscriptions from Lancashire Online Parish Clerks (13 batches)
• Lancashire - Civil Registration Births, Marriages and Deaths (22 batches)
• Norfolk - Parish Baptisms from Norfolk Baptism Transcripts (6 batches)
• Norfolk - Parish Records from Find My Past (23 batches)
• Middlesex - Baptisms for Islesworth parish from Find My Past (1 batch)
• Staffordshire - Civil Registration Deaths and Marriages (7 batches)
• Yorkshire - Civil Registration Marriages (3 batches)

This brings the total of data sets on the site to 385,616.  Remember, a data set can be a huge collection of names and dates such as baptisms from Lichfield, St Chads for 1538-1900, for example.  Even though we have 385 thousand data sets, this covers millions of names and, hopefully, records of your ancestors waiting to be discovered by you!

As you can see, there are always new data sets being released to help find your ancestors.  The OGI puts them all in one reference place so you don't have to jump from site to site!

I look forward to a busy year and hope to reach 400,000 data sets on the site before the end of December.  

Thank you for using the site.  I would love to hear from you and your experiences, suggestions, comments.  Please use the comment section below this entry to make contact or email me at admin@ogindex.org.

Have a wonderful Spring!

Regards,

Tim Manners

Creator and Owner

http://ogindex.org

Overview of November and December updates

Seasons Greetings to all OGI Researchers!

It appears that many of the family history sites are slowing down a little in the release of new information but I have still managed to add 211 new data sets to the Online Genealogical Index.

Updates were added on 30th November and 14th December.

Here are the details:

Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire on BillionGraves (19 new cemeteries added)
Cheshire Civil Registration (10 additions)
Cheshire Parish Registers from Findmypast (18 parishes added)
Dorset Online Parish Clerk site (3 additions)
Durham and Northumberland Transcriptions added to DurhamRecordsOnline (18 additions)
Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Leicestershire & London parish records from Findmypast (16)
Gravestone Photos (33 new cemeteries added)
Lancashire Civil Registration (13 additions)
Lancashire Online Parish Clerk Transcriptions (58 data sets)
Norfolk Baptism Project (9 new parishes added)
Staffordshire Civil Registration Marriages and Deaths (9 additions)
Yorkshire Churchyards (3 added)
Yorkshire Civil Registration (1 added)
Isle of Wight Monumental Inscriptions (1 new cemetery added)

Another year has passed and the grand total of data sets on the OGI has reached 385,277 and has had over 14,000 searches made.  I hope more people will use the site next year.  Please pass the word around as it will help your friends and family with their research.

I was happy to find a family gravestone by using the OGI this week.  It had my great-great uncle and his wife with their death dates which was new information for my family tree.  Here is the photo from Sunninghill, St Michael and All Angels graveyard in Berkshire:

This was available from gravestonephotos.com, an excellent resource which is growing every week.  I review their additions and add them to the OGI to help users (and myself!) find information easily.

I hope you all have a great Christmas and enjoy time with your family.

Until 2019!

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

Review of October Updates

Hello users of the OGI!

There have been a number of updates this month and I want to give you a detailed list to show that the collection continues to be improved.  I also thought it would be of interest to show the breakdown of the data currently included.

As you can see, Findmypast is slowly catching Familysearch (the current leader) in data set totals.  I am always impressed with the 19% of non-commercial data sets (that is almost 72,000) in the Other category.  There are amazing sites with comprehensive data created by private individuals or local family history groups.  The Other Category also includes Archive.org's scanned family history books which currently stands at over 3,900 data sets.  Many books include multiple locations and after reviewing around 214,000 pages of data (no wonder I wear glasses), the resources being released in these historical journals, magazines and volumes are invaluable.

There were many updated Findmypast collections this month and that involved my removing of the current collection from the OGI and uploading the new data to the site.

The total number of uploaded data sets was 1,545.  Many of these replaced outdated year ranges, etc.

Current grand total of data sets hosted on the Online Genealogical Index is 385,019.  It looks as if my dream of passing 400,000 this year may have to wait until 2019. 

Here is the list of what was added/updated in October along with the number of data sets (specific places, type and date range).

Ancestry - Surrey, England, Church of England Marriages, 1754-1937 (289)

Dorset Online Parish Clerks (1)

Durham Records Online (5)

FamilySearch (7)

• Essex Parish Register transcriptions (3)
• Sussex Parish Register images (4)

Findmypast (1,223)

• Dorset Baptisms (307)
• Dorset Burials (330)
• Kent Registers & Records (15 sets of Parish Registers and Memorial Inscriptions)
• Kent Baptisms (31)
• Kent Banns (5)
• Kent Burials (36)
• Kent Marriages (3)
• Kent, Canterbury Archdeaconry Banns (5)
• Kent, Canterbury Archdeaconry Baptisms (7)
• Kent, Canterbury Archdeaconry Burials (6)
• Kent, Canterbury Archdeaconry Marriages (3)
• Middlesex Baptisms 1543-1876 (270)
• Northumberland and Durham Burials (205)

Gravestonephotos.com (14 new graveyards)

Lancashire Civil Registration - Deaths (1)

Norfolk Baptism Project (3)

Staffordshire Civil Registration - Deaths (2)

As you can see, things are still moving along in regards to new resources.  If I cannot find data needed at the OGI, I then go to the FamilySearch.org Catalog to see if digital films are available for a specific place.  I often add direct links to these parishes in the OGI for future access.  The process of doing this is explained in detail on the previous blog entry (28 September 2018).

I wish you all a good Autumn and look forward to sharing the new additions for November with you in a few weeks!

Best wishes,

Tim Manners

Creator and Owner

http://ogindex.org

Updates in September include Durham, Northumberland, Suffolk and all Welsh counties

Greetings to all users of the Online Genealogical Index,

I have done a couple of updates since the last blog entry so I would like to keep everyone up to date with what has been added.

Findmypast has tweaked their Welsh parish record collections and renamed many of them.  They have combined Marriages and Banns into the same data sets and changed the Powys collections to be their original historical county names.  That has made my job easier as I previously had to research each location to determine its original county.

With these combinations, the number of data sets have dropped so the grand total on the OGI has gone down slightly.  

Apart from the Welsh changes, here are the other additions over the past few weeks.

• 92 Suffolk graveyard and parish record transcriptions from FamilySearch
• 755 locations in Durham, Northumberland and Yorkshire in the durhamrecordsonline.com database.  This was previously included in the OGI but was refreshed to import many updates.  The search and results are free but only show year and registration district.  
• 11 new data sets for Lancashire Online Parish Clerks (lan-opc.org.uk)
• City of London Cemetery and Crematorium image browse (440,000 names) from col-burialregisters.uk
• 6 data sets of Yorkshire marriages from www.yorkshirebmd.org.uk

There are more collections coming before the end of the year according to FamilySearch.  Ancestry has not released any major new collections for a while so perhaps they will get something online soon.

If you find a gap in available data on the OGI, use the FamilySearch Catalog and look for available scanned films.  

Here is a step-by-step:

1.  Go to familysearch.org and sign in to your account.

2.  Hover your mouse over Search and click on Catalog.

3.  On the catalog page, enter the place you wish to search and select the correct location from the suggestions in the drop-down list.  Click on the Online option and then the Search button.

4.  Now open the section you are interested in such as Church Records.

5.  Click on the title you wish to view.

6.  Scroll down to the film details and look for the desired date ranges noting the item number(s).  This will be important when viewing the digital film.

7.  Click on the camera icon to open the film images.

8.  Use the page number option to jump to the correct part of the film looking for the required section number.

9.  It can take a few minutes to find the correct section of the film.  You can use the Information tab which will only show when viewing a page (double-click or use the box button on the left side).  This shows all the sections on the film to help you navigate your way through the images.

10.  And after some patience, you will find the section you need.

It may seem complex but much easier than ordering a microfilm and waiting weeks for delivery which is only available at a specific location!

More records are being digitized all the time.  There are full-time camera teams all over the world serving as volunteers with FamilySearch.  This promises many more data sets to come in the future!

Have a wonderful week and I will return with more updates very soon.

Regards,

Tim Manners

Creator and Owner

http://ogindex.org

New additions include Isle of Wight Cemetery Database, Dorset Memorial Inscriptions, parish records from Gloucestershire, Lancashire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire and more

Hello again,

It has been a number of weeks since I have updated the site.  Meanwhile, my family and I have traveled around Europe visiting friends and family (my son is serving in the British Army in Germany).

But I have been regularly finding new data to upload and today's addition of 735 data sets brings the total on ogindex.org to 385,320.

Here is the list of this week's updates:

• 18 new graveyards added to gravestonephotos.com
• Cheshire Civil Registration marriages
• Lancashire Civil Registration marriages and deaths
• Lancashire parish registers from www.lan-opc.org.uk
• Montomeryshire Memorial Inscriptions collection from findmypast
• New Dorset Memorial Inscriptions collection from findmypast (252 parishes)
• New additions for Gloucestershire and Herefordshire on the Forest of Dean Parish records website (www.forest-of-dean.net)
• Norfolk Baptism Project additions to three parishes (tinstaafl.co.uk)
• Over 100,000 cemetery records in thirteen Isle of Wight cemeteries from www.iw-bereavementservices.co.uk
• Oxfordshire Memorial Inscriptions and parish registers from archive.org
• Rootsweb Derbyshire parish regsiters, apprenticeships, bastardy indexes, cemetery records
• Staffordshire Civil Registration deaths
• Updates to Ancestry's Liverpool Catholic records
• Worcestershire and Herefordshire Parish Record images from familysearch.org
• Yorkshire Civil Registration marriages

I am still confident that there are many new resources and collections coming before the end of the year.

I hope you will find more ancestors in this week's additions.  I use ogindex.org all the time to help save time finding online records.  

Until next time,

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