Thursday, 4 November 2021

November already?

Dear Fellow OGI-ers,

I was informed by some users that knowing if a place is spelled with or without dashes makes it hard to find the listed datasets.   I have, therefore, begun to add duplicate entries with alternate place spellings.  Hence a boost of 10,000 in the site total datasets today.


There are 3,668 new additions to help with your research.

Here are the details.

  • Ancestry - Shropshire Parish Registers - 1,565 data sets
  • Cheshire Civil Registration Marriages - 39 new data sets
  • FamilySearch.org - Shropshire Parish Registers - 967 data sets
  • Findagrave - 3 new cemeteries
  • Findmypast - Roman Catholic Marriages - 8 new data sets
  • Findmypast - Shropshire Parish Registers - 967 data sets
  • FreeReg - 31 new Gloucestershire data sets
  • Geneanet Cemeteries - 44 new cemeteries
  • Gravestone Photos - 6 new cemeteries
  • Lancashire Online Parish Clerks - 15 new data sets
  • OPC Dorset - 7 new data sets
  • TINSTAAFL Marriages - 14 new parishes
  • TINSTAAFL Norfolk Baptisms - 2 new parishes
As you can see, a good month for Shropshire researchers!  

A lot of new data is coming to the public forum thanks to amazing projects run nationwide.  I will continue to add links to all useful resources for your benefit.

Thanks again to those who donate towards the site costs.  Every pound helps.  Please consider helping if you feel you are getting a good service.   

Until the next update,

Tim Manners

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Monday, 18 October 2021

October Updates

Dear Friends of the OGI,

I sincerely hope you are well and having success in your genealogical pursuits.  Today, I have uploaded 1,633 new and updated data sets.  The majority are a refresh of the data held by the Cornwall Online Parish Clerk site, a truly remarkable achievement and highly recommended.  

The new total of data sets available at the OGI is 415,271.

Here is are the details about this month's update.

Thanks for your support and use of the site.  Big thank you to Jess Jarvis for his generous donation towards the running costs of the site.  

Please consider even a £1 a month Paypal donation as it all goes to keeping things running smoothly.  The site will always be free for all.

I wish you a pleasant autumn and will return with a new update soon.

Best wishes,

Tim Manners

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Friday, 17 September 2021

September Updates

Dear Users of the OGI,

And welcome to the new researchers who found the site due to the excellent article in Family Tree Magazine in August.

This month, there are 112 new data sets added to the site including a large quantity from TINSTAAFL Transcripts and Gravestonephotos.com.  The current total of data sets on the OGI is 414,749.  This is lower than last month due to clearing out dead links and repeated data.  I want to create a useful and concise database without waste.

The church of St James in Coundon, County Durham.  There are 50 members of the Manners family buried here.  I have yet to find a genealogical connection but DNA has led me to this location.

Here is an overview of today's update:

  • Findmypast Greater London Burial Index - 6 new cemeteries
  • Findmypast Warwickshire Coventry Midwife's Birth Register
  • FreeReg - 3 new parishes
  • Gravestonephotos.com - 36 new cemeteries
  • Online Parish Clerks Dorset - 1 new data set
  • Somerset Parish Registers (lanefarm.plus.com) - 9 data sets
  • Staffordshire Civil Registration Births - 1 new data set
  • Staffordshire Civil Registration Deaths - 6 new data sets
  • TINSTAAFL Marriage Project - 29 new parishes
  • TINSTAAFL Norfolk Baptisms - 4 new parishes
  • Winterbourne Abbas Parish Registers - 5 new data sets
  • Worcestershire burial databases (dudley.gov.uk) - 4 cemeteries

It is good to see new updates all the time which boost the chance of you finding that elusive ancestor.

Major projects coming soon involving the photographing and transcription of every headstone related to Church of England and Municipal cemeteries in England.   This project will take years but will add millions of names for researchers to investigate.

Thank you for your patronage.  It is really an honour to serve you in this way and help thousands find the data they need to track down ancestors.  

There are annual costs involved in keeping the site up and running.  Please help if you can even if just a £1 every month or so.  It all goes towards the costs.  There is a Donate option at the top and bottom of every page.

I continue to search for good resources and appreciate those who have contacted me with suggestions.  Use the Contact option to send me a message.  If you leave your email, I will personally reply.

Have a wonderful autumn.

Until next time, 

Tim Manners

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Monday, 16 August 2021

Hundreds of Memorial Brasses added

Dear Users of the OGI,

It has been a busy month or travel and home projects but I have kept an eye out for new resources for the site and finally uploaded 2,127 new data sets today.

The bulk of these are from the 1861 publication of the book "A Manual of Monumental Brasses" by Reverend Herbert Haines.  Monumental Brasses will include names, dates and relationships back to the 1300s.

Here is today's update list:

Archive.org - Monumental Brasses book (2020 locations)
Findmypast 
- Essex Baptisms and Burials - 12 new parishes
- Staffordshire Parish Registers - 4 new parishes
StaffordshireBMD - 11 updates
TINSTAAFL Marriages - 22 new parishes
TINSTAAFL Norfolk Baptisms - 4 new parishes
OPC Dorset - 3 new data sets
Durham Records Online - 6 new data sets
Gravestone Photos - 4 new cemeteries
Lancashire Online Parish Clerk - 14 new data sets

The current total of data sets found at ogindex.org is now 415,464.

I know there are more hidden gems on Archive.org with a lot of genealogical information.  I have already personally reviewed over 214 thousand pages of documents looking for useful information.  Archive.org has old genealogical magazines and books containing lists of pedigrees, graveyard surveys, etc.  The OGI now has about 6,000 data sets linked to pages of Archive.org books.  As far as I know, no other site has this type of content.

Happy to finally get my hands on the August 2021 issue of Family Tree Magazine and read the article about the Online Genealogical Index.  Hopefully, some of you were introduced to the site through this article.

I will continue to search for useful genealogical data to help you with your research.

Until the next update,

Tim Manners
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Wednesday, 14 July 2021

New Ancestry Staffordshire Collections added

Dear Users of the OGI,

An additional 1,737 data sets have been added to the Online Genealogical Database this week.  The majority are the new Ancestry Staffordshire Parish Register collections.  These cover Baptisms, Banns, Marriages and Burials from 1538 to 1900.  This brings the total of data sets on the OGI to 413,443.  Each one was researched, typed in and uploaded!  Seven years in and the OGI is still growing.  

I was very honoured to receive the personal project of former vicar Andrew Knight of Lougher, St Michael's parish in Swansea.  


He has transcribed each of the hundreds of headstones in the churchyard and ordered them by surname.  This is now available on the OGI under Glamorganshire or see it now here.

I hope the OGI can be a tool to preserve the projects of others unavailable elsewhere online.

Here are the details of the recent uploads:

Off to Devon next week but will keep an eye out for any new genealogical data coming my way to pass on to all of you lovely people.

I hope you have had a chance to see the Family Tree Magazine article about the OGI (also got a mention on the cover!).  It is an excellent article written by one of their editors with a few tweaks by myself.

Have a great summer and take some time to visit family.  Maybe you will discover some clues to your genealogical mysteries.

Best regards,

Tim Manners

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Monday, 5 July 2021

New Memorial Inscription Collections

Dear Users of the OGI,

I hope you are having a great summer so far.  Today, I uploaded 685 new record collections.  The majority of these are church monuments and memorial inscriptions.  As you know, a headstone can contain birth, death and family relationships so very useful for adding to your trees.  Here is one I found recently of my own 4th great-grandfather James Fletcher and his wife Eleanor (thanks BillionGraves!).  This is in Bracknell, Berkshire.  If anyone lives nearby, please send me a closeup minus all the ferns!

I am grateful to an OGI user who contacted me to recommend the Church Monuments Gazetteer and another who recommended the Somerset and Dorset Family History Society website.  The latter has an excellent memorial inscription index for hundreds of churches in those counties.  Please keep sending any recommended sites and I will add links to the database.

Here are the details about today's update:

I have had some positive experiences searching in the OGI this week.  Today, I saw a message from someone looking for a burial in Ribbesford, Worcestershire but not sure where to look.  In less than a minute, I had searched the OGI, found the resource (the National Burial Index on Findmypast) and found the burial in 1743.  I wonder how long that individual had spent looking for that burial?  I made sure to let them know about how to use the OGI in the future.  Please pass the word along to other researchers as they will save hours of time and also promote the value of the OGI to others.

The issue of Family Tree Magazine with a two page article about the Online Genealogical Index goes on sale at the end of July (the August 2021 issue).  This is the UK version of the magazine (I think there is a USA version as well).

We are off to Paignton, Devon for a week when school ends in a couple of weeks.  I hope the weather will be as nice as in this photo.


I will continue searching for valuable genealogical resources online.  After 7 years of searching, the collection has now reached 411,706 data sets.  Each of these has been personally researched, tested and documented!  I am proud to advertise the hard work of many researchers around the world who have dedicated hundreds, even thousands, of hours recording the lives of our ancestors for our benefit.

Wishing you a warm, safe and relaxing summer,

Tim Manners

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Thursday, 17 June 2021

391 New Datasets uploaded

Dear Users of the OGI and readers of Family Tree Magazine!

I hope some of you found the site through the excellent article about the Online Genealogical Index (and me!) in the August issue of Family Tree Magazine UK which goes on sale in the next few weeks.

There have been two database updates on the 4th and 17th of June (a total of 391 new data sets) that may include some vital clues to your genealogical mysteries.

Here are the details:

The above 391 additions contain tens of thousands of individuals.

I love this photo of Sheffield General Cemetery as it doesn't look like Yorkshire and reminds me of the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland!

The total on the OGI is now at 411,042.  This total does go up and down as I clean out duplications or dead links.  Thanks to those users who report these.  I can usually find an alternative or use the amazing Wayback Machine (web.archive.org) to find a backed up copy of the old sites.  The OGI contains 2,883 links to dead sites now resurrected on this free service.


I am aware of many major genealogical projects on their way this year bringing more access to digitized microfilms and transcribed records for free.  Have you looked at the new Image Viewer at FamilySearch.org?  Type in a place and see a list of digitized films ready to view.  Most can be viewed by anyone in their own home.  Teams are working hard to get more films organized and accessible through the viewer so check back often.  Other projects will open closed collections very soon.  And I will continue looking for valuable genealogical resources to add to the Online Genealogical Index database.

Thanks for your interest and support.  Thanks again to those who donate to help towards running costs.  (And if you haven't done so, even £1 a month would be very welcome!)

Wishing you a warm and mask-free summer,

Tim Manners
https://ogindex.org

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