Friday 14 December 2018

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




Wednesday 24 October 2018

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)


  • 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)




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






Friday 28 September 2018

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

Friday 7 September 2018

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

Friday 10 August 2018

Hundreds of new parish register and memorial inscription data sets added

Hello everyone,

This weeks OGI updates include Memorial Inscriptions for the following counties:

  • Devon
  • Durham
  • Lancashire
  • Leicestershire
  • Middlesex
  • Norfolk
  • Shropshire
  • Staffordshire
  • Warwickshire
  • Worcestershire
These were due to new books from archive.org (new to the OGI), gravestonephotos.com, a web.archive.org backup of a collection of Black Country websites that have recently gone offline and, finally, books.familysearch.org monumental inscription collections.  Total of 147 graveyards and war memorials added this week.

Civil Registration additions for Cheshire, Derbyshire, Lancashire, Staffordshire and Yorkshire adds births, deaths and marriages.  The details on these can improve those found on civl registration indexes such as FreeBMD and the GRO (and both are still vital resources I use every day).  For example, marriages give the exact place of marriage instead of just a registration district.  This is very useful for researching the marriage entries in the parish registers (by using the OGI, of course!)

Other additions this week include new Findmypast collections of parish registers and monumental inscriptions for Cheshire, Cumberland and Devon.

Parish register transcriptions and images are also added thanks to archive.org and the digital books found at books.familysearch.org.  The total of new parish register data sets from these two sources alone this week is 52.

I hope these new entries with a grand total of 239 data sets (specific places) will help you locate missing family members and vital records helping you expand your family tree.

I will now be out of the country for two weeks but will continue the OGI project upon my return.

May you all have a wonderful August.

Regards,

Tim Manners
Creator and Owner



Friday 27 July 2018

Digital Books add hundreds of new records this week

Greetings fellow researchers,

I have spent hours this week working on the digital books available at books.familysearch.org.  There are many there not available at archive.org or elsewhere online and they are a reminder of the valuable data recorded by faithful and dedicated genealogists.

There are two large collections of monumental inscriptions for Suffolk (467) and Yorkshire (62).  The total number of additions this week is 581 bringing the total of OGI data sets to 384,755.

Additional data sets found in the FamilySearch Books collection include parish registers and monumental inscriptions from Lancashire, Shropshire, Staffordshire and Warwickshire.  

The gentleman who roamed the country from 1825-1834 was John Wareyn Darby who spent thousands of hours transcribing headstones all over Suffolk.  He died unmarried in 1846.  I suppose it was difficult to meet a future wife in churchyards!  

He visited 467 churchyards throughout Suffolk and recorded the details of the gentry and, sometimes, listed the surnames from headstones in the churchyard.

Charles Patridge published printed copies of these transcriptions starting in 1913.  The complete collection, organized by parish hundreds, is available at books.familysearch.org  but I have added each one with corresponding page number in the original books so you can jump directly to the parish needed.  You can view the first book here.


This is only an example of the large collections available thanks to those who devoted their lives to recording the names of the deceased.

A second collection added this week is from Yorkshire and was completed in 1947 by full-time missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints serving in the Yorkshire area.  They were able to visit and transcribe the headstones from 62 churchyards.  Probably a little different from their regular missionary work but of great value to all those with Yorkshire ancestors!  You can view that book here.




I will continue looking for new resources and return in a week or so!

Regards,

Tim Manners
Creator and Owner

Saturday 21 July 2018

Big week for Lancashire

Hope you are all enjoying this warm and dry summer.  Reminds me of my childhood in 1976 which, so far, was actually a warmer one!  The record high in the UK that year was 36 degrees.

Findmypast released a huge Lanacashire collection yesterday which is now included in the Online Genealogical Index.  

Here is a review of today's updates:


Total additions for this week = 870 data sets (that includes over 2.5 million names)

I hope these new entries will assist you in finding your ancestors.  I have found a few new children this week due to the tools found in the General Register Office Index.  Don't forget about my extensive guide on using the GRO Index for family history research found HERE

It will help you use the best combination of online tools to find marriages and missing family members from 1837 and beyond.

I am taking a few weeks off in August travelling to Germany where we lived for 7 years (and I enjoyed 3 of my teenage years as well) so things may be quiet but I will be back full force in September gathering more data for your use.

The total data sets available on the OGI stands at 384,175.  I am still hoping to reach 400,000 by the end of the year so we will see if I can find another 16,000 new data sets online!

Best wishes,

Tim Manners
Creator and Owner

Friday 13 July 2018

691 New Data sets added to the OGI this week

Hello all,

I am happy to report that I have updated and added 691 data sets on ogindex.org today.

Findmypast have added the following new collections:

  • Berkshire Registers & Records
  • Durham Registers & Records
  • Northumberland and Durham Memorial Inscriptions


Updates were also made to these collections:

  • Greater London Burial Index
  • Sussex Monumental Inscriptions


Ancestry has made updates to the Liverpool, Church of England collections adding a number of new parishes.

There are also new updates to Lancashire parish regsiters available at www.lan-opc.org.uk.
Bolton Birth updates for lancashire.bmd.ork.uk.
Gravestone Photos added new graveyard transcriptions for Durham, Gloucestershire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Norfolk, Somerset, Sussex and Warwickshire.

Norfolk Baptism Project has also added two new parishes to its collection.  (tinstaafl.co.uk)

Durham also has a GRO Index site which can give more details than other sources
(https://gro.durham.gov.uk/pgPublicSearch.aspx)

Things are moving forward with new data being made available all the time.  Still waiting for the large collection of Kent data coming to Findmypast before the end of the year.

Hope you are all enjoying the summer so far and have found some extra time to do your family history research.

Until next time,

Tim Manners
Creator
http://ogindex.org

Monday 25 June 2018

Additions for Wiltshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Norfolk and Lancashire

Hello everyone,

I am still committed to finding the latest data for English, Welsh and Isle of Man research.  I have added 1,562 data sets to the Online Genealogical Index today.  This includes updated collections for Wiltshire from findmypast along with a brand new valuable set of data.




Findmypast has added some new parish records to their Wiltshire Baptism, Marriage and Burial Indexes as well as a brand new collection entitled, 'Wiltshire Social & Institutional Records'.  This includes a large collection of Monumental Inscriptions (a different set than the existing Wiltshire Memorial Inscription Index), an extensive Bastardy Index for 330 places in the county.  Bastardy indexes can often reveal the name of the father of an illegitimate child as the mother attempts to get financial support through the parish leadership.

This weeks additions include:
The total of the OGI data sets is now 382,961.  Remember, a data set is a group of records for a specific place and date range and can include from dozens to tens of thousands of names.


I am currently reviewing the content of Billiongraves to find new additions for England and Wales which will take a few weeks as there are over 6,400 links for burial places where only a portion have actual images or names.  I need to test each one!  When complete, the OGI will have an up to date list of all graveyards at that website with useful data for research.

There are still amazing people working on their personal projects which will benefit us all.  I have recently been in touch with Mark Etheridge, creator and author of Yorkshire Churches and Graveyards and helping him with some updates and additional data.  I am so impressed with these wonderful projects and that is one of my big motivators in keeping the Online Genealogical Index growing to help others find and utilize these websites.

I wish you all a wonderful week and hope you are enjoying the World Cup as much as we are!

Best wishes,

Tim Manners
Creator and Owner

Monday 11 June 2018

Huge week for Leicestershire research and new MyHeritage collections


Dear friends,

I am slowly getting back to full mobility after my three surgeries though life is uncomfortable unless I am lying down and full of pain killers!  Nineteen stitches removed from my leg and at least the same amount remain elsewhere but are slowly disolving!  Despite this situation, I am trying to add to the available data sets on ogindex.org and have made some good discoveries this past week.  Thinking about this project is a good distraction from my current health challenges but only done in short bursts when I am able to deal with a laptop on top of me!

The biggest realization this week is realizing that the parish list indexes for Findmypast collections are incomplete.  I was happy to see that the Leicestershire Parish Register collection on Findmypast is now available for free on FamilySearch.org (transcriptions only).  As FamilySearch has not offered a detailed content list, I spent four days going through the actual images on Findmypast to determine what is included and have added this information to ogindex.org for FamilySearch and the original collection on Findmypast.

The number of available data sets has now reached a total of 382,381.  I am still hoping to reach 400,000 by the end of the year!  I am still hoping that the large release of Kent records promised before December will still go ahead on findmypast.co.uk.

Here is a complete breakdown of the latest additions.
  • Norfolk Baptisms from Norfolk Baptism Project (http://tinstaafl.co.uk/nbp)
  • Lancashire Parish Registers from www.lan-opc.org.uk
  • Cheshire Civil Registration Marriages from cheshire.bmd.org.uk
  • Staffordshire Civil Registration Marriages and Deaths from www.staffordshirebmd.org.uk
  • Leicestershire Parish Register transcriptions from familysearch.org (1,157 data sets)
  • Leicestershire Parish Registers image collection from findmypast.co.uk
  • New collections added to MyHeritage which are data collections originally on FamilySearch.org.  The collections are as follows:
    • England, Warwickshire Parish Registers, 1538-1900
    • England, Bristol Parish Registers, 1538-1900
    • England, Essex Parish Registers, 1538-1900
    • England, Dorset, Parish Registers, 1538-1936
    • England, Norfolk Parish Registers, 1538-1900
    • England, Norfolk Bishop's Transcripts, 1685-1941


I updated the Isle of Man Marriages collection from Findmypast to include exact marriage date ranges for each parish (Note: If you are researching the Isle of Man on ogindex.org, please select Isle of Man for the country AND the county)


That is a grand total of 6,088 data sets added over the weekend and today!

I invite you to use the comments feature in the blog to leave feedback.  It is always good to get to know those using this site.

Best wishes in your research!

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


Thursday 31 May 2018

Surgery over - back to gathering data!

Greetings from the couch of recovery....

I had three surgeries last week and now have an expected 6.5 inch (19 stitches) scar on my leg due to something called Compartment Syndrome which happens when a limb is starved of bloodflow for too long.  The main surgery was completed successfully but due to the leg problem, I was rushed in for another surgery 3 hours after the first (on the NHS, that is a rush apparently).

Good news is I now have more time to work on the Online Genealogical Index and find more resources for those using the site!

This week's additions are:

  • Lancashire Civil Registration Marriages
  • Rutland Parish Registers from FamilySearch.org
  • Dorset Parish Registers and Monumental Inscriptions from opcdorset.org
  • Suffolk Gravestones
  • Lancashire Parish Registers from www.lan-opc.org.uk
  • Yorkshire Civil Registration Marriages
  • Norfolk Archdeacon Transcript collection from Ancestry
  • Devon Parish Register collection from FamilySearch.org (transcriptions and images) - This addition has taken weeks as it is one of the eight British collections containing just film numbers in the image index.  All places and corresponding film numbers are now in the database!

Total new record sets this week = 2835

I hope these new records will help you in your search for your own family....

Now back to resting on the couch and napping a little!

Tim Manners
Creator of the Online Genealogical Index
ogindex.org




Friday 11 May 2018

Hampshire and Isle of Wight now seperated and huge updates for Norfolk this week

Greetings friends!

Another week and more data is added to the website!

I have spent many hours this week manually reviewing over 6000 records for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.  They have now been divided into two sections so you will now see Isle of Wight as an option in the English counties drop-down list.  This will help with searching for ancestors by these geographic locations.  The OGI is now the largest Index of Isle of Wight genealogical data online with 818 data sets.




Findmypast is the star site of the week due to the release of a number of image collections for Norfolk.



  • Norfolk Parish Chest Records 1300-1990 Browse
  • Norfolk Parish Register Browse
  • Norfolk Archdeacon's Transcripts 1600-1812 Image Browse



  • These collections include Apprenticeship records (find your ancestor in their first job!) and Bastardy Bonds (horrible name but excellent resource to find the father of an illegittamate child).

    I also learned this week that Archdeacon's Transcripts were copies sent to the Archdeacon up to 1812.  In 1813, copies of parish registers were sent to the Bishop, creating Bishop's Transcripts.

    This weeks additions total 1,426.  I am still hoping to near 400,000 data sets by the end of the year but that depends on 

    New record sets include updates in Gloucestershire's Ancestry collections, Suffolk parish registers and Somerset gravestone photos (from gravestonephotos.com).

    A great website you may find interesting is this comprehensive index of all graves in Froyle, Hampshire, a wonderful resource if you have ancestry in this area.  This is another excellent example of a free site created for the benefit of all!  I hope as more genealogists retire, they will spend more time adding resources similar to the Froyle pages online.

    If you have any electronic or scanned documents you feel would be of value (such as graveyard transcriptions or parish records), they can be hosted on ogindex.org for all to see.
    A recent example of a hosted document found through web.archive.org for a defunct website is here.  It is a graveyard survey for Horninglow, St John the Divine in Staffordshire.  Glad this is now available at a link on the OGI as it is hours of work to lose.

    I am dedicated in making this website the best resource for English, Welsh and Isle of Man research.

    May you be encouraged in your family history efforts!  The number of records and websites available today are better than ever before! 
    Until the next update,

    Tim Manners
    Founder and Chief Data Hunter!
    http://ogindex.org

    Sunday 6 May 2018

    New discoveries for Derbyshire, County Durham graves and parish registers from Lancashire, Shropshire and Staffordshire

    Greetings to all my fellow genealogical researchers!

    This week, I had to remove all dead links for Rootsweb who have been concerned about security problems.  This dropped the total of the OGI by 4000 links!  Another resource of hundreds of transcriptions, genogold.com, has also taken their site down but states they are preparing for a new launch "soon".

    I did find a lot of copies of the Rootsweb data (mainly for Derbyshire) on the amazing web.archive.org site.  I have also kept a full copy of all the removed links so if they are ever restored, they can be re-added to the OGI.  I am confident that the removed data was not unique and is available elsewhere by using the Online Genelaogical Index.

    This weeks new additions are as follows:

    I hope everyone in the UK is enjoying our warm bank holiday weekend.  We have had more  time with relatives and friends which is always a treat.

    In a few weeks, I will be having surgery in Dudley and may be quiet for a while.  I do hope that once I am up for it, there may be more time during recovery to find new resources to add to the OGI.

    Thank you all for your interest and support.

    Tim Manners
    Founder

    Friday 27 April 2018

    New data sets include Surrey Baptisms and Suffolk graves.

    Another week passes by and even more records are available at ogindex.org.

    Archive.org continues to add numerous genealogical resources to the database.  This weeks updates include 105 archive.org links.  Many of these records are not found anywhere else online so they are unique sources.

    Also, a new Surrey Baptism collection from findmypast which covers 180 parishes fills a gap in records from that county.

    A summary of this weeks additions follows:
    The total of today's imports is 357 data sets.

    The current total of archive.org pages reviewed is over 204,000.  This only includes the records I have recorded in a list to follow my progress as there are many I found years ago before keeping a seperate list for just archive.org sources.  This method of finding genealogical data has resulted in over 3,800 sets of unique records such as these from this week's discoveries.






    I am still amazed at the resources buried in the thousands of genealogical publications offered freely on archive.org and will continue searching for new records to help break down those genealogical brickwalls.

    This week, I heard an exciting rumour that a number of English counties are negotiating with findmypast to host the parish records held by their historical record societies.  This could increase the availability of online records by the millions.  Remember that findmypast.co.uk is free at any LDS Family History Centre.  Your nearest one can be found here.

    Ancestry also recently updated their London parish record collections adding millions of new records.  

    It is comforting to know that finding an ancestor will become more possible through the growing collection of online records.  And, please remember to come to ogindex.org to find those new records when you know the place to search!

    Until the next update,

    Tim Manners