Advice on doing personal and family research

Advice on doing personal and family research

The Association is often asked for help particularly with Family History. At the present time we have no one who is researching families and those members who are actively involved in research relating to the village have very limited time available for undertaking extra research. However, you can do a lot of research yourself, working from home or in libraries, particularly in relation to records from 1841 to the present, and we list below the resources you can easily refer to, particularly if you have internet access.

Family history websites such as Ancestry and Find My Past can be accessed for a fee at home and are often free in local libraries.  These websites routinely cover census and births/marriages/deaths records, but also have access to army and navy records as well as lists of ship passengers etc. which can be helpful when ancestors have emigrated. They also have records beyond Oxfordshire.

A very useful website is Free BMD which is a project that aims to transcribe the Civil Registration index of births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales, and to provide free Internet access to the transcribed records.
Some of Oxfordshire’s larger libraries, such as Oxford and Banbury, have local studies sections which hold parish registers as hard copy transcriptions and on cd. The Association is able to offer A4 booklets of the 1841-1901 (except 1851) census records for Adderbury and Milton at £3 plus p&p, as well as a cd of the transcribed births, deaths and marriage records for Adderbury at £5 plus p&p.  These are available from the secretary.

A lot of local history information can be found by looking through old newspapers. Particularly useful for Adderbury history are the Banbury Guardian and Banbury Advertiser newspapers which are available on microfilm. Both newspapers, from their beginnings in the 19th century, are available at Banbury library. However you will need to book the microfilm reader if you want to see the microfilms. This can be done on 01295 262282. Oxfordshire Library ticket holders can access 19th century newspapers on line including Jackson’s Oxfordshire Journal via Reference on Line

Oxford History Centre also has many documents relating to Oxfordshire’s history and Oxfordshire Family History Society offer a range of cds and books relating to Oxfordshire Family History.

If you need further help once you have exhausted the above resources, and if there are association members available who feel they can help in individual cases, then we may be able to assist. In all cases, however, we ask that a minimum donation of £10 is made in advance to the Association towards general administration costs. If it emerges that significant research time will be required to deal with your problem, you will be advised of this in advance and told of the cost of such research.