The Potteries Online
BEST WEBSITES TO AID YOUR RESEARCH
Remote researchers with Staffordshire roots are lucky. Not only is a vast amount of material available through the ongoing archive partnership with Findmypast.co.uk, but also the county is served by an army of volunteers. Members of the North Staffordshire Branch of the Birmingham and Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry have created indexes to the local civil registration records at stafford shirebmd.org.uk. Steve Birks has created an amazing resource at thepotteries.org.uk, which traces the history of the six towns, with material from gazetteers and trade journals grouped by towns and districts, some trade directories, and a 1955 brochure produced by the North Staffordshire Chamber of Commerce. It includes a pottery jobs index, plus an A-Z of famous potters with histories and biographies of the most noted firms.
Visitors to the archive service’s main site will find links to two valuable North Staffordshire websites. The Sutherland Collection ( sutherlandcollection.org.uk) covers the archive of the Dukes of Sutherland, who owned land inside and outside the city. Chris says: “It gives a good idea of the sorts of things that you can find in archive collections that you don’t necessarily think about. The name index that was created for the Sutherland collection is now on the Staffordshire Name Indexes site, but there were many sources in it that we didn’t have the time to create indexes for.”
Chris also recommends the Minton Archive ( www.themintonarchive.org.uk), billed as a “first glimpse into the records of the Minton factory”. Here you can explore the history the company, artists, artwork and patterns, production and employees.
Via www.staffordshire.gov.uk/leisure/ archives you can also read about the latest projects, including the Staffordshire Tithe Map Digitisation Project.
The aforementioned indexes website ( www. staffsnameindexes.org.uk), is home to the Prisoners at Staffordshire Quarter Sessions, 1779-1900, Staffordshire Police Force Registers Index 1842-1920, Canal Boat Register Index, and more. There’s also the Gateway to the Past catalogue ( archives.staffordshire.gov.uk), and staffordshiregreatwar.com.