Archives & resources for Warwickshire
Birmingham Archives & Collections Library of Birmingham, Centenary Square, Broad Street, Birmingham B1 2ND 0121 242 4242 archives.heritage@birmingham.gov.uk libraryofbirmingham.com/ familyhistory Birmingham Archives & Collections operates two customer service areas on level 4 of the library – the open access Heritage Research Area and the Wolfson Centre for Archival Research. The website contains all sorts of advice for tracing burials, church records, census and civil registration data, and more.
Coventry History Centre Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Jordan Well, Coventry CV1 5QP 024 7623 7583 historycentre@ theherbert.org theherbert.org/ collections/ history_ centre.aspx The History Centre consists of the Coventry Archives and Local Records Office. Genealogical sources include parish registers on microfilm, cemetery records, electoral registers and trade directories, plus there are newspapers, maps and more.
Midland Ancestors Birmingham & Midland Institute, 9 Margaret Street, Birmingham B3 3BS
gensec@ midanc.uk midland-ancestors.uk Formerly the Birmingham and Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry, Midland Ancestors covers Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. You can find out more about projects, branch meetings and other activities via the website’s Warwickshire section. You can also order all kinds of printed and downloadable publications from the online shop at bmsgh- shop.org.uk.
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Shakespeare Centre, Henley Street, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire CV37 6QW 01789 204016 scla@ shakespeare.org.uk shakespeare.org.uk The trust has records relating to the town and a number of important estate and solicitors’ collections containing material from central and southern Warwickshire; its reading room is located within the Shakespeare Centre. There’s an online catalogue at collections. shakespeare.org.uk.
Solihull Heritage & Local Studies First Floor, Core Library, Homer Road, Solihull B91 3RG 0121 704 6934 libraryarts@ solihull.gov.uk bit.ly/ solihull-archives There’s also the Solihull Heritage Gateway ( calmview.eu/ solihull) which lists building plans (1880– 1926), photographs and archive collections that include council minutes, electoral registers and records of the Birmingham Small Arms Company.
Warwickshire County Record Office Priory Park, Cape Road, Warwick CV34 4JS 01926 738959 recordoffice@ warwickshire.gov.uk bit.ly/ warwickshire- cro Warwickshire County Record Office looks after parish registers, wider parish chest material, newspapers, wills, Poor Law union records, electoral registers and school records. Following a refurbishment in 2015, the Local Studies area has incorporated reference titles, and more computers have been added to the Readers’ Tea Room. However, always check opening hours online before visiting the record office ( it is currently closed on Mondays, Tuesdays and Sundays, together with Saturday afternoons). You can view the catalogue online at bit.ly/ warwickshire- cat.
NEIGHBOURING ARCHIVES You may find relevant material in neighbouring archives across Worcestershire ( worcestershire.
gov.uk/waas) and Staffordshire ( bit.ly/ staffs- archives). Most wills made by Warwickshire people before 1858 were proved in the dioceses of Worcester ( thehiveworcester.org/
research- collections) or Lichfield. These repositories will also be home to Bishops’ Transcripts, marriage bonds and allegations and other consistory court records. Please note that Staffordshire’s Lichfield branch closed in January 2018, and the archive collections are being prepared for transfer to the Stafford headquarters in March. You can search an Index of Wills from the Diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, 1630–1780 online at staffsnameindexes.org.uk.
Coventry Family History Society enquiries@ covfhs.org covfhs.org Formed in 1994, Coventry Family History Society publishes a quarterly journal and the website has some useful features including a Coventry Canal Boat Register (1879–1936) database and a late 18th- century convicts register.
Nuneaton & North Warwickshire Family History Society nnwfhs.org.uk The society is the main genealogical group for northern Warwickshire. Its website includes details of meetings, publications and searchable databases such as the 1901 census and Lichfield Marriage Bonds indexes.
Rugby Family History Group rugbyfhg.co.uk The long-running society has recently been compiling and publishing names listed on war memorials in the Rugby area. Men listed on the Rugby Memorial Gates are being researched by volunteers and published on the centenary of their death via rugbyremembers. wordpress.com.
Warwickshire Local History Society info@ warwickshirehistory.org.uk warwickshirehistory.org.uk The society runs regular events, and publishes the journal Warwickshire History twice a year.
The archive is also home to the kinds of collections you might expect – from newspapers and memorial inscriptions to trade directories and electoral registers. It has wills from the Warwickshire peculiars (Baddesley Clinton, Barston, Knowle, Packwood and Temple Balsall), plus Poor Law union records, material relating to local rates and taxation, and school records (many of which are already available online via Findmypast), while the record office provides free access to census returns (1841–1911) and civil registration indexes.
Thriving despite cuts
Over the past few years the record office, like so many archives across the UK, has had to tighten its belt amid budget cuts. This has meant a reduction in opening hours and fewer public service staff. But Karen says that they have offset the impact with a ‘mini refurb’ in 2015. This improved the Local Studies area; updated research guides and finding aids; improved staff access to non-archival material in the searchroom (such as maps and electoral registers); and added new computers for visitors.
Karen adds that while the vast Warwickshire quarter sessions collections are often used to trace ‘criminal’ ancestors, it’s worth remembering that the quarter sessions also dealt with many other aspects of county life in records. They contain records of militia, land tax material, plus name-rich collections relating to the hearth tax, Hair Powder Certificates, registers of electors, freeholders and jury lists. Quarter sessions material also includes licences granted for such occupations as victuallers and gamekeepers, and there are even surviving registers of fines issued the Warwick Healey Motor Company Archive (see bit.ly/
warwick-healey). They’ve also catalogued a collection relating to the Willans Works in Rugby, an engineering firm that pioneered the manufacture of steam engines and turbines for electricity.
Good neighbours
Plenty of county material may be found in neighbouring archives, from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust to the Coventry History Centre. Birmingham Archives & Collections, for example, looks after parish registers for the city. Meanwhile most wills made by Warwickshire people before 1858 would have been proved in the dioceses of Worcester or Lichfield, and today these collections survive in Worcestershire and Staffordshire record offices. However, note that Lichfield Record Office, a branch of Staffordshire’s county archive service, is closing, and its probate collections will go to Stafford.
Meanwhile, back in Warwickshire, keep an eye out for news of ongoing indexing projects. Local bastardy records