Worcestershire Online
BEST WEBSITES TO AID YOUR RESEARCH
Midland Ancestors ( midland-ancestors. uk), formerly the Birmingham and Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry, has all sorts of useful information for researchers. This includes indexes and guides for Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire records, plus the separate Worcester Branch website has a useful page on parish records at worcesterbmsgh.co.uk/parish-records.
The new county archive website is explorethepast.co.uk. Meanwhile the ‘Search our Records’ page leads to the catalogue and various indexes and guides: worcestershire. gov.uk/info/20189/search_our_records. The additions since our last visit include West Mercia Police records ( bit.ly/explore-westmercia-records) and asylum records ( bit.ly/ explore-mental-health).
The Hive took part in the national schools digitisation project, so lots of Worcestershire school admission registers (to 1914) can be searched via findmypast.co.uk. Plus the Malvern Family History Society has been indexing pre- 1837 parish registers for its area, and these are available, on subscription, at the genealogist.co.uk ( mfhs.org.uk/ worcestershireparish-records). You can also download a free guide to parish records on microfilm in PDF format at bit.ly/ worcs-parish-records.
To find out more about the Worcestershire World War 100 project go to ww1worcestershire.co.uk, where you can contribute your own family’s letters, diaries and photographs. You could also try the Worcestershire Regiment WW1 Database at worcestershireregiment.com. This contains more than 50,000 names and aims to cover everyone who served with the Worcestershire Regiment during the First World War.
Remember that Worcester City quarter sessions are catalogued at bit.ly/worcester-city. Indexes to some of the county quarter sessions records are at bit.ly/worcs-quarter-indexes.
Other sites worth trying include West Midlands BMD ( westmidlandsbmd.org.uk), the FamilySearch wiki ( bit.ly/fs-worcs-wiki) and blackcountryhistory.org.