LOCAL AND VILLAGE HISTORY
Jonathan Scott picks the best websites for finding local groups, village histories and community archives
Don’t miss our expert’s selection of online resources
Good family history research investigates not only the biographical basics – dates, locations and occupations – but also the context of life: the community in which your ancestor lived and worked. Local history and family history are two sides of a coin, sharing many common goals and research outcomes.
As a result, many of the primary and secondary sources that are useful for researching local history, from the census to the parish chest, will be familiar to all genealogists who are seeking to follow trails into local and house history.
For our top five I’ve concentrated on websites that can help you find local history projects, groups and collections from all over the UK. Later I’ve picked out some interesting examples of local projects and village histories. All of these resources can provide valuable information about where your relative lived and worked, and improve your understanding of the experiences that shaped them.
1 British Association for Local History balh.org.uk
The association was formed in 1982, having evolved from a series of local history conferences that began in 1948. It produces various publications, including the quarterlies Local History News and The Local Historian. The website lists educational establishments and national organisations, and features an A–Z of member societies, from Abbots Langley Local History Society in Hertfordshire ( allhs.org.uk), to Wychwoods Local History Society in Oxfordshire ( wychwoodshistory.org.uk). The Scottish Local History Forum ( slhf.org) also has an excellent directory of member organisations.
2 British History Online british-history.ac.uk/using-bho/local-guide
British History Online (BHO) offers free access to all sorts of printed primary and secondary sources covering British and Irish history. Although the main focus is up to 1800, the website does have material available covering later periods – not least the Victoria County Histories, which this month’s expert discusses in more detail in the box on the right.
The address above takes you to a tailored guide to local history, describing BHO’s strengths and weaknesses, and listing important resources covering topography, ancient deeds, trade, built environment and land ownership. To get started in your area, visit british-history.ac.uk/search, and explore the ‘Place’ categories in the left-hand menu.
3 Community Archives and Heritage Group communityarchives.org.uk
The group’s website is another useful portal for keeping an eye on what’s going on in your area. You can explore a list of archives by location, or via an interactive map. At time of writing the news pages included details of the winners of the group’s 2018 heritage awards – the Plymouth-based 100 Homes Oral History Project ( 100homesproject.com), the Clements Hall Local History Group in York ( clementshall historygroup.org.uk), and the Braunstone Heritage Archive Group in Leicestershire ( facebook.com/braunstone heritagearchive).
4 Scotlands Places scotlandsplaces.gov.uk
Tailored toward researching Scotland’s physical heritage, this website allows users to search archival collections by geographical location. Sources include maps, surveys and plans, drawings, tax rolls and Ordnance Survey (OS) name books. The report Land Ownership Commission 1872–3, for example, gives details of owners of land of one acre or more in each county. In fact Scottish researchers are spoilt for choice when it comes to mapping resources – the National Library of Scotland’s dedicated portal at maps.nls.uk gives access to many thousands of highresolution OS maps, charts, land use surveys and town plans from the 1580s to the 1940s.
5 Cumbria County History Trust cumbriacountyhistory.org.uk
As noted by this month’s expert, there are gaps in the coverage of the Victoria County History (VCH), and before this volunteerrun project launched in 2010, there was no VCH volume for Cumberland or Westmorland. The project is run by the Regional Heritage Centre at Lancaster University, supported by grants from the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society ( cumbria past.com), and here you can follow its progress, and find a highly informative page for every one of Cumbria’s 348 parishes and townships.