Around Britain
Jonathan Scott joins family historians on the hunt for ancestors in Hertfordshire
A complete guide to finding your Hertfordshire kin
Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies, or HALS, is home to more than three million documents stored on five miles of shelving. But those bald statistics don’t capture the breadth and depth of the treasures held here, which stretch back to a charter from 1060, when Edward the Confessor endowed Westminster Abbey by conferring land in Wheathampstead. This rubs shoulders with a police ‘day book’ giving physical descriptions of known criminals in Sawbridgeworth, a boys’ school punishment book, and the earliest map in the collection showing the manor of Digswell in 1599.
To begin with, the average family historian is more likely to target the parish collections at HALS, which also include unique, notable and downright strange entries. A register for the village of Therfield in 1734, for example, details a supposed cure for mad dogs. Thomas Hassell, long-serving 17th-century vicar of St John the Baptist, Great Amwell, used asterisks to distinguish plague victims in his lists of burials. The marriage of George Orwell at Wellington under his legal name of Eric Blair can be found in a page from 1936, and the burial register of St Mary’s Northchurch contains the fascinating tale of ‘Peter the Wild Boy’, written by his headmaster. Peter was found in 1725 living wild in the woods near Hamelin in Germany. He walked on all fours, could not speak, and is
are ‘Paper, brewing and aviation three of the industries which Hertfordshire was known for’
now believed to have suffered from the rare genetic disorder Pitt–Hopkins Syndrome. He was brought to Great Britain in 1726 becoming something of a sensation, and today his grave can still be seen in the churchyard of St Mary’s Church.
As well as ecclesiastical records, HALS preserves original documents covering different aspects of life in the county, from business records and title deeds, to minute books and manorial documents. Up to the late 19th century, much of its prosperity derived from corn and malt, with brewing, paper-making, silkweaving and straw-plaiting all becoming important industries.
Industrial Heritage
County archivist Chris Bennett says: “Paper, brewing and aviation are three of the industries which Hertfordshire was known for, and all three are included among our collections. However, we have strong holdings relating to town planning and construction through the records of Ebenezer Howard, father of the Garden City movement. He founded Letchworth and Welwyn Garden Cities. We have
the records of the first postwar New Town in the country, Stevenage, plus the three others in the county.”
Also the Neptune Film Company, which opened in 1914, was the first of several studios to be based in and around the towns of Borehamwood and Elstree, while director Stanley Kubrick is buried in Childwickbury Manor.
This year marks 80 years since HALS (then known as Hertfordshire Record Office) moved to County Hall. “We have recently refurbished the entrance foyer (which sits between the Archive Reading Room and the Local Studies Library) to make it much more welcoming to visitors. There is also a new exhibition case, which means we can show documents and objects relevant to our regularly changing displays.”
In addition new digital microfilm readers have been installed in the reading rooms. “Microfilm and fiche are still heavily used, particularly for newspapers, and these machines offer better viewing and copying facilities than we have ever had.”
Many of the county’s parish records are available via Findmypast’s Hertfordshire Collection ( bit.ly/fmp-herts-coll), alongside various school records, which you can access for free at HALS and at all of the libraries in the county. Remember, however, that the majority of cemetery and crematorium records are held by district or borough councils – and there are 10 to choose from in Hertfordshire:
Broxbourne, Dacorum, East Herts, Hertsmere, North Hertfordshire, St Albans City and District, Stevenage, Three Rivers, Watford and Welwyn Hatfield. However, the county archive does have some records for Bishop’s Stortford Cemetery; North Road Cemetery, St Andrews, Hertford; Rickmansworth Cemetery; St Albans Hatfield Road Cemetery; and Welwyn Cemetery.
HALS also has a huge collection of probate material, holding wills for the western half of Hertfordshire for the archdeaconries of Hitchin and St Albans (wills to the east are at Essex Record Office: essexrecordoffice.co.uk).
“Remote users will see that our online catalogue and shop underwent a transformation last year,” says Chris. The site ( archives.hertfordshire.gov.uk) includes the excellent finding aid ‘Hertfordshire Names Online’ (via bit.ly/herts-archive) –a database where you can search the names within the archive catalogue, as well as datasets such as Apprentices (1599–1903); Crime & Punishment (1867–2015); Newspapers & Magazines (1758– 2019); the Poor (1623–1912); Tithe and Inland Revenue (1837–1915); and Wills (1413–1857). Thanks to a bequest, staff have recently been able to catalogue and make available records relating to the Hertfordshire Yeomanry. Tithe maps have already been digitised, and they are currently digitising 1910 Lloyd George Domesday maps and indexing the associated valuation books as these are in “constant demand”.
The archive is also very proud of its involvement in Herts Past Policing ( hertspastpolicing.org.uk), a project celebrating the history of policing in the county.
There’s also a project to make the old paper catalogues available online, georeferencing the entries so that remote researchers can explore them via digital maps. In addition staff are planning to upgrade the website to make the ordering of both copies and documents more straightforward.
Finally another interesting stomping ground is hertsmemories. org.uk, where users share images, recollections and research from across the whole county.