The South-East
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Surrey and West Sussex
Thanks to a deal with the Surrey History Centre Findmypast ( findmypast.co.uk) has added a steady stream of records to its collection, alongside a cache of 53,955 records for Kent. TheGenealogist ( thegenealogist.co.uk) has transcriptions for Berkshire, Buckinghamshire,
Hampshire, Kent,
Surrey and Sussex, while the Joiner
Marriage Index
( joinermarriageindex. co.uk) continues to expand in the area and has modest collections for Buckinghamshire,
Kent and Hampshire.
Free material from the region is plentiful. FreeREG ( freereg.org.uk) is particularly strong in Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Kent and Sussex. FamilySearch ( familysearch.org) too has good collections covering Oxfordshire and the Isle of Wight, as well as Surrey. It has transcriptions of thousands of Hampshire records (images are only available at Family History Centers and affiliate libraries), and it’s also worth checking on transcriptions from the county’s record society ( sussexrecordsociety. org) and Online Parish Clerks ( sussex-opc. org). You should try the FamilySearch Digital Library too ( familysearch.org/ library/books), which is home to thousands of titles. A simple search by ‘Sussex’ turns up the likes of
and
Ancestry’s coverage of the area was bolstered in May with its new Sussex collection. Boasting some 11 million records, the material came through agreements signed with both the East and West Sussex archives.
The company has also struck a deal with Hampshire, digitising Winchester Diocese material from 1536–1921. The collection includes an early example that predates the 1538 order by Thomas Cromwell for parish clergy to keep registers, as well as the 1775 baptism of Jane Austen and the 1910 burial of Florence Nightingale. The first tranche of records is due to be released at the end of 2022.