Plymouth Online
BEST WEBSITES TO AID YOUR RESEARCH
Thanks to its partnership with PWDRO and the South West Heritage Trust, Findmypast has parish registers for Plymouth and Devon. Its Devon Collection ( findmypast.co.uk/articles/ world- records/search-all- uk- records/ special- collections/the- devon- collection) also boasts Plymouth and West Devon rate books (1598-1933), Plymouth militia records (1625-1831) and much more.
Familysearch.org has images of West Devon Parish Registers (1538-1912) in association with Findmypast, plus images of bishops’ transcripts (1558-1887) from Devon Record Office. The Devon and Cornwall Marriages collection (1660-1912) is based on marriage bonds and allegations from the Diocese of Exeter.
Plymouth had an ever- changing population thanks to emigration ( historic- shipping.co.uk/Emigration/buildings.html) and the presence of Army, Royal Marine and Navy barracks (and the RAF in the 20th century).
The Arts and Heritage Service of Plymouth City Council ( www.plymhearts.org) is a good place to keep track of the History Centre project. There’s also information on a volunteer project to photograph and index gravestones, and to catalogue and scan 250,000 negatives from the Western Morning News. The South West Film and Television Archive ( swfta.co.uk), South West Image Bank ( www.swimagebank.com), the Devonport Naval Heritage Centre ( devonportnhc.wordpress.com) and Plymouth Libraries ( www.plymouth.gov.uk/libraries) are worth a look too.
Devon FHS ( www.devonfhs.org.uk) has details of publications and projects, plus opening times and holdings at the Tree House Research Centre in Exeter. The projects page lists completed datasets and those in progress. The Friends of Devon’s Archives ( foda. org.uk) has a handful of online indexes, including 1715 Militia Assessments, plus a database resulting from the group’s tithes apportionments project.
You can access old maps of Plymouth via cyber- heritage.co.uk/maps/mayflower. htm and this UK BMD page ( www.ukbmd.org.uk/reg/dev.html) lists registration districts in Devon.