SHEFFIELD ANCESTORS
If your ancestor was made in Sheffield, there are plenty of archives to explore, writes Jonathan Scott
Its population roughly quadrupled during the first half of the 19th century
The city synonymous with steel sits in the foothills of the Pennines, enveloping the valleys of the River Don and its four tributaries. Already a major centre for manufacture and metallurgy by the 18th century, its population roughly quadrupled during the first half of the 19th century. It was the site of many important innovations in metalwork – from ‘Sheffield plate’ in the mid 18th century, to stainless steel (originally ‘rustless steel’) in the early 20th century.
Sheffield lies within the West Riding of Yorkshire. Today, the city forms one of a group of boroughs that together make up the metropolitan county of South Yorkshire, each of which has its own archives and local history collections. Indeed, if your family moved beyond Sheffield’s city limits, you may well need to call on archives in Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham. Similarly you may find that some relevant material resides at the West Yorkshire Archives in Wakefield, or, as parts of urban Sheffield were once rural Derbyshire villages, Derbyshire Record Office in Matlock.
For now, we’ll focus on Sheffield’s city archives, which is based in Shoreham Street and is home to material documenting 800 years of life in the city. In the main search room, users can access parish register transcripts and indexes, marriage index material, indexes of birth, marriage and death registrations and census returns. There’s a microform annex with fiche and film readers and printers. There are print and digital catalogues, plus card indexes – although these are gradually being phased out as more catalogues go online. There are ‘People’s Network’ computers – offering free access to Findmypast ( findmypast. co.uk) and Ancestry Library Collection ( ancestry.co.uk) – plus terminals for access to the Local Studies Library’s Picture Sheffield photograph collection (c70,000 images currently available at picturesheffield.com). Behind the scenes, a new air handling system has been installed in the strong room to keep the conditions just right for the preservation of documents.
Importantly, Sheffield Archives is the diocesan repository for the Archdeaconry of Sheffield and Rotherham and for the Catholic Diocese of Hallam. This means it has ecclesiastical records – including registers of baptisms, marriages and burials – from the mid 16th century to the 21st century. It also has microfilm copies of bishops’ transcripts, plus Catholic material, and records from a variety of nonconformist churches and chapels.
Researchers should be prepared to do a little legwork before setting off – if only to double check jurisdictions and boundaries. For example, prior to 1880 jurisdiction over Sheffield was vested in the West Riding quarter sessions and records of these are held at the West Yorkshire Archive Service in Wakefield.
Local government records held at Sheffield Archives include material left-by the Sheffield City Council, its various committees and the predecessor administrative bodies – such as church burgesses and town trustees. Other local authority collections include school and Education Committee records (and its predecessor the Sheffield
School Board), planning applications, and bereavement services – which covers municipal burial records up until the 1990s. It is also the place where you will find public records from local hospitals and health authorities, courts (coroner’s, quarter session, magistrates and county) and public utilities ( Yorkshire Water and Yorkshire Electricity).
The Great Sheffield Flood was one of the worst civilian disasters of the Victorian era. The Dale Dyke Dam broke as its reservoir was being filled for the first time. The resulting flood caused the deaths of nearly 250 people and destroyed several hundred houses. Sheffield archivist Robin Wiltshire says that their records of the Sheffield Corporation Water Department include the Sheffield Flood claims registers – offering insights into the buildings
and contents of families affected by the disaster. Today the Centre Line of Old Bank (CLOB) stones mark the location of the original dam wall.
Sheffield is associated with the steel industry and large-scale, bulk production of metals for a variety of uses – including armaments, construction and transport. Robin says it holds business archives for many of the ‘big names’ in this area, such as Arthur Balfour, John Brown and Thomas W Ward. The city is also known for the manufacture of cutlery, edge tools, hollowware and silverware.
There are surviving archives from firms such as Thomas Bradbury and Sons, Joseph Rodgers and Walker and Hall. These collections may include corporate and management material, plus legal, financial, employment, production and sales, plant and property, promotional and research records. Robin warns that, as with many business collections, there’s no guarantee that you will find a record of your ancestor: “The surviving employment records within our business archives are very patchy so there’s no guarantee of identifying an individuals’ details.”
Other unique collections held here include the Sheffield Assay Office (one of the four remaining assay offices with the authority to hallmark silver in the UK), the Fairbank Map Collection (surveyors of the 18th and 19th centuries), Arundel Castle Manuscripts (Dukes of Norfolk), Sheffield Literary and Philosophical Society, Hadfield Cawkwell and Davidson (architects, engineers and town planning consultants), Sheffield Police Force and the Yorkshire Engine Company.
Volunteers’ work
The local authority rate books and property valuations lists are an under-used source dating from the 19th and 20th centuries. These can be useful for both house and family historians. Robin says: “They identify the names of house owners/tenants, and in our case go some way [1960s] beyond the latest available census – and record names that might not be included in street and trade directories. As a result, we recently began the process of cataloguing to professional standards our holdings of rate books and valuation lists.”
This is one of several projects to improve access to material here, through external partners and bands of volunteers. Sheffield Archives is a member of the Yorkshire Digitisation Consortium, a group of archives across the region, which has been working with Findmypast to digitise Anglican parish registers. “Our registers of baptisms to 1913, marriages to 1933 and burials to 1988 can now be accessed via Findmypast,” says Robin.
Meanwhile, volunteers have compiled indexes to early admission registers of Wadsley Asylum (later Middlewood Hospital) and Ecclesall Bierlow Union Workhouse (later Nether Edge Hospital). They’ve also produced indexes to Sheffield Quarter Sessions Calendars of Prisoners, registers of Beer House Keepers and Licensed Victuallers from the Magistrates’ Court archive and Sheffield Corporation Tramways Department staff lists. And indexers are now working on County Court Workmen’s Compensation registers.
If you want to know more about archive research in South Yorkshire, the local authority offices have produced a guide to sources ( bit.ly/ FHSYorks). Meanwhile the focus for Sheffield Archives online is simply to keep adding to the collection of research guides to sources and subjects. Robins says: “These cover such diverse topics as airports, chartism, clean air, drug use, HMS Sheffield, John Ruskin, the miners’ strike and women’s suffrage.”
If your ancestors moved around South Yorkshire, there are plenty of unique collections housed elsewhere. Barnsley Archives, for example, has motor vehicle taxation registers (1913-1977), with details of the owner as well as the vehicle. It also has a wealth of material relating to the old South Yorkshire coalfields – colliery journals, accident reports and records of the West Riding Miner’s Permanent Relief Fund. Rotherham’s Archives holds records of Parkgate Iron and Steel Company, Yates & Haywood, Beatson Clark, brass founders Guest and Chrimes, while Doncaster Archives has trade union records, including membership lists and minutes.
Robin says: “We recommend that people gather information from family members before starting their research, as this may help inform in which direction to proceed first.”