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Hampshire Genealogical Society

Genealogy Articles

Hampshire marriages and banns (1754-1921) now on Ancestry

May 2, 2023

Hampshire marriages and banns (1754-1921) now on Ancestry Following on from the Hampshire baptism records (1813-1921) recently made available on Ancestry, a new tranche of parish records – Marriages and Banns from 1754, when pre-printed volumes were introduced, to 1921 –  are now online and are searchable by name. Please note these records do not […] – read more…

Hampshire baptism records (1813-1921) now on Ancestry

April 20, 2023

Hampshire baptism records (1813-1921) now on Ancestry In December 2021, family history website Ancestry and Hampshire County Council announced a partnership in which the company would digitise the county’s historic records. A year later, the first tranche consisting of probate records was launched. Recently Ancestry has added a new collection of 1,583,654 Hampshire baptism records […] – read more…

Hampshire probate records now on Ancestry

December 5, 2022

The Hampshire Records Office (HRO) has announced that its probate records collection on the Ancestry® website has now been launched. Probate records are official court documents concerning the settlement of a person’s estate after they die. The most important of these is usually a will, which lists the deceased’s property and outlines who it has […] – read more…

Britons Dying Overseas (BDO) update

August 1, 2022

Rescanning of the original BDO index cards started in May of this year with the first phase of transcription starting later that month. This first phase, a verbatim transcription of the scanned card content on to XL spreadsheets, is progressing satisfactorily with approximately 4,500 cards transcribed by mid-July. The transcription team involved in this work […] – read more…

Hampshire Chronicle article about HGS at HRO

April 1, 2022

Read an article published in the Hampshire Chronicle on 3rd March 2022 about the HGS collaboration with HRO “Family History has never been so easy.” A walk-in enquiry and support service in Winchester and other important new developments offer family historians a first-class service, writes Barry Shurlock  Read the full page article as published HERE. – read more…

Quarter Sessions’ Record Index

January 27, 2022

Our Bookstall Manager, Elaine Boyes, has indexed some of the Hampshire Quarter Sessions records and they are now available in the Members’ Area of the website as well as writing an article about the records As many of you know my area of research is the Swing Riots. Since the archives opened again, and HGS […] – read more…

*ARCHIVE* 1921 Census Presentation! Tues 1st Feb 2022

December 4, 2021

Special Announcement Tuesday, 1st February 2022, is a date for your diary! We’re delighted and very excited to tell you that HGS shall be hosting a special Zoom presentation entitled, “Introducing the 1921 Census of England & Wales”. Paul Nixon, from FindMyPast, will be telling us all about the newly launched 1921 Census and how […] – read more…

War Horses

November 15, 2021

This is a photograph of the war horse statue in Romsey, Hampshire, where there was a Remount Depot during WW1 for the training and conditioning of horses for use in battle. In nearby Southampton, the Swaythling Depot sent horses direct to France. The Army required huge numbers of horses and thousands were requisitioned for army […] – read more…

Marriage record problems

October 23, 2021

The records are not always correct! Whilst doing a bit of checking on entries in the Hampshire Allegations for Marriage Licenses 1689-1837 I decided to do some checks with the HGS Marriage Index and found a few interesting variances.  Very rarely is the marriage date the same as the license date but in most cases […] – read more…

Using the Census for Family History

February 1, 2021

What is the purpose of taking a census? It certainly was not originally intended to help would-be genealogists! Run by the Office of National Statistics [ONS] and completed every 10 years since 1801, this year it is on Sunday 21st March. They say they are making it easy for everyone to take part because you […] – read more…

Ancestry DNA matches to be removed?

July 16, 2020

ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! It seems that AncestryDNA will be making changes meaning that 1000s of people who currently appear as DNA matches will disappear, as soon as 1st August (exact date not known). This is being reported from various sources, who attended a conference call with Ancestry. There are ways to keep some of these […] – read more…

Free copies of historical wills from TNA

May 29, 2020

The National Archives (TNA) at Kew is currently closed to the public. While this continues, it is allowing people to download up to 50 digitised items per 30-day period free of charge. Usually the price is £3.50 per will. Only 10 items can be downloaded at a time, but when you have done so you […] – read more…

Hampshire Rural Churches Appeal

May 10, 2020

There is an HGS project of producing a DVD/memory stick for sale in the future containing photographs and details of Hampshire rural churches for sale by the HGS. The idea is to contain as many photos of the churches as possible so if any members would like to send copies of their own church photos […] – read more…

Online VE Day event

May 4, 2020

Wessex Film and Sound Archive / Hampshire Archives and LocalStudies VE Day online event. We hope you are keeping safe and well during the current situation, and have enjoyed 100 Days of Film and our social media posts. In common with many organisations, we are moving our planned VE / VJ Day event online, with […] – read more…

Spanish Flu: 1918-1920

May 4, 2020

I have been inspired to share this story now because, at the time of writing, the world is in the grips of another pandemic: Coronavirus (Covid 19). In UK, we are in lock-down and there seems to be no end anytime soon. The fact that much of the world was suffering from similar circumstances a […] – read more…

The Name Game

November 23, 2019

As part of the preparations for a forthcoming village booklet on Burghclere I did a search through the HRO CALM Index for any relevant details. I found what appeared to be an interesting marriage license. – read more…

Protestant Dissenters Burials Grounds

August 22, 2019

There is an interesting insight into the use of separate burial grounds for dissenters written onto the first page of the burial register for the Christchurch Independent Church that is in reference RG4/399. – read more…

Young Lovers in Alton

April 4, 2019

A brief paragraph in the 15th of February 1873 issue of the Hampshire Telegraph announced the death of Ellen FOWLER in Alton, the wife of George who was a millwright’s apprentice.  On the face of it this was nothing unusual except that the report gave the ages of the couple; Ellen was only 15 – read more…

Portsmouth Road Names (Then and Now)

April 3, 2019

Some of the streets of Portsmouth and Portsea mentioned in the old registers and census returns have had their names changed over the years. In the following table are a few of them which were originally shown in our Journal the Hampshire Family Historian of November 1985. Vol  XII No. 3 pages 192-193. – read more…

Discord in Marriage

February 10, 2019

Interesting little snippets from some of the old newspapers include brief advertisements where husbands have declared that they will not be responsible for their wife’s debts. One item from James LINDSAY appeared in the Hampshire Chronicle printed on 4th September 1820. He said that he would not be answerable for any debts incurred by his […] – read more…

Knowle War Memorial

January 2, 2019

Knowle Hospital was open in 1852 as the Hampshire County Lunatic Asylum. The asylum was renamed Knowle Mental Hospital in c.1923 and following the 1948 introduction of the National Health Service Act, became Knowle Hospital. At the beginning of the 20th century, Knowle Hospital was home to over 1000 patients and staff and was a self […] – read more…

RIP Private Herbert Frank French

December 14, 2018

Herbert Frank FRENCH was born on 21st April 1884 at 11 Hyde Close in Winchester, the illegitimate son of Emily. On 18th January 1908 he married Sarah Ann (Annie) BIGNELL in Meonstoke and then settled in the village to raise their daughters Emily and Ivy. Herbert was initially in the Territorial Army then when WWI […] – read more…

Can you help

November 23, 2018

 We have recently been passed a copy of a photograph with a request for more information, maybe the location or the purpose. A comment with the photo says that the men were in training but didn’t say what for.  – read more…

Bigamy in 1820

November 19, 2018

The Hampshire Chronicle printed on 5th June 1820 carried a brief article on page 4 referring to three prisoners who had been committed to the County Gaol.  One of the prisoners had been accused of bigamy but whereas most bigamists were men this was a woman. – read more…

RIP Gunner William Talmage

October 29, 2018

William TALMAGE was born in 1884 in Ramsbury, Wiltshire, and married Ellen Maria KNIGHT in Medstead in 1910.  They had a butcher’s business in West Horsley, Surrey, but when the First World War started William was one of the many who volunteered and joined the Army. – read more…

Tragedy off Hurst Castle

August 18, 2018

Identical reports in the Hampshire Chronicle and Hampshire Telegraph, both published on 14th February 1820, describe a tragedy that happened off Hurst Castle on Friday 5th February.  – read more…

Benefits of the Wills Beneficiary Index (WBI)

July 31, 2018

Wills can be a wonderful source of information for family historians. The WBI, centred on Hampshire, contains the names of people that have been extracted by volunteers from many of the wills that are held in the HRO. – read more…

Poor Law Union Gazette – 2

July 14, 2018

Another interesting entry appeared in the Poor Law Union Gazette on 25 April 1857 naming Lewis POSNER, formerly of Southampton, who the Southampton Union would like to get their hands on. – read more…

Winchester Independent Register – RG4-726

June 11, 2018

The registers for the Independent Chapel start in 1716 and many entries contain useful details. The spelling of the names written here are exactly as they were written into the register.  Different ministers conducting the baptisms decided to record different items of information in addition to the dates and names.  – read more…

Don’t Always Believe It Update

April 19, 2018

Duplicate entries in parish registers Resulting from an enquiry recently received in the Research Center a very good example of duplicate entries in registers was found in Nutley and Preston Candover. – read more…

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