Documents and maps for research

To help you with your research, here are some of the avenues you can explore.

Have a look at these websites, to find what they offer:

Gloucestershire Archives have an online catalogue that you can search, then order documents

www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/archives/online-catalogue/

National archives for wills 1384 -1858 and other online collections  

www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

Try:

For:

  • Birth/Baptism, Marriage, Death/Burials
  • Census: 1841 every 10 years to 1911
  • 1939 register – names. birth dates, occupations
  • Military records
  • Immigration, Emigration
  • Newspaper archives – births, deaths, obituaries, description of property sales/ to let
  • Make a family tree, and see other family trees
  • Wills 1541 to 1858 from Gloucester Diocesan Registry are on Ancestry

You may also find

  • Wills and probate
  • Obituaries
  • Electoral register
  • Electoral rolls
  • Rent rolls
  • Poor rates
  • Land tax
  • Hearth tax – 1670s
  • Phone books
  • Church records

Other

  • Tombstone inscriptions
  • School records
  • Parish magazines
  • Estate/manor records
  • Photographs
  • Local history books and local autobiographies
  • Anecdotal evidence
  • Period features in a building
  • Property title deeds
  • Sales particulars
  • Planning applications

Trade directories – Stroud trade directories 1820 to 1963 are here: www.johnhearfield.com/Dir/Dir_top.htm

Old maps of Gloucestershire

  1. Know your place www.kypwest.org.uk/
  1. National Library of Scotland https://maps.nls.uk/

1. and 2. have various dates of maps and ways of comparing old and current maps

  1. 1909 Lloyd George Survey of Land Values: Gloucestershire – has owners and occupiers www.glos1909survey.org.uk/
  1. www.oldmapsonline.org/
  2. www.old-maps.co.uk/#/
  3. Aerial photos  Britain From Above