Welcome to South Warwickshire Family History Society [SWFHS]!
It's Our First Anniversary
A year ago, we set out to develop a website dedicated to the Southern part of Warwickshire, where we shared a mutual interest. We did not wish to be involved in a Committee structure, neither were we particularly interested in financial gain; our aim was to contribute to the family history community. Many family historians subscribe to the commercial sites, where there is an abundance of information; many do not. For the latter group, we provide a means by which they can identify 'persons of interest' and then follow them up, via their local library, or through us. We answer every e-mail query, but do ask that you use this form so we can try to ensure you are not a robot. We will then do our best to help you.
During the past year, we have concentrated on providing indices to the Parish Register entries for the core period 1754 – 1916, although we have not restricted ourselves to that time frame. Below, you will see just how many entries we have managed to upload !
For the coming year, our aim is not only to continue with the Parish Register transcriptions, but also to develop our War Memorial investigations. To this end, our webmaster has recently visited several South Warwickshire villages, taken photographs of their churches and War Memorials, and is now using them to illustrate our site.
If you would be interested in joining our small transcription team, or have any information (documents & photographs of soldier casualties) to supplement our collection, we would be delighted to hear from you… please click here. A few new transcribers have joined us during the past year and their contributions have had a significant effect upon the volume of transcription we have been able to achieve. Financially, we are supporting the site, but if you would like to make a small donation towards the hosting costs, we would be very pleased to accept it.
On the left hand menu you will find links to the numerous Parish baptismal, marriage and burial indices, along with a Master Database for each series, and the beginnings of our efforts to transcribe all the local War Memorials and build commemorative pages for each man or woman listed on them.
Latest News and Events
New BMD Index Records Added - Updated 30th November 2018
We now have records of one sort or another from 132 different parishes in the South Warwickshire area (see Parish list for more) and we have just built our 250th individual Parish database/list of records with the total number of BMD records now standing at 381,000.
Records Added Between November 28th and November 30th 2018
Over 1000 new records were added to the baptism index during the dates above. The new records were added for Willoughby 1813-1920 and Wroxall 1586-1812. The baptism database now holds over 274,000 records.
Around 4,000 new records were added to the burial index during the dates above. New records were added for Wroxall 1586-1918, Hampton in Arden 1775-1890, Harborough Magna 1737-1918 and Stivichall 1754-1918. The burials database now contains over 66,000 records.
Over 2400 new records were added to the marriage index during the dates above. New record sets were added for Wroxall 1752-1918, Willoughby 1754-1916, Ladbroke 1740-1837, Hampton in Arden 1754-1908, Harborough Magna 1737-1915 and Napton on the Hill 1768-1812. The marriages database now contains over 40,700 records.
Records entered in early November
Between the 5th and 8th November 2018 over 3600 baptism, 2300 burial records and 800 marriage records were added for Stretton on Dunsmore for the period 1740 to 1916 and 474 baptism records were added for Bourton on Dunsmore for the period 1893 and 2016.
Warwickshire RO Needs Your Help
Warwickshire Record Office Seeks Volunteers to Index Court Documents.
From the Facebook Press Release - 27/9/2018
Warwickshire Bytes is an exciting new project involving the county's Record Office and Museum Service. It will combine historical documents and objects with digital technology to improve access to our collections and ultimately portray the history of Warwickshire in 100 Stories.
There are lots of ways to take part in the project. The project needs your memories, family heirlooms, photos and letters to bring the stories to life, and if you are comfortable using a keyboard and keen to acquire new skills during your spare time, you could become one of the Record Office's new 'virtual volunteers'!
The volunteers will work from their home computers to index a large collection of witness statements from records of early court cases. We will supply all the documents and full training will be given - all you need is a computer with an internet connection, a Google account and an hour or more to spare each week.
You will gain expertise using spreadsheets and online document sharing, while also getting to grips with 19th century crimes and handwriting. We anticipate that some of the crimes described in the statements may well be candidates for some of the 100 stories of Warwickshire!
If you are keen to take part or have a story to tell, the project team would love to hear from you. Please contact them via email on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more details.
Disclaimer
Please note that we are NOT members of the Federation of Family History Societies but we are a Society of people involved in family history research in South Warwickshire. In the future, as the website develops and SWFHS being able to meet membership criteria (being in existence for 1 year is first), we may apply for membership.