Genealogy Chat

Just come across the following site, which may be of use. Some may already know of it, others may not.....................It's called A 2 A Acess to Archives...........It's the English strand of the UK archive network and is a useful resource for family historians looking for references to their ancestors in catalogues of the archives held in record offices and other places in England and Wales.................................It's research interests are..........Local historians can use it to find info about archives relating to particular Towns, Villages, Counties, Parishes and other places in Eng. & Wales...........Whilst Family Historians can use it to find archive references to individual people who lived in England & Wales during past ages................The database contains catalogues describing archives held locally in E & W, and dating from the 8th century to the present day!................It is regularly updated and is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.............Last update was July 2006..............It now contains 9.6 million records relating to 8.8 million items held in 403 record offices & other repositories..................the address...............http://a2a(.)org(.)uk/about/catalogues/new0406asp...............remove brackets....Jen

Once you get used to the unusually designed search facility it's brilliant. It's particularly useful if you want to search by phrase - just enclose the phrase in brackets.

Jen This is my absolute favourite Site of all time and I have found more about my family from there than from nearly everywhere else put together. A pain to search, but oh, so well worth it. OC

You've tried it then Paul............do you use it often? Jen

OC, I don't believe this, sounds like I stumbled on a real gem lol! Something else to keep me busy then. Jen

I just get 'Problem loading page' :-(((

Never mind Sue.............just keep trying, always another day. Jen

can anyone tell me how to access someones will on there I have trouble finding anything at all

If you can get this page to come up properly http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/search/quick_search.aspx it searches A2A and Documents Online all at once! Christine

Sorry Valerie, having only just found this site, I have yet to find my way around..........hopefully, someone will be able to help. Jen

Christine, Thankyou for the extra info, it may prove easier for those using the gov site? Jen

Valerie You can't access any documents on there - it tells you who has them and where you have to go to get them. There are more than 1300 references to my Holdens on there, going back to 1217. I shall not live long enough, nor ever have enough money, to access them all, but it is like a little magic porridge pot as far as I am concerned - everytime I dip my spoon in, I come up with more! Happy hunting and lots of patience, everyone. OC

Yes, I believe the new look N.A. site does the lot now and is easier (for me anyway) to use. A lot of the docs are only descriptions Val and give you the offices where you can find them. Ooops, just seen OC has told you the same. Val, you have tried the Wills online at N.A. have you?

If you're lucky, the document descriptions can have some quite useful info in them... probate dates for Wills, or dates of marriage agreements, names of relatives, or whatever. Christine

Yes, I agree with Christine, often the description of the document gives you the information you need to know - particularly Bastardy Orders, Settlement Orders and Removal Orders! Some give you absolutely nothing but a name - and then that maddening bit 'Not available to the Public'. I call that teasing! OC

Great Site. I found my Great Grandad's will on there and sent off for it about a month ago. Can't wait. Linda

back again, I am going to scream, I have searched on there lots of times and never found a thing, yet I had rellies who had shops and money when they died .I have tried putting in less information as sometimes that works better but still nothing zilch.

Heather and OC, Thanks for all this I can't wait to go delving. I've discovered a lot just by putting up one thread, about sites I have previously used but was not aware of just what you could access through them. I haven't been a member for 1 yr until September but still consider myself a relative (pardon the pun) newbie, compared to many of you. I think I was too easily put off, after trying certain sites in the beginning, when I could not find what I wanted..............though I know, nothing worth having is that easy to get lol! So I would have to say, to other newbies like myself, don't be put off, go back and take another look and just keep plugging away! Jen

What you find depends a lot on dates and places. I found my Gx10-g-father's Will on Docs Online (assuming my uncles' research didn't make any unwarranted leaps - I haven't seen all the back-up yet). There are a whole lot of refs to one of my Gx4-g-fathers, in Sussex - in fact to lots of that part of my family. I found my husband's Gx3-g-father's commercial insurance records (or that they existed and were at the Guildhall Library, who sent me copies). I found my husband's (alleged) Gx2-g-father's correspondence is in the Royal Naval Museum in Portsmouth - plan to go and have a look to see if there's anything promising there! It shows that the Devon Record Office has another Gx3-g-father's Will (but a cousin has kindly sent me a copy of her copy). In fact Sussex has been very good about making their records visible through A2A. Different areas have probably been better/worse than others. Christine

My best find of all time on there was - wait for it - A SCRAPBOOK! The man who compiled it was a friend/business colleague of a mysterious branch of my family and had pasted all sorts of bits about them, including a wedding which enabled me to know I had the RIGHT family out of many others. Also details of a Will for this same family (a newspaper cutting from the Times) and all sorts of other fascinating details I could never have hoped to find in a million years! The scrapbook maker had anglicised his name from the German, and I cannot describe to you how I felt when I suddenly realised WHO he was - the hair stood up on the back of my neck and I nearly fainted with excitement LOL OC