You’ve found your relatives on the 1911 census, so what happens next? There’s still the Marriage and Death indexes but where did they go in between? The census records are closed for 100 years and many of the parish register collections are either at their respective record offices, not yet digitised, or still held at the church.

Here’s a selection of the records available on Ancestry, findmypast and elsewhere on the internet that could help you fill in the gaps:

Wills - the National Probate Index (1858-1966, 1973-1995) is available to search on Ancestry. The index can give the address, date and place of death and the name of the executor. The will itself can sometimes provide even more information about the family. The complete index from 1858 is available on https://www.gov.uk/search-will-probate but you can only search by surname and exact year of death. You can order a copy of the will from this site.

County and Town directories - a range of directories (Kelly’s being the most well-known) are available on Ancestry or from the University of Leicester:
http://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/cdm/landingpage/collection/p16445coll4. These are mostly county directories which only go up to 1938. Local town street and trade directories still tend to be held at local libraries and archives on microfiche although some volunteers have been making transcriptions available online.

Electoral Registers - these are mostly in county collections rather than allowing you to search across the whole country. They vary in dates covered but many go up to the 1960s and 1970s. Ancestry holds records for Bedfordshire, Birmingham, Dorset, Gloucestershire, London, Newcastle, Surrey and West Yorkshire. findmypast holds Devon and Leicestershire as well as the Absent Voters Lists 1918-1921 (armed forces) and edited UK electoral registers 2002-2014.

1939 Register on findmypast - taken at the start of World War 2 as a list of the civilian population and used in the creation of the NHS who would later amend some of the records, in particular adding the married names of some of the women on the register.

BT Phone Books (1880-1984) are available on Ancestry.

If your family travelled abroad either to visit or to emigrate they may be found in the UK passenger lists available on both Ancestry and findmypast - Incoming passengers (1878-1960) and Outgoing passengers (1890-1960).

A variety of employment records are available on Ancestry (railway staff, engineers, postal workers and medical) and findmypast (merchant seamen, teachers and Thames watermen).

Both Ancestry and findmypast are available for library members to use for free in all West Sussex Libraries. 

It’s been a fairly quiet few months for additions to both websites for UK records. There have been no big national collections added but there have been a number of new county collections added with the biggest being the parish registers for Derbyshire and Wiltshire. These have been put onto Ancestry.

What’s new on Ancestry?

Wiltshire parish registers including original images for baptisms, marriages and burials covering 1538-1916.

Derbyshire parish registers including original images for baptisms, marriages and burials covering 1538-1991.

Sydney, New South Wales Parish Registers  (1818-2011) - original images of baptism, burial, confirmation, marriage, and composite registers from the Anglican Church Diocese of Sydney.

Additional collections for Bedfordshire including Land Tax Records (1797-1832), Valuation Records (1838-1929) and Petty Session Records (1854-1915).

What’s new on findmypast?

New parish register collections for Buckinghamshire and Herefordshire (these are transcriptions only).

Additional Memorial Inscriptions for Middlesex, Staffordshire, Sussex and Yorkshire.

Index of Lancashire wills and probate (1457-1858).

Free access to these and other online resources is available on any library computer if you are a library member.

As the dark days of winter threaten to keep us indoors you may instead like to go to one of the West Sussex Record Office talks. Here's what's coming up:

28 Nov 2017: Shame, Scandal and True Love :
The church courts of Chichester by Peter Wilkinson.

The talk will provide a fascinating insight into the life, loves and behaviour of everyday people in the early years of the 17th century. Based on the church court proceedings in the Diocesan Archives held at West Sussex Record Office these records provide a vivid and detailed account of cases that were brought to trial in Chichester, many relating to marital disputes and defamation.

30 Jan 2018:  Learning by rote
A talk about going to school in Victorian West Sussex by Ruth Brown.

27 Feb 2018:  A Slice of Life : 
Exploring the Quarter Sessions records with Caroline Adams.

The Quarter Sessions records are a valuable but underused resource for local and family historians. It was in these courts that Justices of the Peace sat in judgement over minor criminal cases - anything from theft and poaching to assault and vagrancy. And, amongst their many civil responsibilities, the JPs also supervised the poor law, oversaw relationships between apprentices and masters and licensed alehouses. The talk will provide an insight into this fascinating material and show how volunteers have helped to open up access to the collection.

On Monday 20 November, there will be a day of tours behind the scenes at the Record Office. Places are limited so please book in advance.

Also, on Wednesday 10 January, there will be the first of a programme of coffee time workshops for 2018, this one giving an introduction to family history sources at the Record Office.

Did you know that the Record Office produce a very interesting blog with lots of information and explanation about some of the items held in the collection? The blog also gives more details on our numerous events and can be read here.   

Is there a middle name in your family that intrigues you? Have you found a name that is unusual and has been passed down through the generations? Is there a name that seems to have appeared from nowhere? Keep digging – the answer is out there – somewhere! Often the solution is actually quite simple - the name comes from a surname found in the previous generation.

An example of this came to light when researching in Worthing Reference Library where the middle name of the enquirer was ‘Lindsay’. Her father had also had the same middle name. By following the line back it turned out that ‘Lindsay’ had been the enquirer’s grandmother’s maiden name! Further research revealed that this was a pattern in her family line as her great grandfather had had a middle name of ‘Sheriff’. It was discovered that this was the maiden name of his mother who had, in turn, a middle name of ‘Eaton’. Where this has come from is still to be investigated.

Sometimes it’s not quite so obvious where a middle name that appears throughout the generations has its beginning. Recently an enquirer happened to mention an unusual middle name that appeared frequently in her family tree but its root had not been discovered. In this case we had to go back four or five generations before the ‘eureka’ moment occurred. The name came to light in a parish marriage record as, yet again, it derived from an earlier maiden name.  

Despite having helped other people to solve the origins of their mysterious names I must admit I’m still looking for the roots of my own middle name. It’s just a matter of time, patience, and may be a little bit of luck but I’m sure, one day, I’ll find the answer! 

Census pages are fascinating and reveal a huge amount of information about our ancestors. Such facts, though, are rarely filled with any emotion and seldom do we know how our ancestors were feeling on the day they filled in the form.

This was not, however, the case when Edward Arthur Maund, a Company Director in West Kensington filled out his household schedule for the 1911 census. We are able to see from the page of the schedule that emotions were riding very high in the house on census day.

The schedule had duly been filled out by the head of the household naming his wife, Eleanora, sons Richard and Hugh, daughter Miele and two servants. His wife had consequently drawn a thick black line through her name and pronounced in untidy handwriting at the bottom of the page ‘wife away’.

This had been followed by her infuriated husband re-writing her name in red ink above the crossed out name. Furthermore he had drawn a long red line down the side of the page from her name to a space at the bottom where continuing in red ink he had written the following comment:

My wife unfortunately being a Suffragette put her pen through her name, but it must stand as correct. It being an equivocation to say she is away. She being always resident here & has only attempted by a silly subterfuge to defeat the objects of the census to which as ‘Head’ of the family I object.’ Signed: E.A Maund.

Emotional indeed, one can only hope that peace was eventually restored into the household and that the mealtime that evening was not too strained.

Many people braved Storm Brian to attend the Family History Day on Saturday 21 October 2017.

A whole host of family history groups were on hand to provide help and information including Sussex Family History Group, West Sussex Record Office, Times Digital Archive and Guild of One Name Studies, as well as our own Library Information Team.  There were talks on How the Library Service can help with Family History and Free Websites for Family History and lots of children (and adults!) came to the specially themed family story.

We received many lovely comments on the day (thank you!). Here are just a few:

· I learnt more in a few minutes of face to face talking than I have learnt in the three years trying on my own. I would like to attend more of this of information gathering.

· Jane Doré (Worthing Library) is extremely knowledgeable & enthusiastic - what an asset to WSCC library service!

· [Today] has lit a giant spark and shown me sensible, informed ways to go forward.

· Very informative, really got me motivated.

· Very good guidance on free resources available.

· All staff/volunteers very friendly and helpful. I was given excellent advice and made aware of resources available both online and at the museum and archive centre. A great event.

If you want to check on forthcoming Family History events - drop-ins, workshops and other sessions you will find them all listed on our What's On in Libraries page.