London Gazette - most underused resource?

[snowball]

Hi,
May I take this opportunity to recommend the London Gazette's searchable database as an extremely useful resource - and possibly one that some are not aware of.

Here's the link to it, and the related publications, the Edinburgh and Belfast Gazettes: http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk/

I've found it particularly useful in helping to track down hard-to-find Victorian and Georgian individuals; as the newspaper of record for government, it includes details of changes of name by deed poll, bankruptcies, claims on inheritances etc - you can see how these might be useful in research.

It's also good for post-census research, revealing civil service appointments in the 1900s, and, of course, military citations.

Its search facility is good. If you go to the Advanced Search page (http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/search) you can enter names or places in the fields.

As ever, you tend to fare better if you are looking for a fairly unusual name, but if you are lucky enough to have an individual with a middle name, this will help you rule in, or rule out, certain results.

I would recommend first trying the full name in the "With the exact phrase" field.

Some records name individuals with the Christian names first, some with the surname first - so if you are looking for, say, John Roger Davidson, try Davidson John Roger too.

I hope you find it useful.
Regards
Rob

[ainslie]

The London Gazette is also useful for tracking some army stuff: officers' promotions, awards of gallantry medals [some of which have detailed citations] etc.  As Rob says, it is worth trying various methods of searching - don't give up after one shot!
A

[cando]

Also for business notices eg dissolution of family partnerships etc.  Whoops of delight the day I found my elusive gg grandfather's name when he, his brother and father dissolved their cotton broking business in 1847 in Liverpool and then the brother and father dissolved their partnership in 1850 the year prior to my ggg grandfather's death.

Cheers
Cando

[MUMMYG]

Me too, I found a bankruptcy notice and a trading address I didnt know about before, although Ive used the search for military citations and mentioned in despatches, I didnt think of using it for other things being as my ancestors are all from the north, thanks much for the tip 

[behindthefrogs]

The London Gazette is a national paper and you are nearly as likely to find information for people in the north of England as for those in the south.

David