Info: Swindon Local Studies & Family History Collection (Central Library)

[Local Studies, Swindon Libraries]

Dear all on Rootschat.com

Here in our Swindon Collection we have many resources which may be of interest to some of you with ancestors from Wiltshire.

These include the following:-

• Complete GRO fiche (Births, Marriages & Deaths) 1837-1999 England and Wales
• Complete Overseas GRO (around 50 sets of info)
• Complete UK IGI
• parish registers and bishop's transcripts on fiche for all parishes in Swindon Borough.
• WFHS fiche for all available parishes, and all WFHS publications.
• All local Kellys directories, street, trade and phone directories.
• Electoral rolls (voters lists) from 1945 to date.
• All available transcriptions of parish registers.
• Poll books back to the 18th century.
• Census records for Swindon & Wiltshire 1841-1901.
• Full free access to Ancestry Library edition.
• Complete runs of all local newspapers on microfilm (includes Swindon Evening Advertiser, Gazette & Herald and North Wilts Herald).
• And of course we collect all available books, leaflets, posters, maps, ephemera and photographs for the Borough.

The parishes we collect include:

Blunsdon St. Andrew, Broad Blunsdon, Chiseldon, Coate, Hannington, Hinton Parva, Highworth, Inglesham, Liddington, Lydiard Tregoze (Or Tregoz!), Rodbourne Cheney, Sevenhampton, South Marston, Stanton Fitzwarren, Stratton St. Margaret (includes Lower Stratton, Upper Stratton, and Kingsdown), Wanborough, Wroughton.

Our contact details:

Swindon Collection
Local Studies & Family History
Central Library
Regent Circus
Swindon
SN1 1QG

Tel: 01793 463238
Email: localstudies[at]swindon.gov.uk
Our main web site

New! Please take a look at our web 2.0 links:-
Follow us on Twitter
Subscribe to our online gallery of local historical images, photographs and pictures on Flickr


All comments, compliments and complaints gratefully received.
Very best wishes, and good luck in your research!

Swindon Central Library

[Local Studies, Swindon Libraries]

Dear all on Rootschat.com,

Just an update to say that our free online gallery now has almost 800 images with 1000s more to come.
We are indexing all names, surnames, years, street/road names, etc, to maximise its usefulness for genealogists.

Link here: www.flickr.com/photos/swindonlocal/sets/

Good luck in your research,
Please contact us if you have any questions:

Swindon Collection (Local Studies and Family History)
Central Library,
Regent Circus
Swindon
SN1 1QG

T: (01793) 463238
E: localstudies[at]swindon.gov.uk
W: www.swindon.gov.uk/swindoncollection
TW: https://twitter.com/SwindonLocal

[Warwick122]

Does anyone know where the red light district was in Swindon around 1875 to 1900?  I think my great grandfather's first wife may have run an establishment but don't know how to verify my suspicion.

Helen

[LizzieW]

I don't know about 1875-1900, but when I lived in the Swindon area from 1990 onwards it was Manchester Road - where the council had very helpfully put speed bumps, to slow down the kerb crawlers maybe

Lizzie

[joboy]

Thank you  swindonlocal ....  have looked at the links and images and think they are most useful and informative.
Do you have records of Swindon families who emigrated to Australia in the mid 1850's?
joboy

[Local Studies, Swindon Libraries]

Thank you  swindonlocal ....  have looked at the links and images and think they are most useful and informative.
Do you have records of Swindon families who emigrated to Australia in the mid 1850's?
joboy

So glad you like the gallery. We have now got over 1200 images and have had 75,000 hits. Much more to come.

The records you ask about are not going to be in Wiltshire - you need to look at passenger lists which are avaible on Ancestry. If you are in or near Swindon, we provide FREE access to Ancestry Library Edition on all of our public computers.

Otherwise you will need to contact the National Archives.

Best of luck!

[Local Studies, Swindon Libraries]

Does anyone know where the red light district was in Swindon around 1875 to 1900?  I think my great grandfather's first wife may have run an establishment but don't know how to verify my suspicion.

Helen

It is a difficult area to verify.
Early court cases may give clues, and the local press may cover trials of 'houses of ill repute'.

We think the Red Light area, such as it was in that period, was located near the train station, behind the Great Western Hotel etc. This was the very end of Manchester Road and the nearby streets.
But between 1875 and 1900, New Swindon was changing from a fairly wild place (the previous 30 years were notorious!). There may have been all kinds of establishments.
Contemporary accounts (like Snell's) paint a very vivid picture of New Swindon as a kind of Wild West!

[GrahamGirl]

Do you know where I can find records online of a divorce that would have happened approx 1913-1915 in Swindon?

[LizzieW]

Hello GrahamGirl

I was going to suggest you searched on National Archives, but having gone to their website myself, it states that they only holds records of divorces in the Supreme Court. For records from local courts, you will need to contact the Principal Registry of the Family Division who will search them for a fee.

Principal Registry of the Family Division
First Avenue House
42-49 High Holborn
London, WC1V 6NP
Telephone number: +44 (0) 20 7947 6000

Lizzie