Almondsbury or Thornbury

[Mary Crane]

Can someone tell me if these two places are interchangeable please?  I have a Wither/Withers/Wyther family which lived in Almondsbury but birth records often give the place as Thornbury.  I am not referring to post 1837 birth registrations where I think Thornbury was the registration district for Almondsbury.  The records I am referring to are those such as in Scribes Alcove and other sites which give details of older BMDs.

If someone lived in Almondsbury, would they have also referred to it as Thornbury?

Mary

[danuslave]

Hi Mary

As it happens I live in Thornbury 

Almondsbury is about 4 miles (7km) south-west as the crow flies, nearer to Bristol. There are several villages in between.  I don't think anyone would use the two names interchangeably nowadays. 

According to this website  http://almondsburychurch.org.uk the church at Almondsbury was founded in the 12th century, so there seems to be no particular reason why they should be baptised in Thornbury

I've just looked at Scribe's Alcove and all the parishes mentioned there are west or north of Thornbury

Do you know that the family lived in Almondsbury all the time or could they have moved between the two places?

Linda

[Arranroots]

I have connection there too!

Almondsbury fell into Thornbury registration district - in 1837-1974, when the boundary changes occurred.

Scribes Alcove is the best website, but as Linda mentions it doesn't cover Almondsbury.

Kind regards, Arranroots 

[Mary Crane]

Many thanks to you both for your replies.

 My problem is that I had a couple of people in my tree who in the 1841 and 1851 censuses were living in Almondsbury but their dob matched someone baptised in Thornbury with parents who married in Thornbury.

I have the Bristol BMDs CD which includes Almondsbury but that only goes back to 1754 whereas Scribes Alcove (which is a great site) goes back further than that for Thornbury.  I don't know how I can get Almondsbury information prior to 1754.

I'll keep searching

Mary

[ChasH]

Mary,

You may have found that the site http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hughwallis/IGIBatchNumbers/CountyGloucester_(A-M).htm#PageTitle gives no information from Almondsbury therefore, if no on-line info. can be found and nobody comes up with it, there are two alternatives.

1. Search (or have searched) the Almondsbury records at a records office (Bristol's?).

2. Hire and search an LDS film of the records at an LDS FHC.

Wandering through the LDS library and its catalogue via http://www.familysearch.org/eng/Library/FHLC/frameset_fhlc.asp you will find that the LDS has a number of films of Almondsbury records including three of St Mary's parish registers covering 1653 to 1975.  Hire of films, which must remain in the FHC which will have a number of film viewers I expect, costs £7.50 for a three month period in the UK but living in Oz you may be a long way from an LDS church.

Good luck

Chas

[Mary Crane]

Hi Chas

Many thanks for that information - and the interesting site.  There is an LDS centre not too far away so I will contact them and see if they can order up the film for me.

Mary

[ChasH]

Mary,

Good-o.  You'll not have your ear bent at the FHC and you'll find the people very helpful.

One thing it might be worth considering is the hire of Bishop's transcripts (BT's) rather than Parish Registers (PR's).   PR's  were transcribed annually from Lady Day one year to the next Lady Day for "exhibition" with others' BT's at the annual visitation of the Bishop or his rep. the Archdeacon, at some central rectory/vicarage having a good living and cellar I expect!  A jolly good time was had by some I'll bet

BT's contain births marriages and deaths so are potentially more useful than PR's the films of which often give only two of the registers' info. so one needs to hire another film of the PR's.  Checking the source info of data from the Hugh Wallis site you'll find most batches were extracted from BT's so only one film was needed by LDS transcribers.

By the way, the accuracy of extraction of batch info. is very good but entry content in them may not be 100% of actuality because of batch deletions but that's another story.

Regards

Chas

[Mary Crane]

Thanks for that.  I have printed off the information from the site you gave me.  The LDS here is only open part time, so I will phone them and ask if they are able to get the film for me.  Fingers crossed!

Mary

[Rachatfalcon]

Hi Mary,

I'm in Thornbury too but don't know much about searching here, as none of my family are from here.

If you want photographs of gravestones, or houses or anything in Thornbury or Almondsbury just give me a shout, anytime.

Kind regards
Rachel