Oxfordshire research.... - Genealogists' Forum

Merry · #1 12-01-15, 11:21

....Can it be done if you are not a multi-millionaire?

I am lucky in some ways that my Oxfordshire ancestors were mainly Quakers and I have access to their records through fiche I bought 15 years ago and now via ancestry Quaker Registers. However, as soon as I come across someone probably baptised in the C of E I come unstuck as I only have PRs (fiche again) for a handful of parishes and there doesn't seem to be any way to access other PRs other than buying CDs (not helpful if you don't know where your ancestor/family came from) or paying the Oxon FHS for lookups, which seem pretty restrictive.

I have used the Oxfordshire Archdeacon's Marriage Bond Index, but I think most of my ancestors are not included in it.

Any tips or ideas welcome!

Merry · #2 12-01-15, 12:12

Clearly I'm losing the plot as I have found some PRs on ancestry for Oxon and I know I have looked at them before. Any other ideas welcome!

ElizabethHerts · #3 12-01-15, 12:13

Which parishes are you looking at, Merry?

I know I have paid quite a bit in CDs.

I was told over a year ago by phone by a person at Oxfordshire History Centre that they were going to digitalise the PRs. I got the impression it would be on FMP, but still no word.

Merry · #4 12-01-15, 12:20

Thanks very much Elizabeth.

I don't really know which parishes as my lot seem to move about quite a lot. Plus I always get worried there will be matching entries in a parish next door to the one I'm looking at.

I was just cross that I'd been sitting on the floor in the dining room (unheated!) looking at my Burford PR fiches (17 of them with no decent index) looking for a baptism only to find the stuff on ancestry afterwards. However, I see ancestry's records only kick in with Volume 2 of Burford's records and I needed the end of Volume 1, so not all in vain!

Now I need to know if Mary Wyatt is the one bap in 1714, 1721 or 1725 *sigh*. I will have to sit on the floor again later to check the burials. I hate being pleased to see a child has died.......

kiterunner · #5 12-01-15, 12:22

Hopefully they will go the same way as Nottinghamshire FHS have just done, and licence their transcriptions to FMP or similar.

Merry · #6 12-01-15, 12:28

I do wish they would hurry up!!

Merry · #7 12-01-15, 12:43

I have to go out now, but can I deduce anything from finding an entry on the Oxfordshire Archdeacon's Marriage Bond Index (1743 William Smith and Mary Wyatt), but not finding the same entry on the Oxford Diocese Marriage Bonds and Affidavits, 1661-1850?

The second index is this one:

http://www.whipple.org/oxford/dioces...age_bonds.html

(the first is a pdf mentioned in this post

http://www.genealogistsforum.co.uk/F...ht=oxfordshire

kiterunner · #8 12-01-15, 13:04

There is this, suggesting that you can't deduce anything from it, written by the same person who wrote the introductory note on your link:

http://whipple.org/oxford/marriagebonds.html

Margaret in Burton · #9 12-01-15, 13:21

I also need Oxfordshire records but Roman Catholic ones. Chipping Norton area. Even the diocese aren't sure where they are. OH visited a priest in Radford many years ago and looked at some but they were few and far between and in a right old mess, as was the priest. OH said he appeared to be covered in bird droppings ( to put it politely).

Rick · #10 12-01-15, 13:57

As of 1st Dec 2014, OFHS had completed the digitisation of their holdings of parish records and had selected a partner to make them available online. They cited complex legal negotiations as the reason for not publishing the name of the provider at that time and said further news would be posted in due course here..... http://news.ofhs.org.uk/news/