Indexing Projects
The main focus of current project work relating to parish registers is the digitisation
of existing transcripts that have been created by individuals and groups of members over the years.
The West Middlesex Marriage Index is now complete for our area and is
available for all to access via
FamilyHistoryOnline.
However the Society has only recently embarked on project work to produce corresponding indexes for
baptism and burial records for West Middlesex parishes.
Pilot projects were launched in 2005, focussing on the baptism and burial registers for the
parishes of Harmondsworth, Harlington and East Bedfont, prior to 1837. Further work has since
been carried out for the burials of Isleworth over the same period, parts of the baptism
and burial registers for Hillingdon, and many records of baptisms and burials recorded in the
registers of non-conformist chapels across the West Middlesex area. With the generous
assistance of our friends in the
Sunbury and Shepperton Local History Society,
we have also been able to include baptisms (1565-1807) and burials (1565-1799) for Sunbury. We have been
grateful too, for the assistance of the Spelthorne U3A group, who have provided further
records of burials from parishes within the modern Borough of Spelthorne.
Work on the burial registers has been carried out within the framework set out by the
Federation of Family History Societies
National Burial Index
project, using the SHROUD software. The results of this work are already available online, via
FindMyPast. A local version of the index - the beginnings of
a West Middlesex Burial Index - is accessible at our meetings and at Open Days
and family history fairs. Work is currently (early 2008) under way
on the burial registers for Hillingdon. However more volunteers willing to help with the digitisation
of these and similar transcripts are always welcome. If you are familiar with the use of
parish registers and are happy to use SHROUD or spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel, the
Society would be very pleased to hear from you. Please
contact the Society.
Work on the baptism records is less well advanced, although a pilot West Middlesex
Baptism Index has been prepared from the registers of Harmondsworth, Harlington,
East Bedfont and Sunbury. Once again, the Society would welcome further assistance from
volunteers to help extend the scope of this indexing project. Please
contact the Society if you can help.