The Hampshire Family Historian | Volume 51 No.1 | June 2024

HGS News

Free data/resources on the HGS website

There are many free family research data resources available on the HGS website (www.hgs-familyhistory.org.uk). Although we cannot make freely available commercial content like parish CMB records, monumental inscriptions and other data that we sell, we do nevertheless publish a number of useful genealogical datasets that can be searched. These datasets will generally be collections of transcriptions that have been made by HGS volunteers in the recent past. The collections are to be found in two sections; the first contains data that is open to anyone accessing the website, whilst the second set is only available to members, like yourselves, and accessed via your HGS username and password. The open datasets are found under the ‘Research’ tab and then ‘Free Data’ (www.hgs-familyhistory.com/free-data/). There are just three collections: • The Royal Observer Corps – 2,210 records for serving men and women (in Hampshire or nearby) between 1918-95. • Fleet Marriages – 22 entries from the National Archives involving Hampshire inhabitants. • Britons Dying Overseas (BDO) Ref Catalogue – displays the 270 resource documents used to create the BDO records (over 86,000) found in the Members’ Area. Of greater use to HGS members will be the collections stored in the Members’ Area of the website (www.hgs familyhistory.com/members-area/). Click on the left green menu button labelled ‘Members’

Only Data’ to find these gems; • Group Zoom presentations – current presentations are only available for between 7-10 days, so you need to be quick. We do list all previous Zoom presentations so you can see the scope of our talks. • Britons Dying Overseas – over 86,000 records of those poor souls who died overseas. This data is not available anywhere else and provides a rich source of transcribed data – and not only Hampshire but all of GB. • Quarter Session Records – 1,111 entries from the Hampshire County Assize courts of the ‘Quarter Sessions’ which were held at Easter, Trinity (Midsummer), Michaelmas and Epiphany (January). • Removals and settlements – 407 records (between 1800-34) of those families or individuals who were sent back to their parish of settlement. • Home Guard Names in the Hampshire Record Office – 80 entries of men serving in the Home Guard during WW2. • Monumental Inscriptions (Small Churchyards) – 42 pdf files of inscriptions found at smaller churches (including some Southampton and Winchester parishes). • Muster Roll of the 2nd Battalion Hampshire Regiment – containing sample names of 799 soldiers from 1889. The original documents (and others) are at the Royal Hampshire Regimental Museum in Winchester. • Wills Beneficiary Inde x – recently updated to contain 19,941 records of those individuals named in Hampshire wills – either the testator or their beneficiaries.

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