Reference Centre, Planning
Research Planning Aids, General Information
Overview
The individual Research Planning Aids that are posted on this website are a tool, which can help you plan the direction of your research and perhaps help you to find lost events in your ancestors' lives a little more quickly. These Research Planning Aids indicate only those resources that are almost 'immediately' available to most researchers either via resources at an LDS Family History Centre, or, more importantly, available on free-to-search websites or on pay-to-view websites. In this way, a researcher is able to determine, immediately, if a resource is quickly available to him or her that can provide reasonably solid information concerning an ancestor without having to wait for a postal order of records to arrive at his or her home. After having determined whether there is 'instantly' available information, it is only reasonable for a researcher to realize that he or she must pursue records through other avenues to either verify the instantly-available indexed information or to progress their search in other parishes and places in the absence of any instantly available information. Plans are in the works for a separate massive index of records for the county that can be purchased from independent publishers and family history societies.
Each Research Planning Aid posted on this website sets out the time periods of births, christenings, marriages and burials for each parish in the County, as indexed in the International Genealogical Index ("IGI"), Boyd's and Pallot's Marriage Indexes, the British Vital Records Index 2nd Edition ("BVRI"), and the National Burial Index ("NBI"). IGI Batch numbers, current as of April 2015, have also been added for your convenience. A listing of Monumental Inscriptions has also been included if those inscriptions exist in a dedicated database and are searchable on the Internet. For instance, monumental inscriptions that are searchable on FindmyPast have been included as well as those that may be available from an independent society. But, again, the key focus is only on those records that can be viewed on the Internet. Every effort has been made to make this information as complete, up-to-date and as accurate as possible.
With the ever increasing popularity of the Online Parish Clerk scheme, a link on the parish name in the Research Planning Aid to the applicable online parish clerk has been provided. In some instances, particularly in relation to the Kent Online Parish Clerk scheme a number of parishes, although not yet having a clerk, do have transcriptions of original records. Links have been provided on the parish name to those resources as well.
Additionally, in relation to Kent only, a link to the order page for our own East Kent Families Database has been provided beneath the name of a parish that is included in the database. Look for a link that begins with "EKFD" followed by a span of years.
How to get the most from the Research Planning Aid
Compile a list of parishes that lay within a ten to twenty-mile radius of an ancestor's home parish. Check that list of parishes against the entries in this chart. Mark the parishes on your list which have been indexed in the four resources shown here. Search those indexes first. To compile your list of surrounding parishes you will need either the parish map from Philimore's Atlas and Index of Parishes Registers or you will need to visit this link and download the Parish Locator utility.
If you suspect that an event should have happened within one of the parishes on your list, but you do not find a parish on your list that is not indexed for the period, search the Family History Library Catalogue online for each of the parishes. It may be that one or more of the parishes indexed is missing a significant number of years within which your event may have occurred. If this is the case, you will have to either look at the availability of an alternative register from the Family History Library, or perhaps purchasing a microfiche of the register from the local Family History Society.
What information is in each index
Partial years or blocks of years may have been missing from the source that was indexed. Years or time periods in this Research Planning Aid that include a numerical percentage, such as 6%, indicate the approximate percentage of total entries in a register that have been indexed. The term 'extracts' refers to records that had been extracted for selected surnames, which may or may not help your particular research project.
In most cases, the IGI and BVRI records were drawn from the Parish Registers of the Church of England parish churches. However, Bishop's or Archdeacon's Transcripts and even typescripts of some registers were used to compile indexed entries. The registers of some non-conformist churches in the County have also been indexed in the IGI. The time periods that have been indexed from those registers are also shown on this chart. The information contained in Boyd's and Pallot's marriages indexes were largely drawn from original parish registers but only for selective time periods. In the case of Pallot's Marriage Index I would refer you to the more extensive description on the Beginner's Records page of this website.
The National Burial Index is produced exclusively by the Federation of Family History Societies. The index can be purchased from several suppliers listed on the the Federation of Family History Societies' webpage. It is also searchable on a subscription basis on FindmyPast. The dates of coverage reflected in the Research Planning Aid were drawn from the first edition of the National Burial Index and represent the earliest and latest years for which inscriptions were recorded. Some individual years, blocks of year or partial years may be missing from the records that were used to prepare the National Burial Index.
The monumental inscriptions listed on the Research Planning Aid are produced by the various Family History Societies throughout England. The inscriptions are also available via FindmyPast.
Also, bear in mind that not all individuals who were buried in a particular place had a monument erected on their gravesite. Furthermore, some monuments may have been badly worn rendering an inscription completely illegible or otherwise unsuited for transcription. There is no indication as whether these inscriptions were taken from monuments inside the church or from the church yard.
How to access the resources on the Research Planning Aid
The I.G.I. is produced and maintained by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Accordingly, the I.G.I. can be searched for free on microfiche (see also Research Tip), or Cd-Rom at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah or at any Family History Centre throughout the world. The I.G.I. can also be searched for free on the world wide web at the Family Search website.
Boyd's Marriage Index forms part of the "100-Most Used Books" series of the Family History Library at Salt Lake City, Utah and, consequently, is available to search free of charge at most Family History Centres worldwide. Boyd's is also now part of the offerings at FindmyPast. There is no difference between the Family History Library and the FindmyPast indexes.
Pallot's Marriage Index is available on Ancestry.com as part of their paid-for British collection. It is also available at the Society of Genealogists in London, England. Searches of Ancestry.com can be made free of charge at any Family History Centre worldwide and many public libraries that have internet service. You may have to pay for computer printouts of any of the records.
The British Vital Record Index, 2nd edition, was produced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Many Family History Centres around the world have purchased the CD-Rom set which may be searched free of charge in the centre. It can also be searched, free of charge, at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The National Burial Index is produced by the Federation of Family History Societies and is available as a pay-per-view search on FindmyPast.
The monumental inscriptions are produced by various family history societies throughout England. The inscriptions referred to in this Research Planning Aid are available either as a pay-per-view search on FindmyPast or can be purchased directly from the applicable family history society.
You will have to seek out parish register copies for parishes which have not been indexed in any of the resources dealt with in the Research Planning Aid.
Research Tip
Search both the on-line IGI at Family Search, as well as the 1998 microfiche edition, which should still be available at many Family History Centers. Approximately 8-million entries are included on the 1998 microfiche edition which will never appear on the CD-Rom or on-line IGI. However, drawn primarily from Church membership records, the on-line IGI now contains upwards of 80-million entries which did not appear on the 1998 microfiche edition.
Links
Batch Number Table on this website
Beginner's Records on this website
The I.G.I. DeMystified published by Ancestry Solutions
Federation of Family History Societies
FindmyPast is the website on which to search the National Burial Index, Monumental Inscriptions and other records published by the members of the Federation of Family History Societies or previously found on the Origins.net group of websites. Registration is free. However, search results are limited to absolute basic information and a paid-up subscription is required to view full search results.
Ancestry.com searches are free. But, to view results one must have an appropriate subscription.
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