Avon Family History Resources | including Bristol and surrounding areas
This Avon family history page aims to assist genealogists and family historians who are tracing lost relatives and ancestors in what was the Avon region of England, including the city of Bristol and surrounding territories.
Avon was a county that existed between 1974 and 1996, before being replaced by the following four areas; Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. You can find a range of resources including parish records information and links to births, marriages and deaths records through our website to help your research.
Bristol & Avon Family History Society
Run by volunteers, the Bristol & Avon Family History Society was formed in 1975 to assist family history research in the region. Members receive a Quarterly Journal and hold regular meetings to assist personal research. The society also holds an annual Family History Fair and arranges interesting coach trips from time to time. The society holds its main meetings in Bristol, with other meetings in Bath and Yate. The society welcomes researchers making use of their room at the Bristol Records Office.
Bristol Archives
The Bristol Archives holds almost 2 million documents spanning from the 12th Century to today. These records include official records for the city of Bristol, Parish records including births, marriages and burial records, public records including prisons, police and hospitals. Most records are free to view, although there is a modest charge for photographic use. There is also a modest charge if you cannot visit the search room and want to hire a member of staff to undertake a search of the collection on your behalf.
Baptisms, marriages & burials
There are Gloucestershire county search web pages that include the city of Bristol. The subscription based family history site FindMyPast.co.uk hold the following baptism, marriage and burial records for the Avon area, including Bristol:
Gloucestershire, Bristol Baptism Index 1644-1939
This baptism index includes over 500,000 names from over 116 parishes in the region.
Cary Grant
The baptism records of the famous actor Cary Grant have been discovered amongst the extensive baptism index. Cary Grant’s real name was Archibald Alexander Leach. However, his baptism record, dated 8 February 1904, only recorded ‘Leach’ and further investigations were necessary to match this record with one of the most significant actors of the 20th Century. Grant also appeared with his family in the 1911 census. In 1920, aged 16 years, Cary Grant is mentioned again; on the US passenger list of HMS Olympic.
Gloucestershire Bristol Marriage Index 1578 to 1939
There are over 350,000 marriage records in this index. Marriage records of interest include the marriage of Cary Grant’s parents in 1898.
Gloucestershire Bristol Burial Index
There are over 273,000 deaths listed in this database covering over 70 parishes. Information includes their age at time of death and their burial date. The rare mention of a slave is included in this index; his name was Scipio Africanus and he died aged just 18 years.
Bristol (Avon) Newspaper Archives
Once birth, marriage and death records, census records and parish records have been researched, you may find that you have hit the ‘brick wall’ so dreaded by family historians.
Local newspaper archives can often provide that missing piece of information. This is because the announcement of a baptisms or birth, a marriage, death or burial, can provide the all important clue that you need. Local newspapers are, by their nature, local, so they can help you fix a place as well as a date. The British Newspaper Archive holds many newspaper archives in the UK. The link provided will take you to the Bristol newspaper archive page but the local newspaper archive records of other UK counties are held.