Gloucestershire Family History Resources
This page of our local resources section is dedicated to assisting anyone who is researching family history in the region of Gloucestershire, in South West England, UK.
Gloucestershire is an historic county, named in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 1016. Gloucestershire has one city; the ancient city of Gloucester which was founded in the first century by the Roman Emperor Nerva. The city of Gloucester is also the ‘county town’ of Gloucestershire. Other notable towns include Cheltenham, Cirencester, Dursley, Stroud and Tewkesbury.
Unsurprisingly for such an historic region, there are many places of historic interest in Gloucestershire, including the beautiful Norman built Tewkesbury Abbey which dates back to the 11th Century and has arguably the tallest Norman tower in England.
Gloucestershire Family History Society
The Gloucestershire Family History Society was established in 1979 and has an expanding worldwide membership. The society holds regular meetings at its branches at both Gloucester and Forest of Dean. It also has an online shop and publishes a regular journal and other publications.
The society runs a Family History Centre which is conveniently situated a stone’s throw from the Gloucestershire Archives, so it is easy to cover a lot of ground in one day. This centre has a library specialising in family history and provides members with free access to many online resources, include various family history subscription sites such as Findmypast.
Gloucestershire Archives
The Gloucestershire Archives is based in Alvin Street, Gloucester and is run by Gloucestershire County council. It holds many family history records, including parish records, some dating back to the 1100s.
Baptisms, marriages & burials
Here are some useful links from the subscription based FindMyPast website:
Baptisms
Gloucestershire Baptisms
Records of baptisms between 1695 and 1801.
Marriages
Gloucestershire Marriages
Gloucester marriage records for couples married between 1697 and 1801.
Burials
Gloucestershire Burials
Holds burial records for ancestors buried between 1696 and 1801.
Wills & probate
Gloucestershire Wills & Administrations, 1801-1858
Visit this page to search for Gloucester probate records dated between 1801 – 1858.
Gloucestershire, Cheltenham Probate Abstracts, 1660-1740
Search for Gloucestershire and Cheltenham probate records, including surviving inventories, dated between 1660 – 1740.
Apprenticeships
Gloucester Apprentices 1595-1700
Visit this page to search for thousands of apprentices in the city of Gloucester.
Gloucestershire Newspaper Archives
Newspaper archives can be a great source of information for family historians. They can give us some great insights into our ancestor’s lives, achievements and, possibly, misdemeanors. Newspaper records can help confirm places or dates – they can even help fill in information that was perhaps not available from usual family history resources (such as birth, marriage and death records).
Findmypast’s British Newspaper Archives (subscription required), in partnership with the British Library, has digitised over 30 million archived newspaper pages. This is the link for the local newspaper archives for Gloucestershire.