Wiltshire records [closed]

Question

Apparently the Wiltshire OPC has gone down permanently. It has been unsearchable for a couple of years but is now entirely missing from the internet. They have been advertising for younger people to take the yoke for a while, it seems nobody was interested.

I scoured their marriage records in 2019 and have been waiting patiently for births and deaths to be indexed, but this apparently never happened. I'm looking for parish records between 1500 and the beginning of government records, but particularly to the end of the 1600's if anyone knows of an affordable source.

Comments

Solved this issue. Apparently I had a disagreement with one of their members on the Facebook Wiltshire OPC page in 2000 and some petty twat locked me out of their website.

Honest to Pete, some people.

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Closing this thread. My access to Wltshire OPC has been restored with an apology. Evidently somebody overstepped their authority and banned me due to an unrelated disagreement on Facebook.

Answer 1

Familysearch.org has FindMyPast's Wiltshire index here:

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/4380174

Ancestry also has all of the images of the Wiltshire church records available online along with their own indexes. I have a lot of Wiltshire roots myself so I use them quite a lot.

Comments

Holy cow, FamilySearch finally have it? FANTASTIC!!!!

I just contacted the Wiltshire Historic Centre and they referred me to Ancestry, which is 11 quid a month minimum. To hell with them, and the horse the rode in on. ;-)

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Unfortunately no Baptism or Burial records. I have a feeling they no longer exist.

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What records are you looking for? I can check Ancestry to see if they are there or not.

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Hi Mike,

In the short term I'm looking for pre-1700 baptism and burial records for all the Winterbournes, Salisbury (New Sarum) and - while you're there - East Wellow, Hants. These are all major stoppers on my tree and have been for years so I don't really care if I have to read clerical scrawl in Olde English mixed with Latin.

Thanks for your help!

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It looks like all of the places you mentioned have pre-1700 records except for East Wellow which isn't listed at all. Six different Winterbournes (don't know if that is all of them) all have records. Salisbury has several churches, all with most pre-1700 records. The cathedral only had a few years available though. If you have any specific people you would like me to look up you can reply to me privately and I'll see what I can find. I can't do any extensive research because I'm too busy with my own tree but I'm always up for a challenge.

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OK, here goes with the urgent ones:

Richard Judd ~1655 Middle Winterslow
William Judd ~1667 Winterslow
Henry Judd ~1669 Winterslow
Mary Judd ~1685 Winterslow
Henry Judde ~1518 Cherborough (Winterbourne Gunner)
Edward Judde ~1522 Cherborough ("" "")
Constance Judde ~1524 Cherborough ("" "")
Elizabeth Judde ~1591 Winterslow

If I can get even one of those off my unsourced list it will make my day!

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Got the first one for Richard 1655, muchos gracias. I was able to see the record after logging into Ancestry so evidently the share worked.

Answer 2

Try this free website, You can look up baptism, marriage and burial records, census records and post 1837 BMD records

https://www.freeukgenealogy.org.uk/

Or, though I think you may have to join the society

https://www.wiltshirefhs.co.uk/publications/parish-records

Or https://www.ukbmd.org.uk/county/wiltshire/parish_records/

There are several links to parish record collections on Archive.org, or it might be easier just to go to the archive.org site and search for Wiltshire parish records

Or British Genealogy, https://www.british-genealogy.com/forum/

They are a professional family history research site, but they do have a free forum site where you can ask questions, you do have to signup, they will look for particular records for you, but do not have records on the site, sounds a bit odd I know, but I have found them very helpful for difficult to find records.

Or Family Search should have a wide range of Wiltshire records.

Or, just found this site, I know nothing about it

 https://firstsettlers.genealogyvillage.com/Wiltshire.html

Comments

Unfortunately freeukgenealogy.org.uk is a simple link to freebmd.org.uk which only contains government records, which means they start 150 years too late for my needs. freecen.org.uk likewise will be much later records. freereg.org.uk only brings up the same marriage records I previously found through the Wiltshire OPC, it has no baptism or burial records online.

I don't mean to be ungrateful but this seems to be a blanket response that doesn't actually address the enquiry. I already know of the Wiltshire Historical Society (after all, I announced its existence here years ago) but would prefer not to pay for a membership unless I can be certain they actually have the records I need. Unfortunately, like most British genealogical societies they are most likely ill-equipped to deal with enquiries from places like Australia, with most expecting one to attend a local reading room in the UK. I couldn't find an enquiries email address either.

So, if anyone has actual specific first-hand knowledge of these records and where they can be found online I'm still interested. I don't even care if they're in Olde English or Latin, scanned from the original books. I can translate that.

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Rob, as I didn't know who or where in Wiltshire you were looking for, I provided several options.

Perhaps the records you need are not available online.

If you post a question on the British Genealogy website, they will be able to tell you if the records still exist, as you will already know many parish records from that time are no longer in existence.

Answer 3

It’s a little slow, but it’s still there. I was able to log in and search as usual. 

https://wiltshire-opc.org.uk/genealogy/

Comments

Well, for me it's completely dead. I log in and see a message that says, "You do not have permission to access message system." No explanation, no menu, just the bare user account page.