IIGS™ Newsletter - November 1998
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IIGS™ Newsletter - November 1998
Ann Macey is the editor of the Gwent Family History Journal
(http://welcome.to/Gwent.FHS)Since the 1996 reorganisation of local Government, there are five District Register Offices in the old county of Gwent, Wales. It is a little confusing that one of the new Unitary Authorities has called itself Monmouthshire, although it only administers a small part of the old county.
The addresses of the District Register Offices are Monmouthshire 26A, Monk Street, Abergavenny, Mon. (tel 01873 853182)
County Borough of Newport 8, Gold Tops, Newport (tel 01633 265547)
County Borough of Torfaen Hanbury Road, Pontypool (tel 01495 762937)
County Borough of Blaenau Gwent. The Grove, Tredegar (tel 01495 722305)
County Borough of Caerphilly Ystrad Fawr, Ystrad Mynach, Hengoed (tel 01443 863478)
Census returns are another source of information about our ancestors and the returns for 1841 to 1891 are available to view free of charge at the Family Record Centre in London and in the Reference Library in Newport.
From 5 September 1538, the incumbent of every parish was required to keep a register of baptisms, marriages and burials. At first they were all recorded in the same book and very little information was written down, usually just the date of the event and the person's name. Gradually more information was recorded and then separate registers were kept for each type of event.
Parish registers are usually deposited in the County Record Offices unless they are still in use in the parish. In Gwent, most of the old registers are at the Record Office, although those of 44 parishes were deposited at the National Library of Wales at Aberystwyth. At Gwent Record Office you can search the original parish registers which are stored there. Microfilms of the Monmouthshire registers are at the National Library. For further information about the holdings of the Gwent Record Office pay a visit to http://www.llgc.org.uk/cac
The e-mail address for the Gwent Record Office is 113057.2173@compuserve.comMany counties have their own marriage index and using this can save a great deal of time. In Gwent there are three such indexes:
- Gwent FHS Marriage Index, which has just been put onto microfiche and is available from their sales officer. For further details pay a visit to http://Welcome.to/Gwent.FHS
- Another index covers the years 1754 to 1812. It is privately owned and a fee is charged for each marriage located.
For surnames A to L contact Mr A. Powell, 1 St. Davids Close, Hengoed CF8 8BL.
For surnames M to Z contact Mr B. Hemmings, 1 Marianwen Street, Blackwood.- The third index is the A.D. Williams Marriage Index. It is held at Newport Reference Library, but it includes only 36 of the old Monmouthshire parishes (about 27%). The dates covered vary greatly but are roughly between about 1725 and 1837.