Family History

Records of births deaths and marriages are the basic documents for compiling your family tree. They have been kept in one form or another since 1538, although many of the very early records have not survived. See our section on 'Registration and cemeteries'.

Civil records.

Since 1837 registration has been the responsibility of central government. Records can be found either at the National Archives in Kew or, if the event took place at Southampton, at the Registrars office in Bugle Street. Indexes to help your find relevant records are available via the Ancestry.com or Find My Past web sites in the Central Library.

Church records.

Between 1538 and 1837 registration was the responsibility of local churches. Each church kept register books listing all the births deaths and marriages that took place in that parish. The registers for Southampton are held in the Southampton Archive Services. The Central Library has indexed transcripts for volumes before 1837 and microfiche copies for later years. The Archives have a partial name index for records from 1837.

The IGI is a name index to christenings and marriages in church records. The Central Library has a microfiche copy of the index.

Population censuses have been taken at ten yearly intervals since 1841. The Central Library holds all the census returns for the Southampton area. Street and name indexes are available for most years. Census records for other parts of the UK for the years 1841-1901 are available via Ancestry.com, which is free to use in the Central Library; the 1911 UK census is available through the Find My Past web site.

Street directories contain alphabetical and street by street lists of householders. The Central Library has an almost complete run of Southampton Street directories from c1840

The Archives Service holds the Central Index Register of Merchant Seamen 1918-1941. This contains over a million entries for personnel working on British registered ships. They also have a collection of crew lists and ship agreements 1863-1913, mainly covering ships that have a Southampton connection.

Southampton Archive Services hold poll books for the years 1727-1837 and electoral rolls for 1832-1918 and 1930 to date. The Central library holds electoral registers 1932 to date.

Bereavement Services hold a database of burials in Southampton.

The Archive Service has records of monumental inscriptions for most of the churchyards in the city.

The Central Library holds two indexes to wills.

The Hampshire Wills Index is an index to Hampshire wills from 1398 to 1941 held at Hampshire Record Office. The index is arranged alphabetically by surname.

National Probate Calendar is an index to all wills proved by the Court of Probate. It covers the years 1858 to 1943 and is arranged by year and surname.

The library runs a Family History Club which meets once a month.

The library also hold one-to-one help sessions for those people wishing to start their family tree or who need help with a tricky problem. Contact the library for more information.

The Archive Services holds occasional monthly Family History open sessions. Contact the Archives to find out more.

Remember, Southampton Libraries hold lots of books on how to do your family tree and the Central Library holds books and pamphlets on specific family history sources. You can log onto the library online catalogue using the link on the left. You can also reserve books online.