In a message dated 17/01/2004 02:59:58 GMT Standard Time, nancylong@comcast.net writes: > The information I have is only that Ellen RILEY is listed as head of > household in 1861 and am assuming Charles was gone. Is there a way to access that > census? Info I have was gathered by a relative visiting UK several years ago. > I did try the FreeBMD with no > success so will try the GRO and then see if I can locate church registers > and municipal cemeteries. As you need to ask these questions I shall assume you are a complete beginner. The 1861 census - and all 1841 to 1901 - is held in the National Archives and available for their own regions in County Record Offices and major Reference Libraries throughout the country, in the form of microfilms and/or microfiche. Parts or all of some of them have been transcribed and/or indexed by local groups or individuals, such as family history socities, with varying levels of completeness and accuracy. The results are usually published, fairly cheaply, as microfiche, microfilm, book or CD-ROM, and in some cases are available on various web sites. The GENUKI sites are the best starting points for locating that sort of thing. However, there has been very little done locally on the 1861 census which is possibly now the most neglected of them all. Church registers can be held in many different places, depending on the denomination of the church, but to generalise on a complex subject, the County Record Office should again be your first place of enquiry. They usually have the orignals, or will know where they are, especially for Church of England registers. You are unlikely to be shown the original books, as they must be preserved from sticky fingers, but they, and other local reference libraries, will have microfilm copies of them. Again, there are sometimes transcripts available, but do be careful, as not all are complete or reliable. As a beginner I recommend you to become a member of the Family History Society (FHS) which covers your district. Locally there is the Northumberland and Durham FHS which covers the whole of Northumberland, the whole of the modern "Tyne and Wear" and the northern 2/3 of the old Co Durham - roughly, everything north of a line from Hartleppool to Bishop Auckland and beyond, but not including those towns, which are dealt with by the Cleveland FHS which covers the southern part of Co Durham, the modern "Cleveland" and the northern part of the old North Riding of Yorkshire. Municipal cemetery records are usually in the County Record Office but they may still be held by the Council responsible, either in their own offices or in the Cemetery office itself. FreeBMD, while a good idea in itself, is still, and for the foreseeable future will remain, incomplete, and so it is no substitute for the GRO quarterly indexes of ALL births, marriages and deaths in the UK, which are often also now available in local reference libraries. Best wishes, Geoff Nicholson 57 Manor Park, Concord, WASHINGTON, Tyne & Wear NE37 2BU (0191 417 9546) Professional Genealogist - Northumberland and Co Durham.