Darn it! I just hit the delete key on this question by mistake, so please forgive an unconnected rely. West Yorkshire Archives at Wakefield will sell you copies of parish records on microfiche: the snag being that you need some way to read them. If you have access to a reader, that's fine: I ended up buying a handheld reader which works OK too. But be warned, you may find very little more detail on an individual record than you are given on the IGI. best wishes and good luck Maggie

At 08:57 11/01/2010, Maggie wrote: >But be warned, you may find very little more detail on an individual record than you are given on the IGI. On the other hand it may have vital information - I checked out one record on that had been on the IGI - it added just one little word "widow"! Best Wishes, Andy.

On 11 Jan 2010 at 3:57, [email protected] wrote: > West Yorkshire Archives at Wakefield will sell you copies of parish > records on microfiche: the snag being that you need some way to read > them. If you have access to a reader, that's fine: I ended up buying a > handheld reader which works OK too. > > But be warned, you may find very little more detail on an individual > record than you are given on the IGI. > Not necessarily true, Maggie - especially if you are fortunate enough to have had ancestors in one of the many Yorkshire parishes that had those wonderful things called DADE Registers from about the mid-1770s to 1812. Surely you must be aware of Dade Registers, since they have been debated here and on other Yorkshire lists many times and I recently had a major article about them published in Practical Family History. Here, as a classic example, is how the birth and baptism of my great-grandfather, Robert Stockdill, appears on the IGI..... ROBT. STOCKDILL, Birth 22 Jul 1806, Christening 24 Jul 1806, Easingwold, Yorkshire, England, Father Robt. Stockdill, mother Mary Yellow, batch no. P007531, source the register of the parish church of All Saints, Easingwold. 1599-1812. Now compare this with the full entry from the Easingwold parish registers..... "1806 – Robt. (s. of) Robt Stockdill of Easingwold. taylor, s. of George Stockdill of Husthwaite, labourer, and of Mary, dau. of Launcelot Yellow of Sutton-under- Whitestonecliffe, labourer, born 22, baptised 24 July." See all the additional information I would never have known if I had just accepted the IGI entry and never bothered to look at the original registers! Here we have a three- generation family tree, with the father's occupation (a tailor), the names of the two grandfathers AND their parishes of residence (taking me back another generation to other parishes and other records), the occupations of the grandfathers, plus the actual birth date of my gt-grandfather as well as his baptismal date. About the only thing this Dade entry does not include, which many others do, is his place in the "batting line-up", i.e. order of arrival, but the Easingwold registers also contain details of his 5 siblings and he was the youngest. Moreover, all the entries give the same detail about his parents and grandfathers, confirming beyond doubt that there was no other Robert and Mary Stockdill/Stockdale (the first 3 entries are in the surname Stockdale and the last 3 are Stockdill) also baptisding children at Easingwold. I have even seen Dade registers that give a FOUR-generation family tree and include grandmothers as well as grandfathers. So there is no need to put people off looking at the original registers by suggesting they are unlikely to find no more than is on the IGI. Parish registers vary so much in their content from one parish to another that, even if a parish didn't have Dade Registers there is always the possibility that additional information may be given. Indeed, the golden rule is to ALWAYS inspect the original records if you possibly can. -- Roy Stockdill Professional genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE