I'm aware that we are a forum about Yorkshire, but some folk, like the list owner <vbg>, might also have Surrey ancestors. Chris ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: History Centre Surrey <shs@surreycc.gov.uk> To: Sent: Tuesday, 26 June 2012, 15:48 Subject: HISTORIC SURREY RECORDS TO GO ONLINE An exciting announcement from Surrey Heritage. Images of thousands of historic documents are to be published online thanks to Surrey County Council and the family history website Ancestry.co.uk. The documents contain unique information about millions of people who lived in Surrey since the Tudor Age from all sections of society and from all walks of life.  Among the records to be digitised are Church of England baptism, marriage and burial registers going back as far as the reign of Henry VIII; 18th century tax lists; electoral registers listing all those allowed to vote in elections from 1832 to 1945; admission registers for some of the huge Victorian mental hospitals in the county; and lists of all the men who joined the Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment and the East Surrey Regiment in the years between the two World Wars. This project will allow members of Surrey libraries to search the records for their Surrey ancestors free of charge in any local library in the county and subscribers to Ancestry.co.uk across the world will also be able to view them in the comfort of their own home.   Visitors to Surrey History Centre will have the advantage of free use of Ancestry.co.uk and in addition will be able to consult all the other original records held by the Centre to find out more about their ancestors and the communities in which they lived.  New computers at the Centre will have a range of equipment to allow easier use by people with disabilities. The original records, on paper and parchment, are all held in Surrey History Centre in Woking where they are preserved in temperature and humidity controlled strongrooms.  Through this partnership, these precious documents will become far more accessible to researchers around the world whilst at the same time protecting and preserving the fragile originals for future generations. Photographing the records will begin in July and, once they are indexed, the first records will be published on Ancestry.co.uk in 2013.  Look out for the launch! About Ancestry.co.uk Officially the UK’s favourite family history website, Ancestry.co.uk contains more than one billion records in collections including the most comprehensive online set of England, Wales and Scotland Censuses from 1841 to 1911, the fully searchable England and Wales Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes, the World War One British Army Service and Pension records, UK Parish Records and the British Phone Books.   Ancestry.com Inc is the world's largest online family history resource, with 1.9 million paying subscribers.  More than 10 billion records have been added to the site in the past 15 years. Ancestry users have created more than 34 million family trees containing approximately four billion profiles Surrey History Centre 130 Goldsworth Road Woking Surrey GU21  6ND Tel: 01483 518737 shs@surreycc.gov.uk www.surreycc.gov.uk/surreyhistorycentre