Liverpool & South West Lancashire FHS - Forum

You guys have been really helpful and put me in the right direction. I now have quite a bit of family information to confirm. So I am intending on coming up to Liverpool at some point in the coming months.
I notice that the record office/library/history centre is open longer on Wednesdays, so my plan is to drive from Dorset on a Tuesday; stay for 2 nights and drive back on a Thursday morning......thus giving me a good whole day to research.
Is the society there on Wednesdays, should I need a poke in the right direction?

Opening times for the William Brown Street Library, including the Record Office which is on the 3rd Floor
Monday 9:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Tuesday 9:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Wednesday 9:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Thursday 9:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Friday 9:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Saturday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Sunday 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM

The Society hosts a Help Desk on a Tuesday afternoon between 1.30 and 4.00 pm. There is a meeting on the second Tuesday evening of the months which you would be welcome to attend, details of times, locations and programme http://www.liverpool.liverpool-genealog ... endar.html

For your visit to the Record Office it is often useful to try to collate a list beforehand and check either with us, or by contacting the Record Office direct by email http://liverpool.gov.uk/libraries/archi ... y-history/ as to whether the items you require are available on microfilm - readers are available at all times, or whether in document form which need 24 hour notice.

It might be a good idea to bring some ID with you so that you can register for a library card so that you can have the use of a computer also, both Ancestry and Findmypast are available for free.

Thank you Mary for the info.
I am registered with my local History Centre and have a "readers ticket" for the "County Archive Research Network". Don't know if Liverpool is part of this, but I always carry Id with me anyhow.
Areas of Liverpool that I'd be looking at include Bevington, West Derby, Everton, Everton North.....but I assume that there are quite a few churches in them areas? Only names I have are St Alban Bevington, St Peter Liverpool, Christ Church Everton, St Marys Liverpool, St Mary Kirkdale and all the rest just say West Derby! but that is all the info I really have to work on!
I think it's gonna be a case of sitting down for a few hours and trailing through loads of microfiche/microfilm!!!
At our local History Centre, you can print screenshots of the microfiche onto A4 paper. Can you do that at Liverpool?
Paul

Ancestry have a lot of original images for the Liverpool area check to see if anything you are looking for is already available on there to save you time. All Liverpool libraries have Ancestry and Find My Past free if you can't access Ancestry where you are. It's quicker to use a PC in the library to save the records from the Ancestry website if they are on there:-

http://www.ancestry.co.uk/cs/uk/liverpool


Blue

You don't say what you are looking for.

If you can't find a marriage on Ancestry, then try http://www.lancashirebmd.org.uk/ which hopefully will give you the church, and then cross reference with http://www.freebmd.org.uk/ to get the quarter, so saving yourself the trawl through a whole year's microfilm. If LancsBMD says "Register Office or Registrar Attended" it may have been either an RC or Non Conformist marriage, so the addresses from the nearest census might help to point you towards the nearest RC church - there is a map available with the locations of the churches.

Burials are a little more difficult obviously, check first with Ancestry. If you think they may have been RC then there is a black box of microfiches on the back wall which you can check for date, this tells you which of the RC Cemeteries (Ford, Yew Tree or Ainsdale), and then you cross reference to see who else is in the grave. Hopefully if you have an exact date of death you should be lucky and find an obituary in the local newspaper, this may tell you where the burial took place.

Quite a number of the microfilm machines (these can also be used for microfiches) have printers attached - 30p for a print out. If you send a print from one of the computers, ask advice as you need to use the little printer icon (NOT the usual File>Print) and then ensuring you change preferences to landscape. 10p a print from a computer - or bring a flash drive as you can save to it from the library computer.

Hope you can be there on a Tuesday afternoon as we will help if we are able.

Thanks Mary, you have been extremely helpful.
I have used the Lancashire Parish site in the past, and I do have some reference numbers from it......and they do seem to tally up with what I have found on FreeBMD and Find My Past.
From about 1880 to the late 1940's, they all seem to be around the Kirkdale/West Derby areas, with St Athanasius cropping up quite a bit......and other Churches mentioned like St Aidan Kirkdale, St Alban Bevington, Christ Church Everton, St Mary Kirkdale.....and only one registrar office wedding.
I'm quite happy to trail through microfiche/films, as I have done that in Dorset on my mothers family history to confirm things; so i am happy to spend a whole day in Liverpool doing the same.
Unfortunately, our local Libraries don't give free access to Ancestry....which is a real shame....and our local History Centre has had its hours cut so much now....its trying to get in there.....but luckily in Dorset we now have an excellent Online Parish Register Website for local info.
I am looking forward to coming to Liverpool, but wish I had done it a couple years ago; as my father passed away in February this year and he would have loved to have found out a bit more. Last time he was in Liverpool was in mid 1990's, when he found 3 relations still alive and met there families (one was still living in the same house from the 1950's).....but addresses are now lost.
I'm just trying to sort out hotel prices and then I will be on my way! But I'll probably be there on a Wednesday.
thanks again
Paul

Don't forget that if you come across "West Derby" in the BMD indexes this will be the registration district, not to be confused with the village of West Derby.

I am surprised, I thought all libraries in England had free access to Ancestry at least, obviously not.

unfortunately, I work for the local County Council....and we have been hit hard by austerity cuts in Dorset. The Library has loads of PC's for public to use but doesn't offer free access to Ancestry.....think this was part of the cuts....and as said before, the History Centre was hit particularly hard a couple years ago and lost lots of staff & had opening hours reduced, which isn't particularly helpful to myself!

Hope you enjoy your visit to Liverpool anyway.