Baptism, Marriage and Burial records of Parish Churches and Non-conformist Chapels within the Forest of Dean. Also, we have many bordering Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Monmouthshire Parish Church records in the database.
Gloucestershire Marriage Licence Allegations cover the period 1637-1837 and are those allegations which were sworn before surrogates in all parts of the Diocese outside Gloucester and at the Diocesan Registry in Gloucester. Each entry gives the full names of the bride and groom, their ages, marital status, profession and place of residence. If either the bride or groom are under 21 then the name of the person consenting to the marriage is also given, this is normally the father unless he is deceased. Each entry also gives the name of the surrogate and any witnesses, together with the planned location for the marriage.
Gloucestershire Marriage Bonds have been added to the Marriage Licence Allegations database. These cover the period 1730-1823, and are agreements to marry, sworn before a Minister of the Church, with two Witnesses who are bound in a sum of money. The Witnesses often have the same Surname as either the bride or groom, but the actual relationship is rarely given. The bonds also contain useful information about the occupations of the groom and the witnesses.
Search Gloucestershire Marriage Licence Allegations 1637-1837 and Marriage Bonds 1730-1823
Our thanks go to Graham Davison and his team for making this transcript available.
Monumental Inscriptions (MIs for short) are immensely valuable to family historians as a source of information. A few surveys are available - click on the appropriate link below for further information.
Abenhall
Bigland Transcripts
Christchurch
Newent
Pauntley
Ruardean Hill Baptist Chapel
Ruardean Congregational Chapel
The Index is now completed and consists of 8,416 Wills & Administrations of Forest of Dean people. The information in this database has been taken from the annual Will books held at Gloucestershire Archives. These Will books contain handwritten copies of wills granted probate at Gloucester between 1858 and 1941.
Search Forest of Dean Inquests
The Forest of Dean Inquest database is an abstract of minute books that have been transcribed from the original records which are held at Gloucestershire Archives.
The data that has been transcribed is a list of the names and a summary of other information that was recorded in the Newent Workhouse Admission and Discharge Books covering the years 1835-1903 (Glos. Archives Reference G/NE/60/1-10) there are some gaps for the years 1844-1857 and 1880-1888. The records detail 5500 Admissions and 4200 Discharges (including over 300 who died in the Workhouse).
These directories give a full description and contain a wealth of information about a village, all the farmers, the tradesmen, important persons such as the Lord of the Manor, vicars, school teachers, post office staff, pub landlord and more.
Many thanks to May Brace who has kindly transcribed these directories and made them available.
This Research Register has been made available so that you can quickly find out
who is researching a particular surname together with the location they lived.
This Emigration List is a database of Forest of Dean people who have emigrated to another country, whether they were free settlers or convicts.
The list will assist in identifying many missing people of whom we cannot find any recorded information of them after a certain date.
All download files are in PDF format
The Forest of Dean
An Historical and Descriptive Account
By Nicholls, H. G. (Henry George), 1825-1867
Iron Making in the Olden Times
Iron Making in the Olden Times as instanced in the Ancient Mines, Forges, and Furnaces of The Forest of Dean
By Nicholls, H. G. (Henry George), 1825-1867
The personalities of the Forest of Dean
The personalities of the Forest of Dean; forming an appendix to 'An historical and descriptive account of the Forest of Dean'
By Henry George Nicholls
The information in this database was compiled by Martin Davies and David Drinkwater. The idea behind the data was to try and create a list of all those men with connections to The Forest of Dean who in any way served their country during WW1 and not just those that were killed.
The names recorded so far total over 6000. The information that might be listed about a soldier has come from various sources. These include military records, The Commonwealth War Graves Commission and local newspapers ( The Gloucester Journal, The Forest Mercury and the Cheltenham Chronicle & Glos Graphic).
An entry may just record a mans name and abode or include details transcribed from a newspaper article that could also include a photograph. Although we have some of these images they are not yet on the website or linked to an entry, it is hoped that this will be possible in the future.
The information in this database is being added to all the time and there may be more than one entry for a particular serviceman.
If any one can add more detail or a photograph to those listed or provide details of servicemen not in the database and would like them included please contact us.
The trust team
In Gloucestershire between 1916-1918 over 40 Local Military Tribunals heard up to 100,000 appeals from men who were called up for military service. The Local Tribunals that relate to men in the Forest of Dean were held at Awre, Coleford, East Dean, Gloucester Rural, Lydney, Newent, Newnham, Tewkesbury Rural, West Dean and Westbury on Severn.
Search Summary Convictions Registers
This Index has been transcribed from the Summary Convictions Registers for Gloucestershire 1853-1879 and relate to people in Gloucester Gaol. The Gloucester Record Office references are: QGc9/1 to QGc9/9.
The database is complete and out of nearly 25,000 entries 3217 have been identified as having links to the Forest of Dean.
The registers contain a large amount of text that has sometimes been difficult to interpret, especially the names of employers and relatives. There are also many instances where a person’s abode and other locations are spelt in a number of different ways compared to the modern equivalent.