Whats New

The change to the technology used for all the indexing and cross referencing is completed.  This is providing more indexing capability.  It is also intended to make the indexing more usable for neighbouring villages, requiring less software on the PCs of team members, and lowering the cost of software.

The changes implemented today replace the enquiry pages which provide lists of entries which match search criteria input by the user and / or lists of all entries which probably refer to one person.  To begin a search using the new pages click here.

26 March 2011

Transcriptions of a few more wills are available.

Entries from the directories recently added are gradually being added to the persons index to build a picture of first and last dates of inclusion of people in the directories.

23 January 2011

Book VI: Baptism 1813 to 1845

Book XIII: Marriages 1874 to 1899

Book VIII: Burials 1813 to 1852

Directories (images of directories added)

Maps and Surveys (presentation revamped; more linkages to property records added)

Wills (images of wills held by Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies again available)

We have not yet been able to make satisfactory copies of the accompanying maps which provide an index to the survey information, but have engaged help which will hopefully resolve the problems we have encountered.  In the meantime, the information has been linked to the building information already held, so that our existing 1900 maps can be used as an index by building.

For more click first page, or click background.

Information on houses can now be viewed by street.  Click select a street to see the new features.

There is a significant backlog of historic building surveys to be added.  30 surveys have been conducted; the results of only 8 are so far available.  It is hoped to rectify this in the next two months.

The new indexing is now used for: photographs, buildings, census and sundry information about people. Over the winter, it is hoped to move other information to the new indexing, including maps, wills and church records.

A few months ago the Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies (the "records office" for Buckinghamshire, run by the county council) clarified that we do not have permission to display images of wills which they hold.  They asked for £30 per will to display the images, which is well beyond our resources.  In response to our appeal, they have said they will put forward a more affordable proposal.  We are currently waiting for this.  In the meantime, we are withdrawing display of all images of wills taken from their records.  We are still able to display our transcripts of these wills.

Images of Book 10 (volume VII, Marriages 1813 to 1837) were added in April.

On 7th February, proof reading of volume II, Registers 1733 to 1779 was completed.  Numerous corrections were made and a further 54 records added since the original transcription, including one entire page which was omitted originally (the current page 10).

On 2^nd February, images of pages from the volume on Banns of marriage 1785 to 1812 were added.

In December images of pages from the Register from 1733 to 1779, and the register of Marriages from 1754 to 1785 became available.

Images previously made available were of these register: Baptisms and Burials 1780 to 1812; and Marriages 1785 to 1812.

The availability of these images is giving rise to many corrections to the original transcriptions, as the new images are far more readable than the prints from microfilm from which the original transcriptions were made.  If you spot an error, please let us know, so we can correct transcriptions. 

Total wills transcribed is up 28 to 149.  This includes most wills identified from 1752 to mid-19th century.  No more images of wills are available because The Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies has asked for a payment for permission to display copies of wills which they hold.  A discussion is in progress to agree an amount that will compensate them for potential lost income, as they now intend to sell copies of these images.  It is hoped agreement can be reached in the next 3 to 4 weeks.

A total of 593 wills of Hanslope people has been identified. 

Work continues on transcription, concentrating on the period 1720 to 1752 because this provides valuable information on families before the census information became available. 

A total of 525 photographs are now available, up from 240 in January.  More are in the pipeline.

The pages used to display the photographs were replace in February, and the technology changed so that as each page is indexed it immediately becomes available.  Each week there are a few more photographs available.  The latest photographs can be found in the set Recent Additions.

For more background click on Image introduction.

Property Survey

After a pause of several months, work has begun again on the survey of older buildings by an architectural historian.  More results should be available with the next update of the web site.

Addition of images of church records, transcriptions of wills and photographs, all progressed further since, as noted above.

Programme of events for 2010 now added.

As an experiment, one family tree has been added, to see if it is found interesting.  The tree only shows members associated with Hanslope.  It is almost entirely derived from the information in this web site, and contains numerous links to that information, so users can validate for themselves what is shown in the family tree.  For more information click on Crick Family Tree, or on Family Tree Background.

Site reorganised

The introduction page has been reorganised to make it easier to locate the many sections now available.  The revised page combines links that were previously on two page.  There are consequential changes on many pages.  More standardisation of the look and feel of page has been introduced, including the logo in the top right of most pages which provides a direct link back to the introduction page.

Property Information

Some improvements have been made to the presentation of property information in preparation for release of information from the survey of older buildings which is under way. 

All the information on a property is now on one page, with separate tabs for different types of information: photographs, survey information, people associated with the property and information from deeds.

More properties can now be accessed by clicking on maps from 1900.  Maps of Stocking Green, Halfway Houses, Long Street, Tathall End, Park Road, and Newport Road have been added.  There is also a map of the entire parish from which information about farm houses and other outlying building can be accessed.  There are still a few areas to be covered, including Casthethorpe Road. 

The first results of the survey of older properties are now available. 

1911 Census available

Those living in the parish at the time of this census have been added to the database on the past resident of Hanslope. 

Information was transcribed by us from copies of the original household schedules.  Transcriptions have been proof read.  The National Archive has not yet made available the enumerators' summaries, so we have not been able to check that the total of records we transcribed agree with the enumerators' totals.  There is one page which has not been made available by the National Archive.  It is page 80 of the district including Tathall End, and lies between pages on Lincoln Lodge and Milford Leys Farm. 

A start has been made linking households in this 1911 census to properties.  The is not yet complete.

Many more households from earlier censuses have also been linked to properties.

Wills

The will of Isabell Barnwell who died in 1555 has just been transcribed, and is of interest because she left property in trust for the benefit of the poor, which is now part of the Hanslope Feoffee Estate which continues to make grants to help students.

The first batch of photographs from the Society's archives were made available to search and view in late 2008.  

The Higgins/Gregory family photograph album from 19^th century was added in May 2009.  This album has been the subject of one of the most read items on the discussion forum.

A few other photographs contributed by users have been added in 2009, but progress has been held up by the need to transcribe the 1911 census.

In January 2009 a zoom facility was added for the better quality images.  And in a few cases, the option is available to overlay photographs with the names of the people in the photograph.

A decision has now been taken to provide larger and better quality images on the basis that most users have broadband and there is less need to keep file sizes small to reduce download times. 

The database of people who have lived in Hanslope has been extended to include people into the middle of the 20th Century.  Baptisms are now included up to 1928, and marriages up to 1943 (burials up to 1962 have been included for some time).  This has been done to compliment the inclusion of references to pictures of people in the database.  Many of these pictures are of people will those now added from the later baptism and marriage records.  It is now possible that the database will include references to a small number of people still living.  It is not intended to register the database with the Data Registrar because all the data held is available for public inspection, and is all data in the public domain elsewhere.  If anyone has any objection to any data held and displayed, it is the Societies intention to immediately remove the offending data from the web site. The Society would be pleased to hear from anyone who objects to this approach.  Please email comments to hdhs@btinternet.com.

Work continues on the transcription of wills, which provide a good deal of information about family relationships.  Most of the wills tackled so far are from the period 1720 to 1850 in the hope they will shed more light on families before the period when the census is available. 

Searches of the entire Hanslope web site can now be made using a facility provided by Google.  This is available on the introduction page.  Click on Search to go to this page.

On 12 January 2008, a search facility was added to the 1779 map of Hanslope, similar to the facility previously provided for the 1818 map.

On 21 December a higher magnification map of the centre of Hanslope village in 1818 map was added.  This map displays the names of each property and the owner or tenant, and can be clicked to access further information about many properties.

Two early maps of the whole of Hanslope parish and accompanying surveys were added in the last two month: a map from 1779 was added in November, and another from 1818 added in December.  Both maps show every building and field, and the accompanying surveys provide the names of owners, and in some cases tenants.  The maps can be viewed using Google software to zoom and move about the map.  Note that a high speed, broadband link is advisable due to the size of the files involved. 

Also added was a Glebe Terrier from 1599 which lists land in the parish originally intended to provide income for a rector, as well as the tenants then occupying the land.

All persons identified in maps and surveys have been added to the people database, so that searches for a person will return links to relevant maps and surveys.

The records for 1754 to 1779 are transcribed and are now available on the database of past residents on the village.

We are experimenting with advertising. The driver for this is shortage of money to develop the web site.  Until now we have relied on support from Milton Keynes Heritage Association which has been able to obtain a series of one-off grants which have been used to provide software, training and support for all its member organisations.  The last grant was exhausted in August 2006.  While the Heritage Association is hopeful of eventually obtaining a more permanent source of finance, we want to find out whether advertising could raise sufficient to help us fund further additions to make the site more interactive, such as discussion forums, maps that can be "zoomed"., and other uses of "flash" technology.