Celebrating our collections dating from 780AD to the present day
By Matthew Jones, Assistant County Archivist Residents of towns and villages along the south coast of England would have been only too aware of the huge build-up of military personnel, vehicles and equipment as the preparations for D-Day gathered pace in early 1944. Bognor Regis: airborne assault glider being towed by an aircraft, 6 June…
Matthew Jones, Assistant County Archivist In May, a further series of Sussex archives were launched on Ancestry. Wills and other probate records from 1521 to 1858 were added with over 150,000 records for West Sussex, including over 12,000 probate inventories detailing the contents of houses, farms, pubs, trades and businesses across the county. Probate inventory…
By Matthew Jones, Assistant County Archivist If you're someone who enjoys researching your family history, there is a huge amount of archive material available at West Sussex Record Office and it's not unusual for people to trace their roots back to the 1700s or earlier still. Boys at The Lancastrian School, Chichester, 1914 (WSRO E35/19/20)…
By Matthew Jones, Assistant County Archivist I'm delighted to say that the Record Office has launched a new programme of “coffee time” workshops for 2023, beginning in January with a session on how to start your family tree As with so many things, the workshops scheduled for 2020 were interrupted by the pandemic and we…
Continue reading ➞ Coffee Time? The Re-launch of workshops for family and local historians
West Sussex Record Office are developing an exciting new project to catalogue, digitise and provide access to the historic collections of The Royal Sussex Regiment dating back over 260 years. This will be a ground-breaking opportunity to use the combined collections to develop innovative ways for people of all ages across the UK and beyond…
Continue reading ➞ A Call to Arms! – The Royal Sussex Regiment Heritage Project
Chosen by The Royal Sussex Regimental Association (text by Matthew Jones) In 1873 a common depot was established at Chichester for the 35th and 107th Regiments of Foot, and in 1881 the two Regiments were reconstituted as the 1st and 2nd Battalions, The Royal Sussex Regiment. This album, which forms part of the extensive and…
Continue reading ➞ Royal Sussex Regiment photograph album, 1865-1894 (RSR PH/2/1)
Chosen by Matthew Jones, member of staff We can get a very personal insight into someone’s life by looking through their probate records, and inventories can be the most fascinating of all. We have over 12,000 probate inventories and one of them relates to Mary Cooper, a widow of Midhurst who ran a brewhouse in…
Continue reading ➞ Probate inventory for Mary Cooper of Midhurst, 1743 (Ep/I/29/138/235)
West Sussex Record Office 