Celebrating our collections dating from 780AD to the present day
By Jenny Bettger, Archives Assistant (Research) Workhouse records can give an insight into the lives and struggles of the poorest members of the population. In the admission and discharge registers, you will often find the same names popping up with surprising regularity. From the brief descriptions of their reasons for entering or leaving, you can…
By Abigail Hartley, Searchroom Archivist On the 23rd of May, the county's baptism, burial and marriage registers were scanned and uploaded to the family history website Ancestry, opening up many doors for local and family historians wanting to learn more about West Sussex. With baptisms from 1538 to 1920, burials from 1538 to 1995, and…
Continue reading ➞ Parish Registers of West Sussex: Finding the Rich and the Unknown
By Tim Hudson (guest blogger) What types of historic documents do architectural historians use? Continuing with our guest written series, the once Editor of the Sussex Victoria County History and co author of the updated Pevsner guide to West Sussex, Tim Hudson, will be exploring the types of records used when researching built heritage. Each…
Continue reading ➞ Historic records and architectural histories: Faculties
Chosen by Tim Hudson, former Victoria County History Editor Incumbents of Anglican parishes must often keep lists of their parishioners with details about them; but most probably destroy them when they move on, as being too private and personal. The West Sussex Record Office has two such lists, compiled by the same man first as…
Continue reading ➞ Incumbent’s register of parishioners, c.1850 (Par 174/7/1)
West Sussex Record Office 