West Yorkshire Non Conformist records now online at Ancestry

[Marmaduke 123]

These have appeared today, actually due in May I think. They're not for beginners! I think a lot of detective work will be needed to find out exactly what a lot of them are, and where they are from.

Ancestry has provided a list of chapels etc with the WYAS references, but they don't appear on the actual records you get to see, just the name of the repository, Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield, Calderdale etc.

I recognise one of mine whose abode is given as Sowood. It's a chapel record of her expulsion because of immorality in 1850. She's on the 1851 census unmarried with her mother and stepfather, with a one year old daughter. I can't tell at the moment which chapel it is though. I'll have to do some more exploring!

Anne

[BumbleB]

Hi Anne:  thanks for that - yet more Archbells found!!!!!  Including my grandmother's marriage, although I do have her certificate but it is so good to see original signatures.   All the search results do show the chapel, as far as I can see.  Now all I have to do is find my grandfather's baptism - wow, more great fun to keep me out of mischief!!   

[Marmaduke 123]

Yes, some look pretty straightforward and show the chapel, others are rather obscure and difficult to identify. Maybe it's the earlier ones that are difficult?

Anne

[Marmaduke 123]

I think I've worked it out now!

If you just search by surname, the first results which come up are the ones which have little or no identifying information. Presumably they were not identified in the Archives either.

There are some real gems in the burials - copies of itemised bills with amounts for digging, removing headstone, extra earth etc. Others with exact locations of plots - 12" from near wall, 4 yards from wall to south etc.

Should keep me busy for a bit.

Anne

[BumbleB]

Ah, well - I'm just not going to complain at all    All contributions are gratefully accepted.  I've just got marriages that I didn't know where they took place, a baptism of a child who I know was born at sea en route from South Africa to England which gives an address in Leeds at a precise moment - wonderful stuff 

[MorleyOfHalifax]

This collection was originally expected to be released at the end of 2011 [source: old announcement on the WYAS website]. When April rolled around I thought Ancestry would be devoting all of its resources to transcribing the 1940 census, resulting in further delays to the release of this collection. Guess not -- this collection was released today. Coincidentally(?), the 1940 indexing status was today updated for the first time in ten days (and Washington DC is still the only "state" in the process of being transcribed)!

My initial impression: the 'Parish' column in the search results is currently not very helpful. Numerous parishes are listed as "The Wesleyan Chapel" or variants thereof. Determining which Wesleyan chapel requires previewing the record and cross-referencing the reel and reference numbers with the information here (http://search.ancestry.com/search/dbextra.aspx?dbid=2268 ). Ancestry's search routine should be doing this cross-reference lookup programmatically!

Also, the collection appears incomplete; compare the above list to http://www.archives.wyjs.org.uk/documents/archives/Collections%20Guide%202.pdf . Are there additional records on the way?

Glad (part of) the collection has finally been released; a bit disappointed so far with the quality of the search results; curious about how this project was managed.

[Samueller]

Ancestry's list of chapels in this collection certainly seems to confirm that it is incomplete.  For instance only three chapels in the whole Barnsley area - Ardsley, Hoyland Common (both listed as Wakefield) and Penistone (listed as Kirklees) and very few for Sheffield, Rotherham, Doncaster.  Or is Ancestry working on the new West Yorkshire, rather than the old West Ridung?  If so, presumably the above three South Yorks places have been included by mistake.  That said, the more records added, the better, and hopefully others will follow.

Sam.

[findem]

Hi,

The following is something I picked up on another site pertaining to this topic that I thought might be useful to someone:

"All Saints, Crofton
A member of the Guild of One Name Studies has just alerted us to a problem with the transcription on Ancestry for this parish.

The original entries are in Latin and the transcriber has not understood this at all. As an example they have transcribed

""Isabella Felice Johannis" as a name instead of as "Isabella daughter of Johannis Bloum" They have transcribed the Latin date for the next entry as a name for the previous entry."

In other words I think the date has been transcribed as the parent of Isabella"

I hope I haven't broken any rules/conventions in reproducing the above, it was open to all and sundry for viewing.

Regards.

[weste]

Thaks for the info i will look now.  I had a field day when i bought a methodist cd for an area i was interested in.