PROJECTS

Introduction  

Over the years scores of volunteers have contributed untold hours of work on research and projects not solely for the benefit of our members but for all family and local historians. A substantial number are currently engaged on the projects described on these pages.

Volunteering

We urgently need volunteers to help with our projects - read more. If you are interested in becoming  involved in any of the current indexing projects please contact Jacqui Simkins.

Current Projects

The aim of this project is to photograph and transcribe the names from the War Memorials in our area and to write about the lives of those commemorated.  At present the photographs can be viewed on our Gallery pages but the transcription details and the life stories are only available via the 'Research Resources' pages in the 'Members Pages' section (registration required) of this website. 

If you have any photographs, have already transcribed any of the memorials or have stories about the men commemorated which you would like to make available to our project, please contact Pat Boucher.

Marriage information is a vital component in taking our research into the early 1800s and beyond. The IGI provides only the most basic information - name of bride and groom, date and place of marriage - and even then some "member submitted" details on the IGI are suspect.  NNWFHS has started a project to index all of the marriages from local parish registers.  This project requires volunteers and anyone who has a computer can be involved, no matter where they are based in the world.  For more information about the project or how to volunteer please click here.

The aim of this project is to transcribe the burial records for the Atherstone Town Cemetery. We had permission from the Town Clerk to transcribe the records held in his office, which were on index cards and in alphabetical order. A group of volunteers worked on this, putting all of the information on to a spreadsheet. When the work was finished and the entries sorted into register order there were found to be many omissions. It was, therefore, necessary to check these against the original burial registers. Unfortunately these are held at Warwick Record Office, which entailed trips to Warwick. We have permission to take photographs of the registers and these are then passed to Celia who holds the main spreadsheet on her computer. This work is still ongoing.

North Warwickshire Burials

As part of the National Burials Index Programme, the society contributed data for the first two CD releases of this index. The society is continuing to transcribe and index burial registers for the remaining C of E parishes in our area. Many of these have been published in booklet form. For a list of burials publications please visit our Bookshop. We are currently looking for a co-ordinator for this project, if you are interested in finding out what this role involves please contact Jacqui Simkins.

Completed Projects

1901 Census Index for Nuneaton 

Transcribed by Alva King, this valuable research tool contains more than 26 thousand entries from the 1901 census for Nuneaton and the immediate surrounding area. For more information or to search the 1901 census index please click here.

Nuneaton and Bedworth Municipal Cemeteries

Permission was obtained from Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council to have Microfiche images produced from the original burial registers. Alva King entered the information for Oaston Road cemetery into a database from which we have produced a surname index. A set of the original registers on microfiche is available for hire to our members from our Microfiche & reader hire service. A CD containing digitised images from the original registers and a copy of the surname index can be purchased from our Bookshop.

External Projects

Volunteers from our society are also working with staff at Nuneaton Register Office on a project to create an online searchable index of the Warwickshire Registers of births, marriages and deaths. 

Private Projects

Baddesley Pit Explosion

Celia Parton has collected a large amount of memorabilia about this disaster in the course of studying her own family history. She has now written a book about the disaster entitled Parker’s Fine Pumping Engine, The Baddesley Pit Explosion 1882. She would be interested to hear from anyone who has a story to tell or any memorabilia relating to the disaster.  Contact Celia Parton.

Project NeFam

In 1995, NNWFHS Chairman Peter Lee started this project to collect and collate information on Nuneaton families from researchers world wide.  He currently has more than 30 lever arch files of information on old Nuneaton families and this is constantly being added to. Peter finds that If someone contacts him about a Nuneaton ancestor he will usually know who they are related to and their other descendents. Peter would be grateful to receive information on your Nuneaton ancestors to add to his project. Contact Peter Lee.

Index of Birth, Death and Marriage Announcements 1772 - 1939

This index, taken from local Coventry newspapers, includes not only Coventry but also all surrounding parishes (Foleshill, Keresley, Coundon, Cheylesmore, Exhall to name a few).  From around 1838 non-conformist marriages are included, such as Catholic, Warwick Lane Chapel, West Orchard Chapel, Vicar Lane Chapel, Friends Meeting House, Cow Lane Chapel, Independent Church, Well Street, Independent Chapel, Foleshill, Great Meeting House and Wesleyan Chapel, Warwick Lane.  Deaths in the House of Industry, Barracks, Workhouse, Bablake Hospital, City Hospital, and Fords Hospital appear from around 1841. Have you lost an ancestor?  There are many stray marriages and deaths included, in this country and abroad. Going on holiday for the “benefit of your health” sometimes had the opposite effect!  Also included in this index are birth, marriage and death announcements for north Warwickshire 1808 - 1870.  email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Warwickshire Assize and Quarter Sessions Index 1765 - 1901

Taken from reports in local newspapers covering Warwick and Coventry Assizes and Quarter Sessions. email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Local History of Corley and the Surrounding Area

Victor Terry, member number 2007-02. His study includes maps, photographs, postcards etc. For more information please contact Victor via the membership secretary.

Swanley Naval Orphanage

Gregory Daxter, member number 2007-15, is researching all orphan boys from Nuneaton and North Warwickshire who were sent to the 'Homes for Boys' Naval Orphanage at Swanley, Kent. For more information or to add to this project please contact Gregory via the membership secretary.

Tell Us About Your Research

If any members are pursuing private projects which are of a wider interest than their own immediate family histories (eg. historical events, village studies, occupations and professions, census and register transcription etc) we would be very happy to publish details on this website and or elsewhere. In this way there could be scope for comparison, collaboration and, via occasional reports in the society's journal, useful publicity. Contact Jacqui Simkins.

Acknowledgements

The Society would like to thank all project volunteers, past and present, without whose diligence, co-operation and sacrifice of their spare time, very little of the progress reported here would have been made.