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Parish
Records
Biggleswade is extremely fortunate in that its Anglican
baptism,
marriage and burial records from1637 to 1812
have all been transcribed as
part of the Bedfordshire project undertaken by Dr FG Emmison as
Clerk of Records for Bedfordshire,
assistant to the County Archivist. He spent many years
from 1930 until mid 40's cycling around Bedfordshire parishes, listing their
records and, wherever possible, making a transcript of their registers to 1812.
Dr. Emmison then collated this transcript with the surviving bishop's
transcripts, indexed the whole and produced a duplicated
edition of dozens of the resulting typescripts.
The
Biggleswade transcriptions may be seen in Volume 30 held by the Bedfordshire Record Office (Bedfordshire and Luton Records and Archives Service
- BLARS) or at Biggleswade and Bedford Central public libraries. There are some
missing years recorded in the indexes where both registers and bishop's
transcripts were not located or are known to have been destroyed; these will
be detailed here in due course. Microfiche of
the transcription is also available from the Bedfordshire
Family History Society.
The Mormons International Genealogical Index (IGI) contains
the baptism and marriage index for Biggleswade and this may be searched
on-line
at the Family Search web site. Alternatively you can search
the IGI for all, or specific names, through a site that details
IGI Batch
Numbers. For reference the Biggleswade Batch Numbers are:
Anglican
Baptisms and Births: 1637
to 1812 - P003611; 1813-1875 - C003612
Marriages: 1604 to 1812
- M003611; 1813 to 1882 - M003612
Baptist
Baptisms
and Births: 1762 to 1837 - C090781
Wesleyan
Marriages:
1837 to 1888 - M148971
Wesleyan Biggleswade Circuit
Baptisms
and Births: 1799-1837 - C065871; 1838 to 1885 - J065872 and
K065872
It is important to note that the IGI does not
contain all of the detail that is to be found on the films of the
original registers or indeed that which is to be found in Dr Emmison's
transcript which is a complete record of the registers..
The Mormons have also filmed not only the pre-1812
material but also many of the later records. These may be
seen in BLARS and certainly in Biggleswade Library as well as the
LDS Family History Centres, Family Record Centre and Society of
Genealogists Library.
As can be seen above some nonconformist registers and
church books have also been transcribed and further details of material
available will be provided here later.
Allegations and Bonds for Marriage Licences
All the surviving bonds and
allegations to 1812 were published in the Bedfordshire Parish Register series
volume 14 covering 1747 to 1790 and volume 15 covering 1791 to 1812. These are
full abstracts of all the detail in the original. Original bonds and allegations
continue to 1822, and allegations alone to 1885. There is an indexed typescript
at the Bedfordshire Record Office of these records 1813-1885.
A few Biggleswade peculiar bonds and
allegations survive for the epriod 1714-1800, which are not included in the
printed volumes. Bedfordshire record office has a card index to unprinted
allegations.
2nd Edition of the National Burial Index - Biggleswade
Number
of entries is 7320 from 1604-1855
Records held in Biggleswade Library (on microlfilm or
microfiche unless otherwise stated)
Anglican Registers:
Baptisms 1813-1930, Banns 1823-1930, Marriages
1813-1928, Burials 1813-1942
Methodist Baptisms 1838-1975
(old paper computer printout)
Index of Churchyard and Cemetery
burials 1813-1942 (paper copy)
It is also worth noting
that they have the Biggleswade Chronicle from October 1891
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Census
Census
records for Biggleswade are available from a variety of sources.
In addition to the Family Record Centre in London, BLARS
and the Bedford public library
hold full county records in microfiche form; Biggleswade public
library also the 1881 CDs and the 1891 census on fiche The following
are indexes or transcriptions identified for Biggleswade:
|
Year
|
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Population
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Census
Record Notes
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1801
|
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1734
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No
known record of inhabitants information.
|
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1811
|
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1895
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No
known record of inhabitants information.
|
|
1821
|
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2778
|
No
known record of inhabitants information.
|
|
1831
|
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3226
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No
known record of inhabitants information.
|
|
1841
|
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3807
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No known index or transcription other
than through payment sites.
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1851
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4460
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A full transcription has been completed
by myself, Mike Strange.
This is not being made available to the
public; there is a look-up facility for members
or those who purchase one of our publications (one surname
per purchase)
An index of names is available in
booklet form from the Bedfordshire
Family History Society.
I found errors and some questions
in the index, they can be found here.
|
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1861
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4631
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No known index or transcription other
than from payment sites.
|
|
1871
|
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5183
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No known index or transcription other
than from payment sites.
|
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1881
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4947
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As well as being available on CD from the Church
of the Latter Day Saints this can also be searched at
their website. It is also available with images
from payment sites.
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1891
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4943
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I coordinated transcription of this census for the
whole of Bedfordshire under the auspices of the FreeCEN
project, the breakdown of the Pieces may be seen on
my own website
and the records can be searched without charge at the
FreeCEN site.
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1901
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5120
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A fully searchable transcription is available from
the National Archives.
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1911
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5375
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This
is fully available through the Find My
Past
web site.
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Trade
and Resident Directories
A PDF document readers is needed,
Adobe® Acrobat® can be obtained here
Merchants Miscellany 1785 - Biggleswade
Kelly's 1898 - Biggleswade
Spong's
Directory and Almanac for Biggleswade 1914 - Contains details
of over 1300 heads of household.
In addition we hold the following for Biggleswade:
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1791 British Universal Directory
1839
Pigot
1850 Slater's
1854 Post Office
1862
1869
Post Office Directory
1876
1877 Post Office Directory
1879
Spong & Son's
"Companion
to the Household Almanack"
This
only names public bodies.1885 Kelly's
1890 Kelly's
1894
Kelly's
1898 Kelly's
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1903 Kelly's
1906 Kelly's
1910 Kelly's
1911
Spong & Son
1913 Spong & Son
We also have access to:
1897 Spong's
1899
Spong's
1914 Kelly's
1916 Spong & Son
1925 Kelly's
1935
Kelly's
1940
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For Potton we have 1850 Slater's and 1854.
Businesses
Maythorn & Son - Coachbuilders
Places
There
are a number of places in Biggleswade that have interesting backgrounds;
here is a start:
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Buildings
Follow
this link
to a list of property names and their locations and onward links
to images of plaques, important architectural features and notable
advertising detail. Included are names of houses, cottages and terraces,
ecclesiastical and public buildings and business properties.
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Roads
As
with all towns some of its road
names were derived from the names of people from the locality
or in the public limelight; Biggleswade is no exception and here
are some summaries from Ken Page. More detailed information
will follow on specific streets and here is a starter.
Biggleswade
in 1910
Market Square and High Street - see our book "Heritage
Trail" on the Puplications page.
Shortmead Street East
side - West side
Stratton
Street
The Race
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People
General Names Index
Biggleswade Apprentices
Dan Albone
Lt Vance Harney, USAAF
Charles Penrose and Fanny Blows
Mary Tealby
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Events
Shambles Fire
Maps
In addition
to the maps available at BLARS the History Society does have many
historical maps of Biggleswade available and these will be detailed
in due course. Also the Biggleswade Public Library has quite
a good selection: 1882 1:500, 1901 1:2500, 1901/1902
6 inch, 1926 1:2500, 1937/50 6 inch,
1960
6 inch, 1969 1:2500, 2001 1:10,000. The
1882 map really is quite excellent.
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