Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire's land area is 1,940 sq kilometres, much longer north-south than broad. It borders on Middlesex to the south making it a Home County. The population, a little over 100,000 in 1801, doubled by 1911, grew by 100,000 per decade starting in the 1950s, lost area and population by the reorganization of counties in 1974, and had grown again to 480,000 by the 2001 census.

The Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies (CBS), opened in 2002, is located at County Hall in Aylesbury. It provides the normal services of a county record office, and more. Parish (baptism, marriage burial, and in come cases banns) and non-conformist registers are held. There is an online list of parishes and holdings. Other holding of interest to the researcher are: Quarter Sessions Records containing thousands of names of Buckinghamshire people appearing as jurors, licensees, and felons, published in seven volumes (with indexes) for the years 1678-1730; wills proved in the Archdeaconry Court of Buckingham date from 1483-1858; marriage licences dating from 1663 to 1849,; settlement and apprenticeship papers with name indexes; title deeds and manorial records; inclosure awards; tithe maps; valuation maps; and electoral registers.

The web site of the CBS has some special resources well worth exploring:
- a listing of county newspapers, note that they may be held elsewhere in the county;
- a database of prisoners entering the County Gaol in Aylesbury in the 1870s, often including age, birthplace and residence. You may be surprised to find a photo of an ancestor who served time;
- a database of 5,000 entries from Buckinghamshire trade directories indexed for 1792, 1798, 1811, 1824 and 1832;
- more than 20,000 historic photographs.

Many of the holdings are also entered in Access to Archives.

The county is served by two societies: the Buckinghamshire Family History Society and the Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society. The former is nearly thirty years old, the latter was founded more recently. Likely the existance of two societies reflects a particular aspect of local history.

No particularly significant group migration from the county to Canada has been located.

Reference Web Sites

Buckinghamshire Family History Society

Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society

Buckinghamshire Memorials to Canada's Fallen

Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies

GENUKI (Buckinghamshire)

200 Years of the Census in Buckinghamshire