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Links to external web sites

Brentford

• Brentford & Chiswick Local History Society includes details of their current programme of events
• Brentford community web site
• Thomas Layton collection. Thomas Layton lived in Brentford between 1826 & 1911; an avid collector he left over 20,000 objects when he died
• 1841 Street Index for Brentford Registration District, part of The National Archives 'Your Archives' project, useful if you want to pinpoint a specific Brentford address in the census; or see below for Your Archives home page
• 1851 Street Index for Brentford Registration District, as above
• Jackie Day writes 'a film made in 1958, 'Hell Drivers', has a short clip of Brentford High Street in it. You can see the wall of the gas works and the 'hero' going into one of the myriad of small shops on the opposite side of the road. It stars Stanley Baxter, David McCallum and a very young Sean Connery'; Jackie sent a link to the Reel Streets website, search on 'Hell Drivers' and scroll down to see a couple of photos, one shows numbers 330 onwards on the left
• Diana Willment has written a number of local history books about Brentford, see her new website 'Diana Willment, a life in Brentford' for details of her publications and how to order them
• Jackie Day recommends the British Pathe News website; for example see a short film of Band's Parchment works, Plough Yard, 1939 ; on the home page search for Brentford ** New

Brentford Plus

• Maps of London including one for Brentford and surrounding area ca 1940
• The British History Online web site describes itself as a 'digital library containing some of the core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles'. There is no charge to use this site, which includes text search facilities. See Ealing and Brentford Economic History page as an example of the wealth of information available
• You may find your ancestor appeared as a witness or defendant at the Old Bailey Proceedings from 1674 - 1913 web site, searchable by name
• A2A (Access to Archives) try a search on 'Brentford NEAR5 High Street" to find details of records which include 'Brentford' within five words of 'High Street'; I found several summaries of deeds this way
• The National Archives documents on line site (choose 'family history' from the left bar and then 'Wills' to see PCC wills index or 'Registers of Seamens Services' to see a searchable index of seamen who joined the Royal Navy between 1873 & 1923)
• London Metropolitan Archives holds wills proved at the Diocese of London Consistory Court, 1514 - 1858; 8 indexes (surnames A-B, C-D etc) for the 31,000 wills can be searched by surname or place; the LMA web site notes these testators had '... lands in more than one Archdeaconry within the Diocese, and (this) is the middle tier of the hierarchy of courts ... wills of those people with more wealth were generally proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC)... and those with less wealth in local Archdeaconry courts ...'; over 150 wills of Brentford people were proved at this court
• Historical directories site from Leicester University, it is possible to search by county, decade or use the keyword search for a person's name
• FreeBMD, a free index of births, marriages and deaths 1837 to ca 1920 (as at May 2009): approaching completion for this period; it is possible to limit searches to Brentford Registration District (choose 'Brentford' in the list of registration districts, or set 'volume' to '3a' to see a wider area including Brentford)
• West Middlesex Family History Society for anyone with family interests in the Brenford area: their home page shows the parishes covered
• Culture 24 National virtual museum: browse on 'Brentford'
• National Trust Surname profiler: search on your surname to find out where it is most prevalent; I have tried this on Dear, Narroway, Napper (which appear in Brentford prior to 1850) with interesting results
• If you are struggling to date an old photo try Roger Vaughan's Victorian photographs site
• Phillimore's Middlesex parish register transcripts: marriages, searchable by surname; includes New Brentford, Ealing (which covered Old Brentford) & Hanworth, generally predates 1837
• TNA Your Archives, TNA's own Wikipedia allowing individuals to add material to assist other searchers
• Internet Library of Early Journals website - ILEJ - at http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/ilej/ is a digital library of 18th and 19th Century journals, searchable on terms such as Brentford
• British Library British Newspapers 1800-1900 offers newpaper search facilities including an option to view 'free' entries only
• London Gazette web site, searchable by name back to the 1660s, images can be downloaded / text copied, all for free; it includes honours, medals, bankruptcy notices etc (thanks to Carole from Alberta for this link)
• The West Middlesex FHS site includes a map showing the New and Old Brentford parishes, and surrounding parishes, late 1830s
• I can highly recommend Peter Calver's LostCousins web site, worth registering for the excellent regular newsletter full of useful tips (see latest newsletter); I have started to add some Brentford entries to the site, hope others will join in; thank you to Muriel Wallington for pointing me to this site
• You can order birth, marriage and death certificates for your Brentford ancestors online from the London Borough of Hounslow at http://www.hounslow.gov.uk/index/online_forms.htm ? Certificates cost £9.25 each; thanks to Janet McNamara for passing on the details
• Jackie Day recommends British Pathe News website to local and family historians; on the home page search for any placename or topic ** New
• Thames Discovery Programme 'Explore the archaeology and history of the Thames foreshore, London’s biggest archaeological site, with our exciting Heritage Lottery funded project': thanks to Jackie Day for this link ** New
• English Heritage Images of England site contains photos of the listed properties in Brentford, also descriptions of their interiors; another of their sites offers searches of National Monument Record images, recommended by Jackie Day ** New

Updated and links checked July 2010