DEVON-L Archives

From: Brian Randell <>
Subject: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) relating to DEVON
Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 14:37:06 +0100

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) relating to DEVON


*1. Why are so few Devon parish registers available on microfilm?
*2. Why is Devon's coverage in the IGI rather limited?
*3. What Devon wills survive?
*4. I can't find <?????> in GENUKI/Devon - can you help?
*5. Is it worth joining the Devon Family History Society?
*6. Does the Devon Family History Society have an email address?
*7. I've just subscribed - is anyone researching the name <?????>?
*8. Could some SKS look up the <?????> census for me?
*9. What is the WCSL?
*10. What is the Burnet Morris Index?
*11. Where are the records for <?????> parish?
*12. Where is Stoke Damerel?
*13. Where is Devonport?
*14. How can I contribute to GENUKI/Devon?
*15. I have some photographs of <?????> church - would you like them
for GENUKI/Devon?
*16. Can I submit my GEDCOM file to GENUKI/Devon?
*17. How do I unsubscribe from DEVON-L?
*Other, more general, questions

Newcomers to DEVON-L (and people who've mislaid their bookmarks!)
frequently post queries that could be easily answered by reference to the
World Wide Web-based UK & Ireland Genealogical Information Service
(GENUKI), in particular to GENUKI/Devon.
The purpose of this "Devon FAQ file" is to give answers to the above
queries, in many cases simply by reference to the appropriate section of
GENUKI/Devon, i.e. of: http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/genuki/DEV/. (A copy of this
FAQ file will be posted occasionally to DEVON-L, and also held in GENUKI,
reachable directly from the GENUKI/Devon page, as the file is also intended
to be of assistance to GENUKI/Devon users.)
The set of answers provided in this page supplement the more general ones
provided in the FAQ file for GENUKI as a whole; for convenience here is an
index, via which a browser-user can go directly to answers in the more
general FAQ file. (The browser's "Back" button can be used to return to
this Devon FAQ file.)

*1. How do Mailing Lists, Newsgroups and the Web differ?
*2. What is GENUKI?
*3. I'm new to genealogy. How do I begin?
*4. Where is the place called <?????>
*5. Is there a Family History Society for <?????> county?
*6. Is there a Surnames List for <?????>?
*7. Is there a Mailing List for <?????>?
*8. How do I find the address of the Local Register Office for <?????>?
*9. How can I obtain a copy of a birth/marriage/death certificate?
*10. Where are the Parish Registers for <?????>?
*11. Can you recommend a good genealogy book catalogue?
*12. How can I prepare for a visit to the Public Record Office?
*13. I don't have means of accessing the Web - how can I use GENUKI?
*14. I can't find <?????> in GENUKI - can you help?


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1. Why are so few Devon parish registers available on microfilm?

The great majority of extant Devon parish registers are now in the custody
of the Devon Record Office and have been microfilmed. However, in line with
a formal agreement that was entered into some years ago by the Diocese of
Exeter, Devon County Council, and the County Record Office, copies of these
microfilms are not, in general, available for purchase, even by other
libraries or the LDS. For further details see under Church Records on the
GENUKI/Devon page.

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2. Why is Devon's coverage in the IGI rather limited?

The LDS has only been able to get permission to copy, and extract into the
IGI, non-conformist registers, and transcriptions of Devon parish
registers, (in the main from transcripts in the possession of the Devon &
Cornwall Record Society) - again, for further details see under Church
Records on the GENUKI/Devon page.

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3. What Devon wills survive?

Prior to 1858, wills were proved in Devon in five main ecclesiatical
courts: the Archdeaconry courts of Totnes, Barnstaple and Exeter; the
Episcopal Consistory Court of Exeter, and the Episcopal Principal Registry
of Exeter. All these probate records were destroyed by fire during World
War II. Few had been abstracted beforehand, though indexes had been
prepared for all except the Totnes wills. Luckily, the Public Record
Office's files of Death Duty Registers (IR26 and 27) provide summaries of
many but by no means all of the Devon wills that were proved during the
period 1796 to 1903, including those destroyed in 1942. For further
information see under Probate Records on the GENUKI/Devon page. However, a
few Devon parishes came under the Archdeaconry of Cornwall; their wills,
plus various other individual transcriptions and abstracts, survive - see
the particular parish pages.

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4. I can't find <?????> in GENUKI/Devon - can you help?

If you have exhausted the possibilities provided the GENUKI/Devon Search
facility (at http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/genuki/DEV/DevonSearch.html - and
linked to from near the top of the GENUKI/Devon page) then this is a fine
question to send to the DEVON-L mailing list. However, please do not send
such questions just to me. My own area of interest and expertise regarding
Devon centres on Clovelly in North Devon - otherwise, just about all I know
of Devon genealogy is already in the Devon pages, maintenance of which
takes up a good proportion of my spare time.

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5. Is it worth joining the Devon Family History Society?

Yes, if you have any continuing research interests related to Devon. The
Society publishes a quarterly journal, has indexed a lot of original Devon
records, and now has a useful web site, at http://www.devonfhs.org.uk/. The
annual subscription is very modest, and the Society has - for use by those
members who live near or can visit Exeter - a sizeable library.

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6. Does the Devon Family History Society have an email address?

Not at present, though their Web site does have an online guest book.
However, as the number of Internet-using members grows, so one can expect
that the Society will find it possible, and indeed highly appropriate, to
use the Internet increasingly as a means of communication with its members.

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7. I've just subscribed - is anyone researching the name <?????>?

A good way to find out who else is researching in a particular area in
Devon is to check the place name index on Ronald Branscombe's Devon
Surnames List, which is at
http://www.gendex.com/users/branscombe/genuki/devon.htm. You can find a
link to this list under Genealogy on the GENUKI/Devon page. Incidentally,
it is always a good idea to include with any query to DEVON-L a brief
indication of what searches of online and conventional sources you have
already made. This is in order to avoid your receiving, and other
respondents wasting effort providing, information that you are already
familiar with.

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8. Could some SKS look up the <?????> census for me?

The 1851 and 1881 census records have been fully indexed - and are
available very cheaply on CD-ROM from the LDS - so addressing a request
concerning these census years to DEVON-L is very likely to result in
helpful responses. However, with few exceptions (noted on the relevant
GENUKI/Devon parish pages), other years have not been indexed, so lookup
requests relating to one of the other census years are unlikely to be
successful unless you can provide a fairly exact address. ("SKS", by the
way, is a fairly common abbreviation for "Some Kind Soul.")

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9. What is the WCSL?

The WCSL is the Westcountry Studies Library in Exeter. This is the main
section of the Devon Local Studies Reference Library, and has a very large
collection of books, pamphlets, etc., relevant to Devonshire Local and
Family history. It provides a very useful online catalogue. For more
details see under Archives and Libraries on the GENUKI/Devon page

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10. What is the Burnet Morris Index?

This immensely useful general index, listing over a million references to
Devon places and people, is at the WCSL, but microfilmed versions can be
seen at any LDS Family History Centre. (For the reference sources covered
see the booklet "The Burnet Morris Index 1940-1990", Devon Library
Services, Exeter, 1990.)

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11. Where are the records for <?????> parish?

In all probability in the Devon Record Office. You can check availability
of parish registers via the relevant GENUKI/Devon parish page, and find
some information regarding the Record Office's holdings via
http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/genuki/DEV/DevonCRO/, though the complete Record
Office catalogue is not available online. (To obtain actual information,
you will need to visit one of the branches of the Record Office yourself,
or have someone undertake research there on your behalf. Professional
researchers and record agents advertise in places such as the Genealogical
Magazine, and Family Tree Magazine - and the Devon Record Office itself
provides a professional genealogical research service.) Note, however, that
from 1837 there was a national civil registration system for births,
marriages and death, which in effect gradually supplanted the use of parish
registers - see http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/civreg/index.html.)

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12. Where is Stoke Damerel?

Stoke Damerel is a large parish, adjoining Plymouth, which includes
Devonport. Answering a more general question, the button at the top of the
Devon page marked "Devon Towns & Parishes" will take you to a page that
provides links to all the individual Devon parishes (and its most major
towns), and that also lists the names of all the towns and sizeable
villages that were not parishes, and place names that might be confused
with parish names. However, there is also a much larger (12,000 item)
Online Devon Gazetteer which lists all the chapels, churches, farms,
hamlets, houses, inns, manors, schools, streets, villages, banks,
societies, institutions, etc., named in White's History, Gazetteer, and
Directory of Devonshire (1850). There are links to this Gazetteer from near
the top of, and under Genealogy on, the GENUKI/Devon page. Its URL is:
http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/genuki/DEV/Gazetteer/.

13. Where is Devonport?

In Stoke Damerel.

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14. How can I contribute to GENUKI/Devon?

There are many possibilities. You could transcribe (having obtained any
necessary permissions and copyright clearances), original records or
published descriptive texts relating to parishes or topics of interest to
you. You could prepare your own descriptive texts about places or topics on
which you have gained expertise. (Such material could either be hosted
within GENUKI/Devon, or within your own space and linked to from
GENUKI/Devon.) There is an ongoing project to index published parish
histories and the like - see
http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/genuki/DEV/indexingproject.html - for which
additional volunteers are always welcome. Finally, more general information
about how you could contribute to GENUKI is to be found at:
http://www.genuki.org.uk/org/helpus.html.

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15. I have some photographs of <?????> church - would you like them for
GENUKI/Devon?

The space available in the GENUKI web server is not extensive enough to
make it feasible to accept digitised photographs, but links can be made to
such photographs held elsewhere.

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16. Can I submit my GEDCOM file to GENUKI/Devon?

In the main, the information that is provided in GENUKI relates to primary
historical material, rather than material resulting from genealogists'
ongoing research, such as GEDCOM files. There are many online archives that
accept such files, in particular the LDS's Ancestral File system, and
GenServ (http://www.genserv.com/). However, if you have produced a
narrative account of the life and times of an ancestor or group of
ancestors, from a particular Devon parish, that could be of general
interest, and so would be a very welcome addition to GENUKI.

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17. How do I unsubscribe from DEVON-L?

To unsubscribe from DEVON-L, send an e-mail message to:
. In the subject and body of your message type:

unsubscribe

and nothing else. (Be sure not to use a signature file with this command.)

Last updated 11 Aug 1999, B. Randell.

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Dept. of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE1 7RU, UK
EMAIL = PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
FAX = +44 191 222 8232 URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/~brian.randel

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• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) relating to DEVON by Brian Randell <>