Whitehouse Family History Centre
2nd October 2009 partly updated 8th November 2009
Welcome to the premier website for Whitehouse family history and Whitehouse genealogy records. Here you will find a library of information, including the best British BMD records for 1837 to 1911, high quality transcripts of the 1841-1871 censuses (substantially complete) and the best probate indexes.
I am accepting new registrations until the end of 2009, when I shall be conducting a full review of the work done to date and future priorities. The main advantages of registration are (a) you get a reference number and your tree is indexed to the files on this website, (b) in order to provide good indexing, your tree will be checked over and if necessary worked on, (c) you will be put in touch with cousins or other connected people on the same tree who have registered and (d) your tree will (eventually) be archived. Registration and all other services here are free of charge.
All who intend to register are very strongly urged to do so this quarter, since the review is likely to result in changes to reduce my work to a sustainable level.
The website is normally updated every quarter on or around 1st January, 1st April, 1st July and 1st October. There is a quarterly newsletter at these times.
The Whitehouse one-name study is at present registered with the Guild of One-Name Studies, which means that I shall answer all enquiries. However, because the name is so frequent in England, where most enquiries are focused, I do not keep “modern” records. The main effort of the one-name study is pre-1912. Enquirers are strongly recommended to visit this website and if necessary use the records provided to improve their tree.
CONDITIONS OF ACCESS
It is almost inevitable that mistakes or omissions will be found in the materials made available. Please report them to me. I do not accept any liability for any act or omission that might result from the use of material on this website. I have anti-virus software installed and update it frequently. However, I cannot guarantee that material downloaded from this website is virus-free and therefore disclaim any responsibility for transmission of any virus or other contaminant or any effect thereof.
You may access these materials, but in the knowledge of these disclaimers and subject to these conditions of access. If you do not agree, do not proceed any further and do not use or download anything from this website.
Documents available here are amended from time to time. Updates can be distinguished from previous versions by the yymmdd date in the file name. Please do not pass on documents to others, but suggest that they come here to download the latest version. I ask this to prevent the circulation of out-of-date material that might contain errors or omissions that have since been noticed and corrected.
ACCESS LINKS IN BRIEF
Access to individual index files is through the appropriate explanations file listed below. If an index file is shown as unavailable, the usual reason is an error in the link. Please tell me about it right away.
CURRENT NEWSLETTER (The quarterly newsletter having the same date as this index page)
PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS (Back numbers to December 2005)
REGISTRATION FAQs 091004 (Free Registration of your Whitehouse interest at the WFHC)
BMD EXPLANATIONS 091108 (Births, marriages and deaths, including General Register Office indexes and the Marriage Details indexes for certain districts in the West Midlands)
M Det B RD 091108 (Hotlink direct to the Birmingham Registration District Marriage Details File in PDF format)
CEN EXPLANATIONS 090925 (Indexed transcripts of censuses, 1841 to 1871)
PROB EXPLANATIONS 090925 (Wills and administrations indexes)
MISC EXPLANATIONS 081230 (Other records: fire policy, GWR shareholders, lunatic asylums, patentees and Staffs recusants indexes)
RADAP 090630 (Note about the ongoing WFHC Re-indexing, Archiving, Digitisation And Paper-destruction project)
WM TOWN CODE 090630 (Paper about a 2-letter code for the names of towns and the larger villages in the West Midlands)
FREQUENCY 060331 (Paper about the frequency of occurrence of the Whitehouse surname)
LOST CONTACT 090925 (MS Excel file of correspondents with whom contact has been lost. Last known addresses (LKA) are provided - can you help to find them ?)
SAMPLE TREES 090326 (Provides links to sample trees of Whitehouse FHC correspondents)
Index files are in MS Excel 2003. If you do not have Excel installed, I recommend that you download the Open Office suite, which is free software and contains a spreadsheet which is compatible with MS Excel.
ABOUT THE WHITEHOUSE FHC
The Whitehouse Family History Centre is simply me, an amateur genealogist. This is, therefore, not an office or a company. I do not make any charges and do not make any profits. I have been operating in this way for 28 years and have no plans to change that aspect. During this time, I have accumulated 500 registered correspondents. I am a member of the Guild of One-name Studies and the Society of Genealogists.
To contact me, please see Section 3 of the Registration FAQs file (link above). If you are an existing correspondent, please try to use your reference number.
I hope one day to hear from someone who is a descendant of (a) William Whitehouse, law stationer of Birmingham (1801 to 1839) and his wife Jane, maiden surname Spencer, (b) Richard Whitehouse, gun engraver of Birmingham, living in Handsworth (1808 to 1883) and his wives Eliza, maiden surname Tantam and Ellen, maiden surname Ashmall (WFHC ref. 251) or (c) John Negus Whitehouse, plater and lace machine smith of Birmingham and Loughborough, Leics (1787 to 1830s) and his wife Sarah, maiden surname Parry, reputedly the daughter of Richard Owen Parry.
I am glad to be of service and if you think I’m doing a good job here, please offer to help. Currently, I need help in transcribing marriages, especially at Birmingham Central Library, Sandwell Community History and Archives Service (Smethwick) and at Cannock, Walsall and Wolverhampton Local Studies.
Keith