Whitehouse Family History Centre

1st January 2012

CHANGE OF PRACTICE, 23rd January 2012

The following change of practice will apply to all those whose Whitehouse trees I have computerised and to whom I have sent a tree in any year from 2006 to date.

If an e-mail sent to your last known e-address is not delivered and if you have changed your telephone number, you will not receive an updated tree and my register will be marked “LC” (lost contact).  In future, no letter will be sent to your last known postal address.  If you think that this might apply to you or just want me to check that your details are up to date, please contact me by the means indicated below.  If you can quote your WFHC reference number in the subject line of an e-mail, that would be much appreciated.

If you are one of the relatively few whose tree has not yet been digitised, every reasonable attempt will be made to contact you, including by post if necessary.

A warm welcome to the premier website for Whitehouse family history and Whitehouse genealogy records.  All Whitehouse FHC services are entirely free of charge.  This website is updated quarterly, at around 1st January, 1st April, 1st July and 1st October.  Intermediate partial updates occur as required.

CONDITIONS OF ACCESS TO THE WEBSITE

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  I ask this to prevent the circulation of out-of-date material that might contain errors or suffer from omissions that have since been noticed and corrected.

NEW ENQUIRIES

My e-mail address can be obtained from the Guild of One-Name Studies website: http://www.one-name.org/cgi-bin/searchrequest.cgi  under Whitehouse.  If you are a new enquirer, please head your e-mail “New Enquiry”.  Please first visit the records on this website.  If a WFHC reference number is shown against a census, marriage or probate entry, please draw this to my attention within the body of your e-mail.  If your question is accompanied by a tree, please do not attach your tree as a .ged or .dat file, as I might be unable to read it and it does not suit my method of working.  Use a text output instead, please.  Other acceptable forms include “Word”, “Excel”, jpg image and portable document format.  Please be aware that because the Whitehouse 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.

You can contact me by post at dnalgne, XJ5 2MS, yerrus, nottus, yawgdir eht, eerht ytxis.

REGISTRATION

The advantages of registering are: (1) I check over your tree and sometimes my familiarity with Whitehouses and the records that I have on the website and on paper can help; (2) Frequently, I will be able to connect you with a distant cousin or other relative, who is connected with your tree; (3) It’s an on-going service, so if another distant cousin etc. contacts me, you will “automatically” be put in touch with him or her, so long as you keep your contact details up to date; and (4) Your tree will eventually be archived, thus preserving it for future generations.  When registered, you will receive a WFHC reference number, which is added to the referencing databases on my website (marriages, census, probate), which are valuable “signposts” for others.

Registration is free.  There is no form to complete.  You simply need to e-mail me, giving your name, postal address, telephone number (landline preferred) and details of your descent and say that you would like to register.  Your name, postal address and e-address will be given ONLY to those who appear to be linked to your tree, who seldom number more than five.  Your telephone number is for my personal use and will remain strictly private and confidential.

When giving details of your descent, there is no need to supply anything more modern than the generation that begins before 1902, but I shall need to know from which person in that generation, you descend.  (Note:  if your ancestor Whitehouse was born in, say, 1907, and has a brother or sister born in, say, 1901, that ancestor should please be shown, because the generation begins in 1901 or maybe earlier).  Generally stated, it is best to provide dates, places and occupations in as much detail as you can.  That applies equally to the spouse who marries the Whitehouse in your descent.  If you know of brothers and sisters of the Whitehouse, please include them, too.  Do not worry about supplying too much information.

EXISTING REGISTERED CORRESPONDENTS

An existing registered correspondent is one who is listed on my private register and has been given a WFHC reference number.  Please use your reference number in the subject line of e-mails and, above all, please tell me of any change to your e-mail or postal address.

ACCESS LINKS IN BRIEF

Access to individual index files is through the appropriate explanations file listed below.  The brief descriptions given after the links do not do justice to the wealth of material available here, much of which is of superior quality to records found elsewhere.  If an index file is shown as unavailable, the usual reason is an error in the link.  Please tell me about it right away.  Use control and click to follow the link.

CURRENT NEWSLETTER (The quarterly newsletter having the same date as this index page)

PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS (Back numbers to December 2005)

BMD EXPLANATIONS 120101 (Births, marriages and deaths, including General Register Office indexes, the Marriage Details index and some parish records)

CEN EXPLANATIONS 120101 (Indexed transcripts of censuses)

PROB EXPLANATIONS 120101 (Wills and administrations indexes)

MISC EXPLANATIONS 120101 (Other records:  apprentices; children’s hospital records; fire policy, GWR shareholders, lunatic asylums, patentees, Sedgley Manor Rolls, Staffs recusants and seamen who fought at the battle of Trafalgar)

RADAP 120101 (Note about the ongoing WFHC Re-indexing, Archiving, Digitisation And Paper-destruction project)

WM TOWN CODE 100328 (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)

MARRIAGE MINING 110103 (Paper about how to find marriages in church registers)

10 YEAR REVIEW 111010 (Article published in Journal of One-name Studies, Jan-Mar 2012, providing a review of the progress of the WFHC since October 2001)

SAMPLE TREES 111002 (Provides links to some 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 30 years and have no plans to change that aspect.  During this time, I have accumulated over 520 registered correspondents.  I am a member of the Guild of One-name Studies and the Society of Genealogists.

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, 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) his father, 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.

My interest in the name derives from my great-grandfather who married Selina Whitehouse, daughter of Charles Whitehouse (1804 to 1856), a Birmingham brassfounder who moved to Dudley in around 1837 or early 1838.  He was the younger brother of William, the law stationer mentioned above.  Charles’ and William’s father was William Whitehouse, a gun barrel maker of Birmingham (1752 to probably 1836).  This William had a brother, Richard (1756 to 1830), a writing master, schoolmaster and accountant, who married Sarah Negus at Wednesbury in 1784.  John Negus Whitehouse, the plater mentioned above, was their eldest child.

Keith