Geneaology Search Resources

This website includes many pages containing information about the people of Malhamdale, including Census, Polling lists, Tax lists, Manor Court Rolls and many more, however no matter how much material we have, there will always be other useful resources available in other parts of the web. This page has been set up to help access some of the Family History resources on the web that are relevant to your research of the families of Malhamdale and the surrounding areas. The search boxes on this page have been specially set up to provide search results that are as accurately targetted as possible, to help you find the results you need for your research.

For a thorough introduction to the resources available for tracing your ancestors in England & Wales, including tips on how to use them, check out the excellent Ancestor-Search.info website or British-Genealogy.com

Family History Search Engine : Specially tuned Google searchbox to look at relevant sites for local genealogy research on the Web.

Search Tips : If you are searching for a name or a phrase ie. John Preston or Kirkby Top, put your phrase in quotes - "John Preston" this will make sure that you find John Preston and not just find pages which contain John and Preston in different parts of the text.
Remember also to try combinations of different spelling variants and abbreviations, for example Serjeantson/Sargison or Jas for James.
Searching within a webpage seems to be a little known feature of web browsers. Once you have found a web page you are interested in, you can use your browser's built in search facility to find keywords wherever they appear on the webpage (this search is usually obtained by selecting the Edit menu, then the Find or Find on this page option).

Parish Record Index - Kirkby Malham Baptisms, Marriages & Burials 1597-1813 : Search the most comprehensive available index for St Michael the Archangel, Kirkby Malham. The index is based on all the currently available sources, providing the most comprehensive cover possible for the records which were stolen from the church.

Accuracy : Please bear in mind that this index should be treated very much as a secondary source and you should try and check any events against the most original sources available. These are the Bishop's Transcripts held by the Borthwick Institute at York and available on microfilm through any Mormon Family History Centre and the YPRS 1597-1690 transcript which should be available via inter-library loan or to purchase on microfiche from the YPRS.

Notes on searching :

Missing Entry : Can't find an entry you know should be there? Then check HERE.

Variant Spelling : The "Sounds Like" search uses Soundex, it has some limitations because it assigns a code to names (eg. Elizabeth = E421), however if you enter Helen, it won't find occurrences of Ellen, even though they do sound alike, as they start with different letters.

Starts with : The Rev Cookson standardised the spelling of names in his index, including calling all the Hurtley family Hartley, although there were only a handful of the latter. The index contains many spelling variants (eg. Redman - Redmaine), so it is a good idea to search with just the first few letters of the name and to try and think of any other possible ways the name could be spelt ie. Swyre - Swire - Squire : Wellock - Wallock - Willock : Buck - Boucke. Some of the surnames in the database, particularly those from the Cookson Index have had their spelling standardised.

Spouse/Parent/Relationship : You add a full or partial surname or forename for the spouse, father or mother if necessary, but it may prevent results from being found, so only use it if you are getting too many results.
Abbreviations used in this field include : -
                                                                        So = son of : Do = daughter of : Wo = wife of : Wd = widow/widower

Alternative entries : The results may show some almost identical entries, with just a slight difference in date, often only a few days. The second date is usually either the Birth or Death of the individual as recorded in the IGI. You can check the full record in the IGI using the form below.