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West Yorkshire Archive Service
West Yorkshire Archive Service

Do you have a Black Sheep in the family?

 

Have you found a family member in a prison or an institution in the census? Would you like to find out more about who they were and why they were there?

 

Our records could reveal a wealth of information that you will not find anywhere else. This can include a physical description of your ancestors, the reasons why they were in prison, witness statements from the trial, previous convictions or charges, the names of their next of kin and sometimes even photographs.

 

To order Research Service visit the eshop https://eshop.wyjs.org.uk or download an application form

 

Contact details: West Yorkshire Archive Service: Wakefield, Registry of Deeds, Newstead Road, Wakefield, WF1 2DF. Telephone 01924 305980 or email the Research Service on email research@wyjs.org.uk. For general enquiries email wakefield@wyjs.org.uk

WYAS Bradford Opening Hours and Visitor Services

 

WYAS Bradford searchroom is now located in the Learning Zone on the first floor of Bradford Central Library where we have space for six users of original documents.

 

From week beginning 7th November we will be changing our opening hours to:

    Tuesday 9.30 - 5.00
    Thursday 9.30 - 5.00
    Friday 9.30 - 5.00

Microfiche Parish Register collections are currently not available at Bradford Local Studies Library. But remember they are available at WYAS Calderdale, Leeds and Wakefield offices and at Kirklees Local Studies Library. Many of the Parish Registers are also indexed and fully searchable on ancestry.co.uk including Marriages 1754 to 1935, Baptisms 1815 to 1910 and Burials 1815 to 1985.

 

Customers cannot currently access any floor above floor one which means that public lifts and public toilets are not available.

 

We would like to reassure the public that the safety and security of the Bradford collections remains unchanged.

 

Treasures of the West Yorkshire Archive Service

Our staff from the five offices of the West Yorkshire Archive Service based at Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield have put forward the top five treasures within their collections, and now over the next few months it is up to you for the final vote.

 

These treasures have been chosen because they display the broad range of rich history rooted in West Yorkshire, from the textile industry to social welfare, prominent citizens to long standing societies, and some others are just great to look at!

 

For full details on all the nominations and how to vote visit West Yorkshire Archives Treasures

 

Parish Registers on Ancestry

500 years of baptisms, marriages and burials are now available on Ancestry.co.uk. The parish registers from hundreds of Church of England parishes across West Yorkshire are now available to search online. These records are often the only way to track an ancestor prior to civil registration and also contain a wealth of information about the people of West Yorkshire from artists to engineers, authors to brewers, soldiers to politicians and the wars, unrest, disease and disaster that affected their lives. Free access is available from all our offices and many local libraries or follow the link above to log on from home! Any questions please contact us




The West Yorkshire Archive Service and Leeds Grand Theatre & Opera House have an exciting new volunteering opportunity.


You will be supporting the work of West Yorkshire Archive Service (WYAS) with the Grand Theatre?s Archive. You will have the opportunity to meet the team at the Grand Theatre and gain an insight into life at a number one touring venue. As well as the opportunity to work with the theatre archives you will gain an insight into the workings of the Archive Service.


You will be required to list records, support the transfer of them to the WYAS Leeds Office and work with staff to ensure they are accessible.


To apply for this exciting new opportunity visit www.archives.wyjs.org.uk/archives-volunteers.asp and complete an application form. For more information contact Sarah Shooter on 0113 393 9774 or email sshooter@wyjs.org.uk




Prestigious UNESCO Award for West Yorkshire Archive Service

The Diaries of Anne Lister held at WYAS Calderdale have received a prestigious award from UNESCO. The award for ?Best of UK Heritage? recognises the outstanding but lesser-known heritage of the UK.


This unique set of diaries (1806-1840) which run to four million words were written by Anne Lister of Shibden Hall, Halifax, West Yorkshire (1791-1840) a remarkable landowner, business woman, intrepid traveller, mountaineer and lesbian. She kept a fascinating and painfully honest account of her life and loves, a 1/6th of the diaries written in a code of her own devising which she felt confident would never be broken!


These are the second inscriptions to the UNESCO UK Memory of the World Register, an online catalogue created to help promote the UK?s documentary heritage across the UK and the world. The register is part of a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) programme to support and raise awareness of archives. The Anne Lister Diaries are one of 20 collections to have received the award this year from across the whole of the UK.


The UK Register is available at http://www.unesco.org.uk/ukregister




Accreditation Scheme for Community Groups

We have recently launched our Accreditation Scheme for Community Heritage Groups. It is hoped that this will provide a framework within which the groups can achieve excellence, raising standards in all core activities of such groups whilst actively promoting sustainability of both practice and collections.


See the Accreditation Scheme page for more details!


 

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