ISLE OF WIGHT WEBSITES

The following Links to Websites have been sent to the Society for inclusion on this page. They are produced by a variety of organizations on the Island, both commercial and private and have valuable information about the Isle of Wight. The information on any of these sites cannot be guaranteed by the Society and anyone using them is urged to use them as a guide to research only. If you know of any other sites that would be useful for Isle of Wight research please feel free to send them to me, the Webmaster, Geoff Allan. Click for email address

Isle of Wight Record Office
The Record Office website has recently been revised. The direct address is www.iwight.com/library/record_office/default.asp

As you will see, there is now a 'What's New?' page, where you will find details concerning the 1901 Census and other news.

The Isle of Wight Register Office
www.iwight.com/council/departments/registrars/
If you need to register a birth or death, arrange a marriage or civil partnership, this is the website to go to to find out more.

Ann Barrett's Page
Ann Barrett has put together a very useful webpage in which she offers information from the considerable amount of research that she has done at the IOW Record Office on many topics concerned with IOW local history including Schools and Education, Parkhurst Prison personnel, Coastguards and IOW Railway personnel. She has also done extensive research into several Island names.
http://members.lycos.co.uk/s0uthbury/

House of Industry
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~peter/workhouse/IsleOfWight/IsleOfWight.shtml The House of Industry plays a very important part in Isle of Wight History and family history. This site gives a very good history of it, a plan of it and several excellent pictures.

Isle of Wight Monuments and Memorials
www.isle-of-wight-memorials.org.uk
A website which gives details of the majority of Isle of Wight Monuments and Memorials has now been created by Geoff Allan.
The website lists all the known War Memorials, and gives details of the names inscribed, together with links to other information including the Commonwealth War Graves records. Also included are details of the monumental inscriptions from CWGC headstones for those men and women who are buried on the Island. The website is illustrated with photographs of most of the memorials. In addition, there also details of public monuments on the Island.
The website can be searched by any keyword, e.g. place, name or regiment.

Customs Officers in Cowes
This has been compiled by Steve Holden from a search of Customs and other archives. It is by no means complete, but does give a large number of names between the 1650's and 1930's (although there are a few outside this period). It also contains some Excise Officers, although fewer records appear to have survived, and Coast Guards until 1830. This is a continuing project. Steve would be interested to hear from anyone who has served as Customs and Excise Officers on the Island, or has had relatives who have done so.
www.customscowes.co.uk/
Steve Holden, who has compiled this website also has another excellent website with census details for
SHALFLEET, IOW. It is
www.sources.shalfleet.net/index.htm/

East Cowes Cemetery
This website
www.friendsofeastcowes.org.uk already contains details of over 300 burials which have been transcribed from the registers held by Bereavement Services at the IW Crematorium. A start has also been made on researching the lives of those who are buried in the Cemetery. The research and surveys etc will eventually be deposited at the East Cowes Heritage Centre.
If anyone has information or photos of those buried at Kingston Cemetery we would be pleased to include them on the website and at the Heritage Centre.
Janet Griffin Click for email address

Family Tree Forum
Family Tree Forum is a vast infomation resource for genealogists with the added bonus of forums where members can seek advice in their research. www.familytreeforum.com/wiki/index.php/Welcome

Using DNA to trace your family roots
This new site is about using DNA for your family history. You can go to the site www.familytreedna.com to learn more about this technology.
The following URL takes you directly to the sign up page for the Isle of Wight section of this group. www.familytreedna.com/surname_join.asp?code=F27197&special=True&projecttype=DG

ACCOMMODATION for visitors to the Isle of Wight
www.islandbreaks.co.uk
ACCOMMODATION. So many of our members from abroard and the mainland wish to visit our lovely island, especially in the spring and summer, to research their family history that I have now put a link to the Isle of Wight Tourist Board's excellent site.
If you are planning a visit to the Island here is the Isle of Wight Tourist Board website. It contains accommodation of all kinds in all areas of the Island as well as lots of other information about the Island.
An alternative website for ACCOMMODATION (and rather easier to navigate) is
www.isleofwight.com/links.html

Another website with information about accommodation it the Isle of Wight Tourist Guide which caters for all your accommodation needs on the Isle of Wight. It is a holiday guide for hotels and tourist information.
www.isleofwighttouristguide.com

Northwood Village and Churchyard
www.northwoodvillage.org.uk
This site has been created for Northwood Village but can be of value to people searching for knowledge of the village and for the graves of ancestors who were buried in the churchyard. The work is still in progress.
and the direct link to the Burial Database page is
www.northwoodvillage.org.uk/church/churchburial/default.aspx

RYDE & BINSTEAD

Ryde Cemetery
This site used to be about Ryde Cemetery, but with the formation of the Ryde Social Heritage Group, and a LHI grant, we have been able to set up the site with all kinds of information about the social history of Ryde. It is a work in progress and will be updated on a regular basis.
A valuable site for family historians with ancestors in the Ryde area.
www.rshg.org.uk is the new address, but the old address
www.rydecemetery.org.uk also goes to the new site.

The Streets of Ryde, Binstead, Seaview, Bembridge, St.Helens, Wootton and Ryde Coast.
This website contains modern photographs of streets in the above towns. http://www.rydeiow.co.uk/

East Cowes Cemetery
This new project to record the history of the Kingston Cemetery at East Cowes. A few entries from the burial register have already been included.
www.friendsofeastcowes.org.uk

Parkhurst Heritage
www.wightonline.co.uk/parkhurst-heritage/
This site is about a museum at Parkhurst Prison. Principal Officer John Kingsbury, and Officer Brian Manser, working completely independent of the Prison service, have successfully opened a museum, which is full of artefacts and items of interest from the prison. It includes information about the 'Parkhurst Boys', many of whom were sent to Australia.

Hampshire/IOW & Sussex Surname lists
The lists are now published in a searchable database using a commercial supplier eCritical. You can search by Surname (the string matches from the initial letters); place (string matches any occurrance), County (pull down list), Status N=New (only selection at present). The result listing is limited in blocks of 15
To search go to www.list.jaunay.com/engnames/index.html.

Hampshire Online Parish Clerk (OPC) Project
The Hampshire OPC Project is now live and online at http://www.knightroots.co.uk - click on "Hampshire OPC" to see!
This is an on-going project but there is already much useful information for researchers of Hampshire ancestors.

Victoria County History - Hampshire & The Isle of Wight
www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/vch/hampshire.shtml
An index to place names in the titles of topographical articles in the published volumes of the Victoria County History.
The site in general attempts to provide some useful resources for those researching medieval English ancestry, including a guide to sources, classified lists of links to online source material and medieval family histories, a hyperlinked medieval calendar and other reference material, including a collection of corrections and additions to the Complete Peerage, in progress.

Isle of Wight Historic Postcards
www.postcards.shalfleet.net/
This site contain a great deal of information and pictures of the Island's past and access to other interesting IOW sites.

More Pictures and Old Postcards
members.lycos.co.uk/bartie/
This is a site full of pictures around the Island on postcards which has been designed by Antony Barton, a member of the IOWFHS. He would like more contributions to the collection.

The Isle of Wight History Centre
Hosted by the Isle of Wight Industrial Archaeology Society
www.iwhistory.org.uk
This web site has very interesting information about a large variety of Isle of Wight subjects including the archaeological work that has been carried out on the Island. There is also a historical "Time line" of Island history.

Isle of Wight Index
www.isle-of-wight.uk.com
Everything you want to know about the Isle of Wight, including accommodation, business, tourism, etc.

Hampshire History (including the Isle of Wight)
website.lineone.net/~hantshistory
A very useful, easy to navigate and informative site for finding information and pictures as well as the sources of information on the parishes, churches, parish registers, manorial records, maps and much, much more on the Isle of Wight.

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Villages
southernlife.org.uk
This Website, managed by Chris & Caroline Hayles, has very interesting profiles and photographs of an ever increasing number of villages in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. It needs an up-to-date browser such as IE4 and above with JAVA SCRIPT in order to access it.

Godshill School http://www.lendingtheway.com/GODSHILL/
This site, created by Dr Gwyneth Daniel has files (one downloadable in .pdf format) which are a transcription of a document Mrs Jan Williams lent to her by Godshill Primary School. It is a volume of memoirs compiled by the head teacher in 1987. She hopes to add photographs at a later date. If you would like to know more about Godshill then contact Dr Daniel who has done a considerable amount of research about this village. Email: Gwyneth Daniel

Photographs of West Wight and V.A.D. Camps at Osborne
web.ukonline.co.uk/john.marfleet/person/cards/a_030a.htm
This is a site that has been put together by John Marfleet who has reproduced these photographs from the work of his ancestor, Herbert Marfleet, a photographer based in the Broadway,Totland. This URL will lead you to two pages of thumbnail pictures which can be enlarged by clicking on them.
John Marfleet can be contacted by freepost at Marfleet FHS, FREEPOST, Huncote, Leicester, LE93BS

Wight Air Wrecks site
www.gdtp.freeserve.co.uk
This site is chiefly about a book that has been written on air wrecks on the Isle of Wight. There are pictures of planes and the men who flew them on the website but not a great deal of actual information as such. However several books on the subject are mentioned and recommended.