Calderdale Family History Research

    For the last few years I've spent much of my spare time doing family history research for the Calderdale Companion website (see below). I've chosen people for whom there is only a little information and found out what I could from online records. To date I've researched over 1400 people.
    It occurred to me that if I'm doing it anyway, it would be more useful to research the ancestors of people who are interested in their family history. Hence this website.
    If you send me details of the people you're interested in, I'll see what I can find out about them for you.
    I don't charge for this but, if I do find anything, I would appreciate a donation to help cover the, not inconsiderable, cost of subscriptions to several family history websites.

Roger Beasley

Email me at calderdalefhr@btinternet.com








Frequently asked questions:

What can you find for me?

    That depends on what information you can provide.
    If you can give me enough information to find a family in the 1911 census then I'll trace them back through the censuses as far as I can.
    If you don't have enough information to get back this far then I can point you in the direction of the birth and marriage certificates you'll need to obtain in order to do so.
    If you've already found the family in one or more censuses and have hit a brick wall or want more information about a specific event then I'll see what I can do.

The online records include:
    Census (every ten years from 1841 to 1911)
    Church (baptisms, marriages and burials)
    Military (including the surviving First World War army service records)
    Probate (which indicate that the person left a will)
    Criminal
    Newspapers



What area does Calderdale cover?

    It is the area of West Yorkshire around Halifax and west to the border with Lancashire.
    Settlements include: Halifax, Sowerby Bridge, Heptonstall, Wadsworth, Mytholmroyd, Luddenden Foot, Midgley, Mixenden, Illingworth, Elland, Greetland, Hipperholme, Lightcliffe, Shelf, Rastrick, Clifton, Sowerby, Norland, Southowram, Northowram, Brighouse, Ovenden, Todmorden and Hebden Bridge.



What is the Calderdale Companion website?

    This is a site created and run by Malcolm Bull which has information on many thousands of families and places in Calderdale. It has been deemed to be of sufficient importance that it is being archived for posterity by the British Libary.
Malcolm Bull's Calderdale Companion