For family history research the ideal starting point is your own family including relatives and older friends who may all be able to provide useful information. Documents such as birth, marriage and death certificates, school and army records, photographs, scrapbooks, family bibles etc can help to build a fuller picture of your family’s history.

From 1 January 1855 all births, marriages and deaths had to be registered. All these certificates usually give the names of the parents. So, for example, if you knew one of these dates for a grandparent, the certificate from the local registrar’s office will give the names of the great-grandparents.

For records prior to 1855 researchers have to rely on church registers of baptisms, marriage and burials, wills, censuses, gravestone inscriptions and other miscellaneous records. These and other information resources have been transferred and are now stored on our website database.

If your roots are in Stonehouse you can search our Historical Data pages on our website to help trace your family tree as well as read about our past. The Heritage Group database holds a collection of unique records that can be searched easily by entering a few characters in the search fields within each topic category.