Publications
Coaching Ancestors, by Brian Cutler, published December 2000 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 14 no. 4, article, pp.150-151) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 14881] & The Keep [LIB/508823] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.
Preview:Thomas Nathan Boxell, son of Nathan Boxell and Kezia Naomi Blake who married in 1856 at Brighthelmston Registry office, had seven older brothers, two of whom feature in William Blew's book Brighton and its Coaches: the London and Brighton Road as coachmen.
The Sussex Baptismal Index, by Brian Cutler, published March 2013 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 20 no. 5, article, pp.233-234) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/508976] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.
Preview:One of the objects of the Sussex Family History Group is to help to make historical data more accessible to the many people who want to explore the lives of their ancestors, and from the beginning the Group has been involved in routing out all four main building blocks of family history - birth, marriage, death and census records.
In the early days of the Group baptisms, as a surrogate for birth records, had to take a lower priority in Sussex to work on the marriage index, monumental inscriptions and 1881 and 1851 censuses. The Group did, however, produce an index of Brighton Baptisms from 1813 - 1839 and also contributed to work at East Sussex Record Office to develop a card index of East Sussex baptisms up to 1812. To supplement this the record office, with help from volunteers, photocopied a large number of 19th century baptism records, cut them into strips and sorted them into a slip index. This slip index proved difficult to use in the search room and was donated to the Group Library when the latter moved to Lewes. The problems of using it, however, remained.
In the early days of the Group baptisms, as a surrogate for birth records, had to take a lower priority in Sussex to work on the marriage index, monumental inscriptions and 1881 and 1851 censuses. The Group did, however, produce an index of Brighton Baptisms from 1813 - 1839 and also contributed to work at East Sussex Record Office to develop a card index of East Sussex baptisms up to 1812. To supplement this the record office, with help from volunteers, photocopied a large number of 19th century baptism records, cut them into strips and sorted them into a slip index. This slip index proved difficult to use in the search room and was donated to the Group Library when the latter moved to Lewes. The problems of using it, however, remained.
The Sussex Baptism Index, by Brian Cutler, published March 2016 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 22 no. 1, article, pp.3-4) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15860] & The Keep [LIB/509161]
Preview:One of the important contributions that family history societies are making in the world of genealogical research is the systematic transcription and indexing of early vital records. Exploring original records is fun and rewarding if you have a good idea of where your ancestors came from but sooner or later every family historian needs to find out about an ancestor for whom they have little clue where to look. Indexes, such as the SFHG Marriage, Burial or Baptism Indexes or the more recent Sussex People and Will Indexes, can help to point the researcher in the right direction.
The Sussex Baptism Index was started by my predecessor, the late John Lee, in 1998 and has now grown to have over 1.6M entries. The aim is to capture all the surviving baptismal and other birth related records for the whole of Sussex from 1537 to 1900. It is the work of over 150 volunteers, both members of the group and of the Parish Register Transcription Society, who over the years have inputted data from existing transcripts and transcribed from original documents.
The Sussex Baptism Index was started by my predecessor, the late John Lee, in 1998 and has now grown to have over 1.6M entries. The aim is to capture all the surviving baptismal and other birth related records for the whole of Sussex from 1537 to 1900. It is the work of over 150 volunteers, both members of the group and of the Parish Register Transcription Society, who over the years have inputted data from existing transcripts and transcribed from original documents.