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SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Introduction

General Register

Census

IGI

National Burial Index

Parish Registers

Wills

Other Sources

The National Burial Index (NBI) complements the International Genealogical Index (IGI) (which is mainly a searching aid to births/christenings and marriages). The NBI contains over 13 million names of people buried in England and Wales between 1538 and 2004. It is compiled by the Federation of Family History Societies, with the first edition having been released in 2001 and the second edition (the current one) in 2004. It is not a complete index to all burials but represents an enormous effort by family history societies over 10 years.

The information provided in the National Burial Index is taken from parish, non-conformist, Roman Catholic and cemetery registers. Wherever possible, transcriptions are made from original source records. Please note that the NBI does not include memorial inscription records

NBI Index Entries

• County of burial
• Parish or cemetery where the event of burial was recorded
• Date of burial
• Forename(s) of the deceased
• Surname of the deceased
• Age
• The society or group that transcribed the record

Search Illustration

Always check out the original source

The National Burial Index is exactly what it says - an INDEX. It should be used in conjunction with other research. Wherever possible the original source (or a copy of it) should be examined.

Coverage of the NBI varies significantly from county to county. It also varies from period to period. The following shows the number of entries for each county. If a county is not listed (e.g. Carmarthenshire) then there are no entries for that county on the NBI.

• Bedfordshire 356,000 - Berkshire 356,000 - Brecon 5,000 - Buckinghamshire 83,000 - Cambridgeshire 205,000 - Cardiganshire 108,000 - Cheshire 399,000 - Cornwall 111,000 - Cumberland 56,000 - Derbyshire 82,000 - Devon 4,000 - Dorset 286,000 - Durham 416,,000 - Essex 508,000 - Glamorganshire 361,000 - Gloucestershire 170,000 - Hampshire under 12,000 - Herefordshire 68,000 - Hertfordshire 137,000 - Huntingdonshire 210,000 - Isle of Man 7,000 - Kent 205,000 - Lancashire 169,000 - Leicestershire 329,000 - Lincolnshire 711,000 - London City 134,000 - Middlesex 15,000 - Monmouthshire 9,000 - Montgomeryshire under 1,000 - Norfolk 105,000 - Northamptonshire 197,000 - Northumberland 188,000 - Nottinghamshire 281,000 - Oxfordshire 223,000 - Radnorshire 11,000 - Rutland 19,000 - Shropshire 168,000 - Somerset 755,000 - Staffordshire 791,000 - Suffolk 836,000 - Surrey 370,000 - Sussex 315,000 - Warwickshire 504,000 - Westmorland 6,000 - Wiltshire 224,000 - Worcestershire 542,000 - Yorkshire (City/Ainsty) 34,000 - Yorkshire East Riding 40,000 - Yorkshire North Riding 386,000 - Yorkshire West Riding 1,706,000

• The National Burial Index 2nd edition is provided on 4 CD-ROMs. It can be ordered online from my-history.co.uk (at a cost of £40.45 including p&p) or from the Wiltshire Family History Society (at a cost of £46.25 including p&p)
• Many Record Offices and Local Studies Centres have the NBI loaded onto their computers where it can be accessed for free

• See Parish Registers, Non Parochial Registers or Burial Records for guidance onto how to access the source record associated with an NBI index entry.