THOUSANDS more documents have been digitised for the relaunch of an Essex family history website.
Essex Ancestors website, run by the Essex County Council record office in Chelmsford, is relaunching this month with the addition of parish registers beginning with letters G-W from 1837 onwards.
Parish registers can be searched for baptisms, marriages and burials, which makes Essex Ancestors a useful starting point for family history.
Essex residents, ex-pats and Australian, Canadian and US citizens with roots in the county who can't get to the original documents at the record office in Wharf Road, Chelmsford, can pull them up on their PCs for £5 a day.
For a dedicated historian or antiquarian there is 24/7 access for a year for £75.
Parish registers kept by the Church of England date from at least 1538 in Essex and there are hundreds of wills on the site that have taken several years to collate and prepare.
This makes Essex online research potentially hundreds of years deeper than the National Archive, which uses documents created under the 1837 Births Deaths and Marriages Act on its Ancestry site.
But whether it is online at www.essexancestors.co.uk or in the Essex Record Office, both are a great place to start your family history search.
The search room in Chelmsford has expert staff on hand to show you how to start your research and where to locate records.
The ERO also runs beginners' family history sessions to help get you started. Visit www.essex.gov.uk/ EROevents for details of upcoming sessions.
If you need some advice call the records office experts on 01245 244644 or e-mail ero.enquiry@essex.gov.uk.
