Text 36, 79 rader
Skriven 2005-02-16 04:58:20 av Stephen Hayes (5:7106/20.0)
Ärende: Re: City and County of Bristol
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* Forwarded (from: GEN_BRITAIN) by Stephen Hayes using timEd/2 1.10.y2k.
* Originally from Steve Hayes (8:8/2003) to Stephen.Hayes@family-news.org.
* Original dated: Tue Feb 15, 08:18

From: hayesmstw@hotmail.com (Steve Hayes)

On 7 Feb 2005 13:04:36 GMT, Stephen.Hayes@family-news.org wrote:

>If the city and county were coterminous, then it would make sense for
>the city
>council to be the county council - it would be silly to have two. But were
>they? Was Bedminster part of Bristol or Somerset? Were suburbs like Clifton,
>later Barton Regis, part of the city or county of Bristol or both?
>
>My question is really whether Bristol remained a county when it
>became part of
>Avon, and if Avon has been abolished, did Bristol revert to being the
>City and
>Coounty of Bristol (status quo ante), or is it now something else, or
>part of
>themething else?

Someone else asked a similar question on the Bristol & Somerset Mailing list,
and someone gave the definitive answer there, which I post here for any who are
interested (and have saved for future reference).

Bristol

Bristol became a county by Charter of Edward III on 8 August 1373 and remained
so until 1 April 1974. The records of Bristol are kept here at Bristol Record
Office. Over the years there were various city boundary extensions; for example
Bedminster which originally lay in Somerset came to be included within Bristol
in 1835 and a similar extension took in Knowle and Totterdown in 1897.
Therefore if you wanted, for example, a Register of Electors for Knowle for
1880 it would be at Somerset but for 1920 it would be at Bristol.

  Somerset Record Office is at Obridge Road, Taunton TA2 7PU.
There is a similar situation on the Gloucestershire side of the city:
Westbury-on-Trym, for example, was included in Bristol by a boundary extension
of 1904 so once again a Register of Electors for, say, 1900,would be at
Gloucester Record Office, Clarence Row, Alvin Street, Gloucester, Gloucs. GL1
3DW, whereas one for 1930 would be here at Bristol Record Office. Although this
is all quite logical, I do understand how confusing it can seem when you are
new to Family History!  To determine which repository you need it is important
to state the type of record, date and place that you want when you pose your
question otherwise there is a chance of misunderstandings. For family history
often church records need to be used; the churches had their own boundaries,
Circuits for the Methodist church, Dioceses and Deaneries for the Church of
England.  The various Circuit records deposited here in Bristol Record Office
include those for places in Somerset such as Cheddar or Weston-super-Mare. The
Church of England boundaries are different and mean that we hold parish
registers for churches both in Bristol itself and for an area to the north and
east roughly bounded by Marshfield, Yate and Littleton on Severn. When indexers
compile indexes of records for the benefit of other family historians it is
entirely up to them how they arrange them.  Bristol and Avon Family History
Society divided its "1754-1837 Marriage Index" into two sections: North
Somerset is one, Bristol and South Gloucestershire the other. The LDS church
includes Bristol for convenience under Gloucestershire in the IGI. I hope this
has done something to explain the difficulties you have been experiencing. As
your research progresses I am sure you find that some of the problems resolve
themselves but I have to add that after very many years of professional work in
this field I still need to check up factual points of date and place regarding
records on virtually a daily basis. It really is not a subject on which there
can ever be a simple answer because of the 

way that local administrative and religious history has evolved over the years.


--
Steve Hayes
E-mail: hayesmstw@hotmail.com (see web page if it doesn't work) Web:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
     http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7783/

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