It is a tremendous achievement by Graham and the team of transcribers to have got to half
a million records in such a short time. Their efforts have helped thousands of visitors
who have visited this site. I am sure you will all join me in giving them all and a special
thanks for what they have done.

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Forest of Dean Parish Records Project Progress

The Forest of Dean transcription project has now been running for just over two and a half
years with a total of 500,000 records having been added to the database. The project
currently covers 54 parishes in Gloucestershire, namely:-

Abenhall, Alvington, Ashleworth, Awre, Beachley, Blaisdon, Blakeney, Bream, Bromsberrow,
Bulley, Christchurch, Churcham, Cinderford St.Johns, Cinderford St.Stephens, Clearwell,
Coleford, Corse, Drybrook, Dymock, English Bicknor, Flaxley, Hartpury, Hasfield,
Hewelsfield, Huntley, Kempley, Lassington, Littledean, Longhope, Lydbrook, Lydney,
Maisemore, Minsterworth, Mitcheldean, Newent, Newland, Newnham, Oxenhall, Parkend,
Pauntley, Preston by Ledbury, Ruardean, Rudford, St. Briavels, Staunton, Staunton by
Newent, Tainton, Tibberton, Tidenham, Tutshill, Upleadon, Viney Hill, Westbury &
Woolaston.

together with 15 Herefordshire border parishes, namely:-

Aston Ingham, Bishopswood, Goodrich, Hope Mansell, Lea, Ledbury, Linton, Little Marcle,
Much Marcle, Ross on Wye, Upton Bishop, Walford, Welsh Bicknor, Weston under Penyard &
Whitchurch.

7 Monmouthshire border parishes, namely:-

Chapel Hill, Chepstow, Dixton, Llandogo, Penalt, St. Arvans & Tintern.

And 2 Worcestershire border parishes, namely:

Longdon & Redmarley D'Abitot

In addition to these Church of England records, all of the Gloucestershire Forest of Dean
non conformist records are being added to the database, together with the non conformist
records from the Herefordshire and Monmouthshire border areas.

It is estimated that when the project is nearing completion in about 12 months time, the
database will contain around 650,000 records.

For Gloucestershire the filming of parish and non conformist registers is now complete,
apart from the post-1812 registers of Ashleworth & Hasfield and 4 very early
non-conformist registers, which are only available on microfilm. The only records
remaining to be transcribed are 17 pre-1812 parish registers, and it is hoped that the
majority of these will be added to the database before the end of September.

For Monmouthshire we have been working closely with Mike John and have copied most of the
available transcripts of border parishes from his website. We have discussed the
possibility of adding Monmouth to the database, and I have agreed with Mike that we will
help him transcribe these records as soon as they are available as digital imagery.

Progress on the Herefordshire border parishes has been slower, with 28 Church of England
and 9 non-conformist registers still to photograph. Hopefully we can complete the filming
of these during the Autumn and complete the transcriptions by Spring 2009.

When all the parish registers have been filmed we will start photographing the pre-1812
Bishops Transcripts starting in Gloucestershire. My plan is then to send out the parish
registers, the BTs and the current transcripts to volunteers, so that they can be checked
and updated with any additional information which is in the BTs but not the parish
registers. I have been running a pilot project for Newland with one of our volunteers,
this is proving to be very successful and has resulted in a number of additional entries
along with numerous corrections to the original transcript.

I am also planning to add some of the early 20th Century registers to the database and
will be filming baptisms up to 1920, marriages up to 1940 and burials up to 1960. A quick
count for Gloucestershire suggests this will add another 80 registers (i.e about 50,000
records).

There are also 13 Gloucestershire registers which are still held in the churches, so I am
hoping to find volunteers who will make contact with the Ministers and arrange to visit
the churches to photograph these. The parishes concerned are Abenhall, Beachley, Bulley,
Churcham, Corse, Flaxley, Maisemore, Minsterworth, Rudford & Tainton.

It's good to hear that so many researchers are benefiting from the database, let's hope
the transcribers will keep up the good work.

Graham Davison
Project Coordinator
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You can download the above Project Report in a PDF file

Project progress to date 16-08-08
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/downloads/index.php?path=Miscellaneous/