Another controversial topic !

The definition of Forest will mean different things to different folk :-)

Do we take a very limited view and take part of the "Free Miner" approach and only accept those who lived in the Hundred of St Briavels - Should we ignore those living in the Hundreds of Bledisloe or Greytree ?

or, do we say "Only those BMD's registered in Westbury on Severn" - Should we ignore those BMD's from Chepstow, Ross , Monmouth, and Newent ?

or, Gloucestershire West of the River Severn

or, administered by todays Forest of Dean council

or, the Parliament constituency

or, the modern Post code, or dialling code

When Dave Watkins and I first discussed this we agreed that broadly " 'Twixt Wye and Severn" was to be the focus of this Internet resource.
We did not define a northern boundary, althought initially drew an imaginary line between gloucester and Ross on Wye.

As the resource developed it became clear that the adjoining parishes - i.e. across the Severn at Arlingham, north towards Newent and Kemply, were home to ancestors who came to the traditional Forest areas.

Here is the Wiki definition :-

The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the county of Gloucestershire, England. The forest is a roughly triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and north, the River Severn to the south, and the City of Gloucester to the east.

I could give more examples, but I think these illustrate the challenge, each has its weaknesses - <rhetoric question> How do you capture the culture in a geographic definition.

So a simple approach / test is "twixt Wye and Severn" or broadly west of the Severn and Gloucestershire.

There is therefore no hard and fast "boundary" for this board, just apply some common sense. i.e. if the family you are interested came from Mid Wales , Kent or Lancashire , and you have no linkage to this area then you are probably best contacting a Forum that specialises in that area , or a general family History forum. Admin may lock the thread at this point .

Please take the boundary as soft and fuzzy - Tintern, Goodrich and Courtfield are over the Wye, but often debated on this board.

We generally try to help but our expertise / knowledge is in this core area and the further away the less the detailed knowledge we have.

If you look at Threads most will conform to the above, occasionally you will find a thread where the topic relates to a family that lived in the Forest for a short period of time - perhaps linked to the Railway, Tunnel construction or Mine sinking. Others perhaps have several geneartions of "Forest" before heading off to Wales or Yorkshire, some have Somerset or Cotswold roots before coming to the Forest.

We welcome healthy balanced challenges to our research / suggestions.
we are not super human we make mistakes :-)

Enjoy your research, good luck.

regards
S

I am proud to be related to the ancient foresters of Dean.

--
Ἀριστοτέλης A Gloster Boy in the Forest of Dean ><((((*>

There is an Advanced Search link on the Search Parish Records Page.

Example:

Easily find all the children born to a James and Matilda GRINDLE

Select Baptism as the Event Type → click the Search link
Parents Surname: → change to starts with → insert Grind (to allow for spelling variations)
Fathers Forenames: James
Mothers Forenames: Matilda

Results

If you want the table organised chronologically, just click on the "year" heading

Using the Advanced Search Facility with a little imagination you can often find records and information not normally found by using the standard Search.

Following some recent threads, I thought it might be worth reiterating that many times, folks travelling to or from the States often travelled through CANADA. The fares were generally cheaper than arriving in Boston or New York.

My grandfather's cousins travelled to the Forest from Missouri via Canada to Liverpool, so keep an open mind when conisdering ports.

Common ports in Canada included those in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Montreal (Quebec) via the St. Laurence.

Although you may not think you have Canadian connections, it may be worth considering looking at arrivals in Canada, and US/Canada border crossings.

Hope this is helpful to someone.

Good afternoon and warm welcome to this friendly forum and website.
Thanks for reading the guidelines, not every new user does that.

As to posting a message, there are two ways;

If the post is a reply to an existing post, then click on the blue "post reply" button at the bottom L/H corner of that post. This will open a new window into which you can write your post. Then click on the "preview" or "ok submit" buttons at bottom of that page, and your post should display near the top of the forum index page. If you want to modify it at a later time, you can revisit it and use the "edit" button at bottom of that page, or even delete it entirely if no-one else has replied.
If possible it's always best to post in this matter, as then it will be displayed in the same thread as other relevant background info abt the same subject, so makes for easier reading and understanding by other users. The forum's been active for several years now so it's highly likely that someone else has already posted about the family or subject that you're interested in. Hence the forum thread's themselves become useful reference material.

If you're posting about a new subject, then when you access the main forum index page,
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/joomla/forum

You will hopefully see a blue "new topic" icon at the top L/H corner ?. If it does, then click on it and the same will happen as above.

However, in my usual half-witted way I've just realised that you've successfully posted this query... I wonder if there's a delay before newly-registered users can post to the forum, I'm not a forum administrator and cannot recall my first post ?

Looking forward to seeing your posts soon, Jeff

PS should perhaps have mentioned, that whenever you see an icon or "button" displayed in blue on this site, this shows that it's a hyperlink and can be clicked on to access further information.