What the indexes actually hold

Holds: less than the record offices do

Test — FindMyPast, opened once. The 1851 Wakefield household, the 1831 marriage, and Berkeley baptisms 1792–1821 with parents named — all previously reported here as absent or untestable.

The commonest reason a record could not be found by this archive is that it was behind a subscription. Read every null below with that in front of it. Where it bites →

Holds: to 1677 only

Test — The transcript's own end date.

One of the six Saniger generations in the tree can be tested here. The other five — 1679, 1711, 1744, 1769, 1805 — fall entirely outside it. Where it bites →

Holds: baptisms, 1780 and 1781

Test — Five common surnames across Hampshire 1778–1783: 46 Portsea entries, all baptisms — 20 in 1780, 25 in 1781, one in 1782, none in 1778, 1779 or 1783.

Joseph D'Arcy's baptism survives inside a twenty-two-month window. The absence of his brothers and sisters proves nothing whatever. Where it bites →

Holds: essentially nothing, 1800–1820

Test — William and Mary Smith across Gloucestershire 1800–1820: 289 entries from 75 parishes, and exactly ONE inside Bristol — a single entry at Stapleton.

St Paul, St Philip and Jacob, St James, Clifton, Bedminster, Temple, St Mary Redcliffe: absent at any size. Every Bristol search this archive has run was searching a city that is not in the index. Where it bites →

Holds: a fragment

Test — Three forenames of Smith across Somerset 1795–1815: 943 entries from over a hundred parishes, and TWO from Chew Magna, against a hundred at Walcot and sixty-nine at Bath.

The parish that now carries the best lead on Hannah Saniger's birthplace cannot be searched from a desk. Where it bites →

Holds: nothing

Test — Smith across Shropshire 1783–1792: 167 entries from the county — Shrewsbury 70, Hodnet 15, Ludlow 10 — and NONE at Oswestry.

Elizabeth Margaret Oliver's baptism, which the tree puts at Oswestry on 7 May 1787, cannot be tested here. Where it bites →

Holds: almost nothing, 1800–1820

Test — John Smith across the WHOLE COUNTY 1800–1820 returns TWO entries — one at Whitegate, one at Wrenbury.

The marriage of Samuel Sneyd and Elizabeth Oliver at Audlem on 22 October 1809 cannot be tested here. This is the emptiest county holding this archive has measured. Where it bites →

Holds: 1861 only

Test — John Smith born Staffordshire 1800–1805: 31 people, every one of them 1861.

Samuel Sneyd died in 1855 and his son had been in Australia since 1832. Neither was ever findable here, however hard anyone looked. Where it bites →

Holds: 1841 through 1901, and richly

Test — William Smith born Gloucestershire 1800–1812 returns entries from 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881 and 1891, including twelve inside Bristol for 1851 alone.

This is why the census, not the parish register, is what has actually moved this archive's Bristol work. The Saniger household at Oxford Road came from here. Where it bites →

Holds: complete enough to argue from

Test — Every Samuel Sneyd death registered in five years: exactly one. Every Elizabeth Sneyd in four: two, one of them at Stoke.

Strong enough that a single result across a five-year window can correct a family tree by a year. Used that way here. Where it bites →

Holds: unknown

Test — None possible. Each sits behind a bot check that this archive will not attempt to defeat.

Four sources that may hold answers and that have never been read. They are on the errand list for a person with a browser, not recorded as nulls. Where it bites →