The D'Arcy Archive
14 jobs a person can do and this archive cannot

Errands

Every one of these needs a login, a card, an identity check or a human being in a reading room. They are drafted, costed and ordered by what they would settle.

An archive that can only use what is free and unauthenticated will stop at a particular place, and this one has stopped there. What follows is the queue past that point. Each entry says what the source is, what it would settle, and roughly what it costs — so that anyone who wants to help can pick one up without asking what to do.

The queue, in order of what would change most

01 GRO birth certificate — Miriam Wakefield, Jun quarter 1840, Bristol, vol 11 page 183 THE CHEAPEST DECISIVE DOCUMENT ON THIS SITE

General Register Office, gro.gov.uk (an account, no visit) · £2.50 as a PDF

It names her mother WITH HER MAIDEN SURNAME. Five Queensland death registrations now say Saniger in four spellings, so the name itself is settled — but not one English record has ever confirmed it, and the 1841 census says Hannah was born OUTSIDE Gloucestershire, which is why no Gloucestershire register will ever find her. This certificate is the only document identified that attacks the question from the English end. Context →

found 13 September 2026, FreeBMD

02 Run the NSW BDM historical index for the D'Arcys THE BIGGEST FREE THING LEFT

familyhistory.bdm.nsw.gov.au — free to search · free, ten minutes, but behind a bot check

The entire D'Arcy side were New South Welshmen. George Pitt D'Arcy died at Parramatta in 1849, George Lindsay was born there in 1829, Frederick Robert and Charlotte both crossed. NSW death registrations name the parents of the deceased — which is how Queensland's index settled the Saniger name five times over. This is the largest free index this archive has never searched, and it is shut to an automated browser. Context →

blocked by Cloudflare, 13 September 2026

03 Search irishgenealogy.ie for the Creech, Atkinson and Mulcahy lines THREE LINES, ONE FREE DATABASE

irishgenealogy.ie — free, no login · free, behind a bot check

This archive has three Irish lines and has never searched an Irish record. The most testable claim is the marriage of Paul Cole Atkinson and Jane Creech at Carrigaline, County Cork, on 27 September 1853, which the site states as fact and has never seen. Then Richard Atkinson of Limerick, and Catherine Margaret Mulcahy of Cork, whose parents are unknown. Context →

blocked by Cloudflare, 13 September 2026

04 Five named Bristol nonconformist registers at Kew

The National Archives, RG 4 · a visit, or a digitised copy via a subscription site

A baptism for Hannah Saniger about 1805. RG 4/2697 Broad Mead Baptist, RG 4/1830 Lewins Mead Presbyterian, RG 4/388 Bridge Street Congregational, RG 4/913 Ebenezer Chapel Wesleyan, RG 4/1792 Castle Green Independent. Five documents, all covering 1805, none transcribed. This replaces the vague instruction to write to Bristol. Context →

identified 13 September 2026 via TNA Discovery

05 Lichfield Bishop's Transcripts for Madeley, 1740s

Staffordshire Record Office / Lichfield · an enquiry

The baptism of William Sneyd the weaver, about 1746. FreeREG holds no Bishop's Transcripts for Madeley at all, and his baptism is not in any transcribed Staffordshire register. The diocesan second copy is the obvious next place and nobody has asked for it. Context →

identified 13 September 2026

06 PROB 11/1728/64 — the will of Major-General Robert D'Arcy THE PRIORITY

The National Archives, Kew · about £3.50, digitised, download today

His parentage is the largest open question on this site and no record of his life names a father. A will names family. Found 9 September 2026 and still unordered. Context →

requests/tna-prob11-darcy-will.md

07 Enquiry to the Royal Engineers Museum, Chatham The best chance of closing the question the archive was built around

The Corps' own archive · £25 enquiry service

Robert D'Arcy's parentage, from the records of the Corps he served for fifty-one years and the town he died in. Context →

notes/letters/2026-09-re-museum-chatham.md

08 Three Queensland death certificates Turns three dotted pedigree edges solid

Queensland Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages · a fee per certificate

Three causes of death, and three sets of parents named in a civil record rather than a tree. Registration numbers already identified. Context →

requests/qld-bdm-certificates.md

09 Two Chatham burials The likeliest of all of these to succeed

Medway Archives · an enquiry

Robert D'Arcy, 1827, and Constantine D'Arcy, 1805. A burial register can give an age, an abode and sometimes a relationship. Context →

notes/letters/2026-09-medway-archives.md

10 Where Arthur Hartley Sneyd is commemorated Free, quick, and this archive simply cannot reach it

Commonwealth War Graves Commission · free, two minutes

The archive says Villers-Bretonneux from the B.2090A's “Not yet to hand”. CWGC would confirm it outright. Bot-blocked here, twice. Context →

requests/cwgc-arthur-hartley-sneyd.md

11 The generation above Francis Murdoch The branch the archive has most neglected

ScotlandsPeople · credits, a login

The Ayrshire Murdochs are a quarter of the tested descendant and the archive has 25 of 52 ancestor slots filled. The DNA points straight at this gap. Context →

requests/scotlandspeople-murdoch.md

12 Richard Atkinson and Anne, of Limerick

RootsIreland · a subscription

Anything at all. The Atkinsons are five generations deep and stop dead at the emigrant. Context →

requests/rootsireland-atkinson-limerick.md

13 Nine Queensland State Archives items All nine identified to series and file number

Queensland State Archives, Runcorn · copy fees, none digitised

Arthur Hartley Sneyd's 1916 intestacy; William Hartley Sneyd's 1873 insolvency — a wholly new fact; four wills, one of which may be the gaol governor's; two police staff files that are probably his sons. Context →

requests/qsa-order-list.md

14 Which Ordnance series could carry a Royal Engineers commission of 1776

The National Archives, Kew · an enquiry

WO 47 has been identified along with the reason nobody has found him in it. A archivist could say in a sentence whether it is worth a day. Context →

notes/letters/2026-09-tna-ordnance.md

Not a document, and worth more than all of them

A Y-DNA test from a male D'Arcy

The Y chromosome descends father to son essentially unchanged. A male-line D'Arcy's would place this family against every other tested D'Arcy in the world — the most direct attack anyone can make on Robert D'Arcy's parentage, and it beats every archive visit on this page.

The descendant who has tested is female and has no Y chromosome. Her brothers do. What the DNA already says →
Several of these will come back empty. That is a result, and it belongs on the search register rather than in a drawer — so that the next person does not repeat it. The search register →