Almost 16 Million Yorkshire Records Digitised in Landmark Online Release
By Community Correspondent
History has never been so close to home. Nearly 16 million Yorkshire records are now online, letting people across the globe peek into seven centuries of life in the north.
From a lonely parish year in North Yorkshire with no weddings, to a 17th-century mother giving her final wishes while dying in childbirth, the records capture love, loss, and everyday life like never before.
The project is a partnership between the University of York and Ancestry, digitising the Bishops’ Transcripts and the Wills of the Prerogative and Exchequer Courts of York from the University’s Borthwick Institute for Archives.
Survival and Tragedy
Some entries are haunting. The 1604 Hornsea registers describe a town ravaged by “plage tyme,” while a 1756 entry from Kilnsea notes the shipwreck of the Charles, with Captain William Burwood and nine crew buried.
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Other records bring everyday lives to life. Famous names like Charlotte Brontë (Charlotte Nicholls) and diarist Anne Lister appear, but it’s the stories of ordinary people that truly move.
Take Ann Stackhouse, whose 1613 will was given orally to her midwife as she died in childbirth. Or John de Gysburn, who in 1385 left money to support four “houses of lepers.”
Gary Brannan, Keeper of Archives, said:
“People have a huge desire to trace their roots, and the discoveries they make can be intensely personal and profoundly moving. Individuals living around the world are always rightly proud to discover they have roots in Yorkshire.
These records are incredibly well kept and cover a long time span in a community that is always growing and changing.”
History at Your Fingertips
The Bishops’ Transcripts fill gaps where original parish registers were lost or damaged — 20,000 entries exist nowhere else.
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The records are free to explore onsite at the Borthwick Institute, or can be accessed remotely via Ancestry.co.uk.
Money from the partnership supports the Borthwick’s work to preserve Yorkshire history and make it accessible worldwide.
With millions of records online, anyone with Yorkshire roots can now discover love, tragedy, and resilience in the north’s past — all from their own home.
