Family History
Staff will undertake research on behalf of remote enquirers, using material within their collections. A charge is made for genealogical enquiries taking up more than thirty minutes of staff time and for all enquiries made by commercial organisations.
Family history researchers and all enquirers visiting Chiswick and Feltham libraries from some distance away are recommended to make an appointment in advance of their visit.
The opening hours of the Local Studies services are limited in comparison with the opening hours of the Feltham and Chiswick Libraries, in which they are housed.
Census Records
- Feltham Library holds microfilm or microfiche of the 1841-1901 censuses for all the parishes within the modern Borough of Hounslow.
- Chiswick Library holds microfilm, or microfiche of the 1841-1901 censuses for Brentford and Chiswick. Copies of the 1801 Chiswick census, the 1801 and 1811 Old Brentford censuses and an 1810 census for New Brentford are also held in Chiswick Library’s Local Collection.
- Microform reader-printers are available at Chiswick and Feltham Libraries for use during Local Studies opening hours.
Directories
- Chiswick Local Studies has some street directories for the late Victorian era and for the first half of the twentieth century. These directories do not necessarily include Brentford.
- Feltham Local Studies has some Middlesex County directories that list a few prominent private residents and all proprietors engaged in business and trade. Dates of publication range from 1826 to 1937.
- Local telephone directories are available from 1951 and small runs of other local directories published between 1913 and 1928 and between 1964 and 1975 are held in Feltham Library’s Local Studies Collection.
Electoral Rolls
- Registers of Electors covering Brentford and Chiswick are held in Chiswick Local Studies Collection and date from 1890 (with gaps).
- At Feltham Library, electoral registers are very scarce until 1926 and the run is substantially complete until 2002. Cranford appears in the Hounslow, Heston and Isleworth registers from 1934 onwards.
- No electoral registers for Feltham and district have survived, locally, for the years prior to 1966.
Local Newspapers
- The weekly Chiswick Times (1895-1927), continued as the Brentford and Chiswick Times (1927-1983) and the Brentford, Chiswick and Isleworth Times (1983 – to date) is held at Chiswick Library on microfilm, with some bound volumes in store.
- Hounslow’s weekly newspaper, The Middlesex Chronicle (1860-1870 incomplete, plus 1870 - to date) is held at Feltham Library on microfilm, with some bound volumes in store.
- The Hounslow, Feltham and Hanworth Times commenced publication in 1987 and this weekly newspaper is held at Feltham library on microfilm. In January 2008, it became the Hounslow and Brentford Times. These newspapers have been microfilmed up to 2007.
- The Middlesex Independent newspaper (published in Brentford) has been microfilmed. It was published between 1883 and 1964. The microfilm is held at Chiswick Library in the Local Studies room.
- Short runs of other local newspapers and free newspapers are held at Chiswick and Feltham Libraries.
Parish Registers
- Both Chiswick and Feltham Libraries have microfilm copies of church parish registers for most local Church of England churches. The films have been made by the Church of Jesus Christ and the Latter Day Saints or by the London Metropolitan Archives, from original parish registers in the custody of the London Metropolitan Archives.
- The Church of Jesus Christ and the Latter Day Saints microfilmed the records of St. Nicolas’ Church, Chiswick in 2000. Microfilm of the Chiswick parish registers from 1678-c.1900 is available at both Chiswick and Feltham Libraries.
- Parish registers for All Saints Church, Isleworth (1566-c.1875, work continuing) and St. Mary the Virgin Church, Bedfont (1695-c.1940) have been transcribed and name-indexed by members of the West Middlesex Family History Society. These unpublished, name-indexed transcriptions are held in Feltham Library.
- The parish registers of St. Dunstan’s Church, Feltham have been name indexed and transcribed for the years 1634-1841, these un-published transcriptions are at Feltham Library.
