Denbighshire Gaol Files 1660-1730
Digitised images of many Great Sessions records held at the National Library of Wales have recently been made available at FamilySearch, but without (at present) any item-level metadata. This resource is a finding aid for documents in gaol files for Denbighshire 1660-1730 which I used in my PhD research.
You can browse the data by session via the table below, or download the full dataset for use in a spreadsheet/database.
Notes
- You'll need to sign up for a FamilySearch account to view images. (It's free.)
- This data is based on working lists I made for my research as a PhD student and should not be confused with a professional catalogue...
- The FamilySearch website doesn't facilitate linking to sessions, unfortunately: browse the gaol files from here. (And, in case of any problems with the gaol files link, from the Wales Court and Miscellaneous Records main description page, go to the 'Browse images' link and then 'Court records-gaol files'.)
- Some file references in FamilySearch are incorrect; the authoritative NLW references numbers are as listed in Glyn Parry's Guide to the Great Sessions. The FamilySearch references are provided here as well, for convenience when browsing their images. (The error looks suspiciously like MS Excel date-mangling.)
- Document numbers refer to the archivists' numbering of the original documents, NOT to FamilySearch image numbers. But they should nonetheless aid location of documents within the files.
- Between 1702 and 1730, the documents are not numbered, but they are listed in the order in which they were filed when I consulted them. It is possible (though I would hope unlikely) that the ordering could have been altered when the files were unbound for digitisation.
- Many of the documents are in Latin: you may find some of these online tutorials useful.
Unfortunately the list is temporarily unavailable. It will be back soon.