A large number of non-conformist registers have been uploaded to our site along with a few more cemetery records. Please keep an eye out as more are going on all the time - Methodist, Independent, Baptist, etc. Amazing what can be found. At the moment it is just baptisms, but they are from all over Derbyshire such as Alfreton, Melbourne, South Derbyshire etc. More will continue to be added over the coming weeks.

After many years of work by volunteers the index of Derbyshire probates has been completed and is being made available to members online. Extracted form the National Probate Register it lists the names, addresses and dated of death for people in Derbyshire and Burton on Trent from 1901 to 1935. In addition, the place of death if it was away from home is given and the date of probate with the office concerned.

It is impossible to understand nineteenth-century England without an appreciation of the Victorian attitude to death. In a sense, the nineteenth century celebrated death as a part of human experience in the same way that the twentieth century celebrated sex.
The most distinctive memorials to this fascinating aspect of Victorian culture are the great company cemeteries of the 1830s and 1840s, laid out at great expense in London and the major industrial cities, thickly populated with extravagant monuments, intended as a solution to an ecological crisis, and now themselves a significant environmental problem.
At last recognised as repositories not only of human remains but of some of the most evocative and moving examples of Victorian architecture,landscaping, statuary and other monumental art, the great necropoles of British cities document beliefs, attitudes and taste as well as lives.

Research and records using the CWGC archives explore some of the gems in our collection and discover more about our war records.

In this presentation, we will explore the life of Rebecca and her family, who lived in common lodging houses in the slum areas of Derby. Among the working classes, transient workers, petty criminals, and prostitutes, these common lodging houses were preferred places to sleep over the workhouses or life on the streets. The lodgings provided cheap basic accommodation. However, they were crowded and unhygienic, with multiple people sharing living spaces. There was little personal privacy.

The accounts of Rebecca’s experiences in court as a witness to various crimes will provide a unique insight into life in and around these lodging houses

It is with deep regret and sadness that we have to annonce the death of our Editor,Librarian and dear friend HELEN BETTERIDGE on 27th June 2024
She will be sadly missed by all.