Introducing the Big Oxfordshire Names Database - helping you trace your ancestors in Oxfordshire

About the Big Oxfordshire Names Database

The Big Oxfordshire Names Database (BOND) represents the next generation in Oxfordshire Family History Society’s family history data; collated, indexed and made available via the OFHS website to its members, to support their genealogical research.
The BOND project was made possible through the collaborative endeavours of Project Manager Sue Honoré, Technology Kevin Poile and Publicity, Education & Training Angie Trueman, ably assisted by Jessica Feinstein, and supported by a “whole host of others helping out on transcribing, checking and testing”. This new, comprehensive database will bring to light ancestors across multiple sources.

How can the Oxfordshire Family History Society BOND database help you trace ancestors in Oxfordshire?

“The records in BOND go back right back into Medieval times,” enthuses Sue Honoré. “The earliest is I think 972AD, right up until the 1920s.”
As well as spanning a millennium, the OFHS records also comprise numerous disparate collections. The aim of BOND is to bring all of the society’s data into one place, making it easy to maintain and easy for members to access.

What will BOND contain? Which Oxfordshire family history records are included?

The initial release of BOND contains over 250,000 records and will cover:
• parish register transcriptions of baptisms, marriages, banns and burials;
• monumental inscriptions, with images (information that can be hard to trace otherwise); 
• surname indexes dating from the medieval period to the 20th century, from hundreds of books/lists containing Oxfordshire names amounting to nearly 200,000 lines of people data. The books in question include series such as Victoria County History, Oxfordshire Record Society, Oxford Historical Society, Black Sheep Books, EurekA books as well as other name-rich lists. (Permission has been sought from the publishers where relevant).

How can BOND help your search for tracing ancestors in Oxfordshire?

The BOND team would like to highlight the ability to do a general search in the BOND database, for instance for a surname or first name. There is also the ‘location look-up’ search feature. The new database provides the functionality to filter the search to find further information, such as by date ranges.
Using local knowledge of Oxfordshire dialects and common alternatives, BOND includes a ‘massive surname variants table’, providing researchers with different spellings, thus providing another route to track down elusive ancestors.
It’s worth noting that for collections such as the parish registers and the monumental inscriptions, BOND doesn’t just provide index details – rather it provides full transcriptions, with photos of memorials too where possible. “Long-term,” explains Sue, “we have the images of the parish registers, that we have the copyright for, and we will put those images into BOND.”

What’s next with BOND?

BOND is a work in progress, and will continue to be added to provide access to millions of records. War memorials and wills are two collections that OFHS members can look forward to being added to BOND in the future.
BOND has been made possible by very few people putting in an incredible amount of time. “We all feel that we want the society to be a great success, we want it to be a leader,” says Sue. “If you can get the people with the drive and the enthusiasm, you can make it happen!”
“We hope that the new database will appeal to a wide variety of people,” continued Sue, “and we may, from there, welcome new members.”

How can people access BOND?

BOND is due to be become available from the week commencing 9 September 2024. The new database will be available to OFHS members only – you can join at www.ofhs.uk

Come to the Oxfordshire Family History Society Fair, October 2024

OFHS Family History Fair 2024 will be held on Saturday 26th October at Cherwell School Oxford www.ofhs.uk/fair2024