West Yorkshire Archive Service

Welcome to the West Yorkshire Archive Service

Death, Disaster and Dubious Dumplings: Life and Death in Victorian Yorkshire

There are many hidden gems in the collections held by the West Yorkshire Archive Service. Amongst these are a series of handwritten notebooks complied by Thomas Taylor, County Coroner from 1852–1900.

From mining disasters to natural causes, these notebooks record details of the inquests into sudden deaths, accidental demises and mysterious ends. Eye witness accounts and details of people’s lives are recorded, providing a fascinating insight into life and death in 19th century Yorkshire.

To find out how we can help you to find out more about these amazing records, click here

Collections Week, March 2013: the results!

For two weeks a year, WYAS closes to the public in order to focus on working on our local authority and other collections – collecting, sorting and listing them and finally putting them on-line so that everyone can remotely access our lists!

But what did we achieve this time around: find out here

From Bread and Butter to Prison and Porridge

Skeletons in cupboards are part and parcel of doing a family history. Dark criminal secrets, missing ancestors and tales of past misdeeds litter the trail of most budding family historians. Often, these tales seem impossible to verify as the details are lost in the murky midsts of time.

But now, WYAS’s research service might just be able to help

Click here for more information: click here

Nostell Priory – Country House, Chippendale and Coal

West Yorkshire Archive Service is delighted to announce that it has been awarded a grant of £37,000 from the National Cataloguing Grants Fund to complete and improve the catalogue of the archives of the Winn family, Barons St Oswald of Nostell Priory.

Find out more,Click here

Bradford Archives refurbishment:

Bradford Archives will close at 5pm on Friday 14th December due to the refurbishment of Bradford Central Library.

To find out more,click here

Heritage Lottery Fund Success

West Yorkshire Archive Service is pleased to announce that we have received initial support for a £3.6million bid from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to create a new permanent home for Wakefield's archives

Find out more click on the image below

Unlocking the archives!

We're giving researchers an extra 10 ½ hours a week to consult the millions of documents in our care!

Our Wakefield office is opening on Fridays for the first time in 10 years and is also now able to provide a full service over lunchtime.

To find out more, click here

To us, everyone is a Celebrity

Let us give you the Star treatment!

Follow in the footsteps of Sir Patrick Stewart and see what our records can reveal about your family - we may have some surprises for you!

Find out more here

Searching for names? We’ve got over 20 million of them

Your ancestors may be found in The West Riding Registry of Deeds - a nationally unique resource for family historians.

To find out more about how our experienced staff can help you, click here

Luddite Bicentenary

2012 is the bicentenary year of the Luddites in West Yorkshire. In 1812 certain areas of the West Riding of Yorkshire saw major outbreaks of violence by people who have come to be known as 'Luddites'. The Luddites were mainly croppers, a small and highly skilled group of cloth finishers, who, at a time of the worst trade depression since the 1760s, facing deepening poverty, rising wheat prices and food scarcity, turned their anger on the new cropping machine, which they feared would put them out of work.

Find out more about our events and publications to commemorate the bicentenary here

Treasures of the West Yorkshire Archive Service

The top five treasures of the archives from a total of 25 nominations across WYAS have been chosen! Find out more information here.

Parish Registers on Ancestry

Parish Registers now available on Ancestry! See here

Quick links:	Copy order form	Now Then	Tracks in time
Collections and user guides	CataBlog	Search catalogue	Flickr
West Riding Registry of Deeds	Twitter	Research service	Order online

For the contact details
of our offices click here.