Branching Out: How to use Estate Records for Family History

Overview

Until the nineteenth century, a large proportion of the land in Britain was owned and managed by a relatively small number of elite, landed families. These households kept extensive records across decades and even centuries. However, they don't just provide information about the landed families as they contain details about the local community, those who worked in the household and across the estate.  
 
Estate records can be an excellent source of information for the family and house historian or anyone completing a local history research project. Estate record collections can include deeds, rentals, leases, surveys, accounts, maps, wage books and other correspondence that can shed light on everyday life, employment, business transactions, property changes, historic land use, ownership and occupancy.  

‘Branching Out’ is a series of online, self-paced 5-credit modules, which focus on key documents available through online collections for family history research and beyond. They give students an opportunity to study a key topic in depth, using relevant examples and collections.  
 
This course focuses primarily on British research. Students will learn how to effectively search a number of free estate record and archival websites. Key collections held at the National Library Wales can be accessed for free online and these will be used as case studies.

Programme

Activities and tasks will be embedded into each unit so students can practise the techniques they have learned and develop their skills. Students will be encouraged to share their own work and participate in discussions on Blackboard. Alongside the learning materials on Blackboard the tutor will be on hand via email to answer any queries and provide guidance throughout the course. They will also participate in the online discussions.  This module contains 1 live webinar. 

• Unit 1 – Introduction 
• Unit 2 – The Earliest Estate Records   
• Unit 3 – The Rise of the Gentry Estate in 18th century  
• Unit 4 – Improvement and the Polite 19th Century

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this module, students should be able to:  

1. Demonstrate an understanding of what estate records are and how they were created.
2. Identify key online and archival estate collections and data.
3. Perform multipart online searches for estate records.
4. Analyse an estate record and complete some further research in order to contextualise the document within a wider socio-historic context. 

Assessments

1. Evaluation Activity (20%)
   2. Research project 800 words (80%)

Reading Suggestions

Reading suggestions will be offered throughout the course. 

Entry Requirements

This course is for everyone. No previous experience is needed and there are no formal entry requirements.

What Do I Need?

As this is an online course, you would need the following:

• Internet access
• Access to a laptop or computer with a web camera and microphone; the use of headphones might also be of benefit
• Use of the Chrome web-browser where possible.