The repository contains copies of birth, marriage and death records, censuses, wills and probate details, military service records, newspaper clippings and other publicly available information relating to people who are in the "Chidlow Family Tree" and the "Stene Family Tree" hosted on Ancestry.com. In addition, there are a number of family photos, documents, letters, &c. Extensive use has been made of the large collection of photos and documents assembled by Richard H Chidlow on the Bradshaw and Chidlow families. These are referenced as "Richard H Chidlow Archives".

A summary profile is included for most people. There are some records which contain only a profile - these are placeholders awaiting the upload of supporting documents. There are also various notes which give more in-depth information on certain individuals or families. These generally include the word "Story" in the title of the document to differentiate them from official records.

For the Chidlow tree the vast majority of the records are from the UK; for the Stene tree records are primarily from the USA. England & Wales has required the registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths since the end of 1837. Copies of these are available from the Government Records Office (GRO). Scotland maintains separate records. England census records are released after 100 years; the latest census available is 1921. US decennial federal census records are released after 72 years; the latest census available is 1950. Generally all US records relating to births, marriages and deaths are handled at the individual state level. The levels of access vary widely - some states have public indexes while others require an on site visit. Some states will only provide records to immediate family members. Canada follows a similar publication timetable as England for censuses but birth, marriage and death records are handled by individual provinces.

People

Although the Family Trees started with the direct ancestors of the respective familes they have both since been considerably extended to many more remote relatives. Sometimes this was just because there seemed to be an interesting story to follow! However this research did uncover several branches of the extended Chidlow family in Canada and other connections in the USA and Australia. On the Stene tree only a couple of generations were born in the US. Paternal ancestors immigrated from Norway and maternal ancestors were from Switzerland and very few records are available from those countries. However research did uncover several other relatives who had also immigrated to the US and who were previously unknown. US immigration records for the periods in question were handwritten and there are often several variations of surnames. For example, Eschmann morphed into Eschman, Eshmann, Eshman &c. Schwartzstrub had similar variations.

Libraries

The Chidlow repository is split into 3 sections with the Arbuckle and Pilling branches stored separately. They were added after the main tree had been substantially developed and it proved easier to manage the documentation separately. Also there is no overlap of names with the main branch. The people are all contained in the same ancestry.com "Chidlow Family Tree".

Privacy

Certain documents in the repository require an access code. These are generally documents that reference living people. Anyone who would like an access code can contact me.

Searching

This repository is NOT a family tree. You will need to know who you are looking for and their (potential) relationship in order to retrieve their documents. Married women are indexed under their maiden name.

Accessing Ancestry.com

Family trees hosted on the Ancestry site can be viewed but it is necessary to set up a (free) account. Access to underlying documents is restricted without a current subscription.

Updating

New information is being added on a regular basis.