News from Cheshire Archives - 

We were delighted to see that our construction contractor, Kier, started work on site in Chester in November and in January started work at Crewe. We held a drop-in session in November for residents at Hoole Community Centre to share information about what’s coming and to answer questions they had.

We are holding a drop-in at Crewe Market on Thursday 20 February, from 11am to 1pm. Some of the team will be there, together with Kier, to talk to people about the new centre in Crewe and its construction.

Currently we are expecting the new centres to be open in the middle of 2026. We will continue to keep you updated through this newsletter.

Our photograph shows the Crewe site as construction begins.

The annual Battle of Nantwich re-enactment takes place on 25th January this year

Full details can be found at the following link 👉 https://www.battleofnantwich.org

Thanks to the thouands of individuals and organisations who responded to the UK Ministry of Justice’s proposals on the retention of wills.

Good news: The UK Government has determined not to proceed with any reforms that involve the destruction of original wills

Read report in full 👉 https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/storage-and-retention-of-original-will-documents

Ancestry will publish the 1921 census records for England and Wales on 7 January 2025

The records are to be made part of Ancestry’s 'All UK and Ireland' and 'All Records' subscription packages. They will also be free to search in subscribing libraries and archives via Ancestry Library Edition and at our Research Centres in Crewe and Mobberley

According to WDYTYA magazine, it seems that Ancestry has licensed the transcription from Findmypast, so any errors not already reported and altered will still be there, unlike the 1911 when Ancestry teamed up with The Genealogist to create new transcriptions

Ancestry are also offering a 50% discount until 12th January - T&Cs apply see link below 

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/c/ancestry-family

Happy New Year, 1st of the month means my usual list of free online events.

As always the link below each event has more information and full registration details, Enjoy and do report back on anything that you attended.