Record Search Update England, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Colombia, and Spain

FamilySearch Record Search continues to add huge collections of records from around the world. As of February 6, 2010, the Website added England, Cheshire Probate Records and Cheshire Land Tax Assessments index collections. Other new image collections include the Luxembourg Civil Registration, Netherlands, Noord-Brabant Province Population Register, Colombia Catholic Church Record, and Spain Catholic Church Records which consolidates all the previously separately published dioceses from Spain as well as several new ones. Here are more detailed descriptions of each of the new records: (All descriptions from FamilySearch Wiki)

England, Cheshire Probate Records: Wills probated up to 1857 were handled and kept by the Consistory Court of the Diocese Chester; thereafter (1858-1940) they were handled by the District Probate Registry for Cheshire. Until 1837 a male as young as 14 and a girl as young as 12 could make a will; thereafter one had to be 21 to make a will. Wills for married women before 1882 are rare because they were not allowed to have property. Those who had land or money, such as merchants, shopkeepers, farmers, or laborers, created wills. About 10% of the heads of households were probated before 1857, but as many as 25% left a will or was mentioned in one. There are about 143,000 names indexed in Cheshire Probate Record indexes.

Cheshire Land Tax Assessments 1778 to 1832 index collections: Land tax assessments began in 1692 and ended in 1963. Most of the surviving collection of land tax assessments range from 1780 to 1832. The tax was administered through the Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace. They were organized by county, hundred, and parish. From 1692 to 1831, Catholics were assessed a double portion. Coverage for this tax was aimed at the landowners and the tenants who rented from the landowners. That ranged from nobility to peasant.

Luxembourg Civil Registration 1793 to 1923: The events are recorded either in French or German totally by hand or in partially pre-printed books where the information is then entered by hand. The name of a child not registered when born will not be given in the death record, but the gender of that child will be. If the child was stillborn it will state that, although sometimes this term was applied to children who died shortly after birth.

Netherlands, Noord-Brabant Province Population Register 1820 to 1930: The records from 1850 to 1920 were kept in bound registers that were sorted by addresses. Later registers were sorted by family names. From 1920 to 1940, the registration was done on family cards. As individuals died, their cards or printouts were sent to the Central Offices for Statistics.

Colombia Catholic Church Record 1598 to present: The earlier records from this collection are all handwritten in a narrative format. Some later records are handwritten on printed forms, which may vary slightly from one priest to another. Generally, these records were written in chronological order. In smaller parishes, one book was used for all the ordinances (such as baptism, marriage, and death). In larger cities, records of the different types of sacred ordinances were kept in separate books. Confirmations were generally written in the baptismal registers. Some of the older records are damaged, but most of the genealogical information can be extracted.

Spain Catholic Church Records from 1500 to 1984: This collection of Catholic Church parish records of Spain covers 1500 through 1984. The collection includes records from the dioceses of Avila, Ciudad Real, Ciudad Rodrigo, Gerona, Lugo, Murcia, and Segovia.