Place:South Bersted, Sussex, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

South Bersted is a village and parish since 1974 in the Arun District of West Sussex, England. It forms part of the built up area of Bognor Regis and lies on the A259 and A29 roads one mile (1.6 km) north of the town centre.

The Anglican parish church of Saint Mary Magdalene is mainly 13th century including the tower. Beginning as a chapel of Pagham, it was the church of a separate parish which included Bognor by 1465.

Research Tips

• The West Sussex Record Office is located in Chichester. Because it holds the records of the Church of England Diocese of Chichester, which covers the whole of Sussex, it has church records relating to both parts of Sussex.
• An on-line catalogue for some of the collections held by the West Sussex Record Office is available under the Access to Archives (A2A) project (a nationwide facility housed at The National Archives, Kew).
• West Sussex Past - database of 2 million records from West Sussex heritage organizations.
• The Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies' Sussex Collection (PDF). This is a 9-page PDF naming the files relating to Sussex in their collection-a possible first step in a course of research.
• The National Library of Scotland has a website which provides maps taken from the Ordnance Survey England & Wales One-Inch to the Mile series of 1892-1908 as well as equivalent maps for Scotland itself. The immediate presentation is a "help" screen and a place selection screen prompting the entry of a location down to town, village or parish level. These screens can be removed by a click of the "X". The map is very clear and shows parish and county boundaries and many large buildings and estates that existed at the turn of the 20th century. Magnification can be adjusted and an "overlay feature" allows inspection of the area today along with that of 1900. The specific map from the series can be viewed as a whole ("View this map") and this allows the inspection of the map legend (found in the left hand bottom corner. Becoming familiar with the various facilities of these maps is well worth the trouble.

• GENUKI on Bersted
• British History Online. A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 4, the Rape of Chichester, section on Bersted
• Maps of the local area are to be found on pages for Aldwick Hundred and Chichester Rape.