Place:Widford, Oxfordshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Widford is a hamlet and deserted medieval village on the River Windrush about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) east of Burford in the West Oxfordshire District. The village was a detached part of Gloucestershire and part of the Slaughter Hundred until 1844.

Widford was a civil parish from 1866, but by 1931 its population was only 29. In 1932 the civil parish was merged with the parish of Swinbrook to form the civil parish of Swinbrook and Widford.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Widford from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"WIDFORD, a parish in Witney [registration] district, Oxford; 1½ mile E by S of Burford [railway] station. Post town: Burford, under Faringdon. Acres: 564. Real property: £955. Population: 33. Houses: 7. The living is a rectory, united with Swinbrook, in the diocese of Oxford. Value: £200. Patron: Lord Redesdale. The church is ancient."

Research Tips

Gloucestershire

• Gloucestershire Archives in Gloucester is where paper and microfilm copies of all records for this part of Gloucestershire are stored.

Online sources which may also be helpful:

• The index for A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 6/Slaughter hundred has a few references for Widford, but there does not appear to be an article on the village. The Oxfordshire volume on Bampton Hundred may contain more details.
• GENUKI gives pointers to other archive sources as well as providing some details on each parish in the county. The emphasis here is on ecclesiastical parishes (useful before 1837)
• A listing of all the Registration Districts in England and Wales since their introduction in 1837 and tables of the parishes that were part of each district and the time period covered with detailed notes on changes of parish name, mergers, etc. Respect the copyright on this material.
• The FamilySearch Wiki for Gloucestershire provides a similar but not identical series of webpages to that provided by GENUKI
• A Vision of Britain through Time has a group of pages of statistical facts for almost every parish in the county

Oxfordshire

• Oxfordshire History Centre, St Luke's Church, Temple Road, Oxford, OX4 2HT
• Oxfordshire FHS covers the whole county. The Family History Society provides an interactive map to assist in locating individual parishes and also relates the society's progress in transcribing parish registers and gravestone information for that particular parish. Browse the website to see what else the society can provide.
• Further information from GENUKI
• Ordnance Survey map of Oxfordshire 1900 provided by A Vision of Britain through Time
• Ordnance Survey map of Oxfordshire 1944 provided by A Vision of Britain through Time
• English Jurisdictions 1851, a parish finding aid provided by FamilySearch, particularly helpful in large towns and cities.