The village of Horsley in the county of Derbyshire is a pretty place to live and is rich in history. Although family historians are familiar with the traditional parish registers it's not well known that between the years 1835 and 1895 a village diary was kept by a resident by the name of Thomas Needham. The diary is split into two leather bound manuscripts and quite rightly resides in the Derbyshire Record Office in Matlock (ref: D5246).
In his diary Thomas Needham wrote about the happenings in Horsley as he saw them, including many details of Horsley births, marriages and deaths as well as general things of interest which happened to his family, his friends and to the village in general. Unlike most other genealogical sources the details in this diary are first hand accounts written down at the time that they happened giving an amazingly rich primary source of family history data which otherwise would have been lost forever. Anyone tracing ancestors in this part of the world should definitely have the opportunity to see if their ancestors were included which is the primary reason that I have created this website.
If you are tracing your family history in the village of Horsley or surrounding area please feel free to get in touch via the Contact Us form.
Disclaimer: The genealogical data provided on this website has been transcribed to the best of our ability but as we are only human it is possible that mistakes have been made. If anyone believes that any of the data has been transcribed incorrectly we will ensure that it is double checked.