A selection snippets send in by various people to help in researching your family on the Isle of Wight

VENTNOR RESEARCH
Anybody researching families in Ventnor should contact Ventnor Heritage Museum at 11 Spring Hill, Ventnor for general information. 

They have indexed some census records, trade directory adverts and have a large collection of estate agent's particulars so may have info on your ancestors' houses,as well as various maps and prints and photographs.  They have produced a range of booklets about various aspects of Ventnor's past which are for sale at around 1 GBP each.

The organisation is run by a dedicated band of volunteers so if asking for answers please at least send an SAE and preferably offer a small donation to their funds to help them keep going.

NEWCHURCH AND RYDE PARISH
It may help people who are new to Island research and are finding references to Newchurch and Ryde to realise that in the past Newchurch parish stretched from the top of the Island at Ryde to the bottom at Ventnor.  Ryde and Ventnor developed in the 18th and 19th centuries and eventually became large enough to have their own churches and become ecclesiastical parishes in their own right.  However, they may still have been considered to be within Newchurch civil parish for certain local government functions, and areas on the outskirts of the developing towns may still have been in Newchurch parish on the census
for instance.

When parishes were first established on the Island - in Saxon times? -all stretched from north to south. possibly based on even older land divisions such as roman villas or iron age settlements and their attached land. So Carisbrooke stretched from Cowes at the top of the Island (which of course wasn't there then) to Chale at the bottom - the later parishes were taken out of Carisbrooke as the towns and villages grew up - Chale, Newport, Northwood, Cowes.  People looking at the census for Cowes and East Cowes might be forgiven for thinking that the enumerator had muddled in some Newport entries - Newport owned the River Medina, or Newport Haven as it was called, so the houses to the east and west of the respective High Streets which were built on reclaimed land were 'in' Newport Borough - you'll find they had a vote in Newport too if they qualified in other ways.   There are all sorts of anomalies such as these which is why local history is an important part of family history.

A good place to start to find out what 'areas' a place might lie within is the descriptions of places in local trades directories such as Kelly's - for instance, knowing the archdeaconry or diocese can help with locating wills, local government areas such a boroughs of local boards of health might help someone track down rate books .  Directories also list useful information such as churches and chapels, often with the date of their establishment, schools (which may have surviving log books),  the location of the nearest town or market (where our ancestors may have gone for the annual hiring fair), major local landowners (to help identify those estate collections of property deeds).  Because an archive is a collection of documents created by a person or an organisation we have to identify the likely creator of the records in order to track down where they may have ended up.  If the organisation ceased to exist, whoever took over their function should have been the 'successor authority' and taken over the records too.  Theoretically! On the Island the IW Record Office is usually a good place to ask first. see links for address and email address)

The best collection of trade and street directories for the Island is probably at the Local Collection in the Lord Louis Library at Newport. However, the IW was included in 19th century Hampshire directories so some mainland libraries and record offices should have good collections too.