Oldham has always been a home for migrant communities: people have moved to Oldham from Ireland, Eastern Europe, South Asia and the Caribbean.
Oldham Local Studies and Archives attempts to reflect all aspects of Oldham’s history in its collections including the integration of new cultural traditions and religions within the Borough. We want to encourage individuals and groups to come and delve into the collections we hold and also to add to them.
Do you belong to a community organisation that produces a newsletter or publishes leaflets or programmes of events?
If so, we would be interested to hear from you, as we are keen to collect new material. If you know of any relevant material we have missed or items you would like to see added to our growing collections please let us know.
The World History Collection includes information on the Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Indian, African Caribbean, Chinese, Ukrainian, Polish and Irish heritage communities. To place this material in a wider context we have included books on the history and culture of these communities along with records of their experiences of living in Britain.
We hold reports of surveys and census profiles for ethnic minority communities in Oldham and items on community relations including handbooks and annual report of the Oldham Council for Racial Equality.
Hum Log: Stories of Oldham’s Asian Communities. Is a book specifically on the experiences of Oldham’s first Asian settlers. In their own words and stories individuals give an insight into the reasons why they made their life-changing trip to the UK. Original words are printed alongside an English translation and photographs are included.
We hold an extensive collection of photographs which include the Nadir Hussain Collection. Nadir Hussain was a prominent member of the Oldham Pakistani heritage community and this collection records significant events within the Pakistani heritage community.
Local Newspapers include the Oldham Chronicle from 1854 to date and a newspaper cuttings collection.
We hold the following Public Record Office readers’ guides:
Grannum, Guy, Tracing your West Indian Ancestors (PRO, 2002)
Kershaw, Roger and Pearsall, Mark, Immigrants and aliens: A guide to sources on UK immigration and citizenship (PRO, 2002)
Copies of the Black and Asian Studies Association Newsletter are available.
At present we hold very few records relating to minority ethnic community organisations, families and businesses in Oldham. However, we are keen to improve the coverage of our collections to reflect the changes which have taken place in Oldham in the recent past. If you have any records, such as photographs, diarieis, and other documents illustrating the history and experiences of people from minority ethnic communities in Oldham, and would like to see them preserved for future generations, we would be very happy to hear from you.
If you have any concerns about making them available to the public we can restrict access for any period of time up to 100 years.
We would like to provide improved resources for research into Black and Asian history in Oldham and ask people to notify us of any relevant material, they come across, recording Black and Asian presence in, or connections with Oldham. For example, the following reference appears in the will of George Caley (1770-1829), botanist who lived in Chadderton “Also I direct that a Negro called Washington who belongs to me in the Island of St. Vincent in the West Indies shall be set free.”
This web site provides free access to more than 150,000 items which record and illustrate the history of migration to England over the last 200 years. In particular it looks at Carribbean, Irish, Jewish and South Asian heritage communities. It includes tips on tracing your roots and allows users to contribute their experiences of migration to the stories section of the site.
A pilot web site for research resources relating to Caribbean Studies and the history of Black and Asian people in the UK.
Bangladesh Genealogy Finding Family and Friend provides links to local, national and international resources of interest to Bangladesh family researchers.