A FAMILY history website has traced the roots of some Hollywood stars right back to Wilton and Salisbury.

According to new records just released online, Christian Bale’s ancestors, James Presley and Sarah Davis, were married in the parish of Wilton in 1833.

And it’s not just Batman who hails from the Salisbury area. The archives show that going back four generations, finds the ancestors of Richard Armitage, who plays Thorin Oakenshield in The Hobbit, said their vows on December 19, 1830 in Salisbury St Thomas Parish.

Ancestry.co.uk, the world's largest online family history resource, has launched the Wiltshire Church Records, 1538 to 1897, and Wiltshire Quaker Birth & Death records,1542 to 1897, online, a combined collection of more than half a million historic Anglican and Quaker marriage, birth and death records.

Spanning more than 350 years, the records include 500,000 marriages from all 327 Wiltshire parishes, as well as more than 3,300 Wiltshire Quaker births and deaths.

The records are available to search by criteria including name, age and residence and in some cases detail addresses, occupations and parents’ names.

Miriam Silverman, senior content manager at Ancestry.co.uk, said: “These records are a fantastic resource for anyone interested in finding out more about their ancestors in Wiltshire - or tracing the family trees of some well known celebrities.

“The collection is also a significant addition to the Wiltshire records we currently have, including almost 27,000 Wiltshire Extracted Parish Records.”

For more information, visit ancestry.co.uk.