I love it when new records are added to the Internet as it means there is a good reason to go back and search again for those ancestors of ours that have previously remained illusive.
Well TheGenealogist have just gone and added over one million parish records for Essex, Worcestershire, Lancashire and Devon from the 1500s to the early 1800s, covering baptisms, marriages and burials. These records add to the already extensive range of parish records available on their website.
These four counties are part of some ongoing projects on TheGenealogist so keep an eye out for further releases in the near future!
Mark Bayley, Head of Development at TheGenealogist comments:
“We are committed to continually adding new records to the website. The last 12 months have seen us add over 285 million records. The demand for parish records and other early pre-1837 information is great and we are aiming to meet this demand with more such releases over the next year.”
Disclosure: The Links in the above are Compensated Affiliate links. If you click on them then I may be rewarded by The Genealogist.co.uk should you sign up for their subscriptions.
I’ve just been in West London and so I took the opportunity of a bit of leisure time to find the house where my great-great grandfather lived for a time. This was in Bayswater, way back in 1880.
Having fired up my reluctant computer, something to do with the Firefox update I think (which was making it use 99 to 100% of its cpu to do something or other!) I headed over to TheGenealogist.co.uk and searched their old directories data base.
In the Kelly’s Post Office 1880 Court Directory I found an entry for Edward Adolphe Massey Hay as:
Hay Edwd.Massey,50Princes’ sq.BayswtrWÂ
I smiled as I noticed that he had lost one of his middle names in the listing as this is something that happens to me all the time!
Switching then to the old maps website http://www.old-maps.co.uk/maps.html I located the street just north of the intersection of Palace Court and Moscow Road in South Bayswater.
I then wrapped up warm, got out my A-Z and set off with digital camera to find, photograph and generally get an impression of the surroundings that once my great-great grandfather had called home.
The house was now part of a hotel and was one of a road of houses all designed to look the same, with at least 5 stories above the ground floor and a strange protruding 4 story frontage above their front doors.
I love walking down streets that my ancestor’s have pounded in their time. As I do it I try to imagine what it must have been like in their times when the motor car would not have claimed the street outside their front steps, transistor radios would not have been blaring and the aeroplanes flying overhead would not have been heard. Instead the clip clop of hansom cabs, that prevailed until 1908, would have been in their place.
Princes’ Square garden.
Around the back I discovered a pleasant communal garden of the sort that is common in London and noticed that the design of the rear of the property was much more aesthetically pleasing to the eye.
If you would like to try to find your ancestor’s in the London Directories then check out the data sets at TheGenealogist.co.uk
Well, I was out and about today so I missed this announcement earlier from findmypast.co.uk.
Today they published online for the first time the parish records held by the City of Westminster Archives Centre.
The Westminster Collection comprises fully searchable transcripts and scanned images of the parish registers dating back over 400-years.
The 3 million records cover the period 1538-1945 and come from over 50 Westminster churches including St Anne, Soho, St Clement Danes, St George Hanover Square, St James Westminster, St Margaret Westminster, St Martin-in-the-Fields, St Mary-le-Strand and St Paul Covent Garden.
Some of the fascinating documents now available online detail the wedding of Theodore Roosevelt, the former US President, in 1886; the marriage of Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel; and the marriage of poet Percy Shelley.
Debra Chatfield, a family historian at findmypast.co.uk, said: “The Westminster Collection is one of the largest regional parish record collections we have ever published online and contains some truly wonderful gems.
“Family historians or people looking into their past, wherever they are in the world, can now search this historical goldmine and uncover the fascinating stories of their London ancestors. There is plenty of intrigue in the records to pique the interest of social historians too.â€
Adrian Autton, Archives Manager at Westminster Archives commented: “The launch of the Westminster Collection is of huge significance and makes Westminster records fully accessible to a global audience. This resource will be of immense value to anyone whose ancestors lived in Westminster and to anyone wishing to study the rich heritage of this truly great city.â€
The new Westminster Collection at findmypast.co.uk joins a growing resource of official parish records from local archives, including Cheshire Archives & Local Studies, Manchester City Council and Plymouth and West Devon Records Office, with many more in the pipeline, due to go live in the coming months. In addition, over 40 million parish records from family history societies can be found at findmypast.co.uk in partnership with the Federation of Family History Societies.
The Westminster Collection is available on all of findmypast’s international sites as part of a World Subscription.
Anthony Adolph signing his new book: Tracing Your Aristocratic Ancestors, at the Who do You Think You Are? LIVE show.
At the Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE show, on the Pen & Sword stand, I was able to catch up with genealogist and author Anthony Adolph as he signed copies of his new book: Tracing Your Aristocratic Ancestors.
He graciously allowed me an interview afterwards and, as always, you can just tell the passion that he holds for his subject.
Watch my short video below and hear his argument that we all have aristocratic ancestors!
That being the case then, this book should appeal to every family historian.
Another fascinating stand at the Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE show this year was one run by Anne Daniels for her Drawing On The Past business.
She creates totally unique artwork using photographs of your ancestors and incorporating both hand drawn and digital imaging techniques, the finished design is then printed using a high quality fine art printing process.
Anne says that when you commission a piece of work from Drawing On The Past you can be assured of receiving a unique artwork, drawn from your own personal history.
I was really impressed by the finished articles. If this is something that would appeal to you then contact her via her website at:
Apart from all the obvious family history stands at the show I came across this one that gets my vote for the most animated. They had a real live stone carver creating a memorial!
Now we all know what it is like to find our ancestor’s grave and not be able to read the inscription but what will the generations to come find from our memorials?
Makes me want to insure that when my time comes I’d like my headstone to be carved in hard wearing stone!
The MAB campaigns for memorials in stone. For further information check out the website: www.RememberForever.org.uk
At the Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE show at Olympia Ancestry’s Russell James tells me about the addition of Outgoing Passenger Lists to their Incoming lists and the some times salacious Divorce records!
As he began signing the books on the Pen & Sword stand he was joined by the Princess Maria Sviatopolk-Mirski, a Russian Princess who had grown up in straiten circumstances and now lives in London.
She has now traced her family history back and finds that her family had once had possession of Mir Castle in Belarus. Her success in finding her aristocratic ancestry is one that many family historians would like to replicate!
Princess Maria Sviatopolk-Mirski and Author Anthony AdolphAnthony Adolph and Princess Maria Sviatopolk-Mirski on the Pen & Sword stand at Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE.Princess Maria Sviatopolk-Mirski
I caught up with Mark Bayley from TheGenealogist.co.uk and asked him what is new on their site.
Mark told me about a couple of new records released for the Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE show.
First the Complete Casualty Lists from WWI as published by the War Office.
Secondly, the War Memorial Database.
Using their Smart Match technology you get links to various other sites from the records thus aiding your research.
Finally Mark tells me about their new Naturalisation and Denization records.
Disclosure: The Links in the above are Compensated Affiliate links. If you click on them then I may be rewarded by The Genealogist.co.uk should you sign up for their subscriptions.
If you have been following me this week you will know that I’ve been at the Who Do You Think you Are? LIVE show at Olympia.
It was there that Debra Chatfield of findmypast.co.uk gave me the news that they have just released a huge number of Yorkshire Parish Records onto their site having tied up with the Yorkshire Digitisation Consortium.
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This project will increase access to millions of Yorkshire’s baptism, marriage and burial records dating back to 1538 and for the first time images of the original parish records from six Yorkshire Archives will appear online
Findmypast made the announcement at the Who Do You Think You Are Live Show at London’s Olympia. This significant new project will lead to the publication online for the very first time of millions of historic records from archives across the whole of Yorkshire.
So who are the Yorkshire Digitisation Consortium?
Well it comprises of the East Riding Archives and Local Studies Service, the Borthwick Institute for Archives (University of York), the North Yorkshire County Record Office, Teesside Archives, Sheffield Archives and Local Studies, and Doncaster Archives and Local Studies.
Together these services hold the parish registers for a large proportion of Yorkshire, England’s largest historic county.
Paul Nixon, Content Licensing Manager at findmypast.co.uk, said: “The addition of these historic records from Yorkshire Digitisation Consortium to findmypast.co.uk will be keenly anticipated by family and local historians alike, and will undoubtedly reinforce the website’s position as the place to go for UK parish records.â€
Keith Sweetmore, Archives Development Manager at North Yorkshire County Record Office, added: “This is a tremendously exciting new development which will transform the way that parish registers are consulted in the future, and will open up Yorkshire’s Archives to a new and growing worldwide audience.â€
The joint announcement by findmypast.co.uk and Yorkshire Digitisation Consortium was one of a number made by the rapidly expanding family history website at the 3 day Who Do You Think You Are? Live Show, where it has a major presence.
The brightsolid company was showcasing the many record collections on their site, including parish records from Manchester Archives, Cheshire Archives and over 40 million parish records from family history societies throughout the UK, in partnership with the Federation of Family History Societies.
Anyone wishing to be notified when the Yorkshire Collection becomes available can register online at findmypast.co.uk to receive a newsletter.
Disclosure: Compensated affiliate links are used throughout this piece.
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