For ease of viewing the websites mentioned in “Web Watch”, a regular feature of our quarterly journal, the whole article is reproduced below.
Since websites, their content and their links are prone to frequent change, or even removal, we will only display the articles from the previous four issues of the journal.
The National Archives - http://discovery.
120 volumes of Admiralty Allotment Registers in ADM27 have been indexed by
the Friends and 450,000 entries added to Discovery. Index and images
also on FindMyPast.
To find parishes within a Registration District, search Discovery with the
year and piece number, e.g. 1871 RG 10/1803.
The contract to digitise, index and publish the 1921 census has been awarded
to FMP. Roll on 1st January 2022.
General Register Office - https://www.gro.gov.uk/
GRO has made the pilot of PDF copies of historical birth and death records
permanent, but the price has gone up. Applications for PDF’s cost £7,
must be made online and include a GRO index reference. Births
1837-1918; deaths 1837-1957.
The price of paper certificates has also increased to £11 or more.
Find My Past - http://www.findmypast.co.uk
For Lancashire and Liverpool FMP have added 1.4m Roman Catholic records, 2.5m
workhouse records, 2.2m Church of England records, 646,000 school records and
50,000 Methodist records. Parish records have been added for Yorkshire
[350,000], Middlesbrough Catholic diocese [138,000], Kent including Dover
[248,000] and Norfolk [151,000]. 38,000 Lancashire wills proved at
Chester from 1700 to 1799 have been added. Additions to the National
Burial Index for Durham, Northumberland, Cumberland and Lincolnshire total
717,000.
Ancestry - http://www.ancestry.co.uk
Ancestry have closed the gap 1967 to 1972 in the index of Probate records, so
now have a complete run from 1858 to 1995. London Poor Law Hospital
Admissions and Discharges 1842-1918 has 512,000 records. The UK WW2
Alien Internees 1939 to 1945 from TNA HO396 has 137,000 records. It is
disappointing that 1.9m records in the UK WW1 Pension Ledgers and Index Cards
1914 to 1923 is only available on their Fold3 website.
The Genealogist - http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/
Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea join the 1910 Valuation Survey with
annotated maps. WW2 Casualty Lists have over 1 million records from TNA
WO417. 700,000 records for Prisoners from TNA HO8 have been
added. They have added Colour Tithe Maps for Rutland and
Huntingdonshire. 144,000 transcripts of Worcestershire Baptisms have
been added.
Deceased Online - https://www.deceasedonline.com/
165,000 burials in West Norwood Cemetery for 1837 to 2005 have been added.
Family Search - https://www.familysearch.org
They have added 2m parish records for Hampshire, 305,000 for Derbyshire,
994,000 for Nortumberland and 93,000 marriage licences for Devon and
Cornwall.
British Newspaper Archive - https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.
New additions include the Folkestone Express, Sandgate, Shorncliffe &
Hythe Advertiser for most years 1868 to 1924 and the East Kent Gazette for
most years 1857 to 1964 . Also on FMP.
Scotland's People – https://www.scotlandspeople.
Images of births for 1918, marriages for 1943 and deaths for 1968 are now
available online.
The National Library of Scotland - https://www.nls.uk
They have put online 13,953 Ordnance Survey maps which provide near-complete
coverage of England, Scotland and Wales in the 1950s-1960s.
19th Century English Prisons - https://www.prisonhistory.org
Information on nearly 850 English prisons, lock ups and hulks used to confine
those accused and convicted of crimes between 1800 and 1899. It not only
includes where an institution was located and the jurisdiction, the number of
prisoners, but also lists the key primary sources that describe the prison
and the location of surviving archives.
Info on 20 years of FreeBMD plus FreeREG and FreeCEN -
http://www.qualifiedgenealogists.org/
Parliamentary Archives introductory guide for family historians -
https://archives.parliament.uk/
Help in finding those elusive birth certificates. Peter Calver's
Masterclass -
https://www.lostcousins.com/
For Overseas BMDs registered here, see Chris Paton's blog -
http://britishgenes.blogspot.com/
Old Occupations - http://www.rmhh.co.uk/occup/
Rodney Hall has many other interesting links on this site including military,
illnesses and medical terms.
A new American-focused genealogy search engine - https://Kincrawler.com
How popular was your forename?
https://demos.flourish.studio/
Top Ten Sins of a Genealogist -
https://www.family-tree.co.uk/
And finally, if you haven't won the Lottery - https://www.standard.net/
Find My Past - http://www.findmypast.co.uk
FMP have added records for Portsmouth including burials, rate books,
hospital, police and directories. They have also added further parish
records for Kent including Lydd, Hythe, Paddlesworth, Sandgate and New
Romney, Cheshire, east London, Dorset, Wales, Northumberland and Durham
burials, Lothian burials, and 2800 irregular baptisms around the Fleet
Prison. Kent Poor Law records include Elham Union. Records of
536,000 Marriage Licences have been loaded. 224,000 further records
have been added to WW1 Soldiers' Medical Records from TNA MH106. Royal
Air Force Lists from 1919-1922 and 1938-1945 include 62,000 names. A
big addition is 107m records from Electoral Registers for 1920-32. For
Jersey 62,000 German Occupation identity Cards have been transcribed.
110,000 Monumental Inscriptions for Dorset have been transcribed.
Ancestry - http://www.ancestry.co.uk
Ancestry have added the membership records for the Institution of Mechanical
Engineers, 1847–1938. A new database is the UK and Ireland Obituary
Index, 2004-2018 sourced from newspapers. Ancestry now have the 1939
Register with a different index created from redacted images from FMP some
months old.
The Genealogist - http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/
The Genealogist have added the records of 150,000 prisoners in Newgate
Prison, London, 1791 to 1849, from TNA HO26. They have completed
Warwickshire parish records with a further 1.5 entries with images. The
Valuation Survey of 1910 has been added for north-west London.
Family Search - https://www.familysearch.org
Family Search have added parish records with images for Warwickshire,
Derbyshire, Devon and Cornwall, plus index records for Essex and for
non-conformist records for Northamptonshire. Welsh Marriage Bonds
1650-1900 have been transcribed. They have added 599,000 burials for
Oldham area. They now have the England & Wales Probate index for
1858 to 1957 and have also indexed the Executors and Administrators [but
incorrectly described them as Beneficiaries].
Scottish Indexes - www.scottishindexes.com
The Maxwells have added over 133,000 High Court records including those who
were transported during the Victorian period, plus video tutorials.
FreeBMD at 20 - https://www.freeukgenealogy.org.uk/
Videos of presentations at the conference including Audrey Collins and Else
Churchill.
City of London Cemetery and Crematorium - https://col-burialregisters.uk/
Unindexed images of burial registers with 440,000 records from 24 June 1856
to 7 October 1955.
Isle of Wight Council- https://www.iw-bereavementservices.co.uk/
Index of almost 100,000 burials and cremations. Digital download costs
£3.
Description of extra pages on 1841 census -
https://www.lostcousins.com/
A Street Near You - https://astreetnearyou.org
This contains nearly 500,000 location records for 410,000 men and women who
died whilst serving in the First World War. It was created using data and
images sourced from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and Imperial War
Museum, including their Lives of the First World War project.
Place Name Index to Great Britain - http://www.gazetteer.org.uk/
Over 50,000 entries.
Ten Threats to the Future of Genealogical Research -
https://genealogysstar.
New records for UK - https://ogindex.blogspot.com/
and world-wide -
http://www.genealogyintime.com/
And finally, Find My Past have loaded images of the Gestapo arrest list ready
for when they invaded in 1940. 2300 names including H.G. Wells
and Noel Coward.
Find My Past - http://www.findmypast.co.uk
We have started adding our own data to FMP.
FMP have added 881,000 Clandestine Marriages with images from TNA RG7 for
1667 – 1775. 329,000 deaths and burials for Fife and Lanarkshire 1549 – 1877
have been indexed. Images of 147 Royal Navy Lists from 1824 to 1945 have been
added. Parish register additions include 2.5 million records and images for
Lancashire (excluding Liverpool and Manchester), 109,000 more Middlesex
burials, and 264,000 for Wiltshire Quakers. Social and institutional records
for Wiltshire number 422,000. 691,000 records and images have been added to
the WW1 Soldiers' Medical records from TNA MH106. The Suffragette Collection
has 22,000 more records and images from various TNA series.
Ancestry - http://www.ancestry.co.uk
Ancestry have added 4.2 million Electoral Roll records for Aberdeenshire and
Fife. Also 1.7 million Electoral Rolls, Poll Books and Juror Books for
Cambridgeshire.
The Genealogist - http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/
They have added 160,000 records and images of Criminal records from TNA
CRIM9. Schedules and maps for the 1910 Lloyd George survey have been loaded
for north Middlesex. Colour Tithe maps for East and North Ridings of
Yorkshire have been added. The Index to Changes of Names 1760 to 1901
published by Phillimore and Fry in 1905 has been digitised with 12,000 names.
Deceased Online - www.deceasedonline.com
They have added 57,000 records and images of burials in 3 Oxford cemeteries.
Family Search - https://www.familysearch.org
The LDS have added 928,000 parish register records for Northumberland and 2.8
million for Warwickshire.
https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/
2,400 historic maps, plans and drawings from National Records of Scotland
(NRS) collections have been added.
http://www.cassinimaps.co.uk/
In the Lost Cousins newsletter Peter Calver mentioned that 1871 maps showing
Registration Sub-Districts (excluding London) from TNA RG18 are available
free.
https://www.history.co.uk/
Information about 43,000 casualties and 50,000 tons of high-explosive bombs
that fell on London.
http://www.locatemyname.com
Distribution of names across countries and regions.
https://www.gedcompublisher.com/
Software you can purchase for converting your Gedcom into an e-book.
https://blog.national
Information and advice on TNA's Discovery catalogue.
How To Tell If a Virus Is Actually a False Positive
https://www.howtogeek.com/
And check the file with 59 antivirus checkers at https://www.virustotal.com/
Photo of work on the 1939 Register at Smedley Hydro in 1940 -
https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/
And finally, a tree house!
https://mymodernmet.com/
The image shows the oldest couple standing at the top of the “tree house”
with their six children and spouses standing on the level below them. The
third generation are at the bottom, five of which have the fourth generation
babies in their arms. Each family is represented by colour-coordinated
T-shirts, and arranged in order of oldest to youngest (from left to right).
Find My Past - http://www.findmypast.co.uk
FMP have added a Map Search feature to the 1939 Register. They have added 2.5
million transcripts of UK deaths from 2007 to 2016. Transcripts of 476,000
Baptisms and 20,000 Feet of Fines for Surrey have been uploaded. British Army
Officers’ Widows’ Pension Forms for 1755 to 1908 from TNA WO42 has over
13,000 transcripts and images of certificates etc. Over 6.7 million records
from 1920 England & Wales electoral records have been added with images.
88,000 transcripts and images of Index slips for Prerogative Court of
Canterbury administrations from 1660 to 1700 from TNA PROB 6 and 15/72 – many
mariners.
Ancestry - http://www.ancestry.co.uk
Ancestry have now obtained the 1939 Register, giving another search option,
but note that their index was created from redacted images from some months
ago. They have added Norfolk BTs of parish registers and transcripts for
Cheshire. They have uploaded more than 23,000 photographs, pen and ink
illustrations and sketches from the Fox and Hulton Collections from 1704 to
1989 for UK.
The Genealogist - http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/index.php
From TNA they have added MEPO 6 Criminal Record Office: Habitual Criminals
& Habitual Drunkards. Also 1,270,000 records with images of Parish
Records for Warwickshire, 29,000 individuals who were decorated with the
Meritorious Service Medal and Air Force Lists from 1921 to 1944.
Deceased Online - www.deceasedonline.com
A collection of over 10,000 photographs of 90 Norfolk cemeteries has been
added.
Family Search - https://www.familysearch.org
They had added indexes to 4.4 million British Newspaper Archive Family
Notices and Obituaries.
Birmingham City Council - www.birminghamburialrecords.co.uk
Their Bereavement Services has launched an online database of over 1.5
million burial and cremation records.
Army Ancestors – BritishArmyAncestors.co.uk
Created by Paul Nixon, this site aims to obtain photographs of soldiers with
names between 1850 and 1920 and make them available free.
50 Recommended websites - https://www.family-tree.co.uk/how-to-guides/family-history-week/doing-your-family-history-online-50-best-websites-for-family-history
Property Deeds – ancestorhomes.com
A private collection of digitised property deeds and associated documents for
properties throughout England & Wales dating back to the 1660s.
Finding a Grave - https://findthatmi.
Hints on finding where somebody is buried plus a list of websites covering a
single church.
The National
Archives - http://blog.
OCR does not work on handwritten documents but this new technology might
learn to transcribe PCC wills.
https://blog.
Will updating obsolescent digital records to current technology alter their
content?
Population
changes -
https://www.populationspast.org/
A map and analysis of Victorian and Edwardian population during a period of
major change in the dynamics of the British population.
Law Society
- http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/
Information on tracing past solicitors and law firms.
And finally, want to know the weather on the day and at the place where you were born or another combination? Go to http://www.wolframalpha.com and enter Weather followed by a date and a location; for example July 1 1976 Folkestone.