1871 census and Welsh tithe maps are latest layers in Map Explorer tool

The 1871 Census for England, Scotland and Wales has now been georeferenced on TheGenealogist. This is the process of linking each record to a geographical spot and means you can now see where a household stood with links to detailed maps on the powerful Map Explorer tool.

Viewing a household record from the 1871 census on TheGenealogist will now show a map pinpointing its location. Clicking through from this preview map opens the powerful Map Explorer with its georeferenced modern and historical maps. This then enables subscribers to explore their ancestors’ area in much greater detail than on other census sites.

Joining the earlier census releases, which saw the 1911, 1901, 1891 and 1881 census linked up to the powerful mapping tool, researchers can now easily identify with just the click of a button where their forebears had once lived and get a sense of the routes their ancestors used.

TheGenealogist has also now linked its tithe maps for the Welsh counties of Brecknockshire, Cardiganshire, Denbighshire, Flintshire and Monmouthshire to Map Explorer. These records – more than 400,000 of them – are useful for researchers in that they record the names of owners and occupiers, from all levels of society at this time, and give details and value of their holdings.

With Map Explorer researchers have the ability to display a variety of historical and modern maps so that family, social and house historians are able to view the same plot of land throughout time.

TNA completes PoW cataloguing project

A six-year-long cataloguing project by a team of volunteers at The National Archives has now been completed, providing a new, important resource for researchers interested in family history and the Second World War.

The volunteers worked to sort and digitally catalogue the WO 416 file series, which primarily contains records of British and Allied Prisoners of War captured by German forces during the Second World War. The project has seen over 200,000 individual records catalogued and reorganised from large, unsorted boxes into numbered and ordered envelopes.

Researchers are now able to search for these records on TNA’s catalogue, Discovery using data such as name of the prisoner of war, their service number and the name of the camp.

The work of the volunteers included researching information through other records at The National Archives or resources such as the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. When multiple records existed for the same individuals, the volunteers worked to unite the records and file them together.

Thanks to the efforts of the volunteers, over 90% of these records are now searchable and open to the public. Those remaining closed will be opened 100 years after the birth of any named individuals, the vast majority being opened by 2028.

AGRA conference

The Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA) has announced the line-up for its 2023 conference, Navigating Your Family History: Journey’s with Ancestors, exploring topics from migration to naval and military records. The conference will be at Downing College, Cambridge on 8 and 9 September. The speakers will include maritime historian and broadcaster Dr Sam Willis; Dr Helen Doe on maritime history in the 19th century; author Richard Atkinson on his slave trade ancestor; Anne Morddel on researching British prisoners of Napoleon in French archives; Maggie Gaffney on immigration to New Zealand; and Lesley Trotter on emigration from Cornwall. Details: agra.org.uk