Millions of records to launch at show

TheGenealogist.co.uk is launching millions of new records at the Who Do You Think you Are? Live show this month (see events, p27). These include many unique resources:

• New tithe maps for more English counties
• New tithe apportionment documents for Wales, completing the release
• 750,000 more parish records
• 4.66 million new WW1 medals records.

A major addition to the National Tithe Records will be launched at the show. Joining the previously released maps for Middlesex, Surrey, Buckinghamshire and Leicestershire, are the counties of Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire, Yorkshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire.

Tithe maps allow you to identify the land on which your ancestors lived and worked in the 19th century. The tithe apportionments list the names of both the owner and the occupier as well as detail the amount of land, how it was used, and tithe rent due. These unique records are key to geographically placing where your ancestors lived and worked in these times.

Meanwhile 750,000 more parish records from 22 counties join the already significant collection on the site and these new records include those from: Buckinghamshire, Caernarvonshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Cornwall, Cumberland, Devon, Durham, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Herefordshire, Leicestershire, London, Monmouthshire, Northamptonshire, Northumberland, Shropshire, Somerset, Sussex, Worcestershire and Yorkshire.

Parish records are a prime source for family historians to find the key life events of their ancestors and so this release will be greatly welcomed by many whose ancestors are from these areas.

TheGenealogist is also launching 4.66 million new WW1 Campaign Medal Cards at the show. This takes its WWI medal collection close to 6 million records. Included in this new release are the following medals:

• 1914 Star
• 1914-15 Star
• British War Medal 1914-1920
• Victory Medal 1914-1919.

These medal cards make it even easier to find an ancestor in the collection of military records online as many of our ancestors who served in World War One will have been eligible. Mark Bayley, head of Content at TheGenealogist said We always like to have a big release for the show. The completion of the Tithe apportionments and the release of maps for an additional 11 counties gives researchers the opportunity to beat the abiding challenge of finding where their ancestors lived and worked. With the vast number of parish, medal and tithe records that we are releasing there should be something for everyone to discover.

2000 years of Scots history to explore online

Some of Scotland’s most precious, interesting and unusual historical objects – and the stories behind them – can now be accessed at the click of a button.

Historic Scotland has launched an online gallery of 400 objects, organised so that visitors can easily search by theme, date, type or property where it is housed.

More than 35,000 objects housed in over 160 properties in Scotland are in the safekeeping of Historic Scotland. This is the first time many of the objects can be viewed outside of their host properties. So the hidden gems contained in Innerpeffray Chapel near Auchterarder, Arbroath Abbey or Edinburgh Castle can be viewed from a computer or smartphone anywhere in the world. The gallery is also an opportunity to view items from the Historic Scotland archive that are not currently on public display.

From the Honours of Scotland through to a model ship built by French prisoners at Edinburgh Castle in the late 1700s, to Neolithic paint pots from Orkney, the online gallery features some of Scotland’s most diverse and significant historical objects.

Richard Welander, Head of Collections at Historic Scotland said: This gallery will bring Scotland’s history to people in their own homes.
From the Stone of Destiny to cannonballs and medieval eel spears, Historic Scotland’s online object collection is full of fascinating items, some of which are thousands of years old.
The objects we’ve chosen are a highly eclectic mix, from prehistoric bone necklaces to 20th century cotton machinery, to give people an insight into the diversity of objects in our care.

The object collection can be explored online at: collections.historic-scotland.gov.uk .