Parish Records

We have added over 1.6 million individuals to our Parish Record Collection during 2018 which add to our already extensive Parish Record collection. With records spanning over 400 years, these records make it easier to find your ancestors’ baptisms, marriages and burials. Recently released records this year include parishes from Warwickshire and Worcestershire.

Many new cemeteries have also been added to the Headstones Database.

Lloyd George Domesday Records

TheGenealogist has released records for Barnet, Edgware, Finchley, Friern Barnet, Hendon and Totteridge, Brent, Kingsbury, Willesden, Wembley and areas in Westminster this year.

This unique combination of maps and residential data, held by The National Archives and being digitised by TheGenealogist, can locate your ancestor’s house on large scale and exceptionally detailed hand annotated maps that identifies where your ancestors’ property was.

The records link individual properties to extremely detailed ordnance survey maps used in 1910 and the original Field book often giving a detailed description of the property. Researchers can use this collection in the majority of cases to pinpoint an address they have already found in a census or street directory down to a specific house on the map. Fully searchable by name, parish and street and then using the maps to zoom in and find properties on streets as they existed in 1910.

Complementing the maps on TheGenealogist are the accompanying Field Books that will also provide researchers with detailed information relative to the valuation of each property, including the valuation assessment number, map reference, owner, occupier, situation, description and extent.

This mammoth project is ongoing with over 94,500 Field Books, each having hundreds of pages to digitise with associated large scale IR121 annotated OS maps. This second release from TheGenealogist includes the extra detailed IR58 Field Books which feature more information about the properties that have been surveyed.

The releases this year covered Brent, Barnet, Edgware, Finchley, Friern Barnet, Hendon and Totteridge, just to the south of Hertfordshire and the civil parishes of Brook, Bryanston Square, Cavendish Square, Church, Conduit, Curzon, Dorset Square, Dover, Great Marlborough, Grosvenor, Hamilton Terrace, Hamlet of Knightsbridge, Hyde Park, Knightsbridge, Lancaster Gate, Liberty Of The Rolls, Maida Vale, Pall Mall, Petty France, Pimlico North, Pimlico South, Portland Place, Portman Square, Queens Park, Regent 1, Regent 2, St Anne Soho, St Clement Danes, St John Westminster, St Martin in the Fields, St Mary Le Strand, St Paul Covent Garden, Westbourne and Westminster. These join the City of London and Paddington Index and maps already released. More areas are coming soon for other London Boroughs and the county of Buckinghamshire.

Colour Tithe Maps

Tithe schedules and maps are one of the most popular record sets on TheGenealogist. The searchable schedules, or apportionment books, contain detailed information on land use and these are linked to the maps on TheGenealogist. Clicking through from the transcript to a map will jump straight to the plot for an individual and can reveal buildings, fields, houses, rivers, lakes, woods and also cover villages, towns and cities. Black and white maps are already available for England and Wales, and we’ve been enhancing these with our colour images as we have been painstakingly conserving and scanning each county at The National Archives.

This year we have added Colour Maps for Rutland, Huntingdonshire, Yorkshire North and East Ridings and Buckinghamshire to our National Tithe Records collection.

1921 Census Substitute Expands to More Counties

With the 1921 census still some years away from public release, TheGenealogist has added to its 1921 census substitute. This resource covers a large number of county directories which have been transcribed to produce a searchable resource. This appears under Census Records as the 1921 Census Substitute on TheGenealogist and they encompass a period currently not served by a published census. With this release, the total records are boosted to 1.75 million heads of household. Search by forename, surname and profession; search by street, town and county; look for a business name, discover your ancestors’ addresses and find professions listed.

These 1921 directories cover Nottingham, Glasgow, Leicestershire & Rutland, Derby, Shropshire, Kent and add to those already released for Aberdeen, Bath, Berkshire, Bradford and Surrounding Districts, Bristol and Suburbs, Brixton and Clapham, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Channel Islands, Cheshire, Cumberland, Dorset, Durham, Hessle, Hull, Lincolnshire, London, London County Suburbs, Middlesbrough, Norfolk, Northumberland, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Suffolk, Westmorland, Wiltshire, Worcestershire and Yorkshire.

Military Records

Our major military records release in 2018 were:

WW1 Officers

TheGenealogist added over 42,000 records of Officers that died in the Great War, along with additional Rolls of Honour and over 30,000 War Memorials, War Graves plans, maps and listings. These fully searchable records join an already strong WW1 Collection on the site, providing a highly useful resource for those seeking their ancestors caught up in the conflict.

Family history researchers with ancestors who fought in the First World War will welcome these fascinating new releases that add to TheGenealogist’s well-received collection of World War 1 records.

Meritorious Service Medal Records

We have released the records of 29,000 individuals who were decorated with the Meritorious Service Medal (MSM). The roll of names for those who were awarded this British honour in the First World War can now be searched on our website. Researchers can look for holders of this medal up to 1920 from within our ever growing military records collection. See a copy of the image of the Medal Card with the theatre of war where the medal was won and read the name, rank, regiment and service/regimental number.

Air Force Records

To celebrate the centenary of the RAF we are launched thousands of records from Air Force Lists, copies of the Flight Magazine, plus an important collection of historic reference books.

War Memorials

Over 64,000 additional War Memorial records have been added in 2018, which include a complete roll of honour for both WW1 and WW2 for Shetland, with men’s units and the Shetland village in which they resided. There are other war memorials in this release that cover the country including the Abercarn Tinplaters Memorial Institute in Wales. There are plaques and monuments in Bedford, Bolton, Lancashire, London, Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Warwickshire and even further afield in Canada, Western Australia and the USA. One of the Canadian memorials is a fascinating, but sadly very worn, WW2 memorial from Calgary in Canada that names 227 aircrew from Australia and New Zealand who died while training in Calgary, revealing just how dangerous WW2 aviation was.

From the USA TheGenealogist has uploaded some WW1 and WW2 war memorials from New York, including a fine one in Battery Park. This is a roll of those men and women who lost their lives in the Atlantic coastal waters in WW2 and had no known grave as a result of U-boat action. The war memorial gives researchers the ranks, units and the US state from which they were from, and the shockingly large number of Americans included is a salutary lesson when in Britain we are often only aware of our own countrymen/women who died at sea from enemy action against the convoys.

A number of Boer War memorials were added in 2018 for example the tribute within Blackpool Town Hall that commemorates the 74 Blackpool men who volunteered to join various units for service in South Africa.

Criminal Records

We enlarged our Court & Criminal Records collection so that even more black sheep ancestors can now be searched for and found on our site. With the new releases of records you can unearth all sorts of ancestors who came up against the law whether they were a victim, acquitted, convicted of a minor offence or found guilty of a major crime such as murder.

These records cover a vast range of transgressions and so we are able to find men and women who stole small items such as shirts, potatoes, boots etc. We can also discover people who had married bigamously, forged money, uttered a counterfeit half-crown, burgled, murdered or were accused of other crimes.

2018 also saw us add 651,369 records of convicts from The National Archives’ HO 8 documents to our Court & Criminal Records collection. With this release researchers can find the details of ancestors that broke the law and were incarcerated in convict hulks and prisons in the 19th century.

These fully searchable records are from The Home Office: Sworn lists of convicts on board the convict hulks and in the convict prisons (HO 8). They give the family history researcher fascinating facts that include the particulars of age, convictions, sentences, health and behaviour of the convict, as well as which court sentenced them and where they were serving their sentence.

Metropolitan Police Habitual Criminals Registers

We have added to our Criminal Records collection with the release of the MEPO 6 Metropolitan Police: Criminal Record Office: Habitual Criminals & Habitual Drunkards.

These are high quality transcripts with original colour images of the registers, as well as registers created by the Police to supervise released criminals including spies! Entries can contain a description of the individual, dates of conviction or discharge from prison and even the places they frequent!

One of the most interesting features of these records are the photographic portraits taken from the Registers of Habitual Drunkards. These registers feature two photographs, face on and in profile, per individual. Some records may also give distinguishing features, the name of the prison, length of sentence and previous convictions.

Central Criminal Court Records – thieves, forgers and serial killers

TheGenealogist has added to its Court and Criminal Records collection with the release of over 160,000 records of prisoners at the bar and their victims from the CRIM 9 records held by The National Archives. These documents were created by the Central Criminal Court and document the After Trial Calendar of Prisoners.

After Trial Calendars give family history researchers details of ancestors who were up before the Old Bailey, revealing the names of prisoners that had appeared before the court, the committing magistrates, offences the prisoner had been indicted for, the date of their trial and who they were tried before. The records give the verdict of the jury, previous convictions and the sentence or order of the court. Other information in these records are the names of the victim and the level of education or ‘Degree of Instruction’ as well as false names that the criminals may have used to try and hide their tracks from the authorities.

Find ancestors accused of crimes ranging from stealing a matchbox to murder, discover people standing trial as forgers, baby farmers, German spies and more. Uncover some of the aliases adopted by criminal ancestors.

TheGenealogist added to its Court and Criminal Records collection in 2018 with the release of almost 150,000 entries for prisoners locked up in Newgate prison along with any alias they were known by as well as the names of their victims. Sourced from the HO 26 Newgate Prison Registers held by The National Archives, these documents were created over the years 1791 to 1849.

The Newgate Prison Registers give family history researchers details of ancestors who were imprisoned in the fearsome building that once stood next to the Old Bailey in the City of London. The records reveal the names of prisoners, offences the prisoner had been convicted for, the date of their trial and where they were tried. The records also give the name of the victims and any alias that the criminals may have used before.

1940s and 1950s Passenger Lists

During this year we have released 5.4 million Passenger Records covering the 1940s and 1950s. This expands our Outbound Passenger Lists to over 30 million and forms part of our larger immigration and emigration collection on TheGenealogist. Researchers who had ancestors that travelled abroad from Britain will find these records a fascinating addition to the vast collection of records on TheGenealogist.

Poll Books

TheGenealogist has released 116,218 records into its ever growing Poll Book Database. This useful resource for family historians can be used to find ancestors’ residences from the period before the census collection. The Poll Books released range from 1705 to the 1830s, joining records covering periods between census years.

The database allows researchers to discover ancestors who had the vote and find where they were registered to cast their ballot. You can use them to discover the nature of their qualification to vote, such as possessing a Corn Warehouse, a Workshop, a House, or owning a Brewhouse.

The records released cover 18 different registers of people who were entitled to vote in between 1705 and the 1830s and cover constituencies situated in Abingdon, Bristol, Hampshire, Somerset, Suffolk, Maidstone, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Worcestershire and York.

These Poll Book records were transcribed by volunteers on the UKindexer.co.uk website, which brings benefits to the volunteers as well as the wider family history community. They join the millions of electoral resources on TheGenealogist, which include Electoral registers, Voters lists and Absentee Voters.

Change of Names Database

This searchable database is great for family historians wanting to find ancestors who officially changed their forename or surname in Britain. The Change of Names Database covers information gathered from a number of sources including Private Acts of Parliament; Royal Licences published in the London and Dublin Gazettes; notices of changes of name published in The Times after 1861 with a few notices from other newspapers; registers of the Lord Lyon [King of Arms] where Scottish changes of name were commonly recorded; records in the office of the Ulster King at Arms and also some private information.

These fully searchable records allow researchers to break ‘Brick Walls’ in your research by discovering ancestors that recorded a change of name and find what name had been adopted and the name discarded.

Newspapers From the Last Decade of the Nineteenth Century

We have added over 500 editions of The Illustrated London News to our Newspaper and Magazine collection. This latest release contains newspapers that were published in the 1890s and offers a fascinating insight into your ancestors’ lives.

The Illustrated London News is one of a number of newspapers and magazines that are fully searchable by name or keywords by Diamond subscribers of TheGenealogist. Not only can this extensive resource add context to your ancestors’ lives and times, these newspapers can be used to find out more about people who, for one reason or another, were mentioned in reports from the time.

School Registers

TheGenealogist has added tens of thousands of additional individuals from school registers to its Educational Records. The records can be used to discover a school pupil or university student’s achievements. Educational records will confirm birth dates and sometimes place of birth. They can give the father’s name and address, which is useful when they are missing from the census. The records can also give details of former students’ occupations and further information.

Over 5 Million U.S.A. Records

We have added over 5 Million passenger records to our U.S.A. records, featuring people that migrated to the U.S.A. between 1834 and 1900. The mass movement of people from one country to another isn’t a new thing. The motivation can be economic, political upheaval or religious persecution. Most were drawn to the U.S.A. by the attractions of land and religious freedom, after being forced to leave Europe by shortages of land and religious or political oppression. This release joins the millions of U.S.A. census, death records, trade directories, wills and poll books already available on TheGenealogist.