News & Articles 2015

2015 Round up
31st December 2015

We have added millions of new records throughout 2015, along with some exciting new record sets, here's some of the highlights:

• 25th December Tithe Maps for England and Wales completed
• 30th November Detailed Passenger Lists for NSW added
• 9th October 2015 5 million Emigration Records Released
• 28th August 2015 Released 1880s of Illustrated London News (1846 to 1889)
• 4th August 2015 Publishing Agreement with Norfolk Record Office
• 20th July 2015 Searchable Jewish Seatholders records added
• 13th May 2015 releases 60,000 railway worker records
• 16th April 2015 Tithe Maps for 11 counties go online.
• 16th April 2015 Tithe Apportionment documents for Wales Released
• April 2015 750,000 New Parish Records for 22 counties added
• April 2015 Medal Roll 5 million new WW1 Campaign Medal Cards released.
• 13th February 2015 Tithe Maps Now Online for the first time!
• January 40,000 War Memorial records released

Tithe Maps Completed for England and Wales!
25th December 2015

MAJOR NEW RELEASE:

TheGenealogist has now completed the launch of searchable Tithe Maps and Schedules for England and Wales with the release of more maps covering 40 counties. This means you can now view a map of your ancestors parish for the counties of Anglesey, Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Brecknockshire, Buckinghamshire, Caernarfonshire, Cambridgeshire, Cardiganshire, Carmarthenshire, Cheshire, Cornwall, County Durham, Cumberland, Denbighshire , Derbyshire, Devon, Dorset, Essex, Flintshire, Glamorgan, Glamorganshire, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Herefordshire, Hertfordshire, Huntingdonshire, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Merionethshire, Middlesex, Monmouthshire, Montgomeryshire, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Northumberland, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Pembrokeshire, Radnorshire, Rutland, Shropshire, Somerset, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Sussex, Warwickshire, Westmorland, Wiltshire, Worcestershire, York City and Ainsty and Yorkshire.

These maps link to the searchable schedules which contain over 14 million records. The schedules contain detailed information on land use with linked maps that jump to the plot for an individual from the records. The maps can contain hundreds of individual plots with varying levels of detail. They can reveal buildings, fields, houses, rivers, lakes, woods and cities.

You can read more here.

New South Wales Passenger Lists Released
25th November 2015

TheGenealogist has released over 190,000 records for passengers who departed these shores on early migrant ships to New South Wales in the years between 1828 and 1896. These new records expand TheGenealogist’s Immigration, Emigration and Naturalisation and passenger list records.

The transcripts of the latest release uniquely give a family link so you can see spouses and children setting out on their new life. They also reveal details such as which ship they had sailed on, where they were landing, the passenger’s occupation and in the case where the migrant has been assisted to travel out to a job, their employer’s name.

You can read our article Finding a Fortune Down Under to find out more.

Emigration Records
9th October 2015

MAJOR NEW RELEASE:

We have released 5 million emigration records as part of our growing immigration and emigration record set. These contain the historical records of passengers who departed by sea from Britain in the years between 1896 and 1909. These new records significantly boosts the already strong Immigration, Emigration, Naturalisation and passenger list resources on TheGenealogist.

Unique to TheGenealogist:

• Track transmigration of people across countries routing through British ports on their way to America.
• Discover families travelling together on the same voyage using our SmartSearch technology.

Find people using British shipping lines and travelling to places such as America, Canada, India, New Zealand and Australia in the Passenger lists of people leaving from, or passing through the United Kingdom, by sea which were kept by the Board of Trade's Commercial and Statistical Department and its successors.

RMS Campania, one of the ships included in the passenger lists

More records to follow!

These records will be shortly followed by the release of many more unique migration records.

"We intend to make researching migrating ancestors easier with our new smarter interfaces and adding more records covering a growing range of countries."
- Nigel Bayley, MD

Those with ancestors who travelled out of Britain will welcome this fascinating new release that reveal the details of the coming and going of passengers and is a precursor of a set of unique records joining the collection shortly.

Illustrated London News
28th August 2015

We have now completed the 1880s decade of this hugely informative newspaper.

The 1880s saw Jack the Ripper terrorise the streets of Whitechapel, the end of the first Boer War, as well as the attempted assasination of the Queen.

This gives us complete coverage from 1842 (the year the paper started) to 1889, as crystal clear, searchable copies.

Each issue is bookmarked by article and is easily searchable. They contain many announcements of Births, Marriages, Deaths, Obituaries, Wills & Bequests.

Norfolk Parish Records
4th August 2015

New Agreement with Norfolk Record Office

TheGenealogist and the Norfolk Record Office announce that they have signed an agreement to make Norfolk parish and other historical records available online for the first time. The registers of baptisms, marriages, burials and banns of marriage feature the majority of the parishes in Norfolk.

On release the searchable transcripts will be linked to original images of baptism, marriage and burial records from the parish registers of this East Anglian county.

Some of the surviving records are from the early 1500s. These vital records will allow family history researchers from all over the world to search for their Norfolk ancestors online for the first time.

Gary Tuson, County Archivist at The Norfolk Record Office said: "The Norfolk Record Office is pleased to be working with TheGenealogist, a commercial company helping to make these important records available to a worldwide audience."

Jewish Seatholders
20th July 2015

TheGenealogist has released online 99,500 records of London synagogue seat-holders spanning the years from 1920 to 1939.

• Covering the records from 18 Synagogues around London with many connected guilds, societies and charities etc.
• Additional information found in these records include names of gentlemen eligible for office, life member of the council, women who are seatholders in their own right and seatholders who are not eligible to vote.
• Fully searchable by name, keyword, synagogue and address, the Jewish Synagogue Seatholders has been extracted from various years of: "Seatholders for Synagogues in London"

Those with Jewish ancestors from London will welcome this fascinating new release from TheGenealogist. Revealing details of positions held by forebears, researchers will be able to track ancestors who became wardens, council members, or served on committees of their synagogue, as well as seatholders in synagogues from around the capital city. These fully indexed records allow family historians to search by name, keyword, synagogue and address and with one click see an image taken from the pages of Seatholders for Synagogues in London.

TheGenealogist releases 60,000 railway worker records
13th May 2015

More than 60,000 railway workers have been added to the Occupational Records on TheGenealogist

• Find details of railway ancestors, where they were employed and what they did
• Trace your railway worker ancestor’s careers through their promotions
• Discover when they retired
• Read obituaries

The Genealogist has added over 60,000 rail workers to its online indexes of Railway Employment Records. Taken from Railway Company Staff magazines these records are useful to family historians with railway employee ancestors, wanting to find important occupation related dates and add some social history to their family tree. These records include such details as staff changes, promotions, pension records, retirements and obituaries. Often additional personal information is revealed in the magazines. In some cases you can read about gifts from co-workers given when rail staff leave.

You can read more about these records here.

New releases at Who Do You Think You Are Live 2015
20th April 2015

MAJOR NEW RELEASE:

We have a host of new record releases this year for the show. Mark Bayley from TheGenealogist talks us through them:

New Tithe Maps for more English counties
16th April 2015

MAJOR NEW RELEASE:

A major addition to the National Tithe Records has just been launched. Joining the previously released maps for Middlesex, Surrey, Buckinghamshire and Leicestershire, are the counties of Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Huntingdonshire, Lancashire, Oxfordshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire & Yorkshire.

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.

You can read more about tithe records here

New Tithe Apportionment documents for Wales
16th April 2015

MAJOR NEW RELEASE:

We have now completed the Tithe Apportionment records for England and Wales with a final release of over a million records. The Tithe Records provide a unique view into our ancestral heritage by providing details of ownership and occupancy of land throughout England and Wales, revealing a wealth of information about people, places and landmarks in the Victorian era.

You can read more about tithe records here

Over 5 Million New WW1 Campaign Medals
16th April 2015

MAJOR NEW RELEASE:

TheGenealogist has released over 5 million new WW1 Campaign Medal Cards. This takes our 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

750,000 New Parish Records Added
16th April 2015

MAJOR NEW RELEASE:

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

New Tithe Maps Now Online for the first time!
13th February 2015

MAJOR NEW RELEASE:

Many family historians want to get an insight into where their ancestors worked and lived. Now they are able to search for their forebears within the fantastic resource that is the comprehensive collection of Tithe records for England and Wales online at TheGenealogist. The maps for Buckinghamshire, Leicestershire, Middlesex and Surrey are now live with the rest of the country being released in the coming months. Read full article...

War Memorials
22nd January 2015

We have added another 40,000 records to our War Memorials, which is the largest name searchable collection of War Memorial photographs. This brings the total to over 179,000 and our collection is quickly growing to offer more coverage. With records ranging from soldiers lost in the Boer War in 1901 to more modern day conflicts such as in Northern Ireland, there are numerous records to access in our War Memorial collection.

Worcestershire Parish Record Transcripts
10th January 2015

We have added over 59,000 individuals to our Baptism Transcripts for Worcestershire in partnership with Malvern Family History Society, expanding our coverage and bringing the total to over 1.2 million individuals. With years ranging from 1544-1891

Click Here to view the coverage of our Parish Record Transcripts

The 1911 Census is now available to Gold & Starter Subscribers!
1st January 2015

MAJOR NEW RELEASE:

We have added over 36 Million 1911 census records for our Gold and Starter subscribers.