Where Do I Start?
When you first begin your research, you need to talk to any living relatives and try to get as much information from them as possible. Make notes and try to draw out a basic tree with your own knowledge and the information provided by them. Then you're ready to start filling in the gaps and work your way back through your tree.
Use the built in family tree building package, Treeview to add people, notes, images, exhibits and more with automatic linking to the available records available in your subscription.
The Genealogist offers many unique record collections essential to every family historian. Key collections include the census for England and Wales (1841-1911), the 1939 Register, civil registration records of births, marriages and deaths (BMD) 1837-2005, Parish & Non Conformist Records, Wills etc and much more.
For more information and guides on our tools and resources, please select an option from the menu on the left.
Unique Search Tools on TheGenealogist
New Master Search
What's particularly different about TheGenealogist.co.uk is the range of powerful tools available for locating your ancestors
Our new Master Search makes all our records easily accessible at the click of a button.
This comprehensive search tool allows you to use one simple form to search across our millions of records, including Parish Records, Wills, Newspapers, Census, Non-Conformist Registers, and more.
The simple to use interface allows you to search for a person, family, or an address, incorporating the previous searches such as the Family Forename Search, House & Street Search, and Keyword Master Search.
Person Search
Searching for a Person
If you are looking for an individual, select ‘A Person’ from the first drop down box, then select either All Records or a specific record type you wish to find, e.g Census, Birth, Marriage, etc., you can easily switch between the categories later.
Once you have selected a category, enter the details you wish to search for. You can enter any details you know about the person: forename, surname, year of birth, place name, etc. (It works just like a web search-engine). It is recommended to use at least 2 keywords, e.g. "George Bayley Lydd Labourer" (name, place, occupation). Wildcards (*) can be used to represent any characters at the END of your SURNAME or FORENAME (e.g. JAM* will find JAMES, JAMIE).
You can also select the Phonetic option to search for different spellings of a surname, e.g. Bayley, Bailey, Baily etc. Phonetic search is much more refined than variant searching available on other sites as it concentrates on looking for a name based on the way it sounds rather than the way it is spelt. This is important as the records of our ancestors were often communicated verbally, for example a census enumerator asking a householders name or a vicar asking the names of a couple to be married. The further back you go the higher the likelihood of spelling variations, but the way a name sounded stayed consistent.
Please note however that you cannot use wildcards if you are using the Phonetic search option.
Try not to make the search too specific, as the age and birth place can sometimes differ between census years. It may also be wise to omit any middle names/initials as these were not always included.
In the example below, we have searched for the famous cider making family, entering ‘Bulmer’ in the surname box and ‘Cider’ in the keyword box. This brings up two entries in 1911, the two brothers Henry (Percy) and Fred who founded the Cider business.
To find different records on the person, change to an alternative event by selecting a category from the list on the left.
The number of results in the different categories for your search are shown on the menu next to the category:
Family Search
Searching for a Family
This option is great for extracting hard to find families in the census. It enables you to search for a family you have not been able to find using the surname; possibly due to an unexpected spelling variation, by using the forenames only as a group search. The results can be refined by adding or subtracting a surname or family members.
As many families had a large number of children, the odds of another family in the same county being an exact match is quite remote. It is possible to narrow the search by year and county, if required, and enter as many householders that you know of:
Select ‘A Family’ from the ‘What would you like to search for today?’ drop down box, then select a census year and county.
You can enter the family’s surname if you wish or leave this field blank to do a broader search. You can also enter at least the first 2 letters followed by a wildcard symbol, such as Br* if searching for Bransgrove, to reduce a search if there are many results.
You can enter the forenames of family members, and use the ‘Add a family member’ link to increase the number of boxes available.
You can refine your search by:
- adding a Year of Birth for any member of the group or all of them
- include details of how the person is related to the head in the ‘Relation’ box, e.g. head, wife, son, daughter etc
- use a wildcard for forenames which have different variations, e.g. eliz* to find eliza or elizabeth
As ages can vary from one census to another, you can broaden the expected Year of Birth to include any matches within a decade by clicking the option box available.
To submit the details, select the ‘Search’ button and all results for the forename group will display below, and show possible matches within the selected year and county. Results are displayed with the requested forenames highlighted, as well as any other names, and will include the Surname, and the Street Address, as well as a link to view the original image.
Address Search
Searching for an Address
One of the advantages of the full transcription on TheGenealogist is that you can find the entry for a street address without having to know who lives there.
Select ‘An Address’ from the ‘What would you like to search for today?’ drop down box, then select the year, such as 1901, and the county, e.g. London and enter the name of the street you are looking for, click Search.
If for example you wanted to find Downing Street you could enter the full name, but the census may have recorded Street as 'Street', 'St' or 'Str'. Since the search engine accepts the wildcard '*' symbol to represent one or more letters, a search on Downing S*' will capture these variations. In large cities, a street name may have been used more than once, so the Parish of each street is also listed on the first results page to help you identify the correct Street you need.
You can view the address by simply clicking on the Street Name.
The next window will show the result and display the Head of each household, if there are multiple houses on that street you will be able to then enter the house number to narrow down the results.
You can choose either to view the household or to view the original image by clicking the icons on the right:
You can also use this search feature to find a particular institution such as a Workhouse and view all residents:
Overseas and Military BMD Indexes
The Overseas BMD Indexes are available under "Birth Marriage and Death Indexes", and cover the births, marriages and deaths of British Service Personnel throughout the world. The data set currently includes:
- Marine Births: 1837-1965
- Army Births & Registers, Marriages and Deaths: 1747-1980
- Air Births, Deaths & Missing Persons: 1947-1965
- Consular Birth, Marriages, Deaths: 1849-1915
- High Commission Births, Marriages, Deaths: 1899-1964
- Informal Certificates of Birth at Sea: 1839-1867
- Ionian Island Births, Marriages, Deaths: 1818-1864
- Marriages & Deaths Abroad: 1966-1994
- Regimental Births: 1407-1997
- Article 6/18 Marriage: 1961-1965
Also available are Overseas Marine Deaths, which cover deaths at sea onboard British ships from 1837, containing over 210, 00 records.
The World War I and World War II Death Indexes provides an official GRO index reference as per the standard BMD Index, and you can obtain an Overseas Death certificate at www.gro.gov.uk. Accessed from your Research View page under "Birth Marriage and Death Indexes", both World War indexes are in the same format as the Overseas BMD indexes.
These records can be searched directly via the Master Search using a standard Birth, Marriage or Death Search.
You can then refine your results to look at these specific data sets by selecting the option from the data lists on the left hand side of the page.
Alternatively you can search these data sets by the drop down menu located below the Master Search.
This search allows you to search across all the record-sets or to select a specific set, e.g. Consular Births using the ‘Section’ drop down menu. You can also narrow down your search by enter the ship/unit and the year of event.
The results displayed provide all the information given on the original image, including the official GRO reference, which you will need if you wish to order an overseas certificate at www.gro.gov.uk. There is also a link on the right which will allow you to view the original page if you wish to confirm the details on the transcript or print the image for your records.
Searching Available Datasets
TheGenealogist has a large number of databases which can be searched using the Master Search and individually. Some of these are in transcript format and some are in printed book format. All of the records are searchable*, but if you have any difficulties please don't hesitate to get in touch via the 'Contact Us' form.
Once you have signed in, from the main Search Page you will have the Master Search which will search across all record sets.
If you wish to search a specific record set please scroll down the Search page, past the Master Search and you will find all the record sets listed individually on the right hand side.
TheGenealogist is the official site for the Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial records, which you'll find under 'Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes' and also under 'Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Records' on your Search page.
We are also adding transcripts and page images of parish records, trade directories, school records, wills and other publications for various counties and era's, many of which cover periods before the census and civil registration and some are not available elsewhere.
Please click here to see a complete of list of all available datasets available
An important factor to remember when searching through early records is the variation in the calendar system. The Julian Calendar was the standard system until March 1752 which was then replaced by the Gregorian Calendar. According to the Julian Calendar, the first day of the new year was 25th March 'Lady Day', so a full year would run from March 25th to March 24th. Dates between January 1st and March 24th would still be assigned the previous year, for example, January 1st 1744 would either be written as 1744 or 1744/45 to indicate the dual date. At TheGenealogist we use the date as written, so please be aware of this when searching for dates before March 1752.
*excludes Reference Books which are bookmarked and can be browsed by page
Birth, Marriage & Death Indexes
The first port of call for your research should be the Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes.
Using the information gleaned from your relatives you can search for births, marriages and deaths and order certificates of these events from the GRO (General Register Office).
The birth certificate will give you an exact date and place of birth, the father's name and occupation, and the mother's maiden name. The marriage certificate will give the date and place of the marriage, the forenames and surnames of the couple, and their ages (before 1855 it will only show either 'full' if over 21 or 'minor' if under). It also lists the residence and profession of the father plus the names of the marriage witnesses.
You can then use these facts to search the census. Search for the known family members and you will often find the whole family listed with their ages (using our family button). This information can be used to search for further births and marriages, so you can work your way back through the generations. The census will allow you to work back down the tree and help you to find any living relatives.
The Indexes are available to all Premium Subscribers on the Search page from the main Master Search or in the drop-down box for 'Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes'. For the standard GRO Indexes select 'BMD Records 1837-2005'.
New BMD Index Transcripts
We’ve fully transcribed the BMD Indexes (1837 - 2005), and have integrated them into our SmartSearch technology. This allows you to find potential children from a marriage, and vice versa, you can also jump from one person's marriage record to their partner's record. You can search for a record using a name, area or date. You can also use the partner's name to search for a marriage, e.g. searching for John Smith marrying Jane.
Births
1.You can search Births directly via the Master Search by selecting Births and Baptisms from the drop down menu available. This allows you to search using forename and surname and date, you can also use a keyword such as mothers maiden name (only available after 1912) or district.
- You can also search the data set specifically via the dropdown menu below the Master Search. This provides you with further search options allowing you to include , forename and mother’s maiden name (only available after 1912), district, county, volume and page number.
- The First icon available is the SmartSearch tool for Potential Sibling, with one click this produce a list of all potential siblings for this person, the next icon available is another SmartSearch for parents potential marriage and will display a list of marriage entries for fourth allows you to ‘View full record’, which will open the birth entry in a certificate style format. The fifth icon displayed is to save records, this will provide further options to save to your tree or your research log. The final icon is the ‘Report a problem’ link where you can send errors and incorrect transcriptions to the data team.
Marriages
1.You can search Marriages directly via the Master Search by selecting Marriages from the drop down menu available. This allows you to search using forename and surname and date, you can also use a keyword such as partners name (only available after 1912) or district.
- You can also search the data set specifically via the dropdown menu below the Master Search.
3.The first icon available ‘SmartSearch for potential children from this marriage’ is accessible for marriages after 1837 (more accurate after 1912 when mothers maiden name included on birth indexes) Selecting the link icon will bring up a list of possible children born to this couple. The next icon opens up the original page image from the marriage index. The third icon allows you to ‘View full record’ the fourth icon displayed is to save the record either to your research log or Treeview and the final icon is the ‘Report a problem’ link where you can send errors and incorrect transcriptions to the data team
- Selecting the ‘View Full Record’ icon will open the marriage entry in a certificate style records. For entries prior to 1912, you’ll need to select the correct spouse, by clicking on the link and choosing an individual from those displayed.
- For those who wish to order an official GRO certificate, a link is provided which will take you to the GRO website. From the website you can order a copy of the certificate using the references and details provided on the Index.
Deaths
You can search Deaths directly via the Mastersearch by selecting Deaths and Burials from the drop down menu.
1.The standard search form allows you to search by surname, forename and year, and the keyword box can also be used to input extra information.
2.You can also search Death via the drop down menu available below the Master Search. This allows you to search more specifically with additional information such as district, county, volume and page number.
3.The first icon available is ‘View full record’, which will open the death entry in a certificate style record. The second icon displayed is the ‘Report a problem’ link where you can send errors and incorrect transcriptions to the data team. A TreeView icon is also displayed, which allows you to either save the entry as an individual on your tree and save the record as an exhibit.
Original Image Format
All of the Birth Marriage and Death Indexes for England and Wales 1837-2005 are fully transcribed and easily searchable via the Master Search.
However if you would like to search them using the images, you can still do this. However please remember that if searching this way the full content of the pages is not indexed. You have to view the digitised images of the original index pages and extract the information from those yourself.
To search this way, from the main Search page please scroll down to the Drop Down list for Births Marriages and Deaths and Select BMD Records 1837-2005:
From the next page, using the drop down list for ‘What would you like to Search for?’ please select: Indexes1837 +
To locate the correct page for you to view, the images been digitised and indexed by Surname, Forename and Initial of the first person on each page. This enables the system to search for a name and find the page which should contain that entry. It also allows you to browse back a page or forwards a page.
As the indexing doesn't indicate whether or not the name actually appears on that particular page, only that it falls within its name range, this means that you will generally have to view 4 pages, one per quarter, to search for a single event within a one year period.
From the Search page; select what you are looking for; Birth, Marriage or Death. Fill in the name, select a year range and click Search:
Once the results appear, you will have links to images for each quarter of each year you have searched.
You can click on the names to open the PDF image for that quarter to view the page entries.
The image will open in a new window:
About the Birth, Marriage & Death Index:
Civil Registration was introduced in 1837 to record Births, Marriages and Deaths, which previously hadn't been centrally registered. Like the census, its introduction had much to do with monitoring the growth and age profile of the country's population. (Previously, the only records were the parish records kept by the church.)
The General Registry Office was in charge of collecting and collating this data and they created quarterly indexes to Birth, Marriage and Death registrations. Registration certificates are a key resource in family history research. You cannot view the original register entries but you can purchase copies of the certificates. The GRO indexes are used to locate the references necessary to order certificates.
The GRO's indexes are sometimes still called the St. Catherine's Indexes, after the building they lived in for many years, and it's not so long ago that you would have to spend hours winding rolls of microfilm or navigating fiche, to search just a few years looking for a single entry.
Commencing with the introduction of Civil Registration in 1837 and running up to the present day, the indexes enable us to locate the dates of family events and purchase the certificates necessary to carry out our research. Now, the Birth, Marriage & Death indexes are fully searchable online and you can achieve in a day what may have taken you months or even years previously. Now that the GRO provide online certificate ordering, the whole process can be carried out quickly, without leaving your home. The only delay to your research is the few days waiting for the post to arrive.
What They Provide:
Although the certificates themselves provide a wealth of knowledge, the indexes provide very little, just an Event, Name, Year, Quarter and Page number. You may also find the reported age at death, the surname of the spouse or a mother's maiden name on later entries. Records are a little patchy in the early years, especially if you are looking at births because initially registration was voluntary.
Early indexes contain just the name and reference, but extra information was later added to the indexes to help locate the correct individual. The Age at Death was included in the Death indexes from 1866 and from 1912 the surname of the spouse was added to the Marriages and the maiden name of the mother to Births
The post-1984 BMDs contain re-registration entries, where details have been updated at a later date. There will be a date of re-registration in the original entry, however, there is no indication in the later entry that it is a re-registration so will are unable to highlight it as such.
Why Buy Certificates?
Some researchers are content with just finding the reference in the GRO indexes, recording the "My Ancestor" was born in the 3rd quarter of 1897, married the 1st quarter 1932 ..., etc. Purchasing certificates can be expensive if you buy them all, but although you may not wish to purchase them for every child, for example, you should purchase at least a representative sample for each family, as well as those purchased to try and solve particular problems.
Certificates contain a wealth of extra information related to each event. The index reference only provides an approximate date, and even with unusual names you can never be certain. For instance, birth certificates can show how a family moved around a town, possibly indicating the family's wealth and social status at the time. A marriage certificate can provide both spouse's father's names and occupations as well as the actual place and date of the marriage, plus their ages and addresses at the time of marriage.
For further information on certificates go to: http://www.BMDindex.co.uk/info.htm
Finding Certificate References:
The full reference necessary to purchase a certificate consists of the Registration District; Year; Quarter; Volume number and the Page number. These references apply only when you order certificates from the GRO. If you apply at the relevant local office, the registrar there will have a different system. They can make use of the year and quarter information you supply, but will have to look up the entry in their own index. You will also need to know the name of the church in the case of a marriage, as they tend to be kept separately. In a large town or city with many churches this can be a problem, which can be overcome by ordering the certificate direct from the GRO whose indexes are amalgamated.
Additional Features
SmartSearch
BMDindex has utilised these fully searchable records to offer some innovative features, utilising the fact that the data can be easily interrogated in different ways. Several searches based on the results you have already located can be performed with just one click, for instance a reverse search on a marriage index entry can provide the first name for a spouse, not just the surname.
The SmartSearch also enables you to find all the children registered to the same parents, quickly finding all the family.
From the Age at Death it can automatically list the birth index pages likely to contain their birth. Of course this only works with entries for males or spinsters, and reported ages are often inaccurate, but the feature can save you time and effort.
Surname Mapping
Originally a feature of their online 2% 1851 census subscription, the Surname Distribution Mapping tool has also been applied to the Birth, Marriage & Death data. This enables you to map surname densities onto a county map of England and Wales, often with interesting results. This is colour coded, according to the numbers of events present, providing a visual display of surname registration densities across the counties for different periods in time. As well as the visual representation, a table provides an accurate count for each county.
Ordering Certificates:
Record certificates are not available to view online on any site, they are only available from the General Register Office. Copies of Birth, Marriage or Death certificates for England or Wales can be ordered online direct from the GRO website: www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificate
Simply follow the instructions on the GRO website, providing the necessary information and the GRO Index reference you have found in the indexes. This is the year, quarter and district, usually accompanied by a volume number and page reference, but later records may simply have an Entry number. The GRO require you to supply more information in the application for births and marriages within the last 50 years.
Overseas and Military BMD Indexes:
The Overseas BMD Indexes are available under 'Birth Marriage and Death Indexes', and cover the births, marriages and deaths of British Service Personnel throughout the world. The data set currently includes:
- Marine Births: 1837-1965
- Army Births & Registers, Marriages and Deaths: 1747-1980
- Air Births, Deaths & Missing Persons: 1947-1965
- Consular Birth, Marriages, Deaths: 1849-1915
- High Commission Births, Marriages, Deaths: 1899-1964
- Informal Certificates of Birth at Sea: 1839-1867
- Ionian Island Births, Marriages, Deaths: 1818-1864
- Marriages & Deaths Abroad: 1966-1994
- Regimental Births: 1407-1997
- Article 6/18 Marriage: 1961-1965
Also available are Overseas Marine Deaths, which have a separate search page and cover deaths at sea onboard British ships from 1837, containing over 210,000 records.
The World War I and World War II Death Indexes provides an official GRO index reference as per the standard BMD Index, and you can obtain an Overseas Death certificate at www.gro.gov.uk. Accessed from your Research View page under 'Birth Marriage and Death Indexes', both World War indexes are in the same format as the Overseas BMD indexes.
How to: searching the Overseas BMD Index online
You can search overseas BMD’S directly via the Master Search. Once the results have been returned you can select overseas Births, marriages or deaths from the options available down the left hand side of the page.
You can also search this data set via the drop down menu directly below the Master Search.
The Standard Search allows you to search across all the record-sets or to select a specific set, e.g. Consular Births. Changing to the Advanced Search option, enables you to narrow down your search by entering the ship/unit and the year of the event
The results displayed provide all the information given on the original image, including the official GRO reference, which you will need if you wish to order an overseas certificate at www.gro.gov.uk. There is also a link on the right which will allow you to view the original page if you wish to confirm the details on the transcript or print the image for your records.
Census Transcripts 1841-1911
What is the Census?
The census is a statistical exercise undertaken to inform the government, counting and recording facts about the population. You could say that the first large scale census taken in modern history was Domesday and there have been others over the years, such as Muster rolls, taken to see what able-bodied men and weapons were available for war.
A census, as we understand it now has been carried out every decade since 1801. The only exception was 1941 when other things seemed more important. It is not intended for family historians to use, but as a government exercise in finding out statistics about the population, to enable them to make informed decisions on a wide variety of topics including housing, transport and food, and to identify the strengths and weaknesses in the economic structure of the country.
What Does It Tell Us?
From 1801-1831, purely statistical data was collected with no usable genealogical material, however the 1841 census introduced records with some personal information for the first time. The usefulness of the 1841 census is limited to family historians because it didn't accurately record people's ages, or where they were born, only noting if they were born in the same county or not.
The amount of information collected was extended in 1851 and from 1851 to 1901 there are only minor changes to the information recorded on the census form. The principal information you can expect to find is:
- Address - Unfortunately not always very accurate, unless your ancestors lived in a named house or farm. You may have to settle for simply knowing the name of the road or the village.
- Name - The surname with at least one forename, although it could turn out to be a pet name, and sometimes you find second forenames or initials.
- Relationship - How the individual is related to the head of the household. Information providing the structure of the family, especially where married children or relations are included in the household.
- Condition - Whether married, widowed or single. Again useful in establishing family structure.
- Age -From 1851 onwards, these are usually as accurate as your ancestors were able or prepared to supply. In the 1841 census they are usually rounded to the nearest 5 years for adults.
- Occupation - The rank, profession or occupation can be useful in helping to establish that you have found the correct person, especially if they share a relatively common name.
- Where born - Another field that is useful in helping you identify individuals, although for a number of reasons it frequently contains mistakes.
In addition to the above, the 1911 Census was the first to include the number of years a couple had been married and how many children had been born to that marriage.
Possible Pitfalls
Many people don't realise that the census page images we see are actually transcripts of the household census forms, the details being copied into the books by enumerators. This provides several opportunities for mistakes to occur, firstly as they tried to decipher the writing on the household forms, which were later destroyed. Illiterate or barely literate ancestors may not have understood the form or even known with any accuracy the answer to the questions. They may have been suspicious of this government prying into their affairs and been less than honest in their answers. Just as today, a certain percentage manage to avoid being included, either deliberately or accidentally. With the possibility of errors and misinformation creeping in from the very outset, you should always use your own judgment when assessing the information from the census. It may be completely accurate, but you will often find discrepancies.
Because of these problems, TheGenealogist has come up with some unique tools to help you find your relatives; such as the family forename search tool, which allows you to search for a group of people by forename only or the house & street search, allowing you to see exactly who is living at a particular address and the keyword master search, which allows you to search for a list of key words; such as name, year/place of birth, occupation and area, etc.
Using the Census
The biggest problem for the family historian is actually finding the entries they need amongst this vast collection of data. Unless your ancestors never moved more than a mile from their origins, some sort of finding aid is required.
At first the only help available was an index to places, to help you locate the relevant section to manually search page by page, and for larger towns and cities a street index. Family history societies then started to index their areas and make some name indexes available. These didn't make a very large impression though and most of the census remained unindexed until the joint project to transcribe and index the 1881 census took place and showed what could be done. The upsurge in the use of home computers and the internet have brought a complete new set of tools to the aid of the family historian, and an ever growing demand for more information to become accessible online.
British Data Archive have made the census page images available on CD, for everyone to use on their own home computers at any time. This itself was a great improvement, as only a couple of years ago you would probably have had to travel the country to get only a couple of hours access. Having produced the images for everyone to use, the next logical step was to provide those images with the indexing necessary to make them easy to use, and with this aim in mind, S&N set up The Genealogist indexing and transcription project
How to: Searching the Census Online:
The Census can be searched directly from the Master Search. By selecting census from the drop down menu further options will appear to help you refine your search by census year and county. The Master offers the option for phonetic variations and nicknames - a rather clever system that identifies variants of forenames, such as Betty, Betsy, Beth and Liz as being Elizabeth.
A Keyword box is also available to enter information such as occupation or birthplace to help refine your search further.
We also have the options to search via address.
A Family Search is also available. Please see the 'Unique Search Tools on TheGenealogist' section of this guide for further details.
You can also search the census directly via the drop down menu below the master search, here you will need to select the county and the year.
This search options allows you to include the district, occupation, relation to head, birth county and street address in your search.
Once you have submitted your search, the results will be listed below.
The icons on the right-hand side of each entry will allow you to open the original image, save the image, report a problem with the transcript/image, view all family members and view the entire household.
Household view example:
Census Image example:
Volunteer Census Indexes
Volunteers have indexed the census recording the Surname, Forename, Age and the reference to the correct census page. These are another way of locating your ancestors in the census and form a useful alternative to the transcripts. For credit based subscriptions these have the benefit of costing no credits
Surname Distribution Maps
A useful tool when looking at where surnames are likely to have originated from and where those names were most concentrated.
These maps are compiled by the census data and you can access these via the main Master Search.
If you opt to search for a Person within Census, select the census year you are interested in and enter the Surname:
Once the results appear, you will see a link on the Menu on the left under the year of Census you have chosen for ‘View a map of Results’, click this to open a new window to show you concentration map for that surname:
Parish Records
Before the introduction of Civil Registration in 1837, the only records to the key events in people's lives were recorded in the registers of parish churches and some non-conformist places of worship.
In 1538 Thomas Cromwell, the Vicar General to King Henry VIII, declared that all marriages, baptisms and burials should be recorded; normally these are kept at the Parish Church, and are known as 'Parish Records'. In 1598 an Act was also passed that meant these records should be copied and sent to the bishop, these are known as Bishop's Transcripts.
Although most parish registers usually date to around the mid-16th Century, when Elizabeth I declared that accurate registers should be maintained, some are also available from 1538. Elizabeth I had instructed that they should be preserved in bound books and not on any old scrap of writing material. Even after her efforts, many registers have been lost over the years and those surviving today are now usually safely deposited in the local record office, not the church they are associated with.
Parish registers can contain large gaps, such as for the Commonwealth period, which can leave the mid-1600s looking sparse. You also get volumes which have gone missing over the years leaving frustratingly large gaps. Small gaps are not as bad unless they happen to coincide with the event you are looking for. These are usually due to negligence, often occurring where the clerk didn't enter them at the time and forgot to do it later. If you are lucky, some of the larger gaps in Parish Records caused by lost volumes may be covered by the Bishop's or Archdeacon's Transcripts. These are copies of the events copied from the Parish registers which were sent to the Diocese each year. BT's may themselves be incomplete, especially at the beginning or end of the periods.
Unlike the Census or the Civil registration material, Parish Records are scattered all across the country, so it will be well into the future, if ever, that we will be able to search them online in the same way. Most churches have deposited records over 100 years old at their local record office, but some still retain burial registers for example, that were started in the last century and still are not full yet. Chapel records are not as well preserved, some are in private hands and many have been lost. However, there are many parish register transcripts published by various parish record societies, historical groups and individuals and these lend themselves to being made accessible online.
Using the Parish Registers:
Most people are tracing a surname line, but the tradition of marrying in the bride's parish can make marriages before 1837 difficult to trace. When a man marries out of the parish there are often no clues as to where he went, thus requiring extensive searching of an ever widening circle of surrounding parishes in the hope of finding him.
You may strike it lucky if they were married by Banns and the Banns register still exists, though not many do. Early genealogists, for whom record access was more difficult than today, recognised the difficulties of tracing marriages and this led to several of them creating manuscript indexes. The best known are Boyd's and Pallot's, however Phillimore set about it in a different way, transcribing and publishing marriages from many churches. The parish records currently available on TheGenealogist are taken from various published transcripts, and include many from the Phillimore series of transcripts of marriage registers.
How To: Searching Parish Register Transcripts Online
The Genealogist has now put online thousands of parishes. These have two main formats, database (Transcripts) and searchable book images (Printed Books). Both the transcripts and books are searchable from the Master Search the transcribed Parish Records will come up under Births & Baptisms, Marriages or Deaths and Burials and the Books are listed under Parish Record Books:
You can see a full content list of all the parishes we currently have available here http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/coverage/parish-records/?level=diamond#includes
The database records consist of easily searched transcripts of the original records which allow you to search them on various fields and may also have linked images of the original registers. This feature depends on the local archive giving permission to publish the images.
When searching from that Master Search you can filter your results to show just Parish record results by selecting this option from the options down the left hand side of the page.
You can also search Parish Record Transcripts from the drop down menu below the Master Search. You will need to select the county which you wish to select.
How To: Searching Parish Register Printed Books Online
Step 1 - Select 'Parish Records (Printed Books)' section on your Search page.
You'll then be taken to the first part of the brand new interface, where you can select which county you wish to search.
After selecting a county, a list of available parishes will be displayed:
Step 2 - Click on your preferred parish to open up the image viewer window, which will immediately locate the parish on the bookmarks and take you straight to the relevant page. You can then browse the book page by page or you can search using the boxes provided, a unique feature on TheGenealogist to help you save time locating your ancestors. Searching Printed Books can often be time consuming on other sites, but with our new interface you'll get accurate results faster. The books are still easily browsed page by page, either using the bookmarks or the navigation icons on the left.The search tool has also been integrated into the image viewer, to limit the amount of time spent changing between different windows.
Step 3 - Enter a surname into the box provided, and a forename if preferred, and all instances of the name within the book will instantly be located and you can click to view each result from here:
Catholic Registers
We have released the following Catholic Records, which are exclusive to Diamond subscribers and have been added to the Parish Registers section of the website:
- Catholic Mission Registers:
- St Peter's, Winchester 1731-1826
- Cowdray, Easebourne and Midhurst 1745-1837
- Pethir 1758-1818
- Bellingham, Northumberland 1794-1837
- Catholic Registers of Cheam, Surrey 1755-1788
- Catholic Registers of Wootton Wawen, Warwickshire 1786-1843
- Catholic Registers of Holywell, Flintshire 1698-1829
- Catholic Registers of Nidd Hall, N.R. of York 1780-1823
- Catholic Registers of Llanarth, Monmouthshire 1781-1838
- Catholic Registers of St. Joseph's Chapel, Trenchard Street, Bristol 1777-1808
- Catholic Registers of Robert Hall and Hornby, Co. Lancaster 1757-1851
- The Catholic Registers of York Bar Convent Chapel 1771-1826
- Catholic Registers of Courtfield in the Parish of Welsh Bicknor, Monmouthshire 1773-1832
- Catholic Registers of Britwell-Prior, Oxfordshire 1765-1788
- Catholic Registers of Isleworth, Middlesex 1746-1835
- Catholic Registers of Newport, Shropshire 1785-1846
- Catholic Registers of Culcheth, Lancashire 1791-1825
- Catholic Registers of Southworth Hall, Lancashire 1795-1827
- Catholic Registers of Danby, West Witton and Leyburn, Yorkshire 1742-1880
- Registers of Fr. Thomas Worthington, Kept in Lancashire 1713-17
- Registers of the Rev. Pierce Parry at Claxby, Lincolnshire, and Oscott, Warwickshire 1755-1766
These are searchable via the Master Search, you can select to Search for a Person within Parish Record Books.
Please then enter the name of who you are looking for and you can use the keyword box to enter the book title.
When the results appear you can use the icons on the right of each result to open the page:
Non-Conformist & Non-Parochial Records
What are they?
Non-Conformist records go back to the mid-1600's when various groups refused to conform to the Church of England and wished to have religious freedom to worship in their own way. These groups include Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists, Quakers, Methodists, Catholics and Unitarians.
The number of non-conformists is said to equal the number following the Church of England, making these records invaluable for your research. TheGenealogist is the official TNA publisher for Non-Conformist records and also provides the largest collection online with over 8 million records.
Birth, marriage and death records are the most important way of tracking down your ancestors. The trouble is the BMD records in the General Register Office civil registration index only go back as far as 1837. These records pre-date civil registration and form an invaluable tool.
The hidden birth, marriage and death records have been compiled from various unpublished registries and many unusually include records of three generations of a family. These are a fantastic resource for the family historian and often prove to be the only record of the events.
Genealogy Supplies recognised the importance of the records and applied and won the bid to make these available online as part of The National Archives LIA scheme. This new release of online records means that for the first time these additional BMD records can be searched with ease rather than looking through millions of images on thousands of reels of microfilm.
Non-Parochial Records
Another part of this set of records are the early registrations of births, marriages and deaths from various sources. They include the birth records at Dr Williams' Library in London, hospital records of maternity, overseas registrations for British citizens and those on board ships.
Julian Dates
An important factor to remember when searching through early records is the variation in the calendar system. The Julian Calendar was the standard system until 1752 which was then replaced by the Gregorian Calendar and the first day of the year became January 1st. According to the Julian Calendar, the first day of the new year was 25th March 'Lady Day', so a full year would run from March 25th to March 24th. Dates between January 1st and March 24th would still be assigned the previous year, for example, January 1st 1744 would either be written as 1744 or 1744/45 to indicate the dual date. At TheGenealogist we use the date as written, so please be aware of this when searching for dates before March 1752.
Paleography (how to deal with difficult handwriting)
If you are having difficulty in reading a name the first thing to do is look at other entries to get a guide to how the author writes various letters. It can take a while to “get your eye in” as to how a particular set of registers is written. First names are more readily recognised and so gives a basis as to what letter shapes are used.
When trying to interpret a line you should look at the line above and follow any descenders down and try to imagine the line without the clutter of other entries from the line above or below.
If a name is particularly difficult you will need to break it down into a range of names from the possible letters.
As a general guide the following rules apply:
- Letters such as p, f and q normally have straight descenders going below the line.
- Letters such as y, g, j are likely to have loops to the left where as letters that swing to the right could be f or q.
- Look for the crosses on t and the dots on j and i.
- Look for straight strokes of l.
- Watch out for the letter e, as this is often written backwards!
Don’t forget: some material may show a different surname spelling to a later one; as literacy improved these variations reduced.
What is RG4?
RG4 are registers (authenticated by the Non-Parochial Registers Commissioners) of births, baptisms, deaths, burials and marriages. They cover dates from 1567 to 1858. You can find full details on TNA website, including content and background information.
- General Register Office, 1836-1970
- Royal Hospital, Greenwich, 1694 onwards
- Dr Williams' Library, 1742-1865
- Presbyterian, Independent and Baptist Registry, 1742-1837
- Wesleyan Methodist Metropolitan Registry, 1818-1838
- Anglican (Church of England) BMD Records - Registers kept by institutions outside the normal Church of England parish structure, such as Greenwich Hospital.
- Baptist, Independent and Presbyterian BMD Records - The Protestant Dissenters' Registry served the congregations of Baptist, Independents and Presbyterians in London and within a twelve mile radius of the capital. However, parents from most parts of the British Isles and even abroad also used the registry. It was started in 1742, with retrospective entries going back to 1716, and continued until 1837.
- Wesleyan Methodist BMD Records - The Wesleyan Methodist Registry was set up in 1818 and provided registration of births and baptisms of Wesleyan Methodists throughout England, Wales and elsewhere. The registers continued until 1838, with some retrospective registration of births going back to 1773.
- Roman Catholic BMD Records - Registers of births, baptisms, deaths, burials and marriages for some Roman Catholic communities in Dorset, Hampshire, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Northumberland, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Yorkshire. The majority cover Northumberland.
- Huguenot Records - The Huguenots were members of the French Protestant Church, many of whom, before the French Revolution of 1789, left their homes in France to escape persecution. More than 50,000 of these refugees came to the British Isles and many people can find that they are from a Huguenot descent. The Huguenot records available on The Genealogist cover parts of London, Middlesex, Essex, Gloucestershire, Kent, Devon and Norfolk. It is worth noting that these registers are not written in English.
- Other Records - Outside of the UK we have some records for Russia. We also have a range of records from German, Dutch and Swiss churches in England.
What is RG5?
RG5 are Birth Certificates from the Presbyterian, Independent and Baptist Registry and from the Wesleyan Methodist Metropolitan Registry. They cover dates from 1742 to 1840. You can find full details on TNA website, including content and background information.
Protestant Dissenters' Registry
The Protestant Dissenters' Registry served the congregations of Baptists, Independents and Presbyterians in London and within a twelve mile radius of the capital. However, parents from most parts of the British Isles and even abroad also used the registry. It was started in 1742, with retrospective entries going back to 1716, and continued until 1837. Unlike RG4, RG5 contains only the birth records.
The increased requirement to provide evidence of birth led the Dissenting Deputies (representing Baptists, Congregationalists & Presbyterians) to establish a births register of their children in 1743 at the Dissenters Library.
Originally for parents living within 12 miles of London it subsequently became open to anyone, regardless of distance or denomination, provided a fee was paid.
Contains details of three generations of a family (approximately 200,000 named individuals)
Registered at Rev. Daniel Williams Library, Redcross Street, Cripplegate, London
Start date April 6th 1743 - End date Dec 30th 1837
Wesleyan Methodist Registry
The Wesleyan Methodist Registry was set up in 1818 and provided registration of births and baptisms of Wesleyan Methodists throughout England, Wales and elsewhere. The registers continued until 1838, with some retrospective registration of births going back to 1773. The Wesleyan Methodist registry opened in Paternoster Row, London in 1818.
The certificates and the register entry have the name and sex of the child, the name and address of the father, the name of the mother and of both her parents, the date and place of birth, and the name of the Wesleyan circuit, with the signature (or name, in the register) of the parents, the witnesses to the birth, and the baptising minister. Contains details of three generations of each family (about 50,000 named individuals).
The Wesleyan Methodist registry opened in Paternoster Row, London in 1818.
The certificates and the register entry have the name and sex of the child, the name and address of the father, the name of the mother and of both her parents, the date and place of birth, and the name of the Wesleyan circuit, with the signature (or name, in the register) of the parents, the witnesses to the birth, and the baptising minister.
Contains details of three generations of each family (about 50,000 named individuals).
What is RG6?
RG6 is the Society of Friends' Registers, Notes and Certificates of Births, Marriages and Burials ranging from 1578-1841.
Scope and content
Registers of births, deaths, burials and marriages of congregations of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in England and Wales. A number of original birth and burial notes and original marriage certificates are included. The documents in the series are arranged by Quarterly or Monthly Meetings, which consisted of a county or combinations of counties.
With these RG6 records, it is important to remember that entries may be recorded in a number of registers, Monthly and / or Quarterly - but differences may occur and it is always worth viewing each record.
Administrative / biographical background
The Quakers had the reputation for maintaining the most meticulous records in keeping registers of births (Quakers did not practise baptism), marriages and deaths, as well as other records which related to their congregations, these being essential to record and ascertain membership of the Society.
Register books began to be kept by Quaker meetings from the late 1650s. Generally these registers were the responsibility of the Monthly Meeting and details were often compiled from independent records of the individual meetings. Sometimes, however, local registers were also kept by Preparative Meetings. To assist in their desire for parliamentary recognition of their marriage procedure under statute law, the Quakers developed a system of ceremony and registration which was so thorough that when Hardwicke's Marriage Act was passed in 1753, the Quakers were specifically excluded from the requirement to marry in Anglican churches.
In 1776, following a decision by the Yearly Meeting of 1774, the Quakers overhauled their whole registration system and introduced a more systematic procedure. Birth and burial notes were standardised with printed books being provided for Monthly and Quarterly Meetings.
The post-1776 birth notes and register entries contain the date of birth, place of birth (locality, parish and county), parents' names (often with the father's occupation), the child's name, the names of the witnesses, and are noted as a true copy with the signature of the registrar of the Meeting (for register entries). It is not always stated whether the father was living at the time of the birth. The post-1776 burial notes and register entries commence with the gravemaker's name and the date the grave was to be made, followed by the burial place and details of the deceased (name, residence, age, date of death), and concludes with the actual date of burial, and the mark or signature of the gravemaker (as witness).
All marriage certificates were transcribed at full length into Monthly Meeting registers, together with the names of witnesses. Quarterly Meeting registers were started consisting of printed forms of abstracts of the marriage certificates. In 1794, this requirement for Monthly Meetings to keep full copies of the certificates was rescinded, and from that date only the books of abstracts were kept by Monthly and Quarterly Meetings. These printed abstracts start with the date of the marriage, details of the groom (his name, residence and occupation), the groom's parents (including father's occupation), the bride's name, the bride's parents (including the father's occupation), the place where the ceremony was held, and conclude with signatures of witnesses the parties, and the registrar (or clerk) to the Meeting (for register entries).
You can find full details on TNA website, including content and background information.
What is RG7?
RG7 is the collection of registers and notebooks of Clandestine Marriages and Baptisms in the Fleet Prison, King's Bench Prison, the Mint and the May Fair Chapel ranging from 1667-c1777.
Scope and content
Principally registers, 1667-c1777, and note books, 1682-1774, giving particulars of clandestine marriages and baptisms performed in the Fleet Prison, at the May Fair Chapel, at King's Bench Prison or within the Mint, as well as entries in the Fleet registers of other ceremonies performed at these places. This series records the marriages of a significant proportion of the population of London and surrounding areas up to 1754. The 'Report of the Commission into Marriage Law' of 1868 estimated that countrywide in the first half of the eighteenth century, a third of all marriages were actually clandestine. Of these, the Fleet registers in this series are the most significant source, containing an estimated 400,000 entries representing over 200,000 weddings.
With these RG7 records, it is important to remember that a marriage may be recorded in a number of registers - but differences may occur from incorrect copying. The notebook entries are likely to be more accurate than the entries copied into the registers.
Administrative / biographical background
In the 1740s, over half of all London weddings were held at the Fleet (over 6500 per year) with a further thousand conducted at the May Fair Chapel. By the late 17th century, provided that a couple exchanged vows and had some proof of this, then a marriage would be considered valid under English Common Law. Marriages by a form of ceremony conducted by an ordained clergyman, but without banns or licence, and generally not in a church or chapel, usually away from the parish of the bride or groom were termed clandestine marriages. Such ceremonies were often shrouded in secrecy as there were a variety of motives for requiring a clandestine marriage, the primary appeal being reasons of cost, while other reasons included the avoidance of the need to obtain parental consent, requiring a back dated ceremony to legitimise offspring or attempts to validate claims upon an inheritance or a Will.
Clandestine marriages began to grow in numbers from the middle of the seventeenth century. The authorities attempted to quell this growth by introducing three parliamentary acts between 1694 and 1696 which collectively regulated marriages, introduced marriage taxes and censured and suspended clergy found to be involved. These, however, only applied to marriage centres which came under the jurisdiction (or visitation) of the bishop of the diocese. These acts inadvertently gave a near monopoly to private marriage centres outside the bishop's visitation (e.g. prisons) and to clergymen (many of whom were prisoners) who had been dismissed or were in debt and who had nothing to lose by conducting clandestine, fee-paying marriages. In 1711, Parliament passed legislation which included an attempt to deal with the problem of such clandestine marriages being conducted in prisons. A clause was included in the act to counter the loss of revenue (from non-payment of stamp duties) caused by clandestine marriages. The clause continued the imposition of fines for any person in 'holy orders' conducting a marriage but also introduced the same fine for any prison keeper who permitted such a marriage at his prison. While this prevented the marriages being performed inside the prisons, it did not prevent them being conducted in other locations in the vicinity of the prisons: e.g. the Liberties (or Rules) of the Fleet, or the Mint (for King's Bench Prison). On 25 March 1754, all clandestine marriages were made illegal by Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act; although couples were still able to travel to other areas of the United Kingdom where the act did not apply: i.e. across the border into Scotland (e.g. Gretna Green), or to the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.
Fleet Prison was primarily a debtors prison and stood on the east bank of the Fleet River in what is now Farringdon Street, London. The marriages performed at the Fleet involved all classes from London and the surrounding counties, but mainly catered for artisans, farmers, labourers and craftsmen from the poorer parishes of London, soldiers (including Chelsea Pensioners), and particularly sailors. King's Bench Prison was located on the east side of Borough High Street in Southwark. As with the Fleet, the majority of prisoners were debtors. Relatively few marriages were performed in the Prison itself, and by the 1740s, those marriages which had been performed in the Mint began to be held at the Fleet. The King's Bench and the Mint, because of their location, tended to attract a high proportion of couples from Kent and Surrey. From the late 1720s, clandestine marriages commenced at May Fair, which eventually became only second to the Fleet in terms of notoriety for such marriages. Initially, May Fair marriages were performed at St George's Chapel, Curzon Street, Mayfair, near Hyde Park Corner then, from 1744, at a private dwelling house (the 'New' or 'Little Chapel') situated ten yards away from St George's Chapel. Whereas clandestine marriages performed at the Fleet and King's Bench prisons and surrounding areas tended to attract the working classes, the May Fair Chapel was used by professional classes and the aristocracy for marriages, including the Dukes of Cleveland and Hamilton, Lord Stanley, and Lord George Bentinck . The need for a public record of the marriages meant that they were recorded in registers and some were produced as evidence in court cases. The registers of the Fleet were kept, for the most part, by the ministers (or their clerks) who performed the ceremonies, by self-appointed register-keepers, by the landlords of some of the houses where the ceremonies took place, and by persons who appear to have set up record offices at a later date and made copies of registers in the possession of others.
It must be emphasised that the information in the Fleet documents (particularly those before 1714) should be treated with extreme caution as dates given can be unreliable and also people would request not to record their surnames, or would give false names to protect their real identity from a fear of discovery.
What is RG8?
General Register Office: Registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths surrendered to the Non Parochial Registers Commission of 1857. Among the more extensive collections in this series are the registers of the British Lying-in Hospital, Holborn, which record particulars of births and baptisms. These cover the period 1749 to 1868 and are very detailed.
Burial records, registers of the Chapels Royal and the archive of the Russian Orthodox Church in London.
Scope and content
Registers of birth, baptisms, death, burials and marriages which were collected by the Non-Parochial Registers Commissioners of 1857, or which were later deposited for safe custody at the General Register Office and the Public Record Office. Some of these registers were authenticated by the Commissioners, and are marked to that effect: others were left unauthenticated because they arrived at the General Register Office after the Commission was dissolved. Some may have been refused authentication by the Commissioners. Among the more extensive collections in this series are the registers of the British Lying-in Hospital, Holborn, which record particulars of births and baptisms; registers of burials in the Victoria Park Cemetery, the New Burial Ground, Southwark, Bunhill Fields Burial Ground, Hackney, and the Bethnal Green Protestant Dissenters Burying Ground; registers of Chapels Royal at St James's Palace, Whitehall and Windsor Castle.
The rest of the series contains the archive of the Russian Orthodox Church in London, 1721-1927. The records include not only registers of births, marriages, deaths and conversions, but also comprehensive general records on the day-to-day workings of the church. The usual language is Russian, with some Greek; there are a few documents such as certificates, letters and passports in English, French and German. These records are under the link RG8 Books.
Further Details
The Lying in Hospital records cover the birth and baptism records of various children born in the hospital. It also includes death dates where it has been noted. They cover the period 1749 to 1868 and are very detailed.
The records can include the following information:-
The Date and order of admission, Woman and Husbands Name, Occupation, Woman’s Age, Parish, Time of Reckoning, Came in, Went out on leave, Returned, Delivered, Child Baptised, Woman Discharged, Recommenders Name
Below is an example from the Register of Births and Baptisms and a Register of Deaths in the British Lying-In Hospital in Endell Street, St Giles in the Fields, Holborn, Middlesex
On the 17th June 1758, Rachel Ward wife of John a Staymaker aged 27 of the parish St Martin in the Fields was admitted. She gave birth to a boy on the 17th June who was then baptised on the 25th June with the name Thomas. She was Discharged 5th July. Rachel Ward was recommended to the hospital by Lady Carpenter.
Both the original record of the hospital entry and the baptism images can be viewed, printed or downloaded plus the details viewed and a small tree printed.
What is RG32?
General Register Office:Overseas Births, Baptisms, Marriages, Deaths and Burials Abroad and on British & Foreign ships, of British subjects, nationals of the colonies, the Commonwealth and countries under British jurisdiction. Also Lundy Island Devon and Channel Island records.
Events affecting some foreign nationals are also included. Records consist mainly of certificates issued by foreign registration authorities, which are in local languages, and copies of entries kept by incumbents of English churches and missions, chaplains and burial authorities.
These cover the period 1831 to 1969 and are very detailed.
Scope and content
The series contains largely non-statutory records relating to Births, Baptisms, Marriages, Deaths and Burials abroad, and on British as well as foreign ships, of British subjects, nationals of the colonies, the Commonwealth and countries under British jurisdiction.
Events affecting some foreign nationals are also included. Records consist mainly of certificates issued by foreign registration authorities, which are in local languages, and copies of entries kept by incumbents of English churches and missions, chaplains and burial authorities.
It also contains documents sent by individuals to the Registrar General.
For the Second World War period some notifications of deaths of members of the services, prisoners of war, civilians, internees and deaths through aircraft lost in flight are included. Notifications of some post-war deaths of civilians in mining service are preserved. There is also material relating to the Channel Islands and a return for births on Lundy Island (Devon).
What is RG33?
General Register Office:Overseas Birth, Marriage, death and Burial of British Subjects including those onboard ships. Also Lundy Island Devon. Original registers, notebooks and copies of entries in registers kept by incumbents of English churches and missions, British embassies and legations etc. These cover the period 1627 to 1960 and are very detailed.
Scope and content
Registers of Overseas Birth, Marriage, death and Burial of British Subjects including those onboard ships. Also Lundy Island Devon. Original registers, notebooks and copies of entries in registers kept by incumbents of English churches and missions, British embassies and legations etc. These cover the period 1627 to 1960 and are very detailed.
With these RG33 records, it is important to remember that a record may be recorded in a number of registers - but differences may occur from incorrect copying. The notebook entries are likely to be more accurate than the entries copied into the registers. It is also important to consider that a marriage may also be recorded in the RG34 series however differences / more detail may occur and it is always worth checking both entries (if applicable) to obtain the most information possible.
What is RG34?
General Register Office: Overseas Foreign Marriage Returns. This series contains marriage certificates issued by foreign registration authorities and churches, copies of entries in the registers kept by British embassies, incumbents of English churches and chaplains, notification of marriages of servicemen during service abroad, and documents deposited for safekeeping. These cover the period 1861 to 1921.
Scope and content
Overseas Foreign Marriage Returns. This series contains marriage certificates issued by foreign registration authorities and churches, copies of entries in the registers kept by British embassies, incumbents of English churches and chaplains, notification of marriages of servicemen during service abroad, and documents deposited for safekeeping. These cover the period 1861 to 1921. These records give detailed information about both the groom and the bride and their family. Military Marriage records are also included in this record set giving Groom and Wife’s Name, Rank, Regiment and Nationality.
With RG34 records, it is important to remember that a marriage may also be recorded in the RG33 series but differences / more detail may occur and it is always worth checking both entries (if applicable) to obtain the most information possible.
What is RG35?
General Register Office: Miscellaneous Foreign Death Returns - 1791-1921. Contains death certificates issued by foreign registration authorities and churches, copies of entries in the registers kept by British embassies, incumbents of English churches and chaplains, notification of marriages of servicemen during service abroad, and documents deposited for safekeeping. The records cover the period 1791 to 1921.
Scope and content
This series contains death certificates issued by foreign registration authorities and churches, copies of entries in the registers kept by British embassies, incumbents of English churches and chaplains, notification of marriages of servicemen during service abroad, and documents deposited for safekeeping. They include an incomplete collection of certificates of British military deaths in France and Belgium, 1914 to 1921, issued by the registration authorities of those countries.
What is RG36?
RG36 Registers and Returns of Births, Marriages and Deaths in the Protectorates etc of Africa and Asia Covering dates 1895-1965. Notifications of birth, marriage and death forwarded by officials responsible for civil registration under administrative ordinances in Nyasaland, Kenya, Somaliland, Uganda, Sudan, Palestine, Sarawak, Malaya, including Johore and Selangor, and British North Borneo.
Scope and content
This series contains Registers and Returns of Births, Marriages and Deaths in the Protectorates etc of Africa and Asia
Covering dates 1895-1965. Notifications of birth, marriage and death forwarded by officials responsible for civil registration under administrative ordinances in Nyasaland, Kenya, Somaliland, Uganda, Sudan, Palestine, Sarawak, Malaya, including Johore and Selangor, and British North Borneo. These newly added records were previously only viewable on microfilm at The National Archives.
How To: Searching the Registers online
You can access all the non-conformist records from the Master Search on your Search page or by selecting BMD Registers from the drop down box, which will then take you to another search page. The search allows you to enter first and last name, select a specific event, e.g. baptism you can also refine by data set e.g RG6, as well a piece number, year and place.. You can also tick to include family members, which means that search results will include entries where the person searched for is not the main person on the entry, e.g. the father recorded on a baptism.
The results page given will show you all matching entries, with details of the year, place, record-set and piece number. The 'Full Details' link on the right opens the transcript in a new window with complete details of the entry, and the link 'Page Image' also opens the original image into a new window.
Click on the link below to read how Florence Nightingale can be traced through the RG4 and RG5 record sets:
http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2009/florence-nightingale-102/
What is the BT Series?
BT158 Registry of Shipping and Seamen: Registers of Births, Deaths and Marriages of Passengers at Sea. Covering dates 1854-1908.
BT159 Registry of Shipping and Seamen: Registers of Deaths at Sea of British Nationals. Covering dates 1875-1888
BT160 Registry of Shipping and Seamen: Registers of Births at Sea of British Nationals. Covering dates 1875-1891
Scope and content
These are registers compiled from ships' official logs of births, deaths and marriages of passengers at sea by the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen (RGSS) and its predecessor.
From 1874, the RGSS was required to report births and deaths at sea, aboard all ships registered in Britain or its colonies and on foreign-registered ships carrying passengers to or from the UK, to the Registrars General of England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland (the General Register Offices). The name of this series is misleading as it includes events related to persons of any nationality, not just British nationals. It should also cover events on foreign-registered passenger ships travelling to or from a UK port, but there is little evidence of this in the registers themselves.
There are separate volumes for England, Scotland and Ireland corresponding to the GRO to whom the details were to be reported. The registers for Scotland and Ireland contain details where the deceased was a ‘Scotch or Irish subject of Her Majesty’. The registers for England include all events not reported to the GROs for Scotland and Ireland and thus contain entries for foreign nationals as well as those for English and Welsh subjects.
Directories
Directories are both a research tool and a valuable insight into the lives of our ancestors and what governed their lives.
They can be an important resource in tracing ancestors, particularly if they had a distinctive trade. They can be used a census substitute for years prior to 1841 or after 1911, and to provide information on their whereabouts between census years.
Early Directories
Pigot directories start around 1820 and cover the major professions, nobility, gentry, clergy, coach and carrier services, taverns and public houses of the areas. Entries include the name, trade and address. Slater directories tend to be larger than the Pigots and cover the 1850's in a similar manner.
Watkins directories of London are more comprehensive and show residents street by street giving more detail, such as occupations. Bulmer directories have a larger history section than others, normally before the directory information. Kelly's directories often show residents. There are sections on each major town and surrounding villages, with a history of the area in a great deal of detail as you would find in a gazetteer. Information on the main trades, the chief landowners, the type of soil and even the coverage dates of parish registers can also appear.
Later Directories 1890 onwards
In the later Kelly directories, more detail is given on residents. These are sometimes put in a section called Court Directory. Finally, the Post Office Directories in the 1900's gave fairly complete listings for the residents and tradespeople of an area.
Worcestershire Directory Transcripts
These directory records of the Royal Directory 1790 and Slaters 1850 have been transcribed to make them even easier to search. This dataset contains over 2,000 entries and is a great starting point for research in Worcestershire directories.
How To: Using the Directories Online
The Genealogist offers two different types of directory searching. The standard Directory search allows you to choose a county, e.g. 'London' and then select a directory from the list. You can then browse through the entire directory, either page by page or jump to a specific section using the bookmarks. Alternatively you can enter a specific name into the search box at the bottom of County list to search all counties or if you select a county first you will then have the option to enter a search of the directories for that particular county:
We have also added the 'Directory Transcripts', which can be accessed via the Master Search from the main Search page. The images have been transcribed, offering a much faster and more efficient search tool.
You can narrow your results by entering a Year of Publication, a trade into the Keyword box or by selecting a county from the left hand side.
Wills
Guide to Wills 1384-1858
Wills are a valuable source of genealogical information as they can give details of family members, places of residence and burial, as well as revealing details about their possessions.
Before 1858, England and Wales were divided into two provinces. The largest and most influential was Canterbury, which covered the South of England up to the Midlands and also Wales. The other was York, which covered Durham, Yorkshire, Northumberland, Westmorland, Cumberland, Lancashire, Cheshire, Nottinghamshire, and the Isle of Man. The two provinces of Canterbury and York each had their own Archbishop, and were divided into several dioceses. Each diocese had a minimum of two bishops, and these dioceses were also divided again into archdeaconries.
All wills, up until 12 January 1858, had to be proven in a church court to ensure that the will was legal. Wills were proven in over 250 church courts across the country, and the records of these are now stored mostly in local record offices.
Where a will was proved depended on which lands the property covered, and if it was contained within a single archdeaconry, then the will would be proven in the Archdeacon's court. If the property stretched across several archdeaconries, it would have to be proven in a Bishop's Court, or in the Archbishop's Prerogative Court if it covered more than one diocese. There were, however, occasional exceptions to this rule, such as if the person died abroad then the will would be proven at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury regardless of where the property was.
Locating Wills
Wills proven in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury are now held at the National Archives in Kew. TheGenealogist is undergoing a project to transcribe the records so that they are available to access online as part of Premium and Personal Plus subscriptions.
Wills proven in the Prerogative Court of York are currently held at Bothwick Institute, part of the University of York.
All other wills up to 1858 are held in local record offices across the country, apart from those in Wales from 1521, which are held at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth.
Wills on TheGenealogist
Will Indexes
Locating wills can be quite a difficult task, so it's wise to try to locate an index before heading off to the archives to see if a will exists. Many indexes are now available on CD and online, and TheGenealogist has a collection available for Personal Plus, Gold and Diamond Premium subscribers, further Wills records are also available exclusively to Diamond subscribers, full coverage can be seen here http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/coverage/wills-probates-and-testaments/?level=diamond#includes
How to: Using the Will Indexes Online
The Will Indexes are listed by area on your Search page under 'Wills, Probates and Testaments'. Once you select the area and continue to the search page, you'll be able to select a specific volume.
From the search page, you can either choose to browse the volume page by page and by using the bookmarks, or you can use the forename and surname search to enter the name of the person you are looking for. Our OCR system (Optical Character Recognition) turns the pages into searchable text, allowing you to enter search terms and bring back all the pages with matching results.
PCC Wills
There are over 1 million records in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury wills and probate collection, which covers the years 1384 to January 1858. The records are copies of registered wills, which were written into volumes by the clerks at the church courts, and many earlier records are in Latin.
An example, showing the will of author Jane Austin is detailed below:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/dol/images/examples/pdfs/JAusten.pdf
The records are searchable by name, year of will, year of probate, area and profession. The search results also show the image of the original record.
How to: Using the PCC Wills Online
The PCC Wills are located on your Search page under 'Wills, Probates and Testaments' or available to search using the Master Search.
The Standard Search page provides a form which allows you to enter forename, surname and year of probate. To narrow your search down, you can also enter the Year of Will, Profession and Place. The year of probate relates to the year that the will was proven by the church courts, where-as the year of will is the date when the person actually recorded the will.
The results will be listed under the search box, and will show all the details included on the advanced search form. There are also links on the right of each entry, which allow you to submit a correction to our data team, open up the original page image, and also view the will as a printable transcript.
Biography & Who's Who
Biographical records are a valuable resource for family historians, as they provide detailed information on individuals, which can include birth, marriage and death as well as achievements, education and where they lived. Some entries also provide information on other family members such as parents and siblings.
Dictionary of National Biography
Published in 1930, this extensive collection of biographies provides details of men and women who influenced the history of the British Isles and around the world. The first volume was completed in 1885 and the entire collection was completed in 1900.
Information recorded can include births, baptisms, marriages and burials, education, details of siblings and other family members. Some entries also give details of parents with important dates in their lives and their occupation.
Who's Who in the Theatre – 1922
Contains biographies of actors, actresses and critics here and on the continent. There are also family trees of theatrical families, theatrical and musical obituaries, and a Roll of Honour for actors, musicians, writers and workers for the stage 1914-1918.
Who's Who in British Aviation 1936
Search for your aeronautical relatives with this record set that contains a directory listing each individual's achievements (with dates), and address. Also includes an obituary section, and details of clubs, institutions, etc. and civil aviation in the British Empire.
Masonic Who’s Who 1926
Contains Masonic and general biographical details of freemen from around the world who were associated with the United Grand Lodge of England
Old Public School Boys' Who's Who - Eton 1933
Documents the achievements of Old Etonians who were living in 1933. Amongst the information you can find details on the individual's parents, spouse, and siblings, personal achievements, career, and address.
Yorkshire Who's Who's, 1912
Biographies of the 'principal residents' of Yorkshire in 1912. Amongst the information you can find details on the individual's parents, spouse, and siblings, personal achievements, career, and hobbies. Includes members of York’s famous confectionary family, the Rowntree’s, who were active contributors to Yorkshire society, introducing better conditions for workers and leading the campaign for social reform.
London Who's who 1897
This lists all the most prominent people in the kingdom from royalty to the political and artistic, including the aristocracy and those in important public roles. Various information is available for each entry and there is an extensive biography section.
Who's Who in Sport 1935
Search for your sporting relatives in this directory that lists each individual's achievements in their specialist fields. Also includes an encyclopedia of sports and games, sports obituary, and sporting bodies.
Old Public School Boys' Who's Who - Eton 1933
Who's Who in the British War Mission in the United States 1918
The Concise Dictionary of National Biography 1654-1930
The Dictionary of National Biography
The Dictionary of National Biography Persons Who Died 1912-1921
Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography
Irish Heroes in the War (World War I)
Who's Who in Staffordshire 1844-1930
Who's Who in British Aviation - 1936
Whos Who in Aviation and Directory 1918
Who's Who in Freemasonry 1913-1914
Who's Who in Music 1935
Who's Who in Sport - 1935
Yorkshire Who's Who's, 1912
For full and up to date coverage please see: http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/coverage/biography-whos-who/#includes
Military Records
How to: searching the Roll of Honour records online
TheGenealogist has a Roll of Honour section included within all Premium and Personal Plus subscriptions, which give access to various memorial datasets. The number of records available to search and view is now over one million.
You can access this from the Master Search or via the Search page below the Master Search under 'Roll of Honour Records', which will then take you to the main search page.
You can either do a standard search across all the datasets available or select a specific database from the drop-down box titled ‘Source’. You can also narrow down the search to only bring up results which include biographies.
You can also enter details of Rank of Ship/Unit if known.
The icons on the right of each result allow you to open up the full transcript, which you can print off for your own records. Some of these are very detailed and also include a portrait photograph
Look at our Remembrance article available on the featured articles section, to read about how the grandson of Charles Darwin and your own World War I ancestors can be found on TheGenealogist:
http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2009/the-ultimate-sacrifice-99/
De Ruvigny's Roll of Honour 1914-1918
This online database includes biographies of over 25,000 men of the armed forces who lost their lives in the Great War. About 7,000 of the entries have linked photographs. The level of detail given varies due to the variety of sources used but all include the persons regiment, place and date of death. The families often lodged the biography with the publisher and these entries go into great detail about their lives.
The National Roll of the Great War
A tribute to the men and women who survived and died in the First World War, with 14 volumes in total, and contains over 110,000 records. This includes a collection of biographies of those who served during the Great War (1914-1918) and also includes brief accounts of how they joined up and demobilisation date. Many of the entries refer to combatants who survived the War and the National Roll of the Great War is the only detailed information available.
Bond of Sacrifice
Contains an alphabetical biographical record of all British Officers who fell in the Great War, from August 1914 to June 1915, with details of rank, regiment and date of death. Also includes portraits.
British Roll of Honour 1914-1918
Records can include detailed biographies with portraits and information on birth date, birth place, father's name, education, career, and circumstances of death.
Chatham, Plymouth and Portsmouth Memorial Register 1914-1921
Includes over 25,000 biographical records of officers and men of the Royal Navy who were lost at sea and were not recorded in any cemetery or on any battlefield.
The memorials were erected at the three home ports which are the manning ports of the Royal Navy. As well as listing the names of the dead, they also serve as a "Sea-mark" or "Leading-mark" for ships entering the ports.
These printed registers contain more detailed descriptions than are shown on the panels on the memorials. Each biography contains information on name, rank, ship, age, date of death, immediate family including address and photos.
Great War Memorial Registers
Memorials were erected by the Imperial War Graves Commission to record the names of the officers and men who fell in the Great War and whose graves are not known.
This database is available to Diamond subscribers and contains the names of men recorded on memorials at Le Touret, Vis-en-Artois, Loos, The Arras, Pozieres. Entries include regiment and number, date of death and can contain personal details such as the town they were from and parents names.
Includes a map of the area with descriptions of the battles that took place.
The Victoria Cross and Distinguished Service Order records 1857-1923
This database includes nearly 25,000 biographical records of officers, non-commissioned officers and men of his Majesty's naval, military and air forces who have been awarded these decorations from the time of their institution, with descriptions of the deeds and services which won the distinctions and with many biographical, and other details.
World War Death Indexes
World War Death Indexes
Also included within the Roll of Honour section, is the World War I Death Index, where each entry links to matching results on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website. The World War I Death Index provides an official GRO index reference as per the standard BMD Index, and you can obtain an Overseas Death certificate at www.gro.gov.uk. We also provide a World War II Death index, which can be accessed from your Research View page under "Birth Marriage and Death Indexes". Both World War indexes are in the same format as the Overseas BMD indexes (see section on using Military Overseas Indexes).
Military Rolls and Lists
*Diamond content
Army, Navy & Air Force Lists
We currently have Army Lists available ranging from 1661 to 1940 and Navy Lists ranging from 1689 to 1944. Army Lists can contain rank and regiment of officers, details of those stationed abroad and recipients of the Victoria Cross.
We have also recently added Air Force Lists for 1918, 1939 and 1933 for all Diamond subscribers. These list all officers and various sections of the RAF. The book is searchable and bookmarked by major headings. The 1939 List includes Viscount Trenchard, the ‘founding father’ of the RAF and Guy Gibson, who led the “Dam Busters” across Germany in 1943.
You can see a full content list here http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/coverage/military-records/?level=diamond#includes
Images can be browsed with the aid of bookmarks or searched using our OCR software, which turns the pages into searchable text, allowing you to enter a name and bring back all the pages with matching results:
After selecting ‘Military Rolls and Lists’ from your Research View page, you'll then be asked to select a record set. Diamond subscribers will have the option to choose Militia Lists and Indian Army as well as Army or Navy Lists. You'll then be taken to the page where you can select a year range of books or ‘Click here to search’.
You can search across all books using the search boxes provided.
Alternatively you can click on a book title. This will open the book in a new page which you can browse. Bookmarks have been added to help you go to a specific section easily.
Marriages, Deaths and Executions of British Soldiers during First and Second World Wars
Part of the Non-Conformist and Non-parochial Records collection. You can access these either from the 'Birth, Marriage and Death' section under 'BMD Registers' or through the 'Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Records' link also on the Research View page.
Registers Abroad and on British & Foreign Ships, 1831-1969 (RG32). These records include notifications during the Second World War period of deaths of members of the British armed services, prisoners of war, civilians, internees and deaths through aircraft lost in flight. Also included are deaths and executions of persons in Japanese and German prison internment camps.
Miscellaneous Foreign Marriage Returns, 1826-1921 (RG34). Includes marriages between British soldiers in France, Flanders and Holland during and after the First World War, including many who had been prisoners of war.
Knights of England 1127-1904
‘Knight’s of England’ provides details of titles and honours awarded during the years 1127 to 1904.
Described in the frontispiece as "A Complete Record from the Earliest Time [1127] to the Present Day [1904] of the Knights of all the Orders of Chivalry in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and of Knights Batchelors." You can search for names or other words, and can then view the page on which they were found. You can also move five pages forwards or backwards through the book from the page you are shown.
This dataset is available to all Personal Plus, Gold and Diamond subscribers, and can be found under 'Peerage & Heritage Records' from your Research View page.
The Duke of Wellington can be found in the records either by searching for Duke Wellington' or 'Arthur Wellesley'. One of his entries provides details of the title being initiated whilst still in Portugal, formally receiving the honour in 1814 and includes details of his death. To read more about the Duke of Wellington, read our article from the link below:
http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2010/the-iron-duke-82/
Regimental Records
Regimental Records
These are available to all Diamond subscribers, and provide details of battles and campaigns the regiment were involved in and also lists the regiment’s officers, including various personal details relating to their birth, parentage, marriage and military career.
Currently available:
★ 1650-1918 The Record of the Coldstream Guards
★ 15th Foot Regiment (Yorkshire East Riding) Historical Records
★ 19th Foot Regiment (Yorkshire North Riding) Historical Records
★ 1688-1931 Officers of The Green Howards
★ History of the Old County Regiment of Lancashire Militia
★ 1740-1919 Essex, The Essex Regiment - 1st Battalion (44th)
★ 1756-1884 Roll of Officers of the York and Lancaster Regiment
★ Regimental Records of Highland Light Infantry (Old 71st & 74th)
★ 86th Foot Regiment (Royal County Down) Historical Records
★ 1794-1909 Kent, West Kent (Queen's Own) Yeomanry
★ 1797-1927 Historical Records of the Middlesex Yeomanry
★ List of Officers of the Royal Regiment of Artillery 1862-1914
★ List of Officers of the Royal Regiment of Artillery 1862-1914
★ 1900 The Black Watch - Record of an Historic Regiment
★ 1914-1918, The 42nd (East Lancashire) Division
★ 1914-19 The Fifth Leicestershire
★ The Fifth Battalion Highland Light Infantry in the War, 1914-1918
★ 1914-19, Soldiers Died in the Great War, Part 9 - The King's Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment)
★ The Royal Scots, 1914-1919 Volume 1
★ The Royal Scots, 1914-1919 Volume 2
★ Manchester City Battalions 1916
★ The Story of the 55th (West Lancashire) Division
★ 1919-1920 The Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Chronicle
★ 1936 Sherwood Foresters, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiments
For full Military coverage please see: Military Coverage
Prisoner of War Records
List of British Officers Taken Prisoner, 1914 to 1918
Over 7,000 British and Commonwealth Officers were captured during the First World War, and with few records available for Prisoners of War during this period, these records are invaluable for researching your military ancestors.
List includes name and rank, date they went missing, where/when they were interned and the date of repatriation. For Officers that died or were killed, it also shows the date and place of death.
Contains Officers of the British Army, Royal Air Force, Royal Naval Air Service and Royal Naval Division, with regiments of the Indian Army, Canadian, Australian, Newfoundland and South African Forces.
Can be browsed by page using bookmarks or searched by name, and includes a Name Index. Records are divided into West and East theatres of war, with individuals in the West Theatres arranged by regiment.
Casualty Lists
War Office Casualty Lists
Part of our Military collection is the War Office Casualty Lists.
According to War Office statistics, the First World War claimed the lives of over 700,000 British soldiers. 170,000 were captured as prisoners of war and a staggering 1.6 million soldiers were injured.
The Casualty Lists on TheGenealogist offer the family historian a full history of those servicemen who were wounded in the First World War. For details of all wounded British and Commonwealth troops this is a complete, unique resource now available online. From famous war poets to the brave soldiers in the 'Pals' Battalions, the shocking numbers of wounded servicemen are listed in complete, accurate detail. The 1.3 million records published illustrate the number of soldiers, sailors and airmen wounded. Many servicemen received wounds of varying degrees, for some it was the end of their war, for others they were back in action within days. Using the Casualty Lists you can see if and when your ancestors were wounded in the line of duty.
You can search these via the Master Search, please select A Person with Military and enter the Surname.
Often the first names on these records are recorded as initial only so you may want to leave the forename field empty if you are unable to locate the entry using the full forename.
To narrow your results you could try entering the Service Number to Regiment into the Keyword box and click Search:
You can then use the menu on the left to select which Military records you wish to view and you can select Casualty Lists from here.
Using the icons on the right you can open the Full Record or Image:
The Casualty List records are available to view for all Diamond Subscribers.
Despatches
World War I Naval and Military Despatches
Provide detailed descriptions of operations in World War I with list of honours and rewards.
- Navy and Military Despatches Vol. I (Sept-Oct. 1914)
- Naval and Military Despatches Vol .II (Nov 1914 - Jun 1915)
- Navy and Military Despatches Vol. III (Jul-Oct. 1915)
- Navy and Military Despatches Vol. VII (Dec 1916 - Jul 1917)
Mentioned in Dispatches, 1914-1920
The Military Medal was the equivalent to the Military Cross (MC) which was awarded to commissioned officers. The MM ranked below the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM), which was also awarded to non-commissioned members of the Army.
Newspapers & Magazines
*Diamond Content
War Illustrated - Weekly - 22nd Aug 1914 to 8th Feb 1919*
British War Magazine with reports and pictures of events and battles during the First World War from 1914 to 1919.
These books give a great insight into our ancestors war efforts, full of facinating articles, covering weekly accounts on the progress of the war as it happened.
The Great War - History of the World-Wide Conflict*
Contains 272 issues, full of illustrations and information gathered by a team of war correspondents at the time.
Filled with pictures, maps and background detail, each issue has been scanned in full colour. It provides a valuable insight to how the First World War was fought.
Also included are:
★ Channel Islands Monthly Review
★ Harpers Magazine
★ Illustrated London News
★ Illustrated War News
★ Jewish Chronicle
★ SS Great Britain Times
★ The B.E.F. Wipers Times, and other publications
★ The Sphere
For full Newspaper Coverage please see: Newspaper Coverage
Poll Books & Electoral Registers
What are Poll Books and Electoral Registers?
Poll Books give names, addresses, occupations and show how people voted in the election. The Poll Books available on TheGenealogist pre-date the census records and go back as far as the 1700s, making them a valuable resource for family historians.
Before the Reform Act of 1832, there were no fixed rules of who could vote and it largely depended on the traditions within your local area. After 1832, any (male) householder whose town property exceeded an annual value of £10 became eligible to vote. In 1867 this was decreased to £4 and also included lodgers who paid more than £10 per year in boroughs. By 1884, 59% of all adult males were now able to vote.
Once the secret ballot was introduced in 1872, how a person voted was no longer available to the public and poll books were no longer necessary. Electoral Registers, which were first introduced in 1832 became the predominant record of voters, containing details of everyone who qualified to vote, their address and details of their property which enabled them to qualify (before 1918).
The father of the famous Brontë sisters is recorded in the 1835 Poll Book for West Riding, Yorkshire. To read more about this, take a look at our article 'Tracing the Brontë Family in Yorkshire' in our featured articles section:
http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2009/the-bronte-family-101/
What's available?
You can see a full content list for Poll books and Electoral Registers here:http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/coverage/polls-electoral-rolls/?level=diamond#includes
How to: Using the Poll Books & Electoral Registers
The Poll Books and Electoral Registers can be searched directly via the master search and also via the drop down menu titled 'Poll & Electoral Records' located below the master Search . Both the Poll Books and Electoral Registers can be accessed in book format. The Poll Books are also available as Transcripts.
Printed Books
To access the Printed Books for Poll Books and Electoral Registers, select ‘Electoral Registers’ from the drop-down box:
You will then be taken to a list of available counties. Some counties and also all international registers are only available within the Diamond Premium subscription (see Diamond Content). You can search across all counties or you can select your preferred county/country then choose a volume from the next page.
Once you have selected a county you can click on a book title to open that specific book and browse through the pages via the Bookmarks. Or if you wish to Search the Yorkshire only Poll & Electoral Books please use the Search boxes on this page:
- Use the navigation links to browse backwards and forwards through the book
- Bookmarks are available to jump directly to other sections of the book
Transcripts
The Poll Book Transcripts are available to Diamond subscribers. Select ‘Poll Books Database’ from the drop-down box and you’ll immediately be taken to the main search page.
The transcript records provide both standard and advanced search options.
Enter your search terms, then click ‘search’ to submit. Scroll down the page to view the results directly below the search box.
Many of the transcripts also provide access to the original page. Where available, select the icon on the right hand side to open the page in the Adobe Image Viewer.
How to: Using the London 2005 Electoral Roll
The Electoral Roll for London 2005 can be found on your Research View page under 'Poll & Electoral Records'. Select this from the drop-down box to continue to the main search page.
Your results will be listed with details of name and district. To view the complete record, select the 'Full Details' link on the right of each entry.
Exploring The Website & Additional Features
Initially, when you log into your account, you will see the Search page as your default, but there are also other areas to explore such as the Forum, where you can talk to other subscribers and help each other with research problems or advice on how to use the site.
TreeView
The TreeView tab takes you to a free program that enables you to build your family tree on your computer.
TreeView has it's own help guide, please click on the link below to view this:
http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/treeview/help/index.php
Social
In the Social area, you will find links to social networking sites, historical articles featured in email newsletters, and subscriber stories where you can read people's research stories and submit your own. The best articles submitted will win S&N vouchers and feature in our email newsletters. Our historical articles show how famous ancestors such as Florence Nightingale and the Brontë sisters can be traced online. To access the featured articles section, click on the link below:
http://www.TheGenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/
Image Archive
Our dedicated Image Archive includes hundreds of unique 3D photos and thousands of standard images dating from 1850 to 1940!
The 'Image Archive' is a free to use service that allows researchers the opportunity to relive the past through the eyes of your ancestors at: www.TheGenealogist.co.uk/imagearchive
'Diamond' subscribers to TheGenealogist will have further access to the Image Archive to download the images in a high resolution format for the greatest possible clarity.
Forum
Interact with other members regarding your research and receive hints and tips from very knowledgeable members.
News
The News tab allows you to view our recent New Releases.
DNA
Through generations, specific parts of DNA are passed down with little change from parent to child. At its most basic, DNA tests compare the markers between different people who have already been tested to find those who are related to you.From these matching people, you can make contact or use the information they have provided about their family research. The information can then be used to make breakthroughs in your own research, connect with lost relations or confirm suspected genealogical connections.For paternal line testing, it is also likely that the Surname will have been passed down along with the DNA markers. This has allowed 'Surname Projects' to be started based on DNA matches confirming your common surname ancestry.A DNA test can also show you the ancestral make-up of your DNA and, from that, which countries feature these markers. This will not match you to individual people but can help find new avenues of research by showing areas of origin which you were not aware of or to confirm ones you suspected.
For more information please see:
https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/dna/
My Account
The My Account section is where you can amend your details including your registered email address and password, check details of your current and past subscriptions (under Subscription Information), submit new card details, buy more subscriptions, view the credit information table to find out how credits are used and contact us if you have any questions which are not answered in the help pages.
Other Content
Adoption Search Service (1927-1969)
NOTE: This is a lookup service provided by a professional genealogist.
This is an index to all adoptions granted by courts in England and Wales since 1927. A birth entry was made in this index when a court issued an adoption order.
The entry will replace the original birth entry, and also instructs the GRO (General Register Office) to mark the original birth entry as 'adopted'.
Searching for an adoption and getting the references is just the first stage in the process of finding the birth parents.
If you are the child you are required to attend an informal meeting with an approved adoption advisor for confidential guidance, either with your local Social Services, at the General Register Office or, under certain circumstances, at the agency that handled your adoption.
You can also choose to see an adoption worker at another local authority. The General Register Office will forward your original birth information to your chosen approved adoption advisor.
More information can be found on gro.gov.uk or direct.gov.uk
Until 1927 there was no formal adoption process, although the term adoption was often applied to what we call guardianship or fostering. The legal process of adoption was introduced in 1927. The GRO holds the Adopted Childrens Register which records legal adoptions under the Adoptions Acts since 1 January 1927. A special form has to be completed to obtain a certificate of a register entry, which was made by the Registrar General after a court made an adoption order. It gives the courts name, the date of the order, the date of the childs birth and the names, occupation and address of the adoptive parents. The country and place of the childs birth are shown from 1950 to 1959 respectively. The register and certificates do not reveal the childs name prior to the adoption.Extract from Ancestral Trails by Mark Herber.
Reference Books
We have a collection of reference books on various topics including:
The Queen's Empire | |
This book is full of images from all over the Empire, with descriptions and is a great snapshot of the time. A map of global trade routes is also included. | |
Sixty Years a Queen | |
This is a biographical account of Queen Victoria's reign, with many illustrations. | |
A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pirates | |
This book by Charles Johnson is titled 'A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pirates'. It contains an in-depth insight into the world of the pirates with chapters dedicated to the most famous pirates of the Eighteenth Century. | |
The Life of Charles Dickens - John Forster | |
Biographer John Forster's best know work chronicling the life of his friend Charles Dickens. The book is broken down into 12 parts covering the major periods in his life, from his childhood to his time in America. |
For our full list of research books with description please see here
Landowner Records
This 19th century tax survey provides an index to all individuals who owned 1 acre or more of land in 1873. It is arranged alphabetically by County where the land is situated, so their may be holdings in more than one county. It provides the name of the owner: their address (town or village only); how much land they owned in the County and its gross estimated rental value.
These returns, also known as the Modern Domesday, were the result of a survey to ascertain the number of owners of land of one acre or more in the United Kingdom (except London). The returns were compiled from rates records."Extract from Ancestral Trails by Mark Herber.
Image Archive
Photographs are an important part of our family history. They bring our records to life and allow us to feel a personal connection with the past. TheGenealogist’s Image Archive is free to use, and will allow you to look at snapshots of the past, with the ability to download the images so you can add them to your records.
Currently containing thousands of images dating back to 1850, the archive will continue to expand.
Our Image Archive is available for all to view with the option to purchase copies of specific images.
Premium subscribers to TheGenealogist.co.uk are able to download copies of the images with Diamond subscribers able to download higher resolution images.
You can access the Image Archive from the tab along the top of your page:
Please note that these images are for personal use only. If you wish to publish an image in any way, you will need to purchase a licence.
Please contact us if you wish to use an image commercially.
Subscription Information
Which Subscription Is Right For Me?
Subscription Content Compared
Starter Premium
The Starter subscription gives you credit-free access to BMD's (GRO Indexes England and Wales 1837-2005), Overseas BMD's, Census (1841-1911), Roll of Honour records, Reference Books and TreeView Premium Features from only £14.95, perfect for beginners with everything you need to start your family tree
Gold Premium
Gold Premium subscriptions give you access to Census (1841-1911), BMD’s, Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Records, PCC Wills and Will Indexes, Poll Books, Directories, School Registers, Military, Landowner records plus many more.
Diamond Premium
The Diamond subscription provides access to all of the records available in the Gold plus new census releases, overseas records for India, Australia, New Zealand, America and South Africa, more extensive collections of records for Scotland and Ireland. Early telephone directories, pedigree/heraldry and electoral registers and also occupational records, including law lists, medical, clergy, teachers, actors.
Access a full comparison chart here.
Credit Based Subscriptions
Our 'Personal Plus' Subscriptions provide the same access as a Gold Premium, but are credit based and you are initially issued with a set number of credits depending on which option you choose. If you run out of credits at any time you can purchase a £5 or £14.95 credit top-up using the link on your Search page, located directly below the credit total box.
The number of credits used will vary across the different datasets. A Full break-down of how credits are used can be found in the ‘My Account’ section under ‘Credits Info’, or click on the link below to go directly to the credit table:
http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/help/credits.htm
Credits will be deducted for viewing full records and images, and some datasets will also charge credits for searching. If details of credit charges are not recorded on the search page, you’ll be notified of how many credits will be deducted when you hover your mouse over the Search button or Viewing icons.
Upgrading Your Subscription
If you wish to upgrade your level of subscription it is as easy as buying another subscription and if you still have remaining time left on a premium subscription we will refund you the difference.
You can upgrade here or you can contact our support team using the Contact Us form.
Cancelling a subscription
Cancellations need to be made in writing via letter or email at least two weeks before your renewal is due.
You can use the Contact Us page to email your cancellation request.
Or call us during normal office hours on 01722 717006 (Mon-Fri 9am - 5pm).
Diamond Content
Census
1911 Census
TheGenealogist.co.uk has transcribed the 1911 census to create fully searchable records, using our unique search tools including the Master Search, Family Search and Address Search.
The 1911 census was taken on the 2nd April and contains millions of more records than the previous 1901 census. This is the first available census to be filled in by your ancestors, enabling you to view their handwriting.
The 1911 is thought to be one of the most important record sets as it will show family records in detail before WW1. It will give details of where your ancestors lived, who with, age, place of birth and occupation as you would expect.
Additional pieces of information included for the first time are nationality, duration of current marriage, number of children born within that marriage, number of living children and the number of any children who had died. Extra occupation information may show details of the industry in which they worked.
With access to colour images, your ancestors own handwriting and the extra information provided on the census you can really bring your ancestors to life.
Scottish Census
A sample of the 1851 Scottish census is currently available. This can be found on the Search page under 'British and International Records'
Records are searchable by Name, Age, County, Birth Place and Street.
The results will provide Forename, Surname, Age, Relation, Profession, Birth County, Birth Parish, Area and Street.
Contains approximately 59,000 entries.
Parish Records
Diamond subscribers have priority access to new Parish Records, which include Baptisms, Marriages, Marriage Banns, Marriage Licenses, Burials and Bishops’ Transcripts.
Please click here for full details of all Parish Records available in the Diamond subscription
British & International Records
TheGenealogist now offers more extensive records for the whole of Great Britain. Scottish records include directories from 1773 to 1930, landowner records, parish registers, school/university registers and wills. Irish records include directories, wills, landowner and heraldry/pedigree records. We have also added directories, almanachs, pedigree and roll of honour records for the Channel Isles.
Counties currently included in our International section are Australia, South Africa, India, America and New Zealand. To access these go to the 'British & International Records' section on the Search page, where you can select a country from the drop-down box, then click 'Search' to view all records available.
International records include directories, army/regimental records, wills, early passenger lists to America, civil service lists, almanachs, electoral registers and telephone directories. Almanachs are annual publications containing data and statistics for the area. Many of these also include residential and business listings, similar to those found in directories
Peerage & Heritage Records
Peerage and Heritage records document the ancestry of titled and landed families in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Entries can contain details of individual peers providing biographical information such as births, marriages and names of family members.
These records are not only limited to researching upper class ancestors, as inter-class marriages occurred frequently, particularly with the younger children, and can provide useful information for many family history researchers.
“An enormous number of people, of all classes and financial status, are descended from noble families, particularly because the wealth and importance of families varied substantially over time. Younger sons of a family were often not as wealthy as their fathers. For example, the youngest son of a duke might join the army but not reach the rank of captain. His youngest son might have been a farmer. His son may have been a shopkeeper and his son only a labourer. Marriages also linked one class to another. Thus daughters of kings might marry nobles, daughters of nobles might marry knights, daughters of knights might marry local yeoman and so on. It is therefore possible to trace a family relationship that extends, within only a few generations, from the highest in the land to the lowest. In view of the number of ancestors that you have, it is possible that pedigrees of the nobility will be relevant to your family tree.”
- extract from Ancestral Trails by Mark Herber p.617-618
We currently have Peerage & Heritage records covering all of the UK ranging from 1664 to 1921, which include Burke’s, Kelly’s and Debrett’s Peerage records.
The records are from books (Printed Books), which the Master Search enables you to enter a name and view results within the books, or browse through the images with the aid of bookmarks.
Royal Records
These Records range from 43AD to 1939 covering various royals, their families, peerages and those who fought on the Royalist side in the English Civil War.
Please click here for a full list of records available.
Visitation Records
Heraldic Visitations began in 1530 and were tours of inspection undertaken by Kings of Arms in order to regulate and register the coats of arms of nobility and gentry, and to record pedigrees. By the fifteenth century many families were adopting coats of arms as symbols of wealth and power but not all had a legitimate claim to them. As surviving visitation records include pedigrees and often the evidence that was used to prove these, including family details, background and ages, their records provide important source material for genealogists.
Visitations records are currently available for individual counties and the whole of England and Wales, with years ranging from 1530 – 1921.
Poll Books & Electoral Registers
Poll Books give names, addresses, occupations and show how people voted in the election. The Poll Books available on TheGenealogist pre-date the census records and go back as far as the 1700s, making them a valuable resource for family historians. For full details of available records and how to use them, go to the 'Poll Books & Electoral Registers' section from the main menu.
Diamond subscribers have access to a wider range from 1832 to 1919, including Australian electoral registers and voters who were absent during the first world war.
Regimental Records
These can provide details of battles and campaigns the regiment were involved in and also lists the regiment’s officers, including various personal details relating to their birth, parentage, marriage and military career.
Regimental Records currently available
Newspapers & Magazines
Historical newspapers and magazines were written as events were occurring and provide contemporary accounts of the world your ancestors lived in from day to day. They provide insight into opinions of the time and can also provide information on individuals which would not otherwise be recorded.
War Illustrated
British War Magazine with reports and pictures of events and battles during the First World War from 1914 to 1919.
These books give a great insight into our ancestors war efforts, full of facinating articles, covering weekly accounts on the progress of the war as it happened.
The Illustrated London News
Bookmarked by article and are easily searchable, containing many announcements of Births, Marriages, Deaths, Obituaries, Wills & Bequests, as well as reports of accidents and offences from across the country. The Illustrated London News was founded in 1842 and was the world's first illustrated weekly newspaper. We currently have issues online from 1842-1869 & 1890 with more to follow.
- SS Great Britain Times -
The ‘Great Britain’ was designed by Isambard Kingdon Brunel and built in 1843. It was the largest ship in the world at almost 100 metres, and the first iron screw-propelled ocean steam ship. Originally designed as a Trans-Atlantic passenger ship with a capacity of 252 passengers and 130 crew, its original purpose proved to be unprofitable, and the ship was sold to Gibbs Bright & Co in 1846. There had been an increase in emigration to Australia, fuelled by a new Gold rush, and the SS Great Britain was re-fitted with a new upper deck, increasing its capacity to 750 passengers. Over the next 24 years, the ship carried over 16,000 emigrants to Australia.
The SS Great Britain launched its own weekly newspaper for passengers in 1865, and TheGenealogist has digitised issues of the newspaper, which are now available for all Diamond subscribers. These include interesting details about the ship and its progress, as well as incidents onboard and events such as birth and deaths. The last issue of the journey also provides a passenger list with names of those in intermediate, second cabin and saloon.
- The Great War - History of the World-Wide Conflict
Contains 272 issues, full of illustrations and information gathered by a team of war correspondents at the time.
Filled with pictures, maps and background detail, each issue has been scanned in full colour. It provides a valuable insight to how the First World War was fought.
Occupational Records
Occupational Records can provide a greater insight into the lives of your ancestors. They can be used to complement census records, and as some contain address details and pre-date 1841 they are a valuable substitute for the pre-census years.
A selection of what is currently included:
Actors and Playwrights
• Biographia Dramatica - A biographic record of actors, playwrights and their works from the 1500s to 1811. Information includes background history and a record of their individual works with dates.
• Who's Who in the Theatre - 1922 records
Bankruptcy Lists
• List of Bankrupts with Their Dividends 1786-1806 records
Clergy Lists
• 1911 Clergy List
• 1929 Crockford's Clerical Directory records
Imperial Calendars
• 1895 British Imperial Calendar records
Law Lists
• 1066-1870 Biographical Dictionary of the Judges of England
• 1824 Clark's New Law List • 1826 Clarke's New Law List
• 1856 Law List
• 1900 Solicitors' Diary, Almanac & Directory
• 1911 Justices of the Peace records
Medical Lists
• 1727-1898 Roll of Army Medical Staff
• 1895 Medical Directory - London, Provinces, Scotland & Ireland records
Teacher Lists
• 1917 Official List of Registered Teachers records
Telephone Directories
Early telephone directories for 1899 to 1900 covering the whole of the UK, and international phone books for areas of Australia ranging from 1924 to 1934.
Records include the head of household, address and can also include their occupation. Searchable by surname and forename or can be browsed page by page with the help of bookmarks.
Court & Criminal Records
TheGenealogist provides access to early court rolls from 1394, and registers of convicts sent to Australia between 1787 and 1867.
Court rolls and criminal records can provide a wealth of interesting and unique information for family history researchers, with details of property, possessions and family members as well as crimes that had been committed.
Currently available:
Transcript Records
Australian Transportation Records
Book Records
The Court Rolls of Tooting Beck Manor Vol.1 1394-1422
Worcestershire County Records - Calendar of the Quarter Sessions 1591-1643
Court Rolls of the Manor of Hornsey 1603-1701
Freeman and Burgesses Books
Norfolk, Freemen of Norwich 1317-1603
These Freemen were individuals who had earned privileges and the right to work in the city of Norwich. Contains names and occupations of the Freemen.
List of Burgesses, 1875
This book contains a list of burgesses in the borough of Bedford and prominent members of the town. Contains names, addresses and the nature of their property held.
Full Content List
Please click here for a detailed list of all the Diamond content available
War Memorials
With 100,000 records at the launch at WDYTYA Live 2013 and a fast growing coverage it could quickly find those ancestors with a memorial.
Records ranging from soldiers lost in the Boer War in 1901 to more modern day conflicts such as in Northern Ireland, there are a number of records to access in our War Memorial collection.
Using the sophisticated search technology, with just the basic details, you can locate full information on where a soldier is commemorated, find out more details such as the regiment he was in and full location of the War Memorial and even see images of the war memorial itself to view the name of your ancestor!
Each transcript brings up details of the memorial with overview images of the entire memorial and is connected to Google Maps with StreetView to see the precise location of the memorial. The memorial is in turn linked to the Imperial War Museum’s Memorial Archive, giving you further details about the memorial, such as who built it, when it was built, who paid for it and more.
Find your ancestor using just their name, locate their memorial and add the images and information to your family history records or even plan your visit!
Our example shows a council worker from Islington, London. Using the SmartSearch on TheGenealogist we input his basic details:
The result gives the following accurate results, with A T Jackson appearing, listed in The Royal Field Artillery.
From the full record transcript, we find out that our ancestor was a member of Borough Council Staff, at London Islington Council. Clicking on the ‘View Original Image’ gives us a view of his name on the war memorial.
A full image of the war memorial and other relevant images with useful information are provided to really get a feel for where your ancestor is commemorated. There is also a click-through option to Google Maps with Street View, so you can view the actual street and location! TheGenealogist brings everything together on one page, making things as easy as possible in your search quest.
With high resolution images, TheGenealogist takes you to a clear view of the war memorial. See your ancestor’s name in the list of commemorated war deaths.
The many images provided include close up shots and more distant images. Here we see the outside location of the memorial, in this case, Islington Council Offices.
There’s a handy link to Google Maps with Street View allowing you to view the memorial in panoramic detail (if located outside). Here we are able to see the outside street which is handy if planning a visit to familiarise yourself with the area.
Finally, we have the option to click-through to the Imperial War Museum War Memorial Archive to get full details on the war memorial we are interest in. With full address, type of memorial and inscription it is the final piece of the jigsaw.
Naturalisation and Denization Records
Formally launched at the Who Do You Think You Are? Live show 2013, over 150,000 unique Naturalisation and Denization Records are now available. With records ranging from 1609 to 1960, over 300 years worth of rare and hard to find records are now available for family historians.
With over 145,000 records of overseas nationals achieving British Naturalisation plus over 5,000 Huguenot records now added as well, there's a wealth of unique information to access.
Before 1844, naturalisation was granted by a private act of parliament. This process of naturalisation was expensive and only a few could afford it. Denization on the other hand, although requiring a payment was a more affordable option.
Egon Ronay was granted British Naturalisation in 1952 and we find his records easily using the MasterSearch feature.
Naturalisation records are an invaluable way of tracking down an ancestor who was born abroad and then settled in the UK. With the political and social upheavals over the last few centuries, many people have made the journey to the UK to start a new life.
There's a substantial chance that many family history researchers will discover they have ancestors who originated from overseas. A copy of the actual list of certificates granted is also available.
As well as providing the date an ancestor may have received British Naturalisation or Denization, other details are provided such as changing their name when they arrived in the UK, for example Jonas Kaluzevicius in our records changed his name to a more English John Smith!
Headstone Database
Headstones
The ‘International Headstone Image Database’ was launched by TheGenealogist in 2014.
With headstones nationwide suffering from erosion, and burial grounds from closure for new developments, it is more important than ever to preserve the records of our ancestors and the International Headstone Database is designed to meet the challenge.
This searchable transcript database allows you to view photographs of the headstone and see photographs of the church and surrounds. Maps are also available for the latest additions to the records.
Using the sophisticated search technology on TheGenealogist, you will be able to, with just the basic details, locate full information on where an ancestor is buried both quickly and easily.
Using the Master Search, simply opt to search for a Person within Deaths and Burials and you can enter a Forename, Surname, Year and use the Keyword box for any additional information you have that may be included on that record. For example you could enter the name of the Parish.
Once the results load, you can narrow the results using the sub categories from the menu on the left, as shown above you can click on Headstone.
Using the icons on the right of the result you can click to open the Record or Image:
UKindexer.co.uk hosts the new volunteer side of the project. Volunteers from around the world are now offered the chance to join the project. With every headstone photographed or transcribed, volunteers will earn credits towards subscriptions at TheGenealogist or products at Genealogy Supplies.
For further info please see: http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2014/the-hidden-treasures-of-gravestones-209/
Scottish Ancestors
Researching Scottish Ancestors on TheGenealogist
For a full and up to date list of Scottish resources please see: http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/coverage/british-international-records/#Scotland
*Exclusive Diamond content
Directories*
1406-1700 Roll of Edinburgh Burgesses and Guild-Brethren
1783-4 Glasgow Directory
1787 Glasgow Directory
1773-4 Edinburgh Directory
1825 Haddington Register
1849-1850 Glasgow Post Office Directory
1851-2 Glasgow Post Office Directory
1857-8 Edinburgh Leith Directory
1882-3 Greenock Post Office Directory
1893-4 Perth & Perthshire Directory
1913-1914 Glasgow Post Office Directory
1915 Orkney & Shetland Directory
1923-1924 Aberdeen Post Office Directory
1930 (Circa) The Official Guide to Edinburgh
1930-31 Edinburgh & Leith Post Office Directory
1899-1900 UK Telephone Directory
Landowner Records
Scottish Landowner Records 1872-73
School college & university registers*
1901-1925 Aberdeen University Roll of Graduates
1728-1858 Glasgow University Matriculation Albums
1825-1925 Loretto Register
Wills
Edinburgh Wills Index 1601 – 1700
Military/Roll of Honour*
Royal Scottish Volunteer Review in Holyrood Park 1860
Edinburgh Royal High School Roll of Honour 1914-1918
The Watsonian War Record 1914-1918
Old Scots Navy 1689-1710
1813 Militia List
Parish Records*
Printed Books:
Dunferline (1561-1570 Baptisms & Marriages)
Melrose (1642-1720 Baptisms)
Torphichen (1673-1714 Baptisms)
Restalrig (1728-1854 Burials)
Durness (1764-1810 Baptisms & Marriages)
Transcripts:
Aberdeenshire Baptisms from 1763 to 1801. Current parishes included are: Bairnie 1763-1775, Tillydesk 1775-1801
Occupational Records*
Medical Directory 1895
Roll of Army Medical Staff 1727-1898
British Imperial Calender 1895
Clergy List 1907
Clergy List 1911
Crockford’s Clerical Directory 1929
Heraldry/Peerage Records*
Burke’s Encyclopedia of Heraldry England, Ireland and Scotland
County Families of the UK 1880 & 1894
Debrett’s Peerage
Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies
Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage of the British Empire 1880
Burke's Peerage 1885
1895 Kellys Handbook to the Titled Landed and Official Classes
Kelly's 1906 Landed Gentry
Burke’ Landed Gentry 1914
Burkes Peerage 1921
Armorial Families 7th ed pt2
Kelly's Handbook to the Titled, Landed and Official Classes 1942
Almanacs*
1880 Edinburgh Almanac
1891 Edinburgh Almanac
Census*
A sample of the 1851 Scottish census is currently available.
Records are searchable by Name, Age, County, Birth Place and Street.
The results will provide Forename, Surname, Age, Relation, Profession, Birth County, Birth Parish, Area and Street.
Contains approximately 59,000 entries.
Australian Records
Trade, Post Office and Residential Directories
For a Full List of our Australian Records please see: http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/coverage/british-international-records/#Australia
1834 New South Wales Post Office Directory with Census Detail
1857 The Rise and Progress of Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand
- Colonial directory providing an emigrants guide to Australia and New Zealand.
- Geelong Trade Directory provides name and type of business with street address.
- Directory of leading merchants, warehousemen and agents in Melbourne and Sydney includes name and type of business with street address.
- New Zealand Directory with details of government staff and street directory which includes occupation of residents. Covers Auckland, Wellington, Nelson and Canterbury.
- Provides statistical information for Victoria, Tasmania and New South Wales on population, infrastructure, import and export, revenue and taxation.
- Also includes a Directory of leading merchants, warehousemen and agents in London, Scotland, Ireland and other areas of England.
1880 - A Glance at Australia
- This extensive directory gives detailed information on the history, topography, productivity and agriculture of Australia in 1880. It shows the present condition and production of some of its leading industries, namely, wool, wine, grain, dressed meat, etc. The amount of each produced and exported.
- Includes a brief description of the different states of Australia at the time, in places going into detail of the average wages and includes a separate list of Banks and Mercantile Houses.
- Also included is a Pastoral and Agricultural Directory for the whole of Australia, which consists a list of farmers from each of the states.
- Searchable by surname and forename or can be browsed page by page with the help of bookmarks.
- Gives an insight into the lives of Australians in the 1880s and could help you paint a picture of your ancestor's life in the great south land.
1883 Official Directory and Almanac of Australia
1898 New South Wales, Yewen's Directory of Landholders
1905 Queensland at Home
Official almanch, directory and gazetteer
- Postal and telegraphic info
- Travel routes and guides to places from Brisbane
- Listing of stations and grazing farms
- Statistics for agriculture, imports/exports and population
- Queensland Parliamentary Record, with list of members, proposed bills and session business
- Shipping details
- Biographical info on influential men in Queensland
- Medical practioners, Chemists, Dentists
- Law Calender with lists of legal professionals
- Commission of the Peace
- Ministers of religion, including list of diocese
- Lists of Masonic Lodges and Societies
Directory 1905
- Trades and professions for Brisbane with street addresses
- Bribane Town Directory with local authorities, tradesmen, societies
- Queensland Trade Directory with names and town
- Sydney Trade Directory with names and street address
- Queensland Mayors and Local Government officials/clerks
1907 Storekeepers & Traders of Victoria Country Directory
1919 South Australian Directory
1920-1921 Canterbury, Marlborough, Nelson and Westland Directory
1920 Melbourne, Kew Suburban Guide and Business Directory
1929 Tasmania Post Office Directory
1931 Western Australia Post Office Directory
1931 Tasmania Post Office Directory
1936 Ramsay's Melbourne and Suburban Business Directory
1936-7 Tasmania Post Office Directory
The Australian Radio Users circa 1940s
Telephone Directories
1924 Melbourne Telephone Directory
1931 Adelaide Telephone Directory
1934 (May) Melbourne Telephone Directory
1934 Telephone Directory Brisbane
1936 (November) Melbourne Telephone Directory
Electoral Registers
1900 Queensland Electoral Roll
- This database gives name, address, postcode and district as well as other references where available. Contains over 100,000 records
Convict Registers
Convict transportation registers from 1787 to 1867 (HO11)
- Details of over 123,000 of the estimated 160,000 convicts transported during the 18th and 19th centuries.
- The records mainly include those convicted in England, Wales and Scotland, but also include a small number of Irish convicts.
- Also includes soldiers who had been court-martialled and sentenced to transportation. These 'soldier convicts' may have been convicted in various British colonies including the West Indies, India, Pakistan and Canada.
- The prisoners on these registers were sent to New South Wales, Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania), Moreton Bay (Brisbane), Port Phillip, Western Australia and Norfolk Island.
- Also recorded are some ships which were bound for Gibraltar.
Convict Lists & Pardons (HO10)
- First Fleet, New South Wales 1787
- List of Convicts arriving in New South Wales 1788-1819
- List of Convicts arriving in New South Wales Nov 1828 - Dec 1832
- List of Convicts arriving in New South Wales 1833-1834
- List of Convicts who are now free, New South Wales 1810-1820
- List of Convicts in Van Diemens Land/Tasmania 1808-1849
- Convict Pardons & Tickets of Leave in New South Wales and Van Diemans Lands/Tasmania 1834-1838
- Convict Pardons in New South Wales 1838-1859
- Convict Pardons in Tasmania 1840-1848
- Recommendations for Conditional Pardons in Tasmania 1849-1859
Census & General Musters
New South Wales 1828 Census
General Musters
- New South Wales & Norfolk Island General Muster 1806
- New South Wales & Norfolk Island General Muster 1837
- New South Wales General Muster 1811, 1822, 1823, 1824, 1825, 1828
Military Records
1915 Australia's Roll of Honour
Biographical Records
Australian Biographical Dictionary 1934
Cyclopedia of Victoria, Volumes 1-3
The Tasmanian Cyclopedia 1931
Irish Ancestors
Researching Irish Ancestors on TheGenealogist
For a full and detailed list of our Irish Records please go to: http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/coverage/british-international-records/#Ireland
*Exclusive Diamond content
Irish records include directories, wills, landowner and pedigree records.
*1536 - 1810 Irish Wills
Index to the Prerogative Court Wills and Hawkins Collection of Wills. These give Year, Name, Place and occupation.
*1847-1864 Griffith's Valuation of Ireland
This was the first full valuation of property and land in Ireland. This was undertaken by Richard Griffith and was published between 1847 and 1864.
1876 Landowners of Ireland
This 19th century tax survey created by the Government Board in Ireland provides an index to all individuals who owned 1 acre or more of land which was published in 1876. It is arranged alphabetically by County where the land is situated, so there may be holdings in more than one county. It provides the name of the owner: their address (town or village only); how much land they owned in the County and its gross estimated rental value.
Indexes to Irish Census Records 1891 to 1911
These link through to the original records on the Irish National Archives site
*Pedigrees
These give family trees and background information on families
1887 Irish Pedigrees
1888 Irish Pedigrees
*Directories and Almanacs can be invaluable in showing where people lived and jobs they held.
1846 Dublin Almanac
1905 Belfast Kelly's Directory
1905 Connaught Kelly's Directory
1905 Dublin Kelly's Directory
1905 Leinster Kelly's Directory
1905 Munster Kelly's Directory
1905 Ulster Kelly's Directory
1910 Dublin Directory
1926 Belfast and Ulster Directory
1927 Ireland Directory
1927 Ireland Trade Directory
How to: searching the Irish Records Collection
Go to the ‘British & International Records’ section on your Research view page and select 'Irish Records’
You’ll then be taken to the menu page, where you can either a select a book to browse or use the forename and surname search option.
Browsing the records
- The books are easily browsed page by page, using the navigation icons to the left.
- You can also search all books via the main menu.
- To save time if you need to jump to a particular section, bookmarks are available to make browsing the book easier.
Searching the records
If you opt to use the forename and surname search, you will be re-directed to the Master Search for your results list.
You can move between countries using the options to the left of the results.
Locating other Irish Records included in your subscription
There are also records that include Irish individuals which are not listed in the Irish Records collection as they provide National coverage of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. These record sets include Military Lists, Occupational records, Peerage and Heritage records, and can be located under the relevant sections on your Search page.
Emigration Records
Britain to America
Records of emigrants to America are available to all Diamond Premium subscribers under the ‘British and International records’ section on the Search page.
1600-1700 Persons of Quality from Great Britain to US
Contains a list of emigrants to America which includes religious exiles, political rebels, serving men sold for a term of years, apprentices, children, women, and others who went from Great Britain to the American plantations from 1600 to 1700.
Details provided include age, where from, details of other family members (e.g wife and children), occupation and name of the ship.
The records contain:
Register of passengers from London, Ipswich and Weymouth
- Provides name of ship, name and age of passenger
- Some also include occupation of male passengers
List of the living and dead in Virginia colony 1623
Muster (early form of census) of Virginia colony taken on 23rd January 1924
- Details of area resident, name and age of all family members and ship/year they arrived in.
- Lists of the dead with some details of how they died provided
Patents Granted, including how many acres and where the land is situated
Barbados Tickets Granted
- Details of people who left the island, including when their ticket was issued, the destination, ship they left on and the name of the Commander
Barbados Parish Registers
- Baptisms and Burials 1678 to 1679
- Includes details of inhabitants with number of children, servants and slaves
1654-1658 Bristol and America
A record of the first settlers in the colonies of North America 1654-1685. This includes the names of places of origin of more than 10,000 servants to Foreign Plantations who sailed from the Port of Bristol to Virginia, Maryland and other ports of the Atlantic coast and also to the West Indies.
Britain to Australia
Records of British Convicts transported to colonies in Australia are available to all Diamond subscribers, and can be found on the Search page under ‘British and International Records’ or via the Master Search.
Convict Transportation Registers 1787-1867 (HO 11)
- Details of over 123,000 of the estimated 160,000 convicts transported during the 18th and 19th centuries.
- The records mainly include those convicted in England, Wales and Scotland, but also include a small number of Irish convicts.
- Also includes soldiers who had been court-martialled and sentenced to transportation. These 'soldier convicts' may have been convicted in various British colonies including the West Indies, India, Pakistan and Canada.
- The prisoners on these registers were sent to New South Wales, Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania), Moreton Bay (Brisbane), Port Phillip, Western Australia and Norfolk Island.
- Also recorded are some ships which were bound for Gibraltar.
1911 Census
What is the 1911 Census?
The 1911 census was taken on the 2nd April and contains millions more records than the previous 1901 census. This is the first available census to be filled in by your ancestors, enabling you to view your ancestors’ handwriting.
The 1911 is thought to be one of the most important record sets as it will show family records in detail before the WW1. It will give details of where your ancestors lived, who with, age, place of birth and occupation as you would expect.
Additional pieces of information included for the first time are nationality, duration of current marriage, number of children born within that marriage, number of living children and the number of any children who had died. Extra occupation information may show details of the industry in which they worked.
With access to colour images, your ancestors own handwriting and the extra information provided on the census you can really bring your ancestors to life.
How can I access this?
TheGenealogist.co.uk has transcribed the 1911 census records to create fully searchable records, using our unique search tools including the Keyword Master search, Family Forename Search and House and Street Search. The records are available to all Diamond Premium subscribers.
The 1911 Census on TheGenealogist
We’ve transcribed the census records by name, age, gender, relation to head, marriage status, number of years married, occupation, place of birth and address (parish and street). You can search using any of these fields on our advanced and unique Keyword Master Search, making it easier to locate your ancestors.
TheGenealogist.co.uk also provides higher quality images of the census pages than have been available online before. The new high resolution, high quality images give more detail for you to look at, while also having a fast loading standard image on the higher resolution options, so no matter what broadband speed you have you’ll be able to view the best images quickly. To get the best experience from these images you’ll also need to download the new version X of Adobe Reader, which is available free at the Adobe website.
How to: Searching in the 1911 Census
If you wish to search the 1911 census records you can opt to search for an individual, a family or an address.
When searching for 'a Person' you can use keywords such as occupation, birth place, relation to head etc to help narrow down your results. Enter any details that you have and all entries with matching information will be displayed in your results below. You can then click on the icons on the left to view the entire Household or original image.
The original image will display further details such as nationality, the number of children born to a couple, the number of which are still living and how many have died. It also displays further employment details such as the service/industry of the worker.
All original images can be downloaded to your computer using the ‘Save Image’ icon and printed using the icon on the left of the viewer window.
Selecting the ‘View Household’ icon from your results page will open up a full transcript of all members of the household, with the street address and links to the cover page located at the top left. A ‘View Family’ link is also available on the right hand side of each entry to change the view from household members to only those within the family, excluding any visitors or servants residing at the address.
The 1911 census can also be accessed via the drop down below the Master Search in the same way other census years can be.
1911 Census Image Search
You’ll find this on your Search page under ‘Census Transcripts’, named ‘1911 Images’.
Guide to searching
Step 1 – Select a County from those shown as available in the first column
Step 2 – From second column, choose a Registration District. If you’re not sure which of these your parish is in, use the Keyword Master Search to check this on previous census years, or select the ‘search a specific parish’ link at the top to skip this part.
Step 3 – Choose a Sub-District/Parish from the third column
Step 4 – Choose an Enumeration District. The enumeration districts were used to reduce the census records into manageable groups, so you may need to go through each one to find the address you’re looking for.
Step 5 – Select a Page Number from final column to open up the image viewer window. You can browse backwards and forwards within the image viewer window by 5 pages, or close the window and select a new page to continue searching through a particular street.
School, College & University Records
School, College and University registers are available to Gold and Diamond Premium subscribers with dates ranging from 1220 to 1949.
Records are bookmarked and can be browsed by page. Our Master Search allows you to enter a forename, surname and any keywords (occupation, street address etc) to bring back potential results.
Entries include the famous Samuel Pepys, and contain a short biography, which can also give details of parents, sponsors and relatives.
The results will be listed in order of relevance, click on a result to view the book:
A selection of Books Currently Available
Aberdeen Registers
1901-1925 Aberdeen University Roll of Graduates records
Berkshire Registers
1850 - 1908 Bradfield College Register
1791 - 1850 Eton School Register
1853 - 1892 Eton School Register
1893 - 1899 Eton School Register
1899 - 1909 Eton School Register
Old Public School Boys' Who's Who - Eton 1933
Cambridge Registers
1500-1611 Athenae Cantabrigienses (Cambridge University)
Gonville and Caius College Register 1349-1897
St. John The Evangelist College Registers (Cambridge University) 1629-1802
Christ's College (Cambridge University) 1448-1905
Diamond Content: Trinity College Admissions 1546-1900
Cumberland Registers
1264 - 1924 Carlisle Grammar School records
Devon Registers
1770-1932 Tiverton, Blundell's School Register records
Durham Registers
Diamond Content: Durham School Register 1840-1912
Edinburgh
Diamond Content: 1825-1925 Scotland, Loretto Register
Essex Registers
1637-1740 Colchester School Register
Glasgow Registers
1728-1858 Glasgow University Matriculation Abums records
Gloucestershire Registers
1841-1910 Cheltenham College register records
Diamond Content: 1882-1926 Gloucestershire, Old Wycliffians
Kent Registers
1871-1924 Dover College Register
1859-1931 Canterbury, King's School Register records
Lancashire Registers
1844-1882 Rossall School Directory records
Diamond Content:
The Admission Register of the Manchester School, Volumes I-III, 1730-1837
London Registers
1748-1876 St. Pauls School Admission Registers
1876-1905 St. Pauls School Admission Registers
1860-1931 London University College School Registers
1884-1934 City and Guilds College Registers records
The Book of Blackheath High School
1807-1926 Mill Hill School Registers
London, University College School Register 1831-1891
Diamond Content:
The London School of Economics and Political Science Register 1895-1932
1897-1900 London, Royal Holloway College Calendar
Charterhouse in London
Middlesex Registers
1801-1900 Harrow School Register
1885-1949 Harrow School Register records
1897-1900 London, Royal Holloway College Calendar
Merchant Taylor's School Register 1562-1874
Northumberland Registers
1811-1911 Alnwick, The Duke's School Registers records
Oxford Registers
1448-1910 A Register of the Members of St. Mary Magdalen College, Oxford
1220-1900 Oxford University Historical Register
1847-1923 St Peter's Radley College Register Oxford records
1449-1622 Register of the University of Oxford
1509-1909 Brasenose College Registers (Oxford University)
1833-1933 Balliol College Registers (Oxford University)
Rutland Registers
1824-1913 Uppingham School Roll records
Shropshire Registers
1798 - 1928 Shrewsbury School Registers
Somerset Registers
1748-1910 Kingswood School Register records
Suffolk Registers
1550-1900 Bury St. Edmunds Grammar School List records
Surrey Registers
Epsom College Register 1855-1924 records
Whitgift Grammar School Registers 1871-1892
Sussex Registers
1837-1887 Windlesham House School Register records
Warwickshire Registers
1675 - 1849 Rugby School Register
1892-1921 Rugby School Register records
Wiltshire Registers
1843-1933 Marlborough College Register records
Worcestershire Registers
1865-1924 Malvern College Register records
Yorkshire Registers
1499-1913 Giggleswick School Register
1820-1896 Leeds Grammar School Register
Bootham School Register 1914
1546-1895 Sedbergh School Register
1875-1928 Sedbergh School Registers
To view a full list of the records available please click here.