News

New Second World War Casualty Lists Released 11 February 2019

TheGenealogist has added to its Military Records collection with the release of more than 1 million entries for people recorded in the Second World War Casualty Lists. Sourced from collection WO 417 held at The National Archives, these documents contain records from the war years of 1939 to 1945 and list casualties sustained by the British Army during the Second World War. There are volumes for Officers and Nurses, with separate volumes for Other Ranks. The Casualty Lists were compiled from daily lists that had been prepared by the War Office Casualty Section and cover the various expeditionary forces deployed in different locations across Europe, Africa and Asia as well as for personnel at home.

WW2 Casualty Records will give family history researchers details of ancestors' names and regiments as well as ranks and service numbers for those recorded. The World War 2 casualty lists contain more detail than their WW1 counterparts and often list the date of the casualty (as well as the list date), plus other information such as the unit a soldier had been serving in at the time.

Included in these lists are those who had been unaccounted for by the military, were dangerously ill or injured, were captured as a Prisoner of War or died. The records include troops who had been serving in a number of places across the world, but also cover personnel who had lost their lives, were injured at home or were serving at an overseas station outside the theatres of war. Updates and corrections appear in the records as new information was received by the War Office.

To find out more about this release, you can read Nick Thorne's article, where he discovers Motor racing aces executed by the Nazis.

New Prisoner Records Added 24 January 2019

We have added to our Court and Criminal Records collection with the release of almost 700,000 entries for prisoners. Sourced from the HO 8 Registers held by The National Archives, these documents contain records from the years 1821 to 1876. This expands our criminal record collection to over 2.3 million individuals.

These Prison Registers give family history researchers details of ancestors who were imprisoned in a number of convict prisons from Broadmoor to the Warrior Convict Hulk. The records reveal the names of prisoners, offences the prisoner had been convicted for, the date of their trial and where they were tried.

Use the quarterly prison registers to:

• Find ancestors guilty of crimes ranging from theft, highway robbery and libel to murder
• Discover the sentences received
• See the age of a prisoner
• Find out where they were sentenced and to which prison they were sent

You can find out more about this release in Nick Thorne's Article "HO 8 historic prisoner records reveal a child poisoner and a criminal lunatic detained at Her Majesty’s pleasure".

New Headstone Records Added 11 January 2019

We've also added 20,000 individuals to our Headstones Collection from the UKIndexer Project where volunteers help their fellow genealogists by indexing and/or photographing the monumental inscriptions in churchyards and cemeteries.

• Discover dates of ancestors' baptisms
• Glean names of parents of those baptised in Worcestershire
• Headstones give dates and name details of those buried and sometimes familiar relationships
• Memorials can reveal information not recorded elsewhere for ancestors

New Worcestershire Baptism Records Added 10 January 2019

We have added over 144,000 individuals to our Parish Record Transcripts for Worcestershire in partnership with Malvern Family History Society. This expands our coverage and brings the total to over 2 million individuals for Worcestershire.

This new release covers the following:

• Beoley 1538-1652
• Birtsmorton 1539-1753
• Clent 1562-1729
• Clent 1729-1753
• Cradley nr Ledbury 1560-1670
• Ripple 1568-1702
• Severn Stoke 1538-1610
• Severn Stoke 1610/11-1753
• Tenbury Wells 1700-1753
• Upper Arley 1651-1753
• Upton on Severn 1546-1627
• Upton on Severn 1627-1673
• Upton on Severn 1671-1753
• White Ladies Aston 1558-1753
• Whittington in Norton 1709-1753
• Wolverley 1653-1696
• Worcester All Saints 1560-1639
• Worcester All Saints 1639-1679
• Worcester All Saints 1678-1731
• Worcester All Saints 1732-1753
• Worcester St Albans 1630-1726
• Worcester St Albans 1727-1753
• Worcester St Clements 1694-1730
• Worcester St Clements 1730-1753
• Worcester St Helen 1538-1623/4
• Worcester St Helen 1624-1699/1700
• Worcester St Helen 1700-1753
• Worcester St John of Bedwardine 1539-1753
• Worcester St Martin (London Road) 1745-1753
• Worcester St Michael 1546-1727/8
• Worcester St Michael 1728-1753
• Worcester St Nicholas 1564-1592/3
• Worcester St Nicholas 1593-1615/6
• Worcester St Nicholas 1694-1753
• Worcester St Peter the Great 1686-1753
• Worcester St Swithun 1538-1603/4
• Worcester St Swithun 1604-1657/8
• Worcester St Swithun 1653-1753
• Wribbenhall 1723-1753
• Wyre Piddle 1716-1753

New Colour Tithe Maps Released for Rutland and Huntingdonshire 25 December 2018

We have now added Colour Tithe Maps for Rutland and Huntingdonshire. Complimenting the already released schedule books and greyscale maps, these colour maps add an attractive visual aid to find where your ancestor lived in the mid 1800s.

These high resolution colour digitised maps provide greater detail. With this release, researchers can see the plots owned or occupied by ancestors that lived in the counties of Rutland and Huntingdonshire at the time of the survey in the 19th century.

These tagged colour maps and their fully searchable tithe schedule records have been reproduced from the records held at The National Archives. The collection gives the family history researcher the ability to search by name and keyword (for example parish or county) to look for all levels of society from large estate owners to occupiers of tiny plots such as a cottage or a cowshed.

Westminster joins the 1910 Lloyd George Domesday Records with annotated maps 20 December 2018

We have just released the maps and field books for the Westminster area in our unique record set The Lloyd George Domesday Survey. This unique combination of maps and residential data held by The National Archives has been digitised by TheGenealogist so that researchers can locate where an ancestor lived. The maps are large scale and exceptionally detailed with hand annotations that, in the majority of cases, allow family historians to find the exact property in the street.

Researchers often have difficulty using modern maps to find where ancestors lived as road names changed over time, the Blitz saw areas bombed to destruction, developers changed sites out of all resemblance from what had stood there before and lanes and roads were extinguished to build housing estates and office blocks. As these records are linked to the maps from the period this means that you have the ability to find the streets as they existed when the survey was carried out and often pinpoint where the old properties had once been.

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

These new records are available as part of the Diamond Subscription at TheGenealogist. To find out more about the release, you can read Nick Thorne's Article revealing the Lady with the Lamp in the records.

New Criminal Records Released 11 December 2018

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

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