Our monthly email news contains new releases and special offers, including news of upcoming genealogy events, latest articles, and much more. Click the buttons below to read the current issue, or to read previous issues.
Over One Million RAF Operations Record Books released 22 May 2020
We have expanded our unique collection of searchable RAF Operations Record Books with the addition of 1.2 Million new records for aircrew operations.
Operations Record Books (ORBs) are official Air Force documents chronicling an air force unit from the time of its formation. They were intended to be an accurate daily record of the operations that the squadron carried out in peace and at war. The ORBs are for squadrons primarily after the First World War, but there are a few early squadron records from 1911 to 1918. We have made the Operations Record Books fully searchable by name, year and keywords.
This collection also includes some record books for Dominion Air Forces (Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa) as well as Allied Air Force squadrons under British Command and can be used to find the stories of brave aircrew, giving insights into the operations that they carried out. The ORBs follow a daily diary format giving summaries of events and can reveal the death of aircrews, crashes, as well as less disquieting entries such as the weather for flying, promotions and the decorations men of the squadron received. ORBs also detail the areas that the fighter planes patrolled, or the bombers targeted, as well as where the squadrons were based as the war wore on. These duties and assignments include bombing the enemy, patrolling the skies, convoy escorts, submarine hunts, attacking docks & shipping, dive bombing raids, and more.
As aircrew personnel are named in these reports, those wanting to follow where an ancestor had been posted to and what may have happened to them will find these records extremely informative.
Use these records to:
Add details to an aircrewman's story
Study the war movements of personnel in air force units
Discover if a pilot, navigator, radio operator or gunner is mentioned in the action
Note dates airman received promotions, medals, or other honours
See the names of squadron members wounded, killed, or who did not return
Easily search the transcribed records and images licensed from The National Archives
This latest release expands our extensive Military records collection and is available to all Diamond subscribers.
Tithe Maps added to Map Explorer™ 07 May 2020
Our Map Explorer™ which can help researchers find an ancestor's property and watch the landscape change over time has now been enhanced by the addition of georeferenced black and white Tithe Maps for Berkshire, Cambridgeshire, Leicestershire and Oxfordshire.
Joining the georeferenced Lloyd George Data Layer, Headstones, War Memorials, and colour Tithe Maps for a number of counties, the new additions to the ever-expanding Map Explorer™ allow researchers to trace property from Victorian times to the modern era.
Over 3,300 Tithe Maps now available in Map Explorer™
Map Explorer™ now has over two million selectable records shown using Map Pins
Map Explorer™ displays maps for historical periods up to the modern day
New Records for Kingston upon Thames, Hook and Malden 24 April 2020
We have just released the Kingston upon Thames, Hook and Malden areas into its Lloyd George Domesday Survey Records on the Map Explorer™.
These fully searchable land owner records enable researchers to find where an ancestor from Kingston lived in the 1910-1915 period. You can now search over half a million individuals in this collection.
By using our powerful Map Explorer™, family history researchers searching for where their ancestors lived in the period before the First World War are able to see the actual plots for buildings and explore the district as it was in that period on large scale OS maps linked to the field books containing descriptions of the properties.
Announcing Essex Colour Tithe Maps with MapExplorer integration, exclusive to TheGenealogist 28 March 2020
The land use has changed dramatically over the last 200 years and the colour Tithe maps in our map tool allows you to explore it in great detail. This release allows us to see the area in West Ham, Essex on which the ExCel centre now stands and to discover the changes from Victorian pasture land, to dock complex and now to the Nightingale Hospital as the Covid-19 emergency builds.
Map Explorer™
This versatile tool can give the family history researcher a fantastic insight into what our ancestors' city, town or village looked like over a number of periods and can also help them to find an ancestor's property. With the addition of georeferenced Colour Tithe Maps, TheGenealogist has also today released colour tithe maps for Essex – you can search these as normal or browse them on Map Explorer™.
Subscribers to TheGenealogist's Diamond membership can now view the latest colour or grayscale maps when using the Tithe & Landowner records.
New Pre-Census Trade and Residential Directories 14 March 2020
We have just released a collection of searchable Early Trade and Residential Directories that cover the years 1816-1839 to help find ancestors in the period before the usable census records begin.
Prior to 1841 all of the U.K. censuses were generally statistical: that is, mainly headcounts, with virtually no personal information such as names recorded and so family history researchers need to turn to a substitute to find out the address where their ancestors had lived. Trade and Residential Directories list names of tradespeople, prominent citizens and in some cases other residents of a town as well.
Many of these directories will also give a good description of the town or area which can give family historians an interesting insight into the social history of their ancestors' locality at the time. This information usually includes the main industry, topographical details, communication links with the surrounding towns by stage coach or railway, and details of local administration offices, post offices, the clergy, charities, hospitals and schools.
The early Trade and Residential Directories being released include volumes that cover the areas of Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cornwall, Derby, Devonshire, Dorsetshire, Durham, Essex, Glasgow, Hampshire, London, Liverpool, Middlesex, Northumberland, Norfolk, Nottinghamshire and Suffolk.
Find out more about this interesting resource with our intro here:
New Property Records for Greenwich 28 February 2020
We have just released over 57,700 individuals from the Greenwich area into our Lloyd George Domesday Survey Records on the Map Explorer™. These fully searchable property records enable researchers to find where ancestors from Greenwich lived in the 1910-1915 period. This release now brings the total coverage of Lloyd George Domesday Survey Records to over half a million individuals.
By using our powerful Map Explorer™, family history researchers searching for where their ancestors lived in the period before the First World War are able to see the actual plots for buildings and explore the district as it was in that period on large scale OS maps linked to the field books containing descriptions of the properties.
In a release of over half a million records, this is the first batch of RAF Operations Records Books (ORBs) to join our ever-expanding military records collection. This is the first time that these RAF records are fully searchable by name, aircraft, location and many other fields, making it easier to find your aviation ancestors.
These documents tell the stories of these brave aircrew who battled against the odds and give insights into their everyday lives. You can use the collection to follow an airman's war time experiences from these fully searchable Air Ministry operations record books which cover various Royal Air Force, dominion and Allied Air Force squadrons that came under British Command. They allow the family history researcher a fascinating insight into their relatives serving in a number of wartime air force units.
The records provide summaries of events and can reveal the death of aviators, crashes, as well as less traumatic details such as weather and places patrolled by the planes and where the squadrons were based as the war wore on. As aircrew personnel are named in these reports, those wanting to follow where an ancestor had been posted to and what may have happened to them will find these records extremely informative.
Use these records to:
Add colour to an aircrewman's story
Read the war movements of personnel in air force units
Discover if a pilot, navigator, radio operator or gunner is mentioned in the action
Find if an airman is listed for receiving an Honour or an Award
Note the names of squadron members wounded, killed, or did not return
Easily search these National Archives records and images
Over One Million RAF Operations Record Books released 22 May 2020
