News

New Records of Victorian Convicts 14 June 2019

This week we have released over 100,000 individuals, allowing you to find the details of ancestors that had broken the law and were incarcerated in the harsh conditions of early Victorian convict prisons - including some that were only children!

The new data will allow you to discover:

• Over 100,000 individuals in records covering the years 1838 to 1875
• Registers of prisoners inside Millbank, Parkhurst and Pentonville prisons
• Each prisoner's age on conviction
• The marital status and whether the prisoner can read or write
• The convict's former trade
• When and where they were convicted, their crime, sentence, where and whence received, previous offences, when removed and to where

These fully searchable records are from the HO24 Home Office: Prison Registers and Returns 1838-1875 for Millbank, Parkhurst and Pentonville.

To find out more, read Nick Thorne's article "Criminal records can reveal ancestors locked up in convict prisons".

New Islington Lloyd George Domesday Survey records 31 May 2019

This week we have released Islington Lloyd George Domesday Survey records. These cover land owners and occupiers in 1910-1915 with over 70,000 individuals recorded, joining the previously released data books and their associated maps for other parts of London. For family historians looking for ancestors' homes just before the First World War in the Islington area of London this record set is invaluable.

This new release covers records made of property ownership and occupation in Barnsbury, Canonbury, Charterhouse, Clerkenwell, Finsbury, Glasshouse Yard, Highbury East, Highbury West, Lower Holloway, Myddelton, Old Street, Pentonville, Saint Mary, Saint Peter, Saint Sepulchre, Thornhill, Upper Holloway, Upper Holloway East and Upper Holloway West.

Use these records to:

• Find ancestors who owned or occupied property in the Islington area of London
• See the outlines of their houses on large scale maps from the time
• Fade between historic and modern maps to see how the environment has changed
• Check details of properties in the neighbourhood, by clicking the red pins
• Locate an address from your research down to a specific house on the map
• Search by name, parish and street to uncover ancestors' property in 1910-1915

Complementing the maps on TheGenealogist's Map Explorer are the accompanying Field Books which provide detailed information relative to the valuation of each property, including the valuation assessment number, map reference, owner, occupier, situation, description and extent.

This new release is the latest stage of our vast ongoing project to digitise over 94,500 Field Books, each having hundreds of pages, and linking them to large scale IR121 annotated OS maps which are now viewable with our powerful Map Explorer tool.

New Nautical Apprenticeship Records 17 May 2019

We have expanded our occupational records with over 300,000 records of Masters and Apprentices included in a nautical set of apprenticeship records. These BT 150 records from The National Archives comprise of an index that had been compiled by the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen and its predecessor. It consists of apprentices indentured in the Merchant Navy between 1824-1910.

The books have now been transcribed and include colour images of the original registers to add a fascinating resource to their broad range of records which can be used to build an ancestor's story.

You can read more about these records and some of the more interesting people within them in our latest article "Merchant Seamen apprentices to Captains of the Cutty Sark".

New Prison Records 26 April 2019

We are expanding our Criminal Records collection with the release of over 146,000 individuals who were listed in prison records. Sourced from the PRIS 10 & PRIS 11 collections held at The National Archives, these documents contain records from 1697 to 1862 and reveal those jailed for debt or bankruptcy.

These records will give family historians details of those imprisoned in the Debtors prisons including the King's Bench Prison, Fleet, Marshalsea and Queen's Prisons. These contain commitment and discharge records, giving details of names of the debtor, creditor and attorney, along with the amount of debt.

Read Nick Thorne's Article "Little Dorrit, Dickens and Dad's Debts" to find out more.

Introducing Map Explorer 28 March 2019

Our latest innovation helps you find an ancestor's property and watch the landscape change over time. Our team has georeferenced the Lloyd George Maps for Greater London which are available now, with further exciting developments planned for the coming months.

The powerful Map Explorer has been developed to view these georeferenced historic maps laid on top of modern background maps including those from Ordnance Survey and Bing Street maps, as well as a satellite view, letting you see where your ancestor's house is today.

To complement the launch of the new Map Explorer, we have also released historic Ordnance Survey maps covering England, Scotland and Wales between the 1890s and 1960s. These have been georeferenced, allowing you to see how the landscape changed over time.

• The Map Explorer displays maps for different historical periods up to the modern day
• Maps are fully searchable by county, parish, street and even postcode
• Zoom in to show the individual properties as they were at the time
• Use the transparency slider to reveal a modern street map underneath
• Change the modern base map displayed to more clearly understand what the area looks like today
• Georeferenced pins link to the records for each property
• Display county or parish boundaries

To find out more and to see a short video introducing this innovative new tool, visit TheGenealogist.co.uk/maps.

New Kensington & Chelsea 1910 Lloyd George Domesday Records with Maps 22 February 2019

We are releasing the field books and detailed annotated maps for Kensington and Chelsea as the next part of the exciting record set, The Lloyd George Domesday Survey - a resource that can be used to find where an ancestor lived in 1910. The newly added records contain 49,608 individuals who owned or occupied property in this upmarket part of London.

This release covers the areas of:

• Brompton
• Chelsea East
• Chelsea West
• Holland Park
• Notting Hill East
• Notting Hill West
• South Kensington

You can find out more about these records by reading Nick Thorne's article where he finds authors and actors within the records.

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.