News

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.

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.