News

New RAF Operations Book Records 06 February 2020

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

To find out more about these records, you can read Nick Thorne's article "RAF Operations books build a picture of WWII aircrew ancestors' action".

New Norfolk Parish Records 20 January 2020

We have just added over 500,000 individuals in a new release of Norfolk Parish Records with images of the original records in association with the Norfolk Record Office. We have transcribed them so that they are fully searchable by name and place.

These East Anglian records feature the registers of baptisms, marriages and burials covering various parishes in Norfolk, allowing family history researchers from all over the world to search for their Norfolk ancestors online. This release, accessible with our Diamond subscription, includes 330,000 individuals from baptisms, 100,000 from marriages and 95,000 from burial records.

• Search by name the transcripts linked to the original images
• Uncover the dates for baptisms, marriages and burial events
• Discover names of family members and in some cases occupations
• Some of the surviving records stretch back into the 1500s

This release has been added to millions of existing parish records for this area and tens of millions of parish records for other counties.

To find out more about this release, you can read Nick Thorne's article, The Millers at Docking Windmill.

Colour Tithe Maps added to Map Explorer™ 06 January 2020

Our latest innovation to help you find an ancestor's property and watch the landscape change over time has now been enhanced by the addition of georeferenced Colour Tithe Maps. So now you can view exactly where your ancestor lived or worked on a modern day map. We're also releasing colour tithe maps for Cumberland - you can search these as normal or browse them on Map Explorer™.

The colour maps now available on MapExplorer™ cover the counties of Warwickshire, Rutland, Huntingdonshire, Buckinghamshire, Middlesex, Northumberland, Surrey, Westmorland, York City, North and East Ridings of Yorkshire along with the newly launched Cumberland.

Joining the georeferenced Lloyd George Data Layer, Headstones and War Memorials, the Colour Tithe Maps are a significant addition to the ever-expanding Map Explorer™. Our Diamond subscribers have access to all layers within Map Explorer™.

To find out more about the release, you can read Nick Thorne's article Exploring the Island at Twickenham.

New Searchable War Memorials 20 December 2019

We have just released over 12,000 records from 138 War Memorials. This means that there is now a total of over 580,000 War Memorial Records that are fully searchable in TheGenealogist's Military Collection with photographs centred on their inscription. These memorials can give researchers an insight into the education, rank, regiment and occupation of an ancestor.

The War Memorial records will allow the family history researcher to discover additional War Memorials from England and Canada, fully searchable records which are transcribed from images of the tributes, colour images of the memorial centred on their name and a variety of memorials in honour of the war dead from various conflicts.

This new release covers memorials that are not all set in stone or cast in iron. There is the WW1 memorial volume book held in Darlington Central Library for Pease and Partners of Darlington. This firm owned mines, quarries and other works all over County Durham and Teesside.

You can read more about this release in our latest article - Using War Memorials to research ancestors from the First World War.

Bedfordshire Colour Tithe Maps Released 27 November 2019

We have just released a collection of Colour Tithe Maps for Bedfordshire to join the previously published greyscale maps in our National Tithe Records collection.

This release of attractive colour digitised maps will provide you with highly detailed plans sourced from The National Archives (TNA). We have linked these to the appropriate apportionment books that provide researchers with the details of the plots, their owners and their occupiers at the time that the survey was taken in Victorian times. These make the maps easier to understand as the streams, rivers, lakes, ponds, houses and trees are often highlighted in different colours.

These tagged colour maps join the previously released apportionment record books, national greyscale maps and colour maps for Warwickshire, Rutland, Huntingdonshire, Buckinghamshire, City of York, Middlesex, Northumberland, Surrey, Westmorland, and the North and East Ridings of Yorkshire. The National Tithe Records collection gives the family history researcher the ability to search by name and keyword (for example parish or county) to look for property holdings from large estate owners to occupiers of small plots such as a homestead, or a cottage.

To find out more, you can read Nick Thorne's article, where he discovers the cousins who bought a village.

Lloyd George Domesday records for the Borough of Hackney 12 November 2019

We have just released maps and field books for the Borough of Hackney into our property ownership and occupancy record set, The Lloyd George Domesday Survey. These records make use of our powerful new Map Explorer™ to access the maps and residential data, so you are able to see the district as it was in that period. Because these large scale maps include plots for the exact properties and are married to various georeferenced historic map overlays and modern base maps on the Map Explorer™, by using the opacity controls you can see how the land has changed.

This release includes the following areas: Clapton, Dalston, Hackney, Homerton, Hornsey South, Hoxton, Kingsland, Moorfields, South Hackney, Stamford Hill, Stoke Newington and West Hackney.

Colour Tithe Maps for Warwickshire 24 October 2019

We have just released additional sets of Colour Tithe Maps to join the previously available greyscale maps in our National Tithe Records collection. This release for Warwickshire is of high-resolution colour digitised maps which will provide the family historian with highly detailed maps sourced from both The National Archives as well as the Warwick County Record Office.

Researchers searching for owners or occupiers of Warwickshire land surveyed in the 19th century for the Tithe Commutation Act 1836, now have a choice of plans linked to the fully searchable apportionment schedules. Subscribers to our Diamond membership can select to view The National Archives' grayscale maps, The National Archives' colour maps, or the Warwickshire Record Office colour maps when using the Tithe & Landowner records for this county. The Warwickshire Record Office maps are, in many cases, less faded and more vibrant in their colours, having had less wear and tear than the alternatives.