News

TheGenealogist adds over 100,000 names to its Irish Will Indexes 30 April 2021

TheGenealogist’s Index of Irish Wills 1484-1858 is an index to surviving records of Wills, Grants and Administrations, held by The National Archives of Ireland (NAI). Records include the original NAI reference, which can be used to order a copy of the existing document.

This new release adds an easily searched and useful resource to the ever-growing suite of records available to Diamond subscribers of TheGenealogist. The Index of Irish Wills 1484-1858 features:

• More than 100,000 names
• Easily Searchable by Name, County, Address and Keyword
• Can provide dates, occupation, status and place of abode
• Can provide reference and link to order the document from the National Archives of Ireland.

Prior to 1858, Irish wills were administered by the ecclesiastical courts of the Established church, (the Church of Ireland), a part of the Anglican communion. In 1857, however, the Church of Ireland lost its responsibility for Irish Wills when the Probate Act of that year transferred the supervision to the state.

To find out more about these records, read Nick Thorne’s article: Using Irish Wills to discover your ancestors

New London Lloyd George Domesday Records 16 April 2021

We have released the records of 143,956 individuals to increase our Lloyd George Domesday Survey record set coverage. This unique online resource of nearly one million individual records, can help researchers discover where an ancestor lived in the period 1910-1915. The new records this month are for properties situated in Balham, Battersea, Fulham, Hammersmith, Putney & Roehampton, Streatham, Tooting Graveney and Wandsworth.

This fascinating combination of maps and residential data from The National Archives enables researchers to precisely pinpoint an ancestor's house on the large scale and exceptionally detailed hand annotated maps from the period. Fully searchable and linked to the versatile Map Explorer™, Diamond subscribers can see how an area has changed over time by switching between various georeferenced modern and historical map layers.

Complementing the maps are the accompanying Field Books that will also 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.

To find out more about these records, you can read our featured article, "Finding the Wandsworth homes attacked in the WW1 'Lusitania' Riots".

New Release: The 1939 Register with SmartSearch 01 April 2021

We have released the 1939 Register transcript, adding our unique and powerful search tools and SmartSearch technology. This offers a hugely flexible way to look for your ancestors at the start of the Second World War.

Our well known brick wall shattering search tools include the ability to find your ancestor in 1939 by using keywords, such as the individual's occupation or their date of birth. You can also search for an address and then jump straight to the household. If you're struggling to find a family, you can even search using as many of their forenames as you know.

Once you've found a record in the 1939 Register, you can click on the street name to view all the residents on the street, potentially finding relatives living nearby.

Take your research journey quickly forwards by using our innovative SmartSearch to jump to a person's birth, marriage or death record.

The 1939 Register can often reveal important additional information about your ancestors that will help build your family's story. The powerful keyword search can find evacuees by searching for their name and date of birth along with the keyword "evacuee". The fact individuals are listed with their full dates of birth is a huge benefit that the 1939 Register has over the census, which simply lists the age of a person.

We make searching the 1939 Register more flexible. Search by:

• Name (Including wildcards, e.g. Win* Church*)
• Address (e.g. Whitehall)
• Keywords (e.g. Admiralty)
• First names from a family group (e.g. Winston, Clementine)

To find out more about this record set, read our article: A Window on September 1939 and George Formby the entertainer .

New Tithe Maps added to Map Explorer™ 19 March 2021

We have added over 2,700 more parishes of Tithe Maps to Map Explorer™, which means over 30 counties of georeferenced Tithe Maps have been added to date!

TheGenealogist's Map Explorer™, the resource for researchers to turn to when searching for an ancestor's landholding whether owned or simply occupied, has been boosted with the significant addition of georeferenced Tithe Maps for Anglesey, Durham, Devon, Shropshire, Somerset, Suffolk and Wiltshire.

From cottages with gardens to acres of farmed land and country estates, the addition of georeferenced Tithe maps as a layer over modern and other historical maps will allow researchers to see how the landscape changed over time. Map Explorer™ gives the researcher the ability to switch between layers of tithe, historical and modern maps which are all tied to coordinates, allowing the user to see how places change over the years.

From a plot identified on the tithe map it is possible to click through to then see the description as it was recorded in the apportionment record at the time, thus revealing more about what an ancestor's holding had been. Using Map Explorer™ the family historian can browse an ancestor's area to find other plots that they owned or occupied. Alternatively, our Master Search can be used to look for ancestors' plots across the tithe records and then view them on Map Explorer™.

To find out more about these maps and MapExplorer™, you can read Nick Thorne's article "Travelling back in time with MapExplorer™ in your hand".

New Military Book Records 05 March 2021

We have released over 150,000 individuals to our ever expanding Military Record Collection. Containing names, places and dates, these publications can help the family history researcher find their ancestors and build a fascinating story of their lives. With records from Britain, Canada and a number of Indian registers and directories, these searchable records contain lists of men and women who served their country in various capacities connected to the military, and not just on the front line.

The records can be used to discover more about an ancestor's achievements and are fantastic for identifying where next to apply your research. These books can give dates of postings along with ranks or positions held in establishments, as well as a great deal more useful information that may help to build a better family history.

Use these records to:

• Add dates and details to the lives of your ancestors
• Discover where they served
• Fill in gaps in the information that you already have on an ancestor
• Find hints and 'signposts' to other records and places to search for forebears.

These records will often allow us to recount a much more rounded picture of the life of a person and so enrich the telling of their story.

To find out more about these records, read Nick Thorne's article "Finding a high-flying officer from both World War I and II."

New Map Records for Southwark and surrounding areas 12 February 2021

We have just released the records for another 98,618 individuals from Southwark to increase the number of records to over 800,000 individuals in our unique online Lloyd George Domesday Survey. These property records are a fantastic resource for researchers searching for where an ancestor lived in the period 1910-1915.

The Lloyd George Domesday Survey is a massive project to digitise a combination of large scale Ordnance Survey maps and residential data field books from The National Archives. Using the records from the former Valuation Office Survey (known as the Lloyd George Domesday Survey) enables family history researchers to precisely pinpoint where an ancestor's house had been on exceptionally detailed hand annotated maps from the period. These have been made even more useful to researchers as they have been georeferenced and are displayed as a layer in our powerful Map Explorer™.

Family historians can often have problems when looking for where their ancestors lived. Even when they have located an ancestor's address in the census, over time road names may have changed and many streets have been renumbered or bombed out of existence in the Blitz. With redevelopment the area can change substantially, adopting new layouts that make searching for where an ancestor lived using modern maps a frustrating experience.

Use these records to:

• link individual properties to pins on extremely detailed ordnance survey maps from the 1910s
• read information often giving a detailed description of the property in original Field Books
• locate a specific house on the map from an address found in a census or street directory
• search the records by surname, parish and street.
• zoom down to show plots of the individual properties as they existed in 1910-1915
• reveal modern map layers georeferenced to the survey maps to show the modern topography

The linked Field Books will also provide researchers with information regarding the valuation of each property, including the valuation assessment number, map reference, owner, occupier, situation, description and extent.

To find out more about these records, read Nick Thorne's article "Property records from the 1910s show us the Southwark of Michael Caine's family."

New Who's Who Records 29 January 2021

We have added new Who's Who records into our expanding Occupational Records, adding almost 100,000 additional individuals. This release includes records covering individuals from all over England, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, USA, New Zealand and further afield.

The records can be used to discover more about an ancestor's achievements and are fantastic for identifying where next to apply your research. Who's Who records will confirm birth dates and sometimes the place of birth. Often they give a father's name and occupation and a great deal more useful information that may help to build a better family history.

Use these records to:

• Add details to the lives of your ancestors
• Discover their accomplishments
• Fill in gaps in the information that you already have on an ancestor
• Find other records and places to search for forebears

These records will often allow us to recount a much more rounded picture of the life of a person and so enrich the telling of their story. This latest release expands our extensive Occupational records collection that includes actors, apprentices, clergy, crew lists, directors, flight, freemen, law, railway, sports, teachers and biographies as well as a number of other Who's Who books.

To find out more about these records, read Nick Thorne's article "Who, What, Where, When? - Discovering Who's Who"