Just a quick note to let you know that Findmypast have released 10 million new Cheshire records today.

The Cheshire Collection is an extraordinarily rich and comprehensive set of records provided by Cheshire Archives and Local Studies.

These records are essential to anyone with Cheshire roots or connections, as they cover not just the Church of England but also Roman Catholic and Non-Conformist registers, and, moreover, extend well beyond these core records of baptism, marriage and burial to a variety of other records giving biographical details for the residents of the county.

These records span the period 1538-1910. These records contain:

• Bishop’s Transcripts of the Parish Registers 1576-1905
• Church of England Parish Registers 1538-1910
• Electoral Registers 1842-1900
• Marriage Licence Bonds and Allegations 1663-1905
• Non-Conformist and Roman Catholic Records 1671-1910
• Workhouse Registers 1781-1910

Find more information about these records here

Findmypast is available free at the Library of the Society of Genealogists and members of the Society received discounts on subscriptions to the site

Technorati Tags: Cheshire, family history, Find My Past, genealogy, Society of Genealogists

This week’s episode takes three people on a journey to uncover details about their ancestors who were all involved in the D-Day invasion in Normandy. The trailer can be seen on Youtube

The episode airs on Yesterday on Thursday 10th November at 9pm and is repeated daily throughout the following week. Yesterday can be found at Sky channel 537, Virgin TV channel 203 and Freeview channel 12. There is also more information on the Yesterday Facebook page

The episode focuses on the incredible story of HMS Swift which landed British troops at D-Day on the beach-head – and in doing so gained a new insight into the complexity that lay behind the feat of landing troops on the heavily defended shores of Normandy.

CONTRIBUTORS:

Robin Clarke is 25-years-old, engaged, has a baby boy, Jack, and is a Medical Secretary. She and her family live in the cottage next to her mother in rural Cheshire. Robin was taken to Normandy once when she was a young child and knows that her family were involved in the first Normandy landings, but doesn’t know the details. Since having a child of her own, she is passionate about passing on information about her family’s history to the next generation.

Kerry Wood, is a 33-year-old police officer in London and has a four-year-old daughter who is a quarter-French. She knows nothing about her ancestors’ involvement in D Day. Kerry knows a little about her grandparents and their involvement in the war and is keen to find out more.

Frances O Reilly, is in her mid-thirties. A graphic designer by trade she has two small children and lives in Epsom. She knows a little about her family history, she knows that her paternal grandfather was a doctor, as was her great-uncle ‘Johnny’ (on her paternal grandmother’s side) who lived close to his sister in Devon. Johnny had led ‘quite an exciting life’ and that he wrote a book but she has never read it.

Having missed the last couple of episode as I’ve been teaching the SoG’s Thursday evening class, I’m going to make sure  I take this opportunity to curl up and watch on Thursday night. Follow me on Twitter @SoGGenealogist and we can discuss what we think of the show.

Else Churchill

SoG Genealogist

Technorati Tags: family history, Find My Past, genealogy

Findmypast.co.uk have released a fabulous family history resource -  the index and images of  WO96 militia records for 1806-1915. The Findmypast wesbite is available for free at the Society of Genealogists Library

The WO 96 Militia Records are a valuable resources for genealogy research-

• Over half a million records covering 100 years of the militia – the forerunner of The British Territorial Army – published online
• Records provide unique descriptions of what your ancestors actually looked like
• Everyday workers including butchers and bakers fighting for their country
• The British militia was recruited from all over the world

Leading family history website, findmypast.co.uk has published the records of over half a million men who served in the British militia, the precursor to the UK’s Territorial Army. The Militia Service Records, covering 1806 to 1915, have been made available online for the first time to coincide with British Armed Forces Day on Saturday.

The records colourfully portray what the British militia looked like, detailing the height, weight, chest size, complexion, eye colour, hair colour and distinctive marks of each recruit. Arthur Wilson’s distinguishing marks included an acrobat and dots tattooed on his left forearm. Similarly, Albert Smith, born in India, was recorded as having teeth that were ‘defective but enough for mastication’.

Debra Chatfield, Marketing Manager at findmypast.co.uk comments: “These records provide rich insight into our past and show how the everyday man, such as your local shopkeeper, found himself fighting for his country. In the absence of photographs, these records can help you imagine what your ancestors looked like, containing details which are largely unavailable elsewhere. Our easy to use website means you can unearth even more fascinating and detailed information about your ancestors at the click of a mouse.”

Like today’s Territorial Army, the militia was made up of men who held everyday jobs, but took part in military exercises and on occasions fought for their country. In the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, these typically included shoemakers, woodchoppers, butchers, bakers, coal miners and millers.

Charles Godfrey, for example, was a butcher for a Mr Debron in Oxford. Born in the Parish of Botley, Berkshire, Godfrey volunteered for the militia on 25^th July 1887 aged 18. Charles served with the 3^rd Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment and was recorded as being five feet four inches tall with steel grey eyes. 

William Spencer, Principal Military Records Specialist at The National Archives, commented: “It took a certain kind of individual to leave a day job as a blacksmith, labourer or barman and enlist as a part time soldier in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. Although the majority never left British shores, many saw active service with the regular army in places such as South Africa during the Second Boer War. Like its modern equivalent, the Territorial Army, the pre-WWI militia offered a way for former soldiers to continue serving their country and civilians a chance to leave humdrum jobs, earn extra money and enjoy the comradeship such services had to offer.”

The Militia Service Records are the only set of their kind available online and have been published in association with The National Archives and in partnership with FamilySearch. The records show that the soldiers who made up the militia during that period hailed not only from the UK itself, but also from around the world. Some recruits had been born in Italy, Ceylon, South Africa and even as far away as Australia and New Zealand.

David Rencher, Chief Genealogy Officer at FamilySearch added: “The publication of the Militia Service Records fills another critical gap in the family historian’s toolkit. The digitisation and indexing of this rich collection will make it easy to find the regiment an ancestor served with and also when and where he was born. Family historians will quickly realise the value of this information, particularly when the record of an ancestor’s birth has been elusive or impossible to find elsewhere.”

ENDS 

For further information or examples of the records, please contact:

Amy Sell

amy.sell@findmypast.co.uk

or

Lauren Hunt-Morgan

0207 566 9729

laurenhm@lansons.com

Notes to editors

Armed Forces Day

The release coincides with Armed Forces Day which is taking place on Saturday, 25 June 2011.

The day aims to raise public awareness of the contribution made to our country by those who serve and have served in Her Majesty’s Armed Forces, It also gives the nation an opportunity to show support for the men and women who make up the Armed Forces community: from currently serving troops to Service families and from veterans to cadets. In 2011 the National Event will be held in Edinburgh, but there are many more events up and down the country being held in support of Armed Forces Day.

Full list of places of birth as recorded in the Militia Service Records:

Africa

Australia

Canada

Channel Islands

East Indies

England

Spain

France

Germany

Gibraltar

Greece

India

Isle of Man

Ireland

Italy

Ceylon

Malta

New Zealand

Russia

South America

Scotland

At sea

West Indies

Wales

Technorati Tags: family history, Find My Past, genealogy, militia records, Society of Genealogists

Guardian Media has reported that the UK genealogy website Findmypast has signed a deal with UKTV – channel Yesterday.

The pay-TV broadcaster has struck the product placement deal with Brightsolid, the DC Thomson-owned company that is home to online genealogy tools including Find My Past and Genes Reunited, to launch a genealogy show on factual channel Yesterday.

 In UKTV’s biggest advertiser-funded programming deal to date, Brightsolid will pay for a new 10-part one-hour series called Find My Past. In return the company gets brand exposure in the titles, end credits and all marketing associated with the new series.

 Each week the show, which is being made by independent producer Lion Television, will use the findmypast.co.uk website to focus on a famous moment – such as Dunkirk or the Jack the Ripper attacks – to connect “three seemingly unrelated members of the public”.

 UKTV, which is jointly owned by the BBC and Virgin Media, will broadcast the show this winter on Freeview channel Yesterday.

 ”Findmypast.co.uk already has a strong commercial association with us as Yesterday’s main sponsor, so finding and developing a fresh genealogy TV format to co-fund has been a natural next step,” said Sally Quick, head of commercial partnerships at UKTV.

Much of the Society of Genealogists online data is also hosted on Findmypast so the Society is delighted that there will be another TV opporunity to focus on rich online  genealogy source materal.

for more information on the report on thisTV programme visit the Guardian Media website

with thanks to Chris M Paton and UK-TV press department for bringing this to our attention

Technorati Tags: family history, Find My Past, genealogy, Society of Genealogists

Following the launch of the Society of Genealogists’ Online collection of family history records on Findmypast.co.uk the Society is pleased to announce free access to the full Findmypast website at the Society of Genealogists’ Library. This includes full free access to the 1911 and other census indexes and images, military and migration indexes as well as birth, marriages and deaths, parish records and specialist records – an excellent resource for any genealogist.

Among the first tranche of  9 million Society of Genealogists’ Records published online online  are:

• Boyd’s Marriage Index containing over 7 million names from 1538 to 1840
• Boyd’s London Burials 1538-1872 containing 240,000 names
• Faculty Office Marriage Licence Allegations 1701-1850
• St Andrew’s Holborn Marriage Index 1754-1812     
• Vicar-General Marriage Licences Allegations 1694-1850
• St Leonard Shoreditch Burials 1805-1858 and Workhouse Deaths 1820-1828, online for the first time
• Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills Index 1750-1800

The Society of Genealogists is delighted that its online collections are now available on Findmypast – the sponsors of the SoG Centenary Year. This gives us the opportunity in the future to enhance existing indexes such as the Bank of England Wills and Civil Servants Evidences of Age with images of the original documents to accompany the indexes. These images should be available later in the year and other datasets such as the Trinity House Petitions Index and Teachers Registration Council Registers will be published throughout 2011.  The online collections exemplify the variety of records that the Society of Genealogists has preserved and made available over the years that otherwise would not have been retained for family historians. The indexes launched today include some of the invaluable works of Percival Boyd such as Boyd’s Marriage Index which is still one of the largest and most comprehensive indexes of marriages of its kind.

Searchable family history indexes and transcripts have been added to the Findmypast website, and customers will be able to order copies of the originals for some of the records from the Society of Genealogists.

In the coming weeks further records will be added to the website including Bank of England Wills Extracts containing 60,500 names, including images of the documents, and Apprentices of Great Britain containing 350,000 names.

Findmypast.co.uk has been working in partnership with the Society of Genealogists for a number of years to make the Society’s family history collection available to a wider, international audience. Earlier projects were Civil Service Evidence of Age and Great Western Railway Shareholder records.

Anyone with a full subscription to findmypast.co.uk will be able to access all the records within their existing package. Otherwise they can be viewed with PayAsYouGo credits. The full Findmypast website, including access to 1911 census, military and migration indexes is  also available free to view at the Society of Genealogists’ Library.

Members of the Society of Genealogists will be able to view the records for free online via on the Society of Genealogist’s own Members Area at www.sog.org.uk .  The records will be added gradually during 2011.  Until the records move over to the SoG site, members will be able to continue their free access to this data on the British Origins website after logging into that site with their existing passwords as usual.

Technorati Tags: Family History News, Find My Past, genealogy