Newest Genealogy Records on the Internet
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Below is a listing of the newest genealogy records that have become available on the internet (these records are also listed by country and many can be searched using our free Genealogy Search Engine):
February 2012
UK – TheGenealogist has added full transcripts from the 1911 census for four more counties: Gloucestershire; Norfolk; Somerset and the Channel Islands. This brings the total collection of 1911 census records at TheGenealogist to over 30 million records in total. The website hopes to make available in the next few months the transcriptions of the last few counties from the 1911 census. TheGenealogist is known for high-quality transcriptions. Access is by subscription. [1911 Census Records]
Scotland – FindMyPast has added the 1891 Scottish census to its collection. At the time of the census, Scotland had a population of just over 4 million individuals. FindMyPast now has all the Scottish census records from 1841 to 189. They hope to add the 1901 census to their website in the next couple of months. Access is by subscription. [Scotland 1891 Census]
US – Pennsylvania has changed the state law regarding the public release of birth and death certificates. Birth certificates will now be made available to the public 105 years after issuance and death certificates will be made available 50 years after issuance. Thus, birth certificates up to 1906 and death certificates up to 1961 are now available. The records can be ordered for a fee from the Pennsylvania Department of Health [Historic Pennsylvania Birth and Death Certificates]
US – FamilySearch.org has created a new collection of 5.2 million records from the Florida death index. These records cover the period from 1877 to 1998. Access is free. [Florida Death Index]
US – FamilySearch.org has added about 950,000 marriage records from Wisconsin in addition to 435,000 death records from the state. The marriage records span the years from 1973 to 1997 and the death records are from 1820 to 1907. Access is free. [Wisconsin Marriage Records] [Wisconsin Death Records]
US – FamilySearch.org has added a rare collection of electoral rolls (voting registers) for the state of California. This searchable collection has some 1 million records. It lists eligible voters by county. These lists were created every other year for most California counties. The records span the time period from 1866 to 1910 (it varies somewhat by county). This is a great collection to use if you want to trace the movement of your California ancestors between censuses. We suggest you read the article Searching Electoral Rolls for Ancestors to get the most out of this collection.
California voting registers provide a considerable amount of information that would be valuable to a genealogist. This is because much of the information that was collected in the voter registration was done to help counteract fraud (in particular to prevent someone else from impersonating a voter). In addition to providing the name and address of the voter, the California voting register also gives the age, business/occupation, height, visible marks or scars (and their location), disabilities, country or state of birth, date of naturalization, date of registration to vote, ability to read English and the ability to write name. See the image below. Access to this collection is free. [Historic California Voter Registers]
Historic California voter registers are full of useful genealogy information.
UK – FindMyPast.co.uk has added over 38,000 new parish marriage records for Lincolnshire. The records were provided by the Lincolnshire Family History Society and span the period from 1699 to 1838. Access is by subscription. [Lincolnshire Parish Records Collection]
UK – FamilySearch.org has created a new collection of Derbyshire parish records. These are baptisms, banns, marriages and burials from the region that cover the period from 1538 to 1910. The collection already contains some 190,000 searchable records. Records can be searched by name, by spouse, by parents or by type of life event. Access is free. [Derbyshire Parish Records]
Ireland – FindMyPast Ireland has launched a new record set called the Freemen of Dublin City 1774-1824. It lists 6,000 tradesmen and craftsmen as well as makers of specialty products such as furniture, silver, clocks, etc. The tradesmen list comes from a book that was prepared for publication but was never issued. Each records gives the name of the tradesmen and how they were admitted to the trade (B= birth, passed down from the father; S=service, completed an apprenticeship program; GE= grace especial, by recommendation; Gratis = admitted without paying fees) Access is by subscription. [Historic Dublin Tradesmen Records]
Italy – FamilySearch.org has added some 2.3 million browsable images of civil registration records from the state archive of L’Aquila. These records include births, marriages and deaths from the period 1809 to 1865. Also included are marriage banns (notificazioni o pubblicazioni) and marriage supplements (processetti). The records in this collection cover the geographic region of the modern-day provinces of L’Aquila, Pescara and Rieti. Access is free. [L’Aquila Birth and Marriage Records]
US – Genealogy Trails has updated their website with more genealogy data from Wyoming. In particular, more records were added for the following counties: Albany, Big Horn, Carbon, Johnson, Laramie, Lincoln, Natrona, Niobrara, Park, Teton and Uinta. Access is free. [Wyoming Genealogy Records]
Micronesia – FamilySearch.org has added a rare collection of genealogy records from Micronesia. These are birth, marriage and death records for the state of Pohnpei that span the years 1948 to 2009. This is a browsable collection of some 80,000 images. Included is a birth, marriage and death index to make it easier to find the appropriate record of your ancestor. Below is a sample marriage certificate from 1949. Access is free. [Micronesia Birth and Marriage Records]
Sample of an historic Micronesia marriage certificate.
Ireland – The website for the National Archives of Ireland has been redesigned to make it easier to navigate and more intuitive to understand. The new website also comes with expanded guides for people wanting to trace their Irish ancestors. The big news, however, is that the online search function appears to have been significantly strengthened. Users can perform simple searches, advanced searches and even expert searches. This allows for more precise full-text search for any word in the database. Most of the records on the Irish National Archives website cover records from various Irish government departments from the twentieth century. Therefore, check this website to see if your ancestors had some interaction with the Irish government during this time period. Access is free. [National Archives of Ireland Database Search]
US – FamilySearch.org has added new searchable indexes for the state of Arkansas. Included are a marriage index (1933 to 1939) and a death index (1914 to 1950). In total, some 1 million names are in the indexes. This data comes from Ancestry. Access is free. [Arkansas Marriage Index] [Arkansas Death Index]
US – FamilySearch.org has added a massive marriage index for the state of Florida that spans the years 1822 to 1875 and 1927 to 2001. There are some 11.7 million names in this collection and it is searchable by name, by spouse and by parents. The records originate from the Florida Department of Health. Access is free. [Florida Marriage Records]
US – FamilySearch.org has created a new collection of a Tennessee marriage index from 1780 to 2002. This index comes from the Tennessee State Library and Archives and lists some 3.3 million names. The index can be searched by name. Access is free. [Tennessee Marriage Records]
US – FamilySearch.org has added a marriage index for the state of Minnesota. The some 2.4 million records in the collection cover the period from 1958 to 2001. The index lists the name of the bride and groom, their parents, the calculated birthdates of the married couple and well as the marriage date and place. The easiest way to search this index is to know the name of either the bride or groom or the date and place of marriage. Access is free. [Minnesota Marriage Records]
UK – TheGenealogist has added over 21,000 baptism records for Worcestershire. These new records cover the period from 1700 to 1849. This brings the total size of the Worcestershire parish collection to 880,000 records. Access is by subscription. [Worcestershire Parish Records]
UK – Ancestry.co.uk has recently launched a database for Warwickshire related to bastardy orders. It covers the period from 1816 to 1839. Essentially, every parish during the time was responsible for caring for poor residents. A major source of poverty was children born out of wedlock, which was commonplace in the 1800s. A bastardy order was essentially the end result of an investigation to determine the identity of the father. The objective was to compel the father to provide child maintenance so that the financial burden did not fall on the parish.
If the father could be identified by interviewing the mother, something called a recognizance would be issued compelling the father to appear before the court. If the parish was successful in identifying the father, a bastardy order would then be issued instructing the father to pay for the child’s maintenance. A typical bastardy order identifies the parish and lists the name of the mother, the name of the man charged with being the father, the amount of money ordered by the court to the father to help pay for the child’s upkeep and the itemized cost incurred by the parish to bring up the child.
Ancestry.co.uk has also created a special page listing all the many types of records it holds for Warwickshire. In addition to the bastardy orders, there is a Warwickshire Land Tax database (1773 to 1830), burial slips from Warwick Cemetery (1859 to 1968) and Militia records (1776 to 1825). Access is by subscription. [Warwickshire Bastardy Orders]
Sweden – FamilySearch.org has cross-linked its collection of Swedish church records to the Swedish National Archives. These are primarily birth, marriage and death records as well as some confirmation lists and lists of residents who have moved in and out of a region. Some of the records date back to the 1500s. If you are looking for these records, it is usually best to go directly to the web portal of the Swedish National Archives because it is more complete. It also has better search capability. Access is by subscription and it requires the downloading of the DjVu plug-in in order to view the images. [Swedish Genealogy Records]
UK - Ancestry.co.uk released the Dorset Electoral Registers 1839 to 1922. This collection comprises some 2 million names. Please read the article Searching Electoral Rolls for Ancestors to get the most out of this collection. Access is by subscription. [Dorset Electoral Rolls]
Scotland - Ancestry.co.uk continues to add to its online electoral roll collection for Fife. Known as the Fife Voters List, it spans the period from 1832 to 1894. One nice thing about this collection is that it also lists the occupation of the voters. We suggest you read Searching Electoral Rolls for Ancestors to understand how electoral rolls work. Access is by subscription. [Fife Electoral Rolls]
US – A major new genealogy website has just quietly and unofficially been launched. It is from the Scottish genealogy company brightsolid. It clearly shows the company has moved into the US genealogy market in a big way. The company has yet to make an official announcement, but the website is called CensusRecords.com As the name implies, this website is all about US census records.
At the moment, transcripts of all the US censuses from 1790 to 1930 are already available for viewing except 1860, 1870, 1890 and 1920 which the website says will be available soon. There are no census images available on launch, but these are also expected to be ‘coming soon’. Transcripts for the 1790 to 1840 censuses are free once you register. The rest of the census records can be viewed by pay-per-view or by subscription. [US Census Records] This site will quickly become popular with genealogists.
A bit of background on the company: People researching their ancestors in the UK will be familiar with brightsolid. They run the popular genealogy website FindMyPast.co.uk (ranked #13 on the global list of the Top 100 Most Popular Genealogy Websites). The company also runs ScotlandsPeople (in concert with the Scottish government, ranked #75 in the Top 100), 1911 census, findmypast.com.au and most recently findmypast.ie (ranked #91 of the Top 100). Brightsolid also formed a partnership with the British Library for the recently released website British Newspaper Archive, which already ranks #43 on the Top 100 list. Thus, brightsolid already has several popular genealogy websites and this new US website adds to their collection.
It is interesting that brightsolid has not made any announcement about this new website. GenealogyInTime Magazine picked it up through the automatic scripts that we use to monitor the internet. Brightsolid is one of the sponsors of RootsTech being held 2-4 February 2012 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Perhaps an announcement will be made at the conference, so consider this a special sneak peek.
Australia – Ancestry.com.au has added two new convict collections. The first called NSW Convict Indents (1788 to 1842) lists all convicts transported to New South Wales. A typical record gives the name, date and location of trial and the sentence. Later records in the collection also list occupation, physical description and to whom the convict was assigned. The second collection is called NSW Colonial Secretary’s Papers (1788 to 1856). It provides government records of day-to-day life in early Australia. This collection includes letters and complaints received by the government, marriage permission requests, character references for potential settlers, pardons, applications for sentence mitigation, grant applications, office appointments, etc. Access is by subscription. [Historic Australian Convict Records]
Scotland – The Scottish government’s genealogy website ScotlandsPeople has now made available online for viewing records of 1911 births, 1936 marriages and 1961 deaths. These records are being released now in early 2012 because the statutory limits have been reached for withholding these records (100 years for births, 75 years for marriages and 50 years for deaths). Access is by pay-per-view. [ScotslandsPeople]
US – American Ancestors (the website of the New England Genealogical Society) has put online volumes 1 through 49 of the Virginia Genealogist. This is essentially a database of Virginia genealogical records that was first published in book format. The database contains approximately 483,000 records. It includes such things as compiled genealogies, property tax lists, deeds, court orders, wills, marriage records and other records from various county sources. Also included are transcripts of bible abstracts, church records, military records and mercantile lists. Access to this database is by membership (anyone can join). [Virginia Genealogist]
US – Arlington National Cemetery has been plagued over the last couple of years by reports of mislabelled graves, misplaced remains and general mismanagement. Now it is reported that the number of people buried at the United States’ national cemetery has been significantly underreported. It is now estimated that 400,000 people are interred at Arlington National Cemetery, about 20% more than the previously stated number of 330,000 people.
Examples of underreporting include situations where the husband and wife are buried in the same plot but only the husband’s name is on the tombstone and multiple soldiers buried together but not all of them were identified. There are also reports of multiple errors in the spelling of names and discrepancies between records and tombstones on the dates of birth and death. The exact number of people buried within the 150-year old cemetery will not be known until the summer of 2012 when the full survey is completed. But it is known that thousands of markers in the cemetery will need to be replaced or changed. [Arlington National Cemetery]
US – Ancestry.com has put online a collection of 7.5 million ancestral records from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The collection spans the years 1593 to 1908. The highlights of the collection are birth, church and town records from 1593 to 1708 that have been sourced from churches, funeral homes, cemeteries, newspapers and historical societies. There is also a naturalization database (1794 to 1908) that includes petitions for citizenship, certificates of citizenship, court naturalization lists, and country of origination lists. This is a significant collection for anyone with Pennsylvanian ancestors. You can learn more by watching the video below from Ancestry. Access is by subscription. [Pennsylvania Ancestral Records]
Scotland – FindMyPast has put the 1881 Scottish census online. FindMyPast had previously published on their website the 1841 to 1871 Scottish censuses. The 1881 census lists over 3.7 million people. These records can be searched by name, occupation, place of birth, place of residence, country of origin and county. Access is by subscription. [1881 Scottish Census]
January 2012
UK – The National Archives is launching a new online catalogue at the end of January. Called Discovery, it will make it easier for people to search the online collections. Discovery will run in parallel with the old search catalogue until 31 March, at which time the old search methodology will be permanently disabled. There is a fee to access most of the extensive collections of the National Archives, which currently number over 11 million records. [National Archives Discovery]
UK – FindMyPast has put online more London Docklands baptism records bringing the entire collection to some 535,000 records. Access is by subscription. [London Docklands Baptism Records]
Ireland – Genealogybank has announced that one of their US newspapers called Irish American has a considerable number of announcements regarding Irish marriage and death notices. The newspaper announcements date mainly from 1849 to 1914. Irish American was a New York City newspaper that catered to recent Irish immigrants. Although this newspaper did not capture every marriage and death in Ireland, it apparently did capture an extensive number of them. This lead might be worth following up if you are having trouble finding a marriage or death certificate of an Irish ancestor from 1849 to 1914. Access is by subscription. [Historic Irish Marriage and Death Newspaper Announcements]
US – GenealogyBank has announced that their collection of historic North Carolina newspapers now numbers more than 100 in total. Many of the newspapers in the collection are recent, although some newspapers go back as far as 1787, with most of the historic newspapers starting in the early 1800s. Access is by subscription. [Historic North Carolina Newspapers]
Canada – Library and Archives Canada has made a major update to its Upper Canada Land Petitions database, which covers the years 1763 to 1865. More than 5,000 new records have been added as well as some 358,000 images. In total, some 82,000 people are listed in the database. Access is free. [Upper Canada Land Petitions]
US – Fold3 has added a significant new collection of Revolutionary war documents know as Numbered Record Books. These include orderly books, oaths of allegiances, lists of men and officers in state regiments, quartermaster accounts, correspondence, and supply records. The orderly books are particularly interesting because they include rosters, instructions for troop movements, promotions, reprimands, findings of court martial cases and camp regulations. Most of the numbered record books date from 1775 to 1783. The books are indexed and searchable. This is quite a collection. Access is by subscription. [US Revolutionary War Record Books]
Scotland – DeceasedOnline is adding headstone images and tombstone inscription transcriptions for a variety of Scottish cemeteries. The first batch from 15 Scottish Highland cemeteries has already gone online. These records go back as far as 1600. More headstone images and transcriptions are expected to go online over the next couple of weeks from other parts of Scotland. Access is by pay-per-view. [Scottish Highland Headstone Images]
UK – FamilySearch has begun indexing their collection of Norfolk parish records, which were previously available only as images. Some 200,000 records have already been indexed out of a collection of some 300,000 images and cover the period 1538 to 1900. Access is free. [Norfolk Parish Records] Alternatively, FreeREG has already indexed a couple of million Norfolk parish records. Access is also free. [More Norfolk Parish Records]
US – Archives.com has added over 900,000 Texas and North Dakota cemetery and vital records. Access is by subscription. [Texas Cemetery Records]
US – The Martin Luther King digital archive has opened online. It contains over 200,000 personal documents belonging to and related to Martin Luther King Jr. Included in the collection are letters, speeches, telegrams, notes and other items of interest. Access is free. [Martin Luther King Archive]
Canada – The British Columbia Archives has put together an excellent web page identifying how and where to track down vital records related to births, marriages and deaths in the province. If you are tracing ancestors in B.C., this is the place to start. [Tracing B.C. Ancestors]
Australia – FamilySearch.org has added a new collection of some 1.1 million images of Queensland cemetery records. The images date from 1802 to 1990 and are organized by the name of the cemetery. A typical cemetery record lists the name of the individual, date of death and age. Access is free. [Queensland Cemetery Records]
UK – Ancestry.co.uk has added electoral rolls for the city of London. They cover the period from 1835 to 1965. Electoral rolls are one of the most powerful ways to trace an ancestor, and yet they are often overlooked by genealogists. Unlike a census, which occurs every 10 years, an electoral roll was generally produced every year in England. Thus, it is much easier to trace the movements of an ancestor with an electoral roll than it is with a census, especially in a city such as London where people tended to move more frequently than in the country.
We talked extensively about electoral rolls in our article A Date Guide to English Genealogy. There are many nuances to electoral rolls, such as the fact that not all men over the age of 21 will be listed in them. As well, women in England did not receive the right to vote until 1928 and thus will generally not appear in electoral rolls before that date. We suggest you review the details of English electoral rolls before plunging into this new collection from Ancestry. Access is by subscription. [Historic London Electoral Rolls]
Austria – FamilySearch.org has added an additional 1.4 million Austrian Seigniorial images to its existing collection, bringing the total collection to some 3.2 million images. These records cover a wide time period from 1537 to 1888 and include such items as birth, marriage, death, testaments and real property records. The feudal land records are particularly interesting because they list the names of the owners, description and location of the property, dates and tax payments. Access is free. [Austrian Seigniorial Records]
Gibraltar – The Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain (JGGB) has added a collection of genealogical records from the Rock of Gibraltar. The records are being hosted by JewishGen. The first batch of some 6,500 records covers births from 1808 to 1894, marriages from 1810 to 1883 and deaths from 1829 to 1931. Many more records are expected to be added over time as they are transcribed. Gibraltar’s Jewish community is unique and is composed primarily of Sephardi Jews of Spanish, Portuguese and North African ancestry. Access is free. [Gibraltar Jewish Genealogy Records]
Canada – FamilySearch.org has created a new image collection of probate estate files from Saskatchewan. The collection spans the years 1887 to 1931 and totals some 1.6 million images. These estate files are loose papers that relate to the settlement of estates and list such matters as provisions for heirs and distribution of funds, land and property. This collection was indexed in partnership with the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society. This collection can be searched by name. Access is free [Saskatchewan Historic Probate Records]
Historic Saskatchewan probate record (from FamilySearch.org)
Sweden – FamilySearch.org has added over 4 million new church records from various regions of Sweden. The records generally date from the late 1500s up to 1935. Access is free. [Swedish Church Records]
Ireland – Ireland’s military archives have gone online for the first time on a new website called Military Archives. The website was launched in conjunction with the National Archives of Ireland. It will be the “place of deposit” for the records of the Irish Department of Defence, the Defence Forces and the Army Pensions Board. The website is planning a phased release of military records. Already online is a collection of maps, plans and drawings of military installations throughout the island of Ireland. Next up will be the Bureau of Military History Collection, which covers the period 1913 to 1921. This collection is expected to be online by March. It is composed of 36,000 pages of witness statements, photographs, letters, legal documents, etc. from the period. Access is free. [Irish Military Archives]
US – The Troy Irish Genealogy Society has added over 5,100 interment records from St. Mary’s Cemetery of Troy, New York. Each record shows the last known city of residence, interment date and section/lot number. The records can be searched by name. St. Mary’s cemetery covered the general population in the area and burials were not restricted to people of Irish origin. The Troy Irish Genealogy Society also has a great variety of other genealogy records from the region of Troy, New York. Access is free. [Troy, New York Burial Records]
US – FamilySearch.org has added a California marriage index composed of some 4.9 million names and covering the period from 1960 to 1985. The index was provided by Ancestry.com and lists the following information: name of bride and groom, bride’s parents, groom’s parents, ages of bride and groom and the marriage date and place. This collection can be searched by name. Access is free. [California Marriage Records]
Ireland – FindMyPast Ireland has put online the Clonfert diocese collection of wills, administrations and marriage records. It covers the period from 1663 to 1857 for 38 civil parishes in the east of County Galway, parts of County Roscommon and a bit of County Offaly. The original bonds were destroyed in the Public Record Office fire in 1922; all that survives is this index. The wills index lists the name and address of the deceased and the year in which the administration was granted. The marriage license bonds list the name of the intended bride and bridegroom and the year of the bond. Access is by subscription. [Clonfert Wills and Administrations]
US – The Scranton Public Library in Scranton, Pennsylvania has created a new website called the Lackawanna Valley Digital Archives that will serve as the archive for the area’s past. The collection contains letters, books, paintings, city directories, photographs and other artefacts that can be viewed online from 1850 to 1865, which was the key industrialization period for the area. More content is expected to be added in the future. Access is free. [Lackawanna Valley Digital Archives]
US – FamilySearch.org has added a variety of death indexes from various states: Connecticut (1.4 million records - 1949 to 2001); Indiana (800,000 records – 1882 to 1920); Massachusetts (2 million records – 1970 to 2003); Michigan (2 million records – 1971 to 1996); Minnesota (2.9 million records – 1908 to 2002); Montana (660,000 records – 1860 to 2007); Oregon (1.5 million records – 1903 to 1998) and Wisconsin (1.6 million records – 1959 to 1997). Access is free. [US Death Indexes]
US – FamilySearch.org has added 17.1 million Texas birth records from 1903 to 1997. Each record lists the child’s name, date and place of birth and the parent’s name. Access is free. [Texas Birth Records]
Italy – FamilySearch.org has added some 6.2 million civil registration images from various regions of Italy. These are primarily birth, marriage and death records. The regions are Bologna (1866 to 1941), Catania (1820 to 1941), Cuneo (1795 to 1915), Genova (1866 to 1941), Napoli (1809 to 1865), Pistoia (1866 to 1929), Ravenna (1866 to 1929), Trieste (1924 to 1939). Access is free. [Italian Civil Registration Records]
Portugal – FamilySearch.org has added 5.3 million Catholic Church record images to its collection. These images are from various regions throughout the country. The records generally range in date from the late 1500s to the mid 1900s. Access is free. [Portugal Catholic Church Records]
December 2011
Mexico – FamilySearch has added a massive collection of about 11.1 million new images of historic civil registrations from various states in Mexico. These are primarily government-issued birth, marriage and death certificates. Most of the records are from the states of Guerrero (1833 to 1996), Hidalgo (1861 to 1967), Oaxaca (1861 to 2002), Tamaulipas (1800 to 2002), Veracruz (1821 to 1949) and Yucatan (1860 to 1926). Access is free. [Historic Mexico Birth Certificates]
Canada – Library and Archives Canada has digitized two important World War I collections: the Commonwealth War Graves Registers and the Circumstances of Death Registers. These images are not searchable by keyword, but are organized by microfilm number with each microfilm filed in name order. Therefore, searching these digitized microfilms is very similar to the experience of going to a reading room. This new online collection is definitely worth checking if you have a Canadian ancestor who died in the First World War. It will provide details on how your ancestor died (see image below). Access is free. [Canada World War I Soldier Deaths] [Canada World War I Commonwealth War Graves Register]
Record showing circumstances of death for a World War I Canadian soldier.
Russia – FamilySearch has added over half a million new images of church records from the province of Tver, which is north of Moscow. This brings the total collection to some 2.4 million images. These are records of births, baptisms, marriages, deaths and burials performed by priests in the region. The records come from the local state archives and cover the period 1722 to 1918. The baptism records are interesting because they list the address of the parents. Some of the baptism records even list the names of the grandparents. Access is free. [Tver, Russia Baptism Records]
Australia – The digitized newspaper collection of Trove has added more newspaper titles. Highlights from the latest additions are the Geraldton Guardian (1906 to 1950), the Perth Inquirer (1840 to 1901), the Traralgon (Victoria) Record (1886 to 1932) and the Central Queensland Herald (1930 to 1939). Access is free. [Historic Australian Newspapers]
US – FamilySearch has expanded the collection of vital records from Vermont. The newest additions cover the period from 1760 to 1954. The entire collection covers some 2.1 million images and it is now complete for the years 1871 to 1908. Access is free. [Historic Vermont Birth, Marriage, Death Records]
UK – The Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain has integrated their databases onto the JewishGen system to form one integrated database with JewishGen. The combined database lists more than 220,000 records of individuals from the United Kingdom as well as the Republic of Ireland. Included are various types of records such as birth, marriage, burials, census, trader lists, etc. Access is free. [Historic Jewish UK Genealogy Records]
UK - Ancestry.co.uk has put online a collection of freeman admission papers for the city of London. The records in this collection date from 1681 to 1925. These are basically applications for freeman admission. A freeman was essentially a craftsman in the city who often belonged to one of the city guilds or trade associations. Guilds were often organized around specific trades, such as candle makers, tinsmiths, etc. London had 89 guilds in the 1700s. To apply for freeman status, a craftsman had to go through an apprenticeship program that often involved indentured servitude. Many of the papers in this collection are details on various indenture agreements (males were often indentured in their teens by their family). A typical indenture agreement lists the name of the individual, date of indenture, parent or guardian's name, county of residence and the master's name. Access to this collection is by subscription. [London Freeman Admission Papers]
US – Ancestry.com has released 2 million World War II draft cards from the state of North Carolina. These were completed by men living in North Carolina in the early 1940s and who were born between 1897 and 1929. Information on a typical draft card included name, address, age, place of birth, employer’s name and physical measurements. Access is by subscription. [North Carolina World War II Draft Cards]
Guatemala – The University of Texas has put online 13 million pages from the Guatemalan national police archive. These documents date from 1882 to 1997, but primarily cover the counterinsurgency war in the country that occurred from 1960 to 1996. The 36-year conflict left an estimated 250,000 dead. The online police records include arrest warrants, surveillance reports, identification documents, interrogation records, photographs of detainees and fingerprint files as well as more routine police records such as traffic tickets, driver’s license applications and police personnel files. There are records on hundreds of thousands of people. Access is free. [Guatemala National Police Archive]
Canada – FamilySearch has added an additional 88,000 images to its collection of New Brunswick county deed registry books. This collection now totals some 800,000 images and spans the years 1780 to 1941. The deeds are organized by county and each county has an index book that is organized alphabetically by date range. Access is free. [Historic New Brunswick Land Deeds]
Germany – FamilySearch has created a new collection of miscellaneous city records from Nördlingen, Bavaria. This includes such records as census records, church records, citizenship rolls, city directories, emigration records, funeral sermons, school records and wills. The collection composes some 26,000 images and dates as far back as 1400 to 1943. Access is free. [Bavarian Genealogy Records]
Italy – FamilySearch has added two major civil registration image collections from Italy: one is from Catanzaro and the other is from Napoli. Both collections come from the state archives and combined the two collections comprise some 3 million images. Both collections cover the time period from 1809 to 1865. The types of records found in this collection are the standard birth, marriage and death records. In addition, these two collections also contain marriage banns (publicazioni notificazioni), baptismal records, ecclesiastical returns of marriages, marriage memorandums and records of marriages and deaths outside of the usual residence. Access is free. [Napoli Civil Registration Records] [Catanzaro Civil Registration Records]
Ireland – Glasnevin Trust has been honoured by the Council of Irish Genealogical Organizations for putting online 1.5 million burial records dating from 1828 to the present day. The records include Ireland’s largest cemetery, Glasnevin (officially known as Prospect Cemetery) plus four other cemeteries (Dardistown, Goldenbridge, Newlands Cross and Palmerston) and two crematoria (Glasnevin and Newlands Cross). The records also include scanned images of the burial registers themselves. Access is by pay-per-record with a free preview. [Glasnevin Burial Records]
Mexico – FamilySearch has added a massive 14.1 million image collection of civil registrations from Guanajuato, Mexico. The collection spans the years 1862 to 1939 and consists of birth, marriage and death records. Access is free. [Guanajuato, Mexico Birth Records]
US – FamilySearch has created a new collection of passenger lists for the Port of Los Angeles. These records date from June 1907 to June 1948. A typical record lists name, place of birth, age, gender, occupation, nationality, date and port of entry, name of ship, last permanent residence, final destination, and the name and address of a relative or friend in the United States. There are approximately 120,000 images in this collection. Access is free. [Port of Los Angeles Passenger Lists]
UK – The British Newspaper Archive has come out of beta and is now live. This is a collection of some 65 million articles appearing in various British newspapers going back over 300 years. See our previous review of this site below. This is a major new genealogy website for anyone with British ancestors and something that everyone should check out. It is free to search, although access to the actual newspaper article requires a subscription. One nice thing about this site is that you can buy a two-day subscription if that is all you require. [British Newspaper Archive]
US – FamilySearch has created a major new index collection of Texas death records. The collection spans some 7.25 million records and covers the years 1903 to 2000. This is a major new collection for anyone with Texas ancestors. Access is free. [Texas Death Records]
November 2011
Austria – FamilySearch has put online a collection of some 238,000 images of military records of soldiers and officers born within the state of Carinthia. The records span the years 1865 to 1892 and include the soldier’s name, date of birth, date of enlistment and military service. These records are written in German. Although the collection has not yet been fully indexed, it is listed in alphabetical order by year and surname, making it relatively easy to search. Access is free. [Historic Carinthian Military Records]
El Salvador – FamilySearch has added a large collection of some 590,000 Catholic parish records covering the years 1655 to 1977. This includes baptisms, marriages and burials. The records are all written in Spanish. The baptism records are generally fairly complete and list the name of the child, place and date of baptism, place of birth, age or date of birth, name of parents, name of godparents and name of witnesses. Access is free. [El Salvador Baptism Records]
UK – Isle of Man parish records have now gone online thanks to FamilySearch. These records contain baptism, marriages and deaths and span the years 1598 to 1950. The records come from the Manx Heritage Museum. This is a great collection to trace your family if you happen to have ancestors from the Isle of Man (see image below). Access is free. [Isle of Man Parish Records]
Isle of Man burial record. Notice the notation in the margin.
New Zealand – FamilySearch has significantly increased their New Zealand probate record collection. These are digital records from local courts throughout New Zealand for the period 1878 to 1960. The collection now covers some 143,000 images. This collection comes from the Archives of New Zealand website, which you can search to find the probate file number associated with a name. You then use this probate file number to find the appropriate images in the FamilySearch collection. Access is free. [New Zealand Probate Records]
Slovakia – FamilySearch has almost doubled the number of scanned images it holds in its Slovakia church and synagogue collection. The collection now totals more than 1.3 million images. These are images of baptisms/births, marriages and burials from various Roman Catholic, Evangelical Lutheran, Reformed Church parishes and Jewish synagogues. The images cover a broad range of dates from 1592 (the beginning of church records in Slovakia) to 1910.
In Slovakia, most of the Roman Catholic registers started in the early 1700s, while Protestant church registers usually began in the late 1600s. A law in 1868 allowed different religious groups to use their preferred language in church records, so later records tend to be in many languages. Most of the early church records are in Latin, Hungarian or Slovak. Early Jewish records tend to be in German, Hebrew, Latin or Hungarian. Access is free. [Slovakia Parish Records]
US – FamilySearch has added some 424,000 new birth certificates for the state of Texas. The records span the years 1903 to 1934. The entire collection now totals some 1 million records. The nice thing about Texas birth certificates is they usually list the birth place of the parents (see image below). Access is free. [Texas Birth Certificates]
Texas birth certificate showing the birthplace of the parents.
UK – The beta version of the British Newspaper Archive website has just launched. This is the website that archives the newspaper collection from the British Library. Although still in beta, the website already contains an impressive 1.6 million pages of information. The archive can be searched by keyword, date, region or newspaper title. In addition to searching for the normal genealogical information such as birth, marriage, death announcements, you can also search for all sorts of background information such as weather forecasts (to find out if your ancestors were married on a sunny day), photographs, shipping notices, shipping schedules, etc.
We should note that GenealogyInTime magazine is a beta tester for this website, so we have access to it. It is not clear how broadly others can access it. Our impression of the website is that even in beta, it is one of the best online newspaper sites we have ever seen. The website is clear, concise, well organized and has very powerful search functionality. When this website fully launches, it will be a pay-per-view website. [Beta Version of British Newspaper Archive]
Canada – The University of British Columbia has put online a collection of historic small-town newspapers from across the province. The newspapers range from the Abbotsford Post to the Nelson Tribune and date from 1865 to 1924. This covers the early days of the province when the economy was primarily driven by mining, forestry and fishing. In total, some 24 newspapers spanning 45,000 pages are in the collection. The publications are fully text searchable and are free to access. Users can search by key word, date and newspaper title.
This collection is well set up for genealogists tracing their ancestors. Individual pages from the collection can be downloaded as jpg files and complete newspapers can be downloaded in pdf format. Most of these digitized newspapers come from the extensive newspaper collection held by the BC Archives. It is expected that more titles will be added in the future. [BC Newspaper Archive]
Abbotsford Post Newspaper 11 November 1910
UK – Ancestry.co.uk has added three more Royal Navy Lists to their collection. The new lists are for October 1908, April 1914 and November 1914. These lists include both commissioned and warrant officers and provide details such as name, rank, seniority, medals and other service details. The navy lists are also organized by occupation (gunner, surgeon, carpenter, etc.). As an added bonus, the navy lists also list pensioners and retired officers, making it a good source to check if your ancestor served in the navy in the late 1800s. Access is by subscription. [Royal Navy Lists]
Commonwealth - Ancestry.co.uk has published details on the 880,000 soldiers who received Silver War Badges (SWB) in World War I. These were small, circular badges made of silver, with the king’s initials, a crown and the inscription ‘For King and Empire’ and ‘Services Rendered’ (see image below). They were granted to soldiers who had been honourably discharged from the war due to wounds or illness.
World War I Silver War Badge
The SWB was intended to be worn with civilian cloths (it was forbidden to be worn on a military uniform). The SWB was given to discharged soldiers to prevent them being accosted by women with white feathers (a symbol of cowardice), which were presented to able-bodied men on the home front who were not wearing a uniform. This collection includes SWBs given to soldiers across the Commonwealth. A typical record lists name, rank, regiment number, unit, date of enlistment, date of discharge and reason for discharge. Many service records from World War I were lost. If you suspect this may have happened with your ancestor, then you should check this collection. Sometimes, the SWB record is the only record of military service that survived the Great War. Access is by subscription. [Silver War Badge Service Records]
UK – FindMyPast has published a Cheshire collection. This collection of some 10 million records span the years from 1538 to 1910 and consist of several different record sets. Included are electoral registers (1842 to 1900), parish registers (1538 to 1905), nonconformist records (1671 to 1910) and workhouse registers (1781 to 1910), plus some marriage bonds and allegations (1663 to 1905). FindMyPast is planning to add wills and probate and land tax records to the collection in the future. Most of the records come from the Cheshire Archives. Access is by subscription. [Cheshire Genealogy Records]
Australia – Trove has continued to expand its digital newspaper collection. A total of 13 new newspaper titles have been added for Victoria. Most of the newspapers are from the 1880 to 1900 era. Trove is a definite go-to site for anyone researching their Australian ancestors. Access is free. [Historic Victoria Newspapers] Trove is also one of the many sites that can be searched as part of the free genealogy search engine.
UK – The National Archives has put online service records for (mainly) women who served as nurses during World War I. The collection of 15,000 records spans the years 1902 to 1922 and contains an unusual amount of employment detail. A typical service record lists the date and place of birth; training received prior to and during the war; reference checks; units the nurses served in (hospital, field ambulances, casualty clearing stations and other medical units) and evaluations of their performance. The records can be searched by first and last name. Access is by pay-per-record. [World War I Nurse Service Records]
UK – This seems to be the week for military nurses service records. FindMyPast.co.uk has put online a collection of 4,000 service records of military nurses. The collection consists of records from World War II for nurses who served with the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service, the Queen Alexandra’s Reserves or the Territorial Army Nursing Service; Scottish Women’s Hospital records for nurses who served in continental Europe during World War I and miscellaneous other nursing records, some going back as far as 1856. Access is by pay-per-view [Historic UK Military Nurses Service Records]
Canada – Library and Archives Canada has launched a new database called Royal Canadian Navy Ledger Sheets. It provides access to records of individuals who served in the Canadian Navy from 1910 (when it was formed) to 1918. In total, about 16,800 people are listed. The database also has a list of those who enlisted between 1919 and 1941. A typical record lists the full name of the individual, service number, date and place of birth, occupation prior to joining the navy and a record reference number. The records can be searched by name or service number. The system supports wildcard searches. Access is free. [Canada World War I Navy Service Records]
US – The Daily Iowan newspaper has launched an online archive of the newspaper. The archive goes back as far as 1868 and is complete with the exception of two brief periods (fall of 1918 and summer of 1984). Included in the archive are the Daily Iowan’s predecessor newspapers, such as the University Reporter (1868 to 1881), the Vidette (1879 to 1881), the Vidette Reporter (1881 to 1901) and the University Mirror (1881). The archive is housed under the University of Iowa library system. In total, the collection consists of some 750,000 scanned images. The collection is full text searchable. Access is free. [Historic Iowa Newspaper Archive]
Europe – The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Ancestry.com through the World Memory Project have put online a collection of information on 30,000 individuals who were victims of Nazi persecution. Included is information on displaced Jewish orphans, Czech Jews deported to the Terezin concentration camp or concentration camps in Poland plus details on French victims of Nazi persecution. This is the first searchable online collection from the World Memory Project, which was launched in May 2011. Access is free. [World Memory Project]
UK – The Royal Society has put online their historical journal archive. The archive consists of some 60,000 historical scientific papers dating back as far as 1665. This is a fun collection to browse through even if you have no ancestors who were scientists. Included in this collection is Benjamin Franklin’s famous paper on his electrical experiments with kites (see image below), geological papers written by Charles Darwin plus Sir Isaac Newton’s first published scientific paper. The archive can be searched by author, title of the paper and time period. Access is free. [Royal Society Historical Scientific Papers]
Scotland – The government website ScotlandsPeople has put online a series of index books that lists all the streets for all the Scottish censuses from 1841 to 1911. This is a useful guide that lists streets alphabetically and allows you to determine the registration district and enumeration book for any street address. This function appears to be free. [Index of Scottish Street Addresses from Historic Censuses]
October 2011
Canada – Olive Tree Genealogy has reconstructed and put online the names of Poor Law immigrants who sailed to Canada between 1836 and 1871. Poor Law immigrants were poor people from workhouses in the UK. In 1833, the British government passed legislation that allowed these people to emigrate to Britain’s colonies (primarily Canada, Australia and New Zealand) under certain conditions. The ideal candidate was either a farm laborer or a domestic servant. The new Olive Tree collection lists immigrants on 23 ships who came to Canada under the program. Olive Tree Genealogy is a neat website run by Lorine McGinnis Schulze and it is well worth checking out for anyone tracing their Canadian ancestry. Access is free. [Poor Law Immigrants to Canada]
US – Ancestry has added more than 50 million new birth, marriage and death records to its US vital records collection, which now numbers close to 500 million records in total. The new records come from 23 different states. Some of the highlights include Connecticut deaths and burials (1650 to 1934), Maryland births and christenings (1622 to 1911), New Hampshire death and burials (1654 to 1949), New Hampshire marriages (1637 to 1947) and New Jersey births and christenings (1660 to 1931). Access is by subscription. [US Vital Records]
Canada – Google Map Maker is now available in Canada. Although not a genealogy record set per se, it is an excellent tool for tracking genealogy locations such as cemeteries, churches, etc. Google Map Maker is now available in both the United States and Canada (but not yet available in the UK, Ireland, Australia or New Zealand – see the complete listing of availability by country). If you are not familiar with Google Map Maker, watch the video below to get started.
US – The Tennessee State Library and Archives has come to an agreement with Ancestry.com to put online records held by the archive. The first batch to go online will be 1.2 million death records from 1908 to 1959. Access will be by subscription. No date has been set as to when these new records will be available on Ancestry, although the Ancestry website already contains some Tennessee death records. Alternatively, these records are already available free on the Tennessee Electronic website (click on the Genealogy link). [Free Tennessee Death Records] Note: you need to be a Tennessee resident to access this free database (or be prepared to provide a Tennessee zip code and telephone number). FamilySearch also has some Tennessee death records, which are available here.
Wales – Ancestry.co.uk has the complete 1911 census online. Until now, however, it had only scanned images of the census. This has now changed. Ancestry has completed transcribing the 1911 census records for Wales, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands (some 3 million records in total). These records are now completely searchable. Alternatively, FindMyPast has already fully indexed the entire 1911 census for England. [Wales 1911 Census Records]
Scotland – FamilyRelatives has added over 80 volumes of Scottish trade directories to their website. These include Pigot’s Directory Scotland 1825-1826 for all counties and Pigot’s Directory Scotland 1837 for all counties as well as Scotland County Directory 1902 and 1912. FamilyRelatives now has a fairly extensive collection of historic trade directories for the country. This is a good site to search if you are looking for the usual collection of birth, marriage, death records plus other interesting records such as army records, land records, school records, trade directories and post office directories. Many of the record sets go back well into the 1800s if not earlier. Access is by subscription, although some records are free to view. [Historic Scottish Trade Directories]
US – The Alabama Genealogical Society continues to add to its probate court record collection. Thanks to the efforts of Caroline Horton, another 1000 names from probate records have been added to the Loose Records Collection, which now can be searched for over 57,000 names. Access is free. [Historic Alabama Probate Records]
Czech Republic – FamilySearch has added over 220,000 land records from the Czech Republic spanning the period 1450 to 1850. These browsable images are full of genealogical detail and generally predate most Czech parish registers, making them particularly valuable. The total collection now has about 444,000 images. Access is free. [Historic Czech Land Records]
US – GenealogyBank has just added another 134 million newspaper articles to its collection to bring their total record collection to over 1 billion. In total, the collection spans more than 5,700 newspapers in all 50 states, including a rare collection of African American and Hispanic American newspapers from 1827 to 1999. Access is by subscription. [GenealogyBank]
Guam – FamilySearch has created a new collection of land records from the territory of Guam in the western Pacific Ocean. Guam is one of five territories controlled by the United States. It played a major role in the battle of the Pacific during World War II. This new collection consists of 289,000 browsable images dating from 1898 to 1964. Access is free. [Historic Guam Land Records]
Ireland – FindMyPast.ie has put online an interesting collection of Irish prison records. Specifically, these are the Irish Prison Registers covering the period 1790 to 1924. The collection spans some 2.7 million records on 3.5 million people. This is the first time this record set has gone online and it should be particularly valuable for anyone tracing their Irish ancestors. The population of Ireland was about 4 million during this time period. Thus, you have a pretty good chance of finding at least one ancestor in this collection.
The odds are further increased by the fact that in Ireland, the number one cause for incarceration was drunkenness, which tends to bridge across families and different socio-economic groups. According to FindMyPast, drunkeness and tax avoidance occurred at three times the rate in Ireland than in Britain and Scotland at that time. As well, some records list the victim as well as the perpetrator, making the record set even more valuable. The breakdown by offense was drunkenness 25%, theft 16%, assault 12%, vagrancy 8% and rioting 4%. Other common offenses were prostitution, obscene language, begging, trespass and workhouse offenses.
Prison record sets generally provide much more detail than most other sources of genealogical information and this record set is no different. A typical record in this collection lists name, address, place of birth, occupation, religion, education, age, physical description and name and address of next of kin as well as details on the crime committed, sentence, date of committal and date of release. This is also a good record source to search if you are in Australia as many Irish convicted of petty crimes were transported from private prisons in Ireland directly to Australia in the 1800s. Access is by subscription. [Historic Irish Prison Registers]
UK – GenesReunited has added a massive collection of 35 million UK parish records to their collection. Some of the records go back as far as 1538. The records are divided as follows: baptism records (12 million); marriage records (15 million) and burial records (8 million). The new collection also includes Boyd’s Marriage Index (1538 to 1840) and Boyd’s First Miscellaneous Series (1538-1775). Access is by subscription. [Historic UK Parish Records]
UK – Ancestry.co.uk has released 3.9 million new parish records from Warwickshire and Dorset. These include baptisms, banns (essentially marriage announcements), marriages, deaths and burials. The records cover a wide time period, although most of the Warwickshire records appear to be from about 1813 to 1910, with some records going back as far as 1502. The Dorset records generally run from about 1820 to the 1850s, with some earlier and later records in the collection. The new Dorset collection also includes bastardy records and Poor Law records in addition to parish records. If you need help sorting out these different record types, A Date Guide to English Genealogy provides a good base to help you research your English ancestors. Access is by subscription. [Warwickshire and Dorset Parish Records]
Ireland – The Ireland Genealogy Project has updated its collection to include the 1845 Royal Irish Constabulary records for Derry/Londonderry, Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny, Limerick, Longford and Offaly. Most Irish families tended to stay in one location for several generations, but men who belonged to the Royal Irish Constabulary were often posted far from home. As a result, this record collection could be a valuable resource for anyone who finds their ancestors suddenly moved to another part of Ireland. Access is free. To get started, simply click on the map of the region of Ireland that you want to research. [1845 Royal Irish Constabulary Records]
UK – FindMyPast has put online an interesting collection of about 10,000 records of allied soldiers from the Second World War who escaped or attempted to escape from prisoner of war camps in central Europe. The records give the name, rank, number, corps and reference to the original file at the National Archives. Most records also contain additional detail such as the camp the soldier was held at, date of capture, date of escape and a list of your ancestor’s decorations. Access is by subscription. [World War II Prisoner of War Records]
UK – TheGenealogist.co.uk has added 3.4 million more 1911 census records covering the regions of Wales, Kent, Isle of Man, Hertfordshire and Huntingdonshire. Included with the new additions are high-resolution colour images of the records. This brings the total number of 1911 census records available to nearly 9 million (the population of England and Wales in 1911 was about 36 million). TheGenealogist has also added a very handy tool that searches for potential married couples in the 1911 census and then links these to the marriage details found in the GRO records. Access is by subscription. [UK 1911 Census Records]
Canada – Library and Archives Canada has released a new version of their database Home Children (1869-1930). An additional 20,000 names were added to the database by extracting them from various passenger lists covering the period 1925 to 1932. A typical record lists the name and age of the child, ship, date of departure, date of arrival. The sending agency is also often listed, which is helpful in trying to determine which region of England the children comes from.
Home children were alleged orphans that were sent to Canada from Britain by various British child care organizations. The program was highly controversial. Most children were between the age of 8 and 18, although some were as young as 3. Younger children were adopted. Older children were put to work. At the time, Canada needed farm labourers (for boys) and house servants (for girls) and England was looking to rid itself of an unwanted segment of its society. The children were essentially sold and organizations and individuals in Britain profited from the transaction. An estimated 100,000 children were sent to Canada under the program. Many eventually ended up migrating to the United States once they became adults. Access is free. [Canada Home Children Immigration Records]
Ireland – Roots Ireland has added over 534,000 baptism and birth records for Waterford. This brings the total number of records on the site to over 18 million, making it the largest family records database in Ireland. [Waterford Baptism Records]
Scotland – Deceased Online has added detailed burial maps for cemeteries in the Scottish county of Angus. A number of the largest cemeteries (and several of the smaller cemeteries) now have detailed online maps that show the exact location of over 64,000 graves. Each gravesite is shown on three maps. The first map shows the grave relative to the entire cemetery. The second map highlights the grave within the extracted section of the cemetery and the third map shows the detailed location of the grave within the section. The nice thing about these maps is that it shows the grave location even if the grave does not contain a memorial stone or reference marker. These maps are very useful if you want to visit your ancestor’s gravesite. Access is by pay-per-view. [Angus Scotland Cemetery Maps]
Philippines – FamilySearch has added over 5.2 million civil registration records from the Philippines spanning the years 1945 to 1980. These are marriage and death certificates from regions other than the capital of Manila. This collection now comprises some 7 million records in total. Access is free. [Philippines Marriage and Death Certificates]
Ireland – IrishGenealogy, the Irish government’s genealogy website, has added more Roman Catholic Church records for Carlow, Cork, Dublin and Kerry. This now completes the collection for these regions (some 3 million records). These are primarily baptism, marriage and burial records. As well, the website has been spruced up. We like the scrolling bar at the bottom of the page that directs readers to other websites containing Irish genealogy records. Access is free. [Dublin Baptism Records]
US – FamilySearch has added about 281,000 images for 12,000 people related to estate files from North Carolina. These records cover the years 1663 to 1917 and are from the North Carolina Department of Archives. These are files related to the settlement of estates and include such documents as the distribution of funds, land, property and slaves upon the death of the owner. This would be a good collection to check if you have African American ancestors from North Carolina. Access is free. [Historic North Carolina Estate Files]
September 2011
Canada – Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has finished putting online all the back issues of the Canada Gazette from its inception in 1841 to 1997. Previously, about 95% of the issues had been digitized. For genealogists not familiar with the Canada Gazette, it is the official newspaper of record for the Government of Canada. All official government announcements are made in the Canada Gazette. This means it is full of lists and records that are a goldmine to genealogists. To name just a few of the types of records that are available, it includes many naturalization lists, federal divorce applications, promotion lists of senior civil servants, military promotion lists for World War I and II and landowner lists for select cities. The Canada Gazette can be searched by keyword, such as a name. Access is free. [Canada Gazette]
England – FindMyPast is launching what they call the Manchester Collection. This is a collection of records that relate to the city of Manchester and the surrounding parts of Lancashire. This includes the usual baptism and birth records (1734 to 1920), marriage records (1734 to 1808) and cemetery and death records (1750 to 1968). However, this collection also includes some other lesser-known record sets that can be very valuable to genealogists: apprentice records (1700 to 1849), school records (1870 to 1916), workhouse records (1859 to 1911), prison records (1847 to 1881) and (for truant youth) industrial school records (1866 to 1912). In total there are about 1.3 million records in this collection, with around half of the total in workhouse records and prison records.
If your ancestors were exceptionally poor or criminals and lived in the Manchester area, you are likely to find them in this collection. What makes this collection valuable is that poorhouse records and prison records are some of the most detailed records available to a genealogist. Usually, prison records give physical descriptions of the individual and both types of records often list the history of the individual. Access to this collection is by subscription. [Historic Manchester Prison Records]
If you are looking for ancestors in the Manchester region and you want to know what record sets are online, Manchester Library has an excellent page listing genealogy resources for family history in Manchester. We also suggest you read A Date Guide to English Genealogy to get a better understanding of UK poor house records and prison records.
Ireland – FindMyPast has put online baptism, marriage and death records for St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin. The records span the years 1677 to 1800. Although a small collection at around 12,000 records and composed primarily of burial records, it does list the death records of some of Dublin’s most prominent citizens. According to FindMyPast “the reason burial records far outweigh marriage and baptism records is solely down to the fact that St. Patrick’s Cathedral was situated in an unfashionable area and would not have been seen as the venue of choice for celebrations such as a christening or marriage”. Access is by subscription. [Dublin’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral Burial Records]
US - GenealogyBank has significantly expanded their US newspaper collection with the addition of 134 million articles. The GenealogyBank newspaper collection now contains over 1 billion genealogy references in US newspapers dating from 1690 to the present. The collection also includes African American and Hispanic American newspapers. Access is by subscription. [Historic US Newspapers]
Ireland – Ancestry.co.uk has launched a massive new Irish genealogy records collection. With the new additions, they now have over 45 million Irish genealogy records. Ireland is a challenging country to trace ancestors because many of the individual census records were destroyed. For most genealogists, census records are the bedrock of their search for ancestors. However, this new collection from Ancestry should seriously help the cause of anyone looking for Irish ancestors.
There are two main parts to this new collection: Irish Catholic parish records (1742 to 1884) and Irish civil birth marriage death (BMD) records (1845 to 1978). Two things to note:
• According to the 1861 Irish census, about 78% of the population was Catholic. This number had risen to 89% by the 1891 census. Thus, even if you think your ancestors were not Catholic, the Irish Catholic parish records are well worth checking along with the civil BMD registration records.
• Ireland was partitioned into Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in 1921. According to Chris Paton at the excellent new blog British Genes, the Ancestry civil registration records are incomplete for Northern Ireland after 1921.
Readers might be interested in knowing this Ancestry release has not gone over well with the Irish government. As reported in the Irish Times, the Irish National Library has questioned the release of a small portion of the Ancestry collection as possibly infringing on the library’s rights. Reading between the lines, it would appear the National Library would have liked to be the one to release its parish record collection to the public. However, it seems to lack the financial resources to transcribe and prepare the records for publication on the internet. Finally, please note this collection overlaps to a certain degree with what is already available on FamilySearch.
Overall, an excellent collection and worth checking out. Access is by subscription. Just be warned that people have been reporting on the Ancestry blog comment section that some of the parish records are mixed up. [Irish Birth Marriage Death Records]
Mexico – Ancestry.com has put online the 1930 Mexico census. This is generally considered to be the best available census for people tracing their Mexican ancestors because it had the highest participation rate – about 90% of the population participated in the census. There are 13 million records in this collection. A typical record lists name, age, gender, birthplace, address, marital status, nationality, religion, occupation, literacy, physical/mental conditions and real estate holdings. Ancestry has kindly put this collection on the internet for free, although you do have to register to view the records. [Mexico 1930 Census Records]
Ecuador – FamilySearch has added about 1.2 million browsable images of Catholic parish records from Ecuador. The images cover a broad time period from 1565 to 1996 and consist of baptism, marriage and death records. Access is free. [Historic Ecuador Baptism Records]
US – FamilySearch has added about 2.6 million browsable images of New York City ship passenger arrival lists covering the period from 1925 to 1942. A typical record lists the name of the passenger, age, birthplace, marital status, nationality, occupation, date of arrival and port of departure. Access is free. [Historic Port of New York Ship Passenger Lists]
Hungary - FamilySearch has added 6.7 million Catholic Church records from Hungary. These are primarily baptism records. The records span the years 1636 to 1895. This covers the period when Hungary was an empire (such as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which lasted from 1867 to 1918). Thus, although this record collection is labelled ‘Hungary’, it really covers the Kingdom of Hungary. Because of changing political boundaries, you should check this collection if you have ancestors from any region that borders current-day Hungary (see the map below, which shows the Hungarian empire in 1910). In particular, check this record set if you have Slovakian, Romanian or Austrian ancestors. These records are in Latin, Hungarian or German. Access is free. [Historic Hungarian Baptism Records]
Scotland – DeceasedOnline has increased their collection of Scottish burial records with the addition of 67,000 more burial and cremation records from the cities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh. The new additions cover three Aberdeen cemeteries (Nigg, Trinity and St Nicholas Kirkyard) and the Warriston Crematorium in Edinburgh (records now cover 1937 to 2009). Access is by pay-per-view. [Scottish Burial Records]
China – FamilySearch has added about 1.3 million Chinese genealogies spanning a wide time period of 1500 to 1900. This brings the total size of the collection to about 2.2 million images. These records are essentially Chinese family genealogies that have been gathered from various public and private collections. Most of the genealogies are of families with roots in China who then later migrated to other parts of Asia. Access is free. [Historic Chinese Genealogies]
Mexico – FamilySearch has added about 4 million new civil registration records from various Mexican states. Most of the records are from 1858 to as recent as 2005. These are official birth, marriage and death certificates issued by the government. Access is free. [Historic Mexico Birth Records]
Scotland – Aberdeen City Library has created a new website that will be very helpful for genealogists called The Silver City Vault. It provides links to lists for obituaries, marriages, pauper lists and newspapers. Also included are over 1,000 historic images of Aberdeen. The site is searchable by keyword. Access is free. [Historic Aberdeen Records]
US – FamilySearch has added about 1.5 million naturalization records from the state of Illinois (northern district). The records span the years 1840 to 1950. The records after 1906 are more complete and typically include the name of the petitioner, address, name of the court, country and date of birth, date and place of arrival in the United States, date of naturalization and name and address of witnesses. Access is free. [Historic Illinois Naturalization Records]
US – FamilySearch has increased their collection of World War II draft registration cards. The newest addition is about 814,000 records from the 1942 draft. This was the fourth draft the US conducted during the war and was done on April 27, 1942. It was specifically for men aged 45 to 64 at the time (born between 1877 and 1897). This is a good record set to check even if your ancestor did not fight in the Second World War as they may have been listed in this draft. Access is free. [World War II Draft Registration Records]
Ireland – The Kerry County Council has put online the burial records from 140 cemeteries in the district that the council either owns or controls (church and private cemeteries are not included in this collection). In total there are some 70,000 records in the database. The records date back as far as 1898. A typical entry lists the name, age, marital status, occupation and cause of death. At this time, it is not possible to search across the entire database by name. Name searches can only be done on individual cemeteries, meaning that you need to know the name of the cemetery where your ancestor was buried or be prepared to individually search through many different cemeteries. Access is free. [Historic Kerry Ireland Cemetery Records]
US – FamilySearch has added about 90,000 records to its collection of US pension applications for the War of 1812. A typical pension application lists the name of the solder, enlistment date, military action and discharge date as well as the address of the soldier, name of widow, date of marriage and (if applicable) date of death of the soldier. This collection can be searched by first and last name as well as place. Access is free. [US War of 1812 Pension Applications]
US – FamilySearch has posted online a variety of soldier service records from the US Civil War (1861 to 1865). By state, the records are as follows: Kentucky (over 1.5 million records, both Confederate and Union soldiers), Louisiana (779,000 records), Maryland (44,000 records), Mississippi (about 1.3 million records), Missouri (348,000 records), North Carolina (almost 2 million records) and Tennessee (about 1.1 million records). Access is free. [US Civil War Soldier Records]
US/Canada – FamilySearch has put online a browsable collection of 851,000 images of manifests of arrivals at the port of Detroit. The records span the years 1906 to 1954. The Windsor/Detroit corridor was (and still is) the main crossing point between Ontario and the United States. This would be a good collection to check if you suspect you had ancestors that migrated from Ontario to the United States during the early 1900s. This record set is particularly valuable because it predates that creation of most custom records between Canada and the US since customs posts (and thus full customs records) between the two countries were not formalized until the 1930s. Access is free. [Historic Detroit Arrival Records]
US – Indiana University has just completed digitizing 5,000 images of the Indianapolis Recorder newspaper, which covered Indianapolis’ black community for over 100 years. The online collection spans the years 1899 to 2005 (with 1917 - 1925 and parts of 1932 missing). The newspaper was originally established in 1897, meaning this is an almost complete collection. The university is searching for anyone who may have copies of the newspaper from the missing years. The digital collection can be searched by keyword. Access is free. [Historic Copies of Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper]
Australia – The Tasmanian government has created Tasmania Archives Online, a website that contains descriptive and contextual information on Tasmanian state and local government records. The website also lists private records of individuals that are in the possession of the government. Although you cannot view the content of most of the records online, this website can identify for you whether certain records do exist. For example, the website lists the various series of records for convicts arriving on certain ships. The website also contains a broad list of many other things, such as census records, various historic reference books, various historic maps etc. This is a good place to start a search for your Tasmanian ancestors. Access is free. [Historic Tasmanian Genealogy Records]
US – Archives.com announced this week they had indirectly purchased a copy of the entire US federal population census indexes (1790 to 1930) from FamilySearch. The collection consists of some 500 million records in total. The transfer was not an outright sale, but was done for a consideration of future payments of at least $5 million, which is to go towards digitizing new record sets at FamilySearch.
Archives.com bought the US census collection for a cost of about 1 cent per record. If memory serves us correctly, buried deep within the IPO documents of Ancestry (their main competitor) it said that it cost Ancestry an average of 5 cents to obtain and transcribe a record (for more details see this article). This would suggest Archives.com got a real bargain.
The deal between FamilySearch and Archives.com was probably structured this way (future consideration of new records instead of an outright sale of a copy of the existing census records) to avoid alienating FamilySearch’s volunteer base, which is considerable. Volunteers might not be happy to know their work is going to support a for-profit enterprise like Archives.com. You can read the full press release here.
UK – FindMyPast has launched a collection of UK merchant ship crew member lists. The collection covers the years from 1918 to 1941. About 1 million records are in the collection. Some of the records pertain to the same individual. Many of the records are extremely complete, with photographs and detailed physical descriptions such as height, eye colour, hair colour, distinguishing features (such as tattoos, etc.). Some records also list place of birth and address of next of kin.
One nice thing is that many of the individuals in this collection are from diverse countries. Merchant seamen tend to come from many different countries. For example, some of the ship manifests list crews that are only 30% British, with the balance coming from a variety of other places. Therefore, this is a good collection to search even if you do not have British relatives, but an ancestor that was a seaman. Of note, there are large number of seamen in this collection from the Maritime Provinces of Canada, the West Indies, Sierra Leone, Scandinavia, Somalia, China and Japan.
As far as we are aware, this is the only significant set of merchant navy seaman records available on the internet. Access is by subscription. Incidentally, FindMyPast has just permanently reduced their prices. [Historic UK Merchant Navy Seaman Records]
Wales – FindMyPast has added about 80,000 new parish records from Gwent (formerly Monmouthshire) that covers the years 1634 to 1933. Included are some workhouse baptism and burial records. Access is by subscription. [Historic Gwent parish records]
Canada – Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has put online the 1871 national census of Canada. The 1871 census was the first regularly scheduled census of the nation and was conducted under the authority of the Census Act of 1870. At the time, Canada was composed of four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia (the rest of Canada joined confederation later).
The census was taken on 2 April 1871. All members of the household were recorded in the census, even those who were temporarily absent (such as seaman, hunters, students, etc.) Another interesting thing about this census is that it recorded the names of anyone who had died in the family within the previous year. There was also a separate schedule that listed the names of all businesses and the names of the owners of the business.
You can search the database by name or given name and age. You can also search by province, district name, district number and sub-district number if you happen to know those. The records provide direct access to the original digitized images. In total, almost 3.5 million people were enumerated in this census. This is big news for anyone that has Canadian ancestors. Access is free. [Canada 1871 Census Records]
August 2011
England – FamilySearch has created a new index collection of Essex parish records. This collection includes christenings, marriage and burial records. The 538,000 records in the collection span the years 1538 to 1900. Access is free. [Historic Essex Parish Records]
Commonwealth – GenesReunited.co.uk has added about 1.3 million military records from various Commonwealth countries. The records date from the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899 to 1902) and World War I (1914 to 1918). Include are the following collections: lists of the men and women who fought during the Second Anglo-Boer war; Commonwealth soldiers who died in WWI; Royal Navy officer’s medal role (1914 to 1920) and New Zealand World War I male and female service personnel. Access is by subscription [Commonwealth World War I Military Records]
US – Ancestry.com has tripled the size of its online US schoolbook collection to a total of 35,000 yearbooks covering 155 million records. The collection covers high schools, junior highs, academies, colleges and universities. The yearbooks date from 1884 to as recent as 2009. Included in the expanded collection are 7 million images of people and events. It is very hard to get through high school without being put into a yearbook. In addition to checking out bad hairdos, you can see what your ancestor looked like and get some idea as to their academic capabilities. This would also be an excellent source to check for all those hard-to-find ancestors. [US School Yearbook Collection]
Mexico – FamilySearch has added 5.8 million browseable images of civil registration records for the states of Jalisco (1832 to 2000) and San Luis Potosi (1860 to 2000). These are birth, marriage and death records. Access is free. [Historic Jalisco Birth Records] [Historic San Luis Potosi Birth Records]
Russia – FamilySearch has managed to put online a rare collection of Russian Orthodox Church records from the province of Tver, which is just north of Moscow. The collection was acquired from the state archive and includes records of births, baptisms, marriages, deaths and burials. The records span the period 1722 to 1918 (the end of World War I). This is quite a find and will be of interest to anyone with ancestors from the region. It might even be worth checking out if you have ancestors from the Moscow region, just in case. Access is free. [Historic Tver Russia Birth Records]
Canada – FamilySearch has started an important new Canadian land deed collection. First into the collection are the New Brunswick county land deed registration books. The records span the years 1780 to 1941. Near the end of 1782 was the beginning of significant migration of United Empire Loyalists (UEL) from various American colonies into New Brunswick. Half of the refugees who settled in New Brunswick were former military men who were granted land by the crown. Thus, this collection will be valuable for anyone tracing their UEL roots. A typical record contains a legal description of the property, names of the parties involved, names of witnesses to the transaction and the date of the transaction. The collection consists of images of the deed registry books. The collection is being increased as new images become available. Access is free. [Historic New Brunswick Land Deeds]
Hungary – Genealogical records from Hungary are hard to come by. FamilySearch is helping to fill the gap with the release of some 2.3 million searchable Hungary civil registration images. This collection includes births 1895 to 1920, marriages 1895 to 1950 and deaths 1895 to 1980. Access is free. [Historic Hungarian Birth, Marriage, Death Records]
Panama – FamilySearch has added about 241,000 Catholic Church parish images (baptisms, marriages and deaths) spanning the years 1707 to 1973. Access is free. [Historic Panama Genealogy Records]
Australia – TheGenealogist.co.uk has added a major new collection of Australian convict records. Included are both male and female convicts, with details of their sentences and pardons (if any). The records primarily cover New South Wales (1788-1834) and Tasmania (1808-1849). Also included in this collection are general muster lists, the New South Wales 1828 census, and ledger returns for Tasmania (1846 and 1849). Access is by subscription. [Historic Australian Convict Records]
UK – Ancestry.co.uk has launched a new collection of UK rail employee records. This collection covers a number of British railways and spans the period 1833 to 1963. Included are pension records, accident records, station transfer records, apprenticeship records and basic employment records. The typical record contains the employee name, station, position, age or date of birth. Additional information would include such things as salary, years of service, start date at the railroad, promotions, etc. Access to this collection is by subscription. This seems like a good source to check if you had an ancestor who worked for the railway in the UK. This collection is also available through Ancestry.com and Ancestry.ca [Historic British Rail Employee Records]
Ireland – The National Centre for Geocomputation has created two new atlases that will be of interest to anyone with Irish ancestors. The first interactive atlas looks at how the Irish population has changed from 1841 to 2002 based on returns from various censuses. There is data within all 32 counties right down to the electoral division level (often less than 1,000 people). Simply chose the county and then the electoral division and you can see how the population in each small region has changed over time. Large spikes usually mean a major event (such as a potato famine) has forced a number of people from the region to migrate. This site won’t help you directly find your ancestor, but it will help provide context as to why and when your ancestor migrated. The second interactive atlas looks specifically at the period 1841 to 1851 during the time of the Irish famines. Once again, it can provide helpful context for your ancestral searches. This site can also help you determine the electoral division boundaries for the 3,400+ electoral divisions within Ireland. Access is free. [Interactive Historic Irish Population Atlases]
July 2011
Canada – Parish records from the predominantly Acadian French township of Argyle in Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia have now gone online in a project called An Acadian Parish Reborn. The parish records cover the first 11 parish registers of the Roman Catholic Church in the region during the years 1799 to 1849. Each of the roughly 4,600 records can be searched by surname in either French or English. Included are baptism records, first communions, conformations, marriages and burial records. Also included at the website is a background article on the region, its early history, details on early Acadian families and Catholic clergy. Access is free. [Historic Yarmouth Parish Records]
England – FamilySearch has added some 930,000 parish records from Cheshire covering the period 1538 to 2000. In addition, about 200,000 Bishop’s transcripts have also been added for the region for the period 1598 to 1900. Access is free. [Historic Cheshire Parish Records] [Historic Cheshire Bishop’s Transcripts]
UK – Ancestry.co.uk has added British Postal Service Appointment Books to its collections. These are basically records that list employees of the post office from 1737 to 1969. Included in each record is the name of the employee, pay, date of appointment and work location. This collection of 1.5 million records shows that the post office obviously hired many citizens over the years (at one point, the UK post office was the largest business in the world). The Post Office was also one of the first major UK institutions to actively recruit large numbers of women (peaking at 100,000 women at the height of World War II). For example, the record set lists 3,000 men called Pat but about 4,500 women called Patricia. So make sure you search this collection for female ancestors as well as male ancestors. You may be surprised to find that one of your female ancestors worked at the Post Office at some point in her life. Access is by subscription. [Historic British Post Office Employee Records]
England – FindMyPast has launched a new collection of business records. The initial release consists of about 9,800 records of Victorian-era businesses and business people culled from a collection of books and trade journals. The collection runs from 1892 to 1987. Many of the records are quite detailed and include photographs and a brief biography documenting such items as the person’s education, hobbies, clubs, charities, etc. Access is by subscription. [Historic UK Business Collection]
US – FamilySearch has added some 380,000 new indexes to the Michigan state census of 1894. Access is free. [1894 Michigan State Census Records]
US – The Delta County Genealogical Society of Delta, Michigan has been working for more than three and a half years transcribing Delta County death records going back as far as 1865. After much hard work on the part of many dedicated volunteers, these records are now online in an impressive database. Each record lists the name of the deceased, date of death, year of birth, mother’s name, father’s name, cemetery and funeral home. Records can be searched by any part of a name. This is a major new resource for anyone with ancestors from the region. The Delta County Genealogical Society has now begun work on the county’s marriage records, which will also eventually go online. Access is free. [Delta County Michigan Death Records]
US – FamilySearch has officially completed the 1930 US census. Access is free. [free US 1930 Census Records]
Australia – Ancestry.com.au has amalgamated their various Australian immigration databases into one search function. Basically, the new search function makes it easier to search across all the databases from one web page. The entire Australian immigration collection totals some 14.5 million records and covers the period 1788 to 1923. Access is by subscription. [Historic Australian Immigration Records]
Scotland – Do you have ancestors from the North East of Scotland? If you do, then you should check out the new website NorthEastScotlandRoots. To quote the website “The purpose of this website is to give you an initial steer on your journey, acting as a directory to the organisations and institutions in the City of Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire which hold original records or secondary sources of information that you may find useful in the quest for your ancestors.” The website is sponsored by various local tourist authorities. The Resources section and the Useful Links section are particularly useful in helping you track down your ancestors from the region. Access is free. [Tracing North East Scotland Ancestors]
US – The State Archives and State Library of North Carolina is continuing to grow its online collection of family Bible records. Since 1967, the archives have been collecting Bible records from people in the 96 counties across North Carolina. Nearly 1,500 of the roughly 2,200 family Bible records are now available online. It is rare to see a collection of family Bible records online and they can provide a unique and valuable source of information. You can browse the collection by family name. Access is free. [North Carolina Family Bible Records]
UK – DeceasedOnline has added another 1.25 million burial and cremation records to its collection, with the latest records coming online by early August. This is in addition to the some 1 million records that were added earlier in 2011. These new records come from a variety of UK towns and cities ranging from Scotland to South Devon. Access is by subscription. [Historic UK Burial Records]
UK – Ancestry.co.uk has added a major new collection of Yorkshire parish records to their collection. Going back almost 500 years, the collection of more than 8 million records focuses on West Yorkshire baptism, marriage and burials between 1538 and 1980. This collection predates in many parishes the civil registration of birth, marriage and death records, which began in 1837. Access is by subscription. [Historic West Yorkshire Parish Records]
India – This is a preannouncement. The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) in New Delhi is about to launch online a major historical collection that will be of great interest to genealogists. NMML is a massive museum and library complex spread over 30 acres in New Delhi that specializes in preserving the Indian independence movement. The digitization program, which is expected to go online in about one month, focuses on digitizing the library’s collection of newspapers, manuscripts, photographs and other related documents. Already, 50 collections of manuscripts, 834 interview transcripts, 30,000 photographs and one newspaper dating back to 1905 have already been digitized. Online records from India are rare and the launch of this online collection could be a major source of new information for anyone with ancestors who lived or worked in India. [Nehru Memorial Library Digitisation Project]
Northern Ireland – The Belfast Telegraph newspaper has put online a collection of historic images from County Kilkenny. The collection of over 6,000 photographs, political prints and portraits also contain old family photos and landscape images. The collection can be searched by keyword. The images are available for sale. [Historic County Kilkenny Images]
US – JTA has launched a digital archive containing 250,000 articles going as far back as 1923. JTA is a not-for-profit organization that reports on current events and issues of interest to Jewish people. Highlights of the new digital archive include extensive reporting from Europe in the 1930s and 1940s, and the founding of the Jewish state after World War II. The archive is searchable by keyword and date. Access is free. [Historic JTA News Archive]
Canada – The Ontario Genealogy Society (OGS) has added to their collection of War of 1812 militia documents. This new collection includes payrolls for the 2nd Regiment of York Militia and the 5th Regiment of Lincoln Militia. Access to these records is free. [War of 1812 Militia Records]
US – Yearbooks from Shurtleff College in Illinois have now gone online. The yearbooks cover the period from 1911 to 1957 (with some missing years). Shurtleff College ceased to be an independent college in 1957, when it became part of the Southern Illinois University system. Access is free. [Shurtleff College Yearbooks]
US – Randy Majors has created a great interactive tool that allows you to trace US historical county boundaries on Google maps. Over the years, the boundaries of many counties often shifted several times. This means your ancestors homestead could be located within different counties at different points in the past. This can make it difficult to track down local genealogy records. For example, courthouse documents often reside in the lead town or city within each county. This free tool will allow you to track all these changes, making it much easier to correlate the location of your ancestors to the location of local records on your ancestors. [US Historical County Boundary Maps]
Canada – FamilySearch has added about 690,000 next records to its collection of Ontario births. The records span the years 1869 to 1912. Access is free. [Historic Ontario Birth Records]
England – The website TheGenealogist has launched a major new Yorkshire collection. This includes marriage licences (1630-1674), translations from the 1086 Doomsday book on land holdings, regimental military records from the English Civil War (1642-1651) as well as later periods, polling books from parts of Yorkshire (1868) and Northumberland (1774) and many different directories from various time periods. This is a potentially very strong collection for anyone with ancestors from Yorkshire. If you want a bit of background on how these various records tie together, we suggest the free article A Date Guide to English Genealogy. Access to TheGenealogist website is by subscription. [Historic Yorkshire Genealogy Records]
England – FamilySearch has added about 114,000 parish records for Bristol for the years 1538 to 1900. Access is free. [Historic Bristol Parish Records]
Canada – Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has come out with a new version of their Immigrants to Canada database. Included in the improved database are the names of 4,000 settlers to the Red River Colony, which is just outside the modern–day city of Winnipeg. Most of the database, however, is composed of ship passenger lists for emigrants who arrived in Canada by sea. The British government mandated the recording of such lists starting in 1803. One thing to note: if you are tracing ancestors who migrated between Canada and the United States, please be aware that the border between the two countries was open (i.e. no border guards) until the 1930s and there are few official records before this time. Access is free. [Historic Immigrants to Canada Database]
June 2011
Scotland – Deceased Online has added more than 400,000 new records to its collection of Edinburgh burial and cremation records. About 850,000 Scottish burial records will be available on the website by the end of June. The records go back as far as 1888 to the present. Access is by subscription. [Historic Edinburgh Burial and Cremation Records]
US – A new Virginia website allows you to trace your ancestor’s movements on civil war battlefields. Over two million soldiers fought in the US Civil War and Virginia saw more action than any other state. Now you can track the movements of your ancestor’s regiment with a new feature called Walk in Their Footsteps. This feature is brought to you by the Virginia Civil War Commission to celebrate the sesquicentennial of the war. The interactive website provides a database of various military regiments that served in Virginia during the war and ties it to genealogical information that allows you to directly connect your descendants to particular battles. This allows you to plot a customized “battle plan” for your ancestor. Be sure to watch the video tutorials to understand how the process works. Access is free. [Plotting Civil War Troop Movements in Virginia]
Germany – FamilySearch has added about 1.5 million church records from Brandenburg and Posen to its collections. The records span the years 1794 to 1874. Access is free. [Historic German Church Records]
US – FamilySearch has added about 132,000 county marriage records for Iowa. The records date from 1838 to 1934. Access is free. [Historic Iowa Marriage Records]
US – The Great Falls Genealogy Society of Cascade County, Montana has launched a new website that contains many online resources that would be of interest to anyone who had ancestors from the region. This well laid-out website has an online collection of birth records (through to 1933), marriage records (1910 to 1919), death records, cemetery records and various local histories. New records are being added all the time. Access is free. [Cascade County Montana Genealogy Records]
US – The government of New Jersey has put online an additional 2,000 historic photographs documenting New Jersey farming from the late 1800s through to the 1970s. The collection now comprises some 7,000 photographs of historic New Jersey farm scenes. The database can be searched by subject, date and location. It is free to search and high-resolution copies of the images may be purchased for a fee. [Historic New Jersey Farm Photographs]
Northern Ireland – Eddies Extracts continues to add new birth, marriage and death extracts from various newspapers, church records and other sources from Belfast. This excellent website is well worth checking out if you have ancestors from around the Belfast region. Access is free. [Historic Belfast Genealogy Records]
US – FamilySearch has added 640,000 Ohio tax records spanning the years 1800 to 1850. Access is free. [Historic Ohio Tax Records]
US – FamilySearch has added about 260,000 new Vermont vital records spanning the years 1760 to 1954. Access is free. [Historic Vermont Vital Records]
England – The Nottinghamshire county council has put online details of about 200 historic Nottinghamshire manors. Included in the collection are medieval court rolls, surveys, maps and other documents. Some of the records go back as far as the 13th century. The records are stored online at the National Archives website. Access is free. [Historic Nottinghamshire Manor Records]
England – FindMyPast has added British militia attestation papers covering the period 1806 to 1915. Attestation papers are basically enlistment papers for new soldiers and they often contain a wealth of genealogical data. These records list full name, date of birth, place of birth and physical descriptions of the soldiers. The physical descriptions are often complete and include such items as height, weight, chest size, complexion, eye colour, hair colour and any distinctive marks such as tattoos. It is unusual to find genealogical records that contain actual descriptions of ancestors. Some of the later records even contain photographs. Access is by subscription. [Historic British Attestation Papers]
Canada – Library and Archives Canada have upgraded their online database called Lower Canada Land Petitions (1763-1865). The revised database, which was first released in October 2010, now contains digitized images of the actual land petitions for all individuals listed. As well, corrections were made to entries based on suggestions from users. Access is free. [Historic Upper Canada Land Petitions]
Australia – Ancestry.com.au has added two more collections. The first is some 6,000 admission/departure records for the Randwick Asylum for Destitute Children (1852-1915), which was based in Sydney. The second collection is New South Wales publican’s licences covering the periods 1830-1849 and 1853-1860. These are licences that gave various establishments the legal right to sell alcohol. This would be a good collection to check if your ancestors owned a pub in New South Wales. Access is by subscription. [Historic Australian Pub Licenses]
UK – GenesReUnited has revamped their passenger list collection. This will be of interest to anyone with ancestors who emigrated from a British port between 1890 and 1960. The records list the passenger’s name, age, date of departure, departure port, destination port and the name of the ship. Some records list additional information, such as UK address, year of birth, marital status, occupation and nationality. In total, this collection lists some 24 million passengers. GenesReUnited states that it’s collection is particularly strong for passenger lists for ships sailing to Australia. Access is by subscription. [Ancestors on Board]
Australia – The National Centre of Biography at the Australian National University has created a new website called Obituaries Australia. It is meant to complement their existing Australian Dictionary of Biography, which lists notable Australians. Unlike most obituary websites, which focus on current obituaries, Obituaries Australia contains the life stories of Australians from its earliest days to the present. Basically, the website serves as a digital repository of obituaries that were previously published in newspapers, journals, magazines and bulletins. Anyone can submit an obituary from a published source. It is also a good website to search for your ancestors. Access is free. [Obituaries Australia]
Scotland – The University of Strathclyde, Glasgow has launched a new archival website. The website can be searched by name, place and subject. It contains many personal papers, letters, images and maps. There are also references to student newspapers and students’ association records. It would be a good site to search if you had relatives who attended the university or ancestors who lived nearby. Access is free. [Archives of University of Strathclyde]
Canada - GenealogyInTime™ magazine’s free genealogy search engine has just added over 10 million new Canadian genealogy records to its search indexes. It is now the most powerful search engine for anyone looking for free Canadian genealogy records. Access is free. [Canadian Genealogy Search Engine]
Sweden – Ancestry.com has just expanded their Swedish church record collection. Containing over 19 million parish records, the latest edition to the collection include birth, marriage and death records from 1860 to 1937 and extracts from various parish books for 1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930. Note: these records are currently only searchable by location and year. Access is by subscription. [Historic Swedish Parish Records] We have also recently added a couple of million more Swedish records to our free genealogy search engine. These records can be searched by name.
England – Ancestry.co.uk has put online some 2.1 million historic Dorset parish records. The records go back as far as 1565, with most of the collection concentrated in the years 1813 to 2001. Included are details on baptisms, marriages and burials, with some historic wills. This collection is the result of a partnership with the Dorset History Centre, who owns most of the original records. Access is by subscription. [Historic Dorset Parish Records]
Canada – The city of New Westminster, B.C. has begun to put their archives database online. Users can search by name, date, subject and place. Included in the collection are official city records dating back to 1860 and many images of historical importance. So far, about 4,000 items have gone online, with more expected to follow. The city has an extensive photograph collection that will be migrated to the website over time. Access is free. [New Westminster Online Archives]
May 2011
Mexico – FamilySearch has completed a major milestone by putting the entire 1930 Mexico census online. Comprised of almost 13 million records, the 1930 Mexico census provides a valuable asset for anyone researching their Mexican ancestry. Access is free. [1930 Mexico Census Records]
US – Ancestry.com has put online the complete World War II Navy muster rolls. This collection of over 33 million records lists US navy enlisted personnel from 1938 to the end of 1949. A typical record contains name, service number, occupation, date of enlistment, name of ship and date reported for duty on the ship. Access is by subscription. [US Navy World War II Muster Rolls]
Australia – The Australian government has put online a new database that lists patent applications going back as far as 1904. The database contains over 1.6 million patent applications covering all of Australia and can be searched by inventor’s name (including spelling variations) as well as type of invention. This is not the normal type of website that a genealogist would think to look at but it might be a great website to search if you think one of your ancestors may have been an inventor, scientist, engineer or tinkerer. Certainly, it doesn’t hurt to take a look. Access is free. [Historic Australia Patent Applications]
Scotland – The University of Glasgow has put online digital copies of various historic student newspapers from the university. Included in the collection are the Gilmorehill Globe, Gilmorehill Guardian and Glasgow University Guardian. Together these three newspapers represent the entire history of student newspaper journalism at the university. The collection spans the years 1932-1934 and 1955-2006 (excluding 1957) and can be search by phrase (such as name) and by year. In our experience, most students are mentioned at least once in student newspapers during their tenure at university, particularly if they were involved with clubs or sports. Access is free. [Historic Student Newspapers from University of Glasgow]
UK - Ancestry.co.uk has put online the scanned images of records from the 1911 UK census, which covers England, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. Ancestry will now begin work on transcribing the images to make them fully searchable. The 1911 census is notable in that you can view the original household forms. As well, the 1911 census asked more questions than previous English censuses, such as how long couples had been married and the number of children from their marriage. Access is by subscription. [1911 England Census Records]
US - On the same day that Google announced the demise of their newspaper archive (see The Death of Google News Archive), the Library of Congress Chronicling America newspaper website announced that an additional 230,000 pages have been added to their website. In addition, users are being asked to test drive a new beta site. [Chronicling America beta site] Of course, a more convenient approach is to just use our free genealogy search engine, which fully searches the Chronicling America website plus a few hundred other ancestral record websites all at the same time.
Scotland - On 1 April 2011, the General Register Office for Scotland and the National Archives of Scotland merged into one entity to form the new National Records of Scotland. The newly merged group is still working on their new web portal, which you can view here. [National Records of Scotland]
England - Origins.net has added a set of Somerset electoral rolls spanning the years 1832-1014. This collection of over 2 million entries can be a valuable source for tracing Somerset ancestors. Electoral rolls are often overlooked by genealogists but they can serve several useful purposes, such as confirming an ancestor's address between censuses. If you are not familiar with the nuances of English electoral rolls, then please see this detailed description of English electoral rolls, which is from our article A Date Guide to English Genealogy. Access to these Somerset electoral rolls is by subscription. [Historic Somerset Electoral Rolls]
US – Yale University has decided to convert its vast collection of online images to “open access”. This means that Yale University has moved its cultural heritage collection of images (those that would be of interest to genealogists) into the public domain. These images are now openly and freely available to all. According to the university, “Yale is the first Ivy League university to make its collection accessible in this fashion”. Already, the open access collection numbers over 250,000 images and the collection is expected to grow into the millions. In addition to many images of historic Americans, the collection also has images of less famous Americans, historic maps, street scenes, etc. The site has a full search function. Access is free. [Historic Images from Yale University]
Historic View of Philadelphia (from the Yale University Collection)
US – FamilySearch has released a massive collection of 10 million US Civil War records. The release marks the 150th anniversary of the war. The collection includes service records for both the Confederate and Union armies, pension records, probate records, widows’ certificates, US Army enlistments (1798-1914) and much more. In addition to the 10 million records that have already been indexed, FamilySearch has hundreds of millions more records associated with the Civil War that need to be indexed. They are looking for volunteers to assist with this multi-year project. Access is free. [Free US Civil War Records]
US – FamilySearch has launched a special South Carolina collection. Included in the collection are South Carolina probate records (1671-1977), death records (1915-1955) and Confederate service records (1861-1865). In total, this collection has millions of records. Access is free. [South Carolina Genealogy Records]
Africa, Asia – The International Mission Photography Archive is a new collection of 60,000 historical photographs taken by missionaries throughout Africa and Asia. The images date from the 1860s to World War II. Missionaries tended to move around a lot and usually had a mandate to document their surroundings. As well, they were often assigned to more remote regions of Africa and Asia. As a result, missionaries were often the first people to photograph parts of Africa and Asia. They tended to focus on photographing local people and local scenes. The images in this collection range from visually stunning to technically crude. It is, however, a wonderful resource for anyone looking for genealogy context for historical images from Africa or Asia. The collection is managed by the University of Southern California and the images can be searched by phrase and country. Access is free. [Historic Tribal Images of Africa and Asia]
Men Playing the Game Warri - Ghana circa 1920
UK – DeceasedOnline has added 54,000 burial records from rural southwest England. Most of the records are from rural cemeteries in Wiltshire. The records date back to 1856. DeceasedOnline plans to strengthen its collection of burial records from Wiltshire, Dorset and Devon in the coming months. Access is by subscription. [Historic Wiltshire Burial Records]
Ireland – A new website called Ireland Genealogy (formerly pensear.org) allows you to search through historic Irish Pension Records by surname. These records predate the 1901 Irish census. Although these records are currently held at the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI), many of these records are not indexed by surname. Thus, this website can save you time and effort. There is no cost to search but there is a fee to see the full record [Historic Irish Pension Records]. We should point out that the PRONI website is fully searchable using our free genealogy search engine. Before paying for a record of your ancestor, you might want to run the search through our search engine. Simply append “site: proni.gov.uk” to you search term to limit your search results to the PRONI website. If you need more help on this, please refer to our article A Guide to Performing Genealogy Searches.
US – FamilySearch has added over 1 million new records from the 1892 New York state census. Access is free. [1892 New York Census Records]
Mexico – FamilySearch has added about 1 million new records from the 1930 census in Mexico from the state of Oaxaca. Access is free. [Mexico 1930 census records]
US – A new website called Project Preserve and Honor documents American military personnel buried at Arlington National Cemetery. To many genealogists, this type of website will look familiar: images of tombstones and details on the deceased. What is remarkable about this website is that it was done by 17 year old Ricky Gilleland. His website documents Iraq and Afghanistan veterans laid to rest at Arlington, something that the US Army has not done. Access is free. [Arlington National Cemetery Gravesites]
US – FamilySearch has started a new collection of Kentucky death records. The collection already contains some 1.4 million records and spans the years 1911 to 1955. Access is free. [Historic Kentucky Death Records]
Jewish – The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) has a new section on their website called Our Shared Legacy. This will be of interest to genealogists, particularly the two new databases. The first database contains a Jewish name index with over 500,000 names. The index links to a compilation of various original documents, all of which can be viewed in high resolution. Most of the documents appear to come from the JDC’s own files and include the Jewish Displaced Persons and Refugee Cards 1943-1959 and the Transmigration Bureau files. You can search this database by name. The second database is a collection of historic photographs. You can search the photo galleries by location. If you recognize anyone in the images, you can submit their name to the website. This is a very impressive and useful resource for anyone wanting to trace their Jewish ancestors during and after the Second World War. Access is free. [Our Shared Legacy]
Jamaica – FamilySearch has added about 275,000 records to its collection of Jamaican civil birth registrations. Access is free. [Historic Jamaican Civil Birth Records]
England – Ancestry UK has added 3 million parish records from the city of Liverpool and surrounding areas. In addition to digitizing Church of England registers that go back more than 300 years, the new collection also has a number of Catholic Church registers from the region. Access is by subscription. [Historic Liverpool Parish Records]
Ireland – FindMyPast has teamed up with Eneclann, an Irish research house, to start a new website called FindMyPast Ireland. It is similar to the FindMyPast website except, of course, it has Irish records. Records range from land and estate records, Griffith’s Valuation of Ireland, various directories, military and rebellion records, migration records and wills that go back as far as the 13th century. Although the website does not give an exact number, it appears to have millions of records. This is certainly going to be a popular website for anyone with Irish ancestors. Access is by subscription. [FindMyPast Ireland] Before putting down money for a subscription, you might want to check to see how many of the records on this website are already in the public domain. Our free genealogy search engine can access about 20.5 million free Irish genealogy records.
Jewish – Ancestry and the Holocaust Memorial Museum have launched a new website called the World Memory Project. The objective of the website is to “build the world’s largest online resource for information on Jewish victims of the Holocaust and millions of non-Jews who were targeted for persecution by Nazi Germany”. The website is looking for people to contribute material. So far, there does not appear to be any type of search function. [World Memory Project]
April 2011
Australia – The National Archives of Australia has created a valuable new resource for Australian genealogists called Mapping Our Anzacs. It is a web map that serves as a type of online scrapbook of World War I ‘diggers’. This interactive map allows you to view individual military service records, build tributes and attach memories. One interesting thing about this map is that it allows you to search for ancestors by place instead of just name. This is an excellent resource for anyone with ancestors from Australia who fought in World War I. Access is free. [Mapping Our Anzacs]
US – A new website called the Immigrant Archive Project allows recent immigrants to the United States to tell their story online. The website specializes in Latino immigrants, but anyone can contribute. Access is free. [Immigrant Archive Project]
UK – The town of Laindon, Essex has created a community archive to store historic information about the town and the surrounding region. The site was put together by a group of local historians. This is a good resource to check if you have ancestors from the region. [Laindon Essex Historic Archive]
Italy – The Gregorian University in Rome has been digitizing more than 6,000 historic manuscripts and codices of Gregorian University, the first university founded by the Jesuits in 1551. Included are many interesting historic documents, such as teaching lessons, codices and newspapers of the Council of Trent, church correspondence with Galileo and early Jesuit reports and maps on missions to China and other parts of Asia. The video below from Rome Reports provides further details.
(We are having trouble finding the actual digitized documents online. If you know the link, please email it to us at letusknow@genealogyintime.com)
Wales – Here is an interesting new site for anyone with Welsh ancestors. Called the People’s Collection Wales (Casgliad y Werin Cymru), it is “a place to discover and learn, contribute your own content and share the story of your Wales with the world”. The website is a new online archive where you can do a variety of things of interest to genealogists such as exploring historic maps of Wales, creating and sharing family trees, join special interest groups, learn about Welsh history and more. The website already has over 28,000 items in its collection. Access is free. You need to register if you want to contribute content. [People’s Collection Wales]
Canada – The Nova Scotia Archives has put online a new historic map collection of the province. The maps go back to the 1700s. You can search by century or place name. Access is free. [Historic Nova Scotia Maps] All the records on the Nova Scotia Archives can also be searched using our free genealogy search engine.
1878 Panoramic View of New Glasgow (from the Nova Scotia Archives collection)
US – The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) has been expanding their free online databases. DAR is a group that focuses on patriots of the American Revolutionary War (1774 to 1783) and their descendants. About 4,500 names are added to the database daily and the total database now contains some 7.1 million names. The database is a good place to check for anyone with ancestors from across the American Colonies in the 1700s and 1800s. It contains more than just records on Revolutionary soldiers. Included in the database are such items as cemetery reports and bible records. Access is free. [Daughters of the American Revolution Historic Family Trees]
England – FindMyPast has added 1.1 million new parish records from Cambridgeshire. The records date from 1538 to 1950 and include baptisms, marriages, banns and burials. Access is by subscription. Click on the link to see the complete list of parishes covered. [Historic Cambridgeshire Parish Records]
England – Durham University has created an online database of pre-1858 probate records (wills and related documents). The records cover the previous probate jurisdiction of the Diocese of Durham. This includes most of present-day Northumberland, Tyne & Wear, County Durham and parts of northern Yorkshire. Some of the probate records date back to the 1500s. The database will eventually have over 150,000 wills and related documents, with links to images of the original documents held by FamilySearch. Access is free. [Historic Durham Wills]
US – The Philadelphia Tribune has announced that they will digitally archive their entire photo collection of more than 250,000 images spanning 125 years. Most of the collection will showcase African American life in the Philadelphia region starting in 1884 when the newspaper was founded. The collection is expected to go online soon. This will likely become an important resource for anyone with African American ancestors from the Philadelphia region. You need to register to access the website. [Historic African American Photographs from Philadelphia]
India – FamilySearch has added over 31,000 browsable images of historic Hindu pilgrimage records. Access is free. [Historic India Pilgrimage Records]
US – FamilySearch has added an additional 222,000 historic Oklahoma marriage records spanning the years 1891 to 1959. Access is free. [Historic Oklahoma Marriage Records]
Scotland – The 1911 Scottish census is now online at ScotlandsPeople. A couple of things to note. First, the actual forms filled out by the households (known as household schedules) were destroyed soon after the census was completed once the data had been copied into the enumeration books. You will therefore not be able to see the actual handwritten answers of your ancestors. Also, one of the questions asked on the 1911 census was place of birth. If the person was born anywhere in the United Kingdom, it should list the name of the county and the town/parish. This is valuable information for anyone trying to track their ancestors. However, if the person was born in a foreign country, it just lists the name of the country, unless the country was then part of the British Empire, in which case the province is also listed. The 1911 census also had some additional questions compared to the previous 1901 census. Of particular interest it asked the number of people in the household; marital status (single, married, widower, widow); duration of marriage; children born alive; children still living; industry employed in and nationality if born outside of Scotland. Access is by pay-per-view. [1911 Scottish Census]
US – Just in time for the 150 year anniversary of the Civil War, Ancestry has seriously beefed up their Civil War collection. The basis for the new collection are some 275,000 records from the National Archives known as the Consolidated Lists of Civil War Draft Registration Records, 1863-1865. Ancestry has also included records from some 20+ historic military cemeteries as well as Union and Confederate soldier service records 1861-1865. Access is by subscription. [Historic Civil War Soldier Records]
Canada – The Government of Saskatchewan has given a $400,000 grant to the University of Saskatchewan to begin digitizing and preserving online the province’s historic culture and heritage. The expectation is that this will lead to online websites that will be of use to anyone with Saskatchewan ancestors. [Launch of Saskatchewan Heritage Digitization Project]
Canada – The University of Manitoba has begun the process of digitizing some 300 local history books about pioneers from various rural parts of Manitoba. The first book to be digitized will be on Rosser called “The First Hundred Years: 1893-1993”. As the rural history books are digitized, they will be put on the website Manitobia. Access is free. [Rural Manitoba Pioneer History Books]
US – Virginia Tech has launched a website called American Civil War Newspapers. So far, the site has just one newspaper: the Daily Telegraph (1860-1865) from Macon, Georgia. However, it looks as though more historic websites will be added over time. Access is free. [Free US Civil War Newspaper Archive]
South Africa – FamilySearch has added 54,000 records of baptisms and marriages from Dutch Reform church registers in Cape Province. The records cover the years 1660 to 1970. [Historic South Africa Baptism and Marriage Records]
Northern Ireland – Queen’s University, Belfast has created a virtual library on the history of Irish migration. In addition to many government papers, the website contains two databases of interest to genealogists: the Irish Emigration database and the Voices of Migration and Return database. The Irish Emigration database already contains more than 33,000 records from various sources, including letters, diaries and newspaper adverts. The Voices of Migration and Return database contains 90 life interviews conducted with migrants from the Ulster region. The databases can be searched by keyword and document type. Access is free. [Documenting Ireland: Parliament, People and Migration]
US – The Arkansas Catholic, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Little Rock, has begun the process of digitizing historic copies of The Southern Guardian, a predecessor newspaper. The year 1911 has already been digitized and put online. The plan is to eventually digitize the years 1912 to 2001. Access is free. [The Southern Guardian Newspaper of Little Rock]
US – The Baltimore Sun has begun digitizing its library of 2 million historic photographs. The intention is to sell prints of the online images. Approximately 200,000 photographs have already been digitized. The pictures can be searched by subject and last name of the people in the images. [Historic Baltimore Photographs]
See also the Most Recent Genealogy Records by Country.
March 2011
US – A new Irish American museum has just been launched in Washington, D.C. The purpose of the museum is to bring Irish-American history to life. The museum’s website has an online library, which at the moment is limited to biographical information about famous Irish Americans. Click on the link to learn more about the museum. [Irish American Museum]
US – Sheboygan, Wisconsin has put online historic city and county directories. The directories cover the years 1875 to 1898 plus 1918. Included in the directory listings are residents, businesses, schools, churches and societies. Access is free. [Historic Sheboygan Directories]
Canada – Halton County, Ontario has launched a digital newspaper archive. Halton, which is just west of Toronto covers the area of Burlington, Oakville, Milton and several other towns. The archive contains digital copies of many of the community newspapers in Halton as well as an index of births, marriages and deaths. The website contains over 235,000 genealogical records in total. The Advanced Search function on the website allows searches by name, date range and geographic location. Access is free. [Halton County Ontario Newspaper Archive]
Northern Ireland – Belfast City Council has put online 360,000 burial records from three city cemeteries. The records are from Belfast City Cemetery (from 1869 onwards), Roselawn Cemetery (from 1954 onwards) and Dundonald Cemetery (from 1905 onwards). Each record contains the following information: full name, age, sex, last place of residence, date of death, date of burial, grave section and number and type of burial (in ground or cremation). Access is free. [Historic Belfast Cemetery Records]
Ireland – The Guinness Brewery at St. James Gate in Dublin has put online historical employee records from the brewery spanning the period from 1759 to the present. Some 20,000 individual employee files have gone online, which represents about 80% of all employees who worked at the historic brewery. A typical file lists the employee’s name, date of birth, date of death, employee ID number, date joined the brewery, date left, occupation and department that the employee worked. Access is free. [Historic Guinness Brewery Employee Records]
India – This is a preannouncement that will be big news for anyone with British ancestors who lived and worked in India. The British Library will be digitizing parish records of baptisms, marriages and burials from the archives of the India Office and the East India Company. The records relate to Britons who lived and worked in the Indian sub-continent from the 1700s up to India’s independence in 1948. In addition to parish records, the collection will also include applications for civil and military service and details of pension payments to individuals. The British Library put the digitization process out for competitive tender. The genealogy website FindMyPast was the successful bidder. They will digitize the records in 2011 and the collection is expected to go online in 2012. Online colonial records from India are rare and this new collection should open up a whole new avenue of investigation for genealogists with ancestors from India.
Ireland – This is a preannouncement. The newly-elected government of Ireland has stated that they intend to allow the early release of the 1926 Irish census. This may take some time to actually happen, however, as the early release of the 1926 census would require amending the Irish Statistics Act 1993, which governs the census process. As it is currently written, section 35 of the Act states that details of the census (i.e. individual records) cannot be released to the public until 100 years after the date of the census. In other words, the new Irish government may move up the normal release date of the 1926 census from 2026 to either this year or next. If this happens, it will be a huge help for anyone with Irish ancestors.
Canada – The City of Vancouver Archives has digitized and put online about 400 panoramic cityscapes of Vancouver from the early 1900s. Historic panoramic photographs are rare and some of these will be of interest to genealogists (see image below). The photographs are part of a broader collection of 68,000 photographs that the City of Vancouver Archives has already put online (with an additional 1.4 million images still to be digitized). Access is free. [Historic Panoramic Photographs of Vancouver] [City of Vancouver Photo Archives] Other online historic images of Vancouver can be found in the Vancouver Public Library collection (250,000 images), the B.C. Archives collection (100,000 images) and the University of B.C. digital collection (56,000 images). Access to all these collections is free. [Vancouver Public Library Historic Photographs] [B.C. Archives Historic Photographs] [UBC Digital Archive Photographs]
The entire 1921 Vancouver Police Department (courtesy of City of Vancouver Archives)
US – FamilySearch has added some 220,000 vital records from Vermont covering the period 1760 to 1954. These are index cards of town clerk transcriptions of births, marriages and deaths. Access is free. [Historic Vermont Vital Records]
US – The city of Memphis, Tennessee has rapidly expanded their online historic archive over the last several months. It now contains an extensive collection of civil rights photographs, historic Memphis streetscapes, historic school classroom photographs plus several other collections of interest to genealogists. There is even a small, but interesting Elvis collection (see image below). Access is free. [Memphis City Online Archive]
That is not an impersonator. It really is Elvis doing karate.
US – FamilySearch has added 440,000 Texas birth certificates for the years 1903-1909 and 1926-1934. A collection of Texan county tax rolls for the period 1846-1910 has also been added. Access is free. [Historic Texas Birth Certificates]
Ireland – The Heritage Council of Ireland has just funded and launched a major new web portal called the Irish Archives Resource. It enables researchers to locate archival collections in Ireland that are relevant to their research. The intent of the site is to essentially act like a giant card catalogue for anyone doing ancestral work on Ireland. A search function allows users to pull up the relevant collections. A detailed listing is provided for each collection along with instructions on how to access the collection either online (if available) or physically at a public location in Ireland. Many of the major city and county archives in Ireland have already contributed to the website and much of it would be of interest to anyone with ancestors from Ireland. For example, try searching using terms such as ‘deeds’ ‘wills’, etc. This site looks like it will quickly become a must-stop for genealogists. Access is free. [Irish Archives Portal]
US – FamilySearch has added over 300,000 New Hampshire marriage records spanning the years 1637 to 1947. Information includes the name of the bride and groom as well as the town and date of marriage. Many records also contain additional information. Access is free. [Historic New Hampshire Marriage Records]
Australia - Ancestry has expanded its Australian convict collection with 42,000 new records that focus on convicts who were given parole for good behaviour. Access is by subscription. [Historic Australian Convict Records]
See also the Most Recent Genealogy Records by Country.
February 2011
Canada – Ancestry has put online the cemetery register for Beechwood Cemetery in Ottawa. The collection of more than 115,000 names spans the period from 1873 to 1990. In April 2009, Beechwood Cemetery officially became the national cemetery for Canada. Beechwood is also home to the National Military Cemetery and the RCMP National Memorial Cemetery. Many famous Canadians are buried in the cemetery, including former Prime Minister Robert Borden and Sir Sanford Fleming, the creator of standard time. Access is by subscription. [Historic Beechwood Cemetery Records] The Ottawa Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society also sells a CD containing similar information. [Ottawa Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society]
New Zealand – Ancestry.com.au has launched a major new collection for New Zealand that spans 20 million family history records. The six components to the collection include the New Zealand Electoral Rolls (1853-1981), Canterbury Provincial Rolls (1868-1874), Jury Lists (1842-1862), Mãori Voter Rolls (1908 & 1919), Mãori Land Claims (1858-1980) and New Zealand Naturalisations (1843-1981). Most of the records come from Anne Bromell, who spent many years preserving and converting important New Zealand genealogy records to microfilm. The electoral rolls in particular serve as a good substitute for census records for anyone who has experienced difficulty tracing their New Zealand ancestors. Access is by subscription. [Historic New Zealand Electoral Rolls]
UK – The Knowles Collection of Jewish records has increased by some 55,000 record to a total of 195,000 records. About 10,000 new records are being added every month. The Knowles Collection links individual Jews into various family groups. The collection is organized by geographic region, with the largest regions being the British Isles (104,000 records), Americas (53,000 records) and Europe (33,000 records). The Knowles Collection is hosted by FamilySearch. Access is free. [Knowles Collection of Jewish Records]
Canada – A not-for-profit group called KnowledgeOntario has initiated a community digitization project to preserve and display historic content in a digital format. More than 33,000 digital files have already been completed with everything from historic photographs to life stories to vintage diaries. The information can be searched via Our Ontario, the main digital archive for culture and heritage in Ontario. Access is free. [Our Ontario]
Scotland – The excellent website ScotlandPlaces has just completed a major upgrade that will most certainly be of interest to anyone with Scottish ancestors. It has aggregated and combined digital maps from three of Scotland’s national archives: the National Library of Scotland; the National Archives of Scotland and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Users can search the website for historical town plans (1580-1919), county maps (1580-1928) and the incredibly detailed ordnance surveys (1843-1882). [If you require a more recent ordnance survey of Scotland, GenealogyInTime™ maintains a complete Interactive 1940 Ordnance Survey of Scotland and England]. The government website ScotlandPlaces is user-friendly and very interactive. Users can create their own personalized archived maps. Complete details can be found on the website. Access is free. [Historic Interactive Scotland Maps]
England – FindMyPast has added over 9 million new records in 13 collections. The largest collection (5.4 million records) is the Boyd’s Marriage Index 1538-1840. This is a transcription of some 500+ books from the library of the Society of Genealogists, London. Each index contains the first and last name of the bride and groom, the year of marriage, as well as the county and parish where the marriage took place. Also listed is a reference to the record source. Access is by subscription. [Boyd’s Marriage Index]
Armenia – This is a preannouncement. The National Archives of Armenia has announced that they will purchase new digitization equipment in 2011 to accelerate the digitization of the archive. The complete digitization process is expected to take 10 years, although it is not clear how much of the some 350 million documents in the archives will be digitized. So far, only about 1,000 documents have been digitized. Nevertheless, this could become a major source of genealogy information for anyone with Armenian ancestors. [Potential Armenian Genealogy Records]
Africa – The UK National Archives has posted online thousands of historic images of Africa. These images are likely to be of interest to a large number of people with black ancestry. The collection is called Africa Through a Lens. Three things make this collection unique. First, a significant number of the images are from the 1800s and some pictures go back as far as 1860. Images of Africa from the 1800s are rare. Second, the breadth of images is astonishing. Almost every African country that was a British colony is extensively represented in the collection. Third, the collection comes from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. These are the guys that practically invented the field of social anthropology (the study of cultures). Many of the photographs are of people. The photographs have definitely been taken in such a manner as to attempt to capture the dress and style of the people in the images. For example, the photograph below shows the chief of a tribe in Sierra Leone around 1890. This photographic collection provides a great visual context for anyone with African ancestry. Access is free. [Historic African Genealogy Images]
England – FamilySearch has added over 450,000 marriage bands and allegations from Cheshire. These are essentially the predecessor to a modern marriage license. The engaged couple would make a public vow (usually in church) that there was no moral or legal reason why they should not wed. These new records, which cover the period 1606 to 1900, list the names of the couple intending to marry, their ages and occupations, current marital status and residence. Some records also contain additional information such as the place of the intended marriage and the names of the parents. Access is free. [Historic Cheshire Marriage Bonds]
US – The Florence-Lauderdale Public Library in Alabama has digitized and put online a Lauderdale County Circuit Court record book covering the years 1843 to 1850 (see image below). This is part of a pilot project on the part of the library, which is seeking funds to help digitize about 100 volumes of historic courthouse records. The library’s current online digital collection consists primarily of photographs and oral histories. Access is free. The library is looking for donations to help cover further digitization efforts. [Historic Lauderdale County Court Records]
Finland – The National Library of Finland has taken an interesting approach to the digitization of historic documents from Finland. It has created a program called DigitalKoot (Digital Volunteers) that uses the power of crowd sourcing to correct transcriptions of historic documents. Basically, users log onto a website where they can play one of two games. Embedded in the game play are historic transcripts that the player needs to be corrected. Play a game and help genealogy. This might be of interest to anyone with Finnish ancestors. [Finland DigitalKoot Program]
Italy – FamilySearch had added approximately 86,000 records from the province of Teramo’s civil registration. The records cover the time period 1806 to 1940. Access is free. [Historic Teramo Genealogy Records]
US – FamilySearch has added approximately 1.3 million records from the 1885 New Jersey State census. Access is free. [1885 New Jersey State Census]
US – The Archdiocese of New Orleans has put online the first release of historic records from the St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans. This first release are baptism records covering the time period from 1777 to 1801 (the city was under Spanish control at the time). Other records are expected to go online in the future, including marriage and death records. This is big news for anyone wanting to trace their ancestry in New Orleans and will be of particular interest to anyone wanting to trace their black ancestry.
New Orleans only became an American city in 1803. Prior to that, it was ruled by the French (1718-1763 and then again 1801-1803) and the Spanish (1763-1801). During this entire period, the Catholic Church provided several functions usually associated with governments, such as the keeping of vital (birth, marriage, death) records. Over the years, many of these Catholic Church records have been documented and indexed by family name. The information was primarily recorded in several large print volumes, which can be accessed at the New Orleans Public Library. However, slaves and free people of color were usually not recorded in the print volumes even though the information was available in the original Catholic Church records. Now that the original records have been put online, this barrier has been eliminated.
One thing to note about the online records though is that they are scans of the original documents. The records have not been transcribed from the original Spanish. As well, the handwriting is in an ornate Spanish cursive style. It will take some time for a person to wade through the records. To further complicate matters, the Spanish priests used Spanish spellings of French names, which were prevalent at the time. The website, however, provides suggestions to help people read the records. [Historic New Orleans Baptism Records]
Scotland – This is an advance notice. The Registrar General for Scotland has announced that the 1911 Scottish census will be released to the public on 5 April 2011. It will be placed on the ScotlandsPeople website on that date. The 1911 Scottish census covers more than 4.7 million people. It was also the last Scottish census before World War I, so it is particularly important for anyone tracing soldiers who may have died during the Great War. The 1911 census record includes name, address, age, occupation, birthplace, marital status and details on children. [1911 Scottish Census]
UK – FindMyPast has made a major new addition of 2.1 million birth, marriage and burial records for Derbyshire. The records date from 1837 to the present. The records come from the Derbyshire Registrars index (i.e. they are government records not parish records). Access is by subscription. The link provides a complete listing by district. [Historic Derbyshire Birth, Marriage, Death Records]
US – Ancestry has added 250,000 new historical records to its extensive African American holdings. The new records come from five collections: US colored troop service records 1861-1867 (Civil War records comprising enlistment papers, casualty sheets, death reports and correspondence); Savannah, Georgia slave ship manifests 1789-1859; New Orleans slave ship manifests 1807-1860; Freedman’s Bureau records 1865-1878 (formed after the Civil War to aid reconstruction efforts for former slaves); slave narratives 1936-1938 (a small collection of life stories of former slaves). Access is by subscription. [Civil War Colored Troop Service Records]
US – The city of Eau Claire, Wisconsin has put online cemetery records from the two city cemeteries of Forest Hill and Lakeview. The records can be searched by first and last name. The records include date of birth, date of death, date of internment (if known) and a map button that you can click to show you the location of the grave within the cemetery. You can also submit online obituaries, memories, a life history, military records, video and pictures of the deceased. Access is free. [Eau Claire Cemetery Records]
January 2011
Jewish – The Holocaust museum Yad Vashem has partnered with Google to begin digitizing the museum’s extensive holdings. The first stage has already been completed with over 138,000 photographs available for viewing online. Access is free. [Holocaust Photographs]
US – FamilySearch has added 3 million new digital images of US naturalization records. The records are from California (1852-1989), Delaware (1855-1955) and Illinois (1840-1950). Access is free. [Historic US Naturalization Records]
Canada – FamilySearch has created an index of 360,000 Ontario marriages from 869 to 1927. Note this is an index only. Access is free. [Historic Ontario Marriage Index]
UK – FindMyPast has added over 575,000 parish records for Durham, Yorkshire, Cumberland, Northumberland and Westmorland. The records go back as far as 1600 and as recent as 1977. Most of the records (about 80%) are baptism records and the balance is marriage records. Access is by subscription. The link contains detailed lists of each parish in the new collection. [Historic UK Parish Records]
UK – FamilySearch has put online the indexes for the 1881 and 1891 England and Wales census. This totals about 30 million names in each of the two censuses. Note this is an index only. The index comes from FindMyPast. You can access the index for free from FamilySearch but you will need to go to FindMyPast to see the complete record for a fee. [Free Index of 1881, 1891 England Census]
Guatemala – FamilySearch has strengthened their collection of 2 million civil registration records for the country dating from 1877 to 1934. Access is free. [Guatemala Genealogy Records]
Mexico – FamilySearch has added about 4 million Catholic Church records for the states of Guerrero, Mexico(Estada), Morelos, Puebla, Tlaxcala and Zacatecas. Access is free. [Historic Mexico Catholic Church Records]
New Zealand – FamilySearch has added 144,500 new records from immigration passenger lists dating from 1839 to 1973. Access is free. [Historic New Zealand Passenger Lists]
Nicaragua – FamilySearch has added 1.3 million new images from the Managua civil registration dating from 1879 to 2007. Access is free. [Nicaragua Genealogy Records]
Philippines – FamilySearch has added 2 million new images from the Manila civil registration dating from 1899 to 1994. Access is free. [Manila Genealogy Records]
US – FamilySearch has added about 8 million records of border crossings from Canada (1895 to 1956) and Mexico (1903 to 1957). This data comes from Ancestry’s collection. A word of caution if you do not see your ancestor in this collection. The US did not formally have border guards at all crossing points until the mid-1930s. Before this time, it was possible for someone to cross at smaller uncontrolled border points with no records. Access is free to this collection. [Historic US Border Crossing Records]
US – FamilySearch has added 338,000 Montana marriage records from 1865 to 1950. Access is free. [Historic Montana Marriage Records]
US – FamilySearch has put online the detailed individual information from the 1935 Rhode Island State census. Access is free. [Rhode Island 1935 Census Records]
See also the Most Recent Genealogy Records by Country.
Australia – The State Library of Queensland has generously donated 50,000 archived photos to be used free of charge on Wikimedia Commons (i.e. copyright free). As far as we know, this is the largest single donation of historic genealogical photographs put into the public domain. This collection is a great source for anyone with Queensland ancestors or for anyone who is looking for historic photos for their blog or website (in addition to the 500+ genealogy photos from GenealogyInTime™ that you can use on your website). Below is an excellent example that reverberates today showing the Brisbane flood of 1893 (at the corner of Elizabeth and Albert Street).
The images in this collection go back well over one hundred years and include many portraits and group photos. For example, below is the 1915 rugby league team from Charter Towers. Access is free. Note that only a few thousand images have been added to the website. More will be added over the coming weeks. [Collection of Historic Queensland Photographs]
US – The University of Mississippi has begun to put its Civil War archive online. The initial batch of items includes letters, diaries, wartime correspondence and field dispatches. The collection is searchable. Access is free. [Mississippi Civil War Archives]
US – The Museum of the City of New York has put online over 50,000 historic images of New York City. This is their first step in putting more of their collection online. The site is a bit challenging to navigate. When you get to the Photo Collections page, you need to click on the word ‘Search’ in the upper right hand corner and then search the images by category. Access is free. [Historic New York City Photographs]
Northern Ireland – The Public Records of Northern Ireland (PRONI) has begun to put historic photographs online through Flickr, the free photo-sharing website. The first batch of images is 15,000 pictures taken by a photographic studio in Armagh from 1900 to 1952. The pictures will be uploaded to Flickr in stages over the next couple of weeks. Many of the images are wedding and family group photos. The collection can be searched by family name. This is a good resource to check if you have ancestors from County Armagh. Access is free. [Historic Armagh Photographs]
Japan – The National Diet Library of Japan has added 4 million records to WorldCat. Most of the collection comprises bibliographic records. This is a rare opportunity for anyone who has Japanese ancestors to consult online records. Access is free. The main search page is in English. [National Diet Library Online Catalogue]
UK – Origins.net has expanded their National Wills Index with a new index called the British Record Society Probate Collection. This index gives the name and date of several million wills and other probate documents from various regions of England. The date range of the records varies widely by region. In general, most of the wills are pre-1800. Please note this is an index only. You still need to contact the relevant record office to view the original probate documents. Access is by subscription. [Historic UK Wills]
US – The Northern New York Library Network has reached an important milestone of 2 million historic newspaper pages online. The newspapers are from the Upper New York State counties of Oswego, Jefferson, Lewis, St. Lawrence, Franklin, Clinton and Essex. The site is very easy to navigate and access is free. [Historic Newspapers from Upper New York State] Another good site for historic New York state newspapers is Fulton History. It has over 15 million pages online from various regions of the state. [Fulton History Newspapers] You can also search this site using our free Genealogy Search Engine.
US – The Illinois State Genealogical Society has just launched a new website. The site is well designed and easy to manoeuvre around. It also has a small collection of free genealogy databases for Illinois ancestors. Included are Civil War certificates from the state as well as World Wars I and II certificates. [Illinois State Genealogical Society]
Canada – The PRDH database has been updated with 238,000 more records and now covers the period 1621-1799 (previously, it only went to 1779). The PRDH (Le Programme de recherche en démographie historique) database is a computerized population register of Quebec from the beginning of French colonization. This exhaustive database has been constructed from various parish records. The site is run by the University of Montreal and it is a must-visit website for anyone with Quebec ancestors. Access is free to search and view the first level results. Fees apply to see the detailed results [PRDH Historic Quebec Genealogy Records]
World – JewishGen has updated their Online Worldwide Burial Registry with 171,000 new records and 32,000 new photos. This brings the total in the database to 1.57 million records from 3,050 cemeteries in 47 countries. Access is free. [JewishGen Cemetery Records]
US – Cemetery records for Cleveland Ohio have now gone online thanks to the diligent work of the East Cuyahoga County Genealogical Society. About 350,000 records from ten Cleveland cemeteries can be searched by cemetery and last name. Information includes date of internment, age, sex and sometimes name of parent. Access is free. [Cleveland Cemetery Records]
US – The John F. Kennedy Library has launched the first online presidential archive. The launch coincides with the 50th anniversary of Kennedy’s inauguration (20 January 1961). The online archive includes 200,000 digitized pages, hundreds of hours of films, voice recordings and many photographs. Only a fraction of the archive has been digitized. It is expected to take several years to complete the process. However, already this is a great source for anyone looking for context for 1960s events in America such as civil rights, space flight, etc. Access is free. [John F. Kennedy Digital Archive]
UK – Ancestry has released a new data set called London Land Tax Valuations 1910, which as the name implies shows London tax records for 1910. These records list the owners and occupiers of a property, the address, the assessed property value and the annual rent. This data set is a good complement to census records, particularly if you are unable to locate London ancestors from the 1911 national census. It is also interesting to note that house prices in London have risen by almost 3,000 percent since 1910. This sounds like a big number, but it works out to an annual compound growth rate for London housing of only 3.5% over the last one hundred years. Access is by subscription. [London 1910 Property Tax Records]
US – Ancestry has launched a collection of Maine vital records. Birth records date from 1621 to 1922, marriage records from 1705 to 1922 and death records from 1617 to 1922. These records are transcriptions from the Maine State Archives. The records before 1892 are rather sparse. Although Ancestry doesn’t mention it on their website (and they should), before 1892 all births, marriages and deaths were not recorded at the state level in Maine. Individual towns and cities were responsible for keeping their own vital records. In the 1920s, the state made a formal request for copies of all the pre-1892 vital records from all the towns and cities in Maine in an attempt to reconstruct a more complete history for the state. Maine estimates that they were only able to collect about 20% of all the records. To put it another way, four out of five people are missing from the Maine State Archives (and thus the Ancestry collection) prior to 1892. Access to the Ancestry collection is by subscription. [Historic Maine Vital Records]
UK – Ancestry is putting online the 1911 census for England and Wales. It will roll it out in stages throughout 2011. The first part has already gone online (the census summary books). Access is by subscription. [England and Wales 1911 Census] If you can’t wait, FindMyPast already has the 1911 census online [FindMyPast 1911 Census]
Northern Ireland – The Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) has just released another batch of new genealogy records online. The latest batch includes probate registries (mainly wills) for the district of Armagh, Belfast and Londonderry. Access is free. [Northern Ireland Historic Probate Records] The records from this site can also be searched using our free Genealogy Search Engine.
Ireland – The website Irish Genealogy continues to add more Catholic church records to their website. The most recent update includes church records for Dublin City, Carlow, Cork and Kerry. Access is free. [Historic Irish Church Records] This is a wonderful site that can also be searched using our free Genealogy Search Engine.
US – The State Historical Society of Missouri has created an online database of thousands of historical articles, photographs and artwork (such as the example shown below) related to Missouri history. What will be particularly interesting to genealogists is that the society hopes to have 100,000 pages of historic newspapers online by the end of February. Included in the newspaper collection will be historic copies of the Kansas City Journal and the St. Louis Republic. Access is free. [Historic Missouri Newspapers]
George Bingham "In a Quandary"
Canada – Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has put online the Canada Gazette. This is the official newspaper of record for the federal government. The purpose of the Canada Gazette (which is still being published) is to inform Canadians of the operations of the government. Below is an historic example announcing the death of Queen Victoria. The Canada Gazette is full of information that can be useful to genealogists. A partial list would include:
• Naturalization lists from 1915 to 1951 (covering over 700,000 immigrants).
• Divorce application lists from federal courts.
• Military promotion lists for World Wars I and II.
• Landowner lists for select cities.
The searchable online database for the Canada Gazette goes back to 1841 and 95% of the issues have already been put online. Access is free. [Canada Gazette Historic Database]
