New Genealogy Records
Below is a listing of the new genealogy records that have recently become available on the internet:
March 2010
UK – DeceasedOnline has digitized approximately 230,000 new burial and cremation records from the city of Cambridge, the town of Gainsborough (Lincolnshire) and the London borough of Brent. The site is free to search with a pay-per-view policy to view the actual records. [Link]
UK – The British Library is expanding an archive of defunct UK websites that have historical value to the country. The library was tasked in 2003 with the responsibility of keeping at least one copy of all electronic material produced within the UK. This includes such items as compact disks and online publications. However, this archival mandate has been on the backburner until a recent report highlighted that the British Library had managed to archive only about 6,000 out of an estimated 8 million UK websites. Included in the existing archive are primarily high-profile websites such as now-bankrupt companies like Woolworths. By comparison, several other countries ( Australia, New Zealand, Finland and Portugal) have more aggressive programs to archive their national web material. Access to the British Library website archive is free. [Link] Alternately, the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive has snapshots of websites going back in time. It is not always 100% complete, but it will have more breadth than the British Library archive. [Link]
US – The Internet Archive has placed the US 1930 census online for free. Most states have been put online with the remaining records to be added in the near future. There is no index however available for this free census. You have to know where your ancestors lived. [Link] If you know your ancestor's street name, but not the Enumeration District (ED), you can use Steve Morse’s website to find the ED. [Link]
UK – FindMyPast has added one million new London parish records covering the period 1813 to 1890. This brings the total number of baptism, marriage and burial records at the site to some 24 million. This website is also the only one that has the complete collection of England 1841 to 1911 censuses. Access is by subscription. [Link]
UK – The British Library has begun a three-year project to create an online archive of British science. Included will be an audio library of recordings of prominent British scientists. This archive project was prompted by the fact that in the past 10 years there have been nine British Nobel prize winners who have died without leaving a significant archive of their work. The archive will be appear on the main British Library archive page when it becomes available. [Link]
US – The University of North Carolina has put online yearbooks from the university covering the period 1890 to 1966. Access is free. [Link]
February 2010
England – FamilyRelatives has put online more than five million parish records from around 60 parishes across England. The indexed records range from 1538 to 1900 and cover baptisms, marriages and burials. Access is by subscription. [Link]
Vatican – This is a preannouncement. The Catholic news agency Zenit reports that the Vatican is planning to soon publish online free of charge about 5,125 documents from the closed section of the Vatican Archives (the so-called Secret Vatican Archives). The documents span the critical period during World War II (specifically March 1939 to May 1945). This archive is likely to draw considerable world interest when it is released given that it will touch on sensitive issues surrounding the relationship between the Vatican and the Nazi regime. It may help provide context on relatives lost during the war.[Link]
UK – The National Health Service Information Centre has made available on its website application forms to access the 1939 Schedule, essentially an emergency census taken on the night of 29 September 1939 at the start of World War II. The census covers England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Information collected included full name, gender, date of birth, profession, home address, marital status and whether the person was a member of the UK Armed Forces. The 1939 Schedule provided unusually complete coverage of the UK population because every citizen was compelled to complete the questionnaire. National identity cards and call lists for military service were based on the 1939 Schedule. A couple of things to note. These records are only available now due to successful access-to-information requests from British genealogists. Consequently, records will only be released for deceased individuals. Also, the records appear to be in a somewhat disorganized state (particularly for Northern Ireland). As a result, there is a £42 fee per application to cover the cost of a manual search. [Link]
Netherlands – The Meertens Institute has put online all 314,000 surnames from the 2007 Dutch census. Also available are results for the 100,000 surnames from the 1947 Dutch census. The surnames are shown on distribution maps for the country. Also available are details on the origin of Dutch names, spelling variations, older forms of surnames and links to genealogy websites that specialize in the surname. See the sample search result below for the surname Jansen. This is a very useful site for tracking down Dutch surnames. Note: the main search page is available in English with the detailed search results available in Dutch only. The links are in red, as shown in the image below. [Link]
US – Footnote’s Genealogy Archives and Holocaust Archives are now available on EBSCO, which is a company that provides databases to libraries and schools. Most public libraries in North America subscribe to EBSCO. This means that Footnote’s main genealogy database may now be available free of charge at your local library.
Belgium – FamilySearch has now completed indexing and putting online the Belgium death registries. [Link]
US – The New York Public Library launched a new historic map website this week. This free site takes online historical maps (mainly from New York State) and overlays it on top of Google maps. This is a very useful tool for genealogists that have ancestors from the New York area. The site does take a bit of time to understand though (it is still in beta), so it is worth looking at the video tutorial. [Link announcing the new site and describing how it works][Link to site]
Scotland – The website Graham Maxwell Ancestry provides free census search for the 1841, 1851 and 1861 Scottish census. Only some Scottish counties are included, but fortunately the site has just been updated with expanded coverage. The nice thing about this website (other than being free, a bit of a rarity for Scottish genealogy) is how they have linked census records to Google maps so you can get a modern view of where your ancestors lived. [Link]
US – Footnote has partnered with the National Archives to release a collection of some 100,000 US Army photos taken during the Vietnam War. Each picture is captioned with the names of the soldiers featured in the photo. Access to this archive is free for the month of February. [Link]
Germany/Europe – Google Earth announced a new historical imagery feature this week that allows you to compare historical aerial images taken during World War II to aerial images from today. The images cover much of central and Eastern Europe. Germany is particularly well covered. You can read all about it on the official Google blog. [Link] You can also read a specific Google blog post written about aerial images of Warsaw, Poland taken in 1935, 1945 (before and after the war) and today. [Link]
Canada – Google’s News Archive has put online 2.5 million articles from the Ottawa Citizen going back as far as 1890. This searchable archive is free, but it should be noted that there appears to be some time gaps in the coverage. As shown below, simply enter the Source as “Ottawa Citizen” (highlighted in red) and then your search terms (highlighted in green). [Link]
January 2010
US – The Ohio Obituary Index is now available on Ancestry for those people who have an Ancestry subscription. You can still access this database for free by going to the Rutherford B. Hayes website. [Link]
Australia – To help celebrate Australia day, the website Ancestry is making available two million Australian convict records for free until the end of January. [Link] As we mentioned in our January 9th edition of our Genealogy This Week column, an estimated 23% of Australians are descended from convicts. You can also click on the image below to get a free trial subscription that lasts a couple of weeks.
New Zealand – FamilySearch has updated their New Zealand immigration passenger lists from 1871 to 1915. Access is free. [Link]
US – Footnote has almost finished the US 1930 federal census (97% complete). Footnote has also added several new free collections spanning various periods in American history. Check out the really cool collection of Apollo Mission photographs. Access to the census data is by subscription. [Link]
Australia – The National Library of Australia’s Australian Newspaper website has now indexed almost 14 million newspaper articles. The website has newspapers from all across Australia covering the time period from 1803 (for Sydney) to 1954. The site is still technically in beta and has a couple of quirky bugs (for example, highlights sometimes run through the middle of newspaper articles), but in general the site is well laid out with excellent navigation. Australian Newspapers expects to have 40 million articles indexed by the end of 2011. Access is free. [Link]
US – Ancestry has released a substitute for the US 1950 census. The real 1950 census can not be released until April 2022, exactly 72 years after it was taken. Ancestry created their 1950 census substitute by aggregating information from more than 2,500 US city directories spanning the year 1950. City directories were the precursor to modern-day telephone books. A typical city directory from 1950 would list the name and address of each adult in a household along with their occupation and work address. Access is by subscription. If you already have a subscription, you can access the 1950 census substitute database directly from here or if you are new to Ancestry click on the image below to get a free trial subscription.
UK/India – The Families in British India Society (FIBIS) has added more military records of UK servicemen based in Bombay. FIBIS now has some 183,000 records of British citizens resident in India during the colonial years. The records are free to search although most are not indexed. It helps to know what your ancestors did in India and where they lived. [Link]
US – GenealogyBank has started an African-American newspaper collection. The first phase has already been rolled out and includes 61 US newspapers with an African-American focus covering the period from 1827 to 1999. The newspapers are searchable for births, obituaries, marriage announcements, etc. Eventually, GenealogyBank plans to have over 280 African-American newspapers on its website. Access is by subscription. [Link]
Argentina – FamilySearch has put online the complete 1869 Argentinean national census. Over 1 million records have been indexed. Access is free. [Link]
England – FamilySearch has improved and strengthened the indexes for some 4.7 million Cheshire, England parish records and bishop transcripts. The records cover a broad period from 1530 to 1900. Access is free. [Link]
US – The Minnesota Official Marriage System (MOMS) has just gone online. This is a state-wide marriage index that covers 87 participating counties. About 80% of all of Minnesota’s marriage records have already been added to this system and more records are being added daily. The records go back well into the 1800s. You can search by last name, date range and (if necessary) county. The system has some interesting quirks. For example, you can only enter the first ten characters of a first or last name, but it seems to find all the records that match for longer names. It is free to search online although there is a fee to order copies of the marriage certificates. [Link]
US: The Oregon State Archives has released a new searchable database of over 100,000 settlers who lived in Oregon prior to statehood. Most of the information in the database is from the period 1800 to 1860. The database was constructed backwards in time starting with information collected from the 1850 and 1860 federal censuses of the Oregon territory. This information was then supplemented with additional records including marriage records, death records, probate records and other official and semi-official records. Information was also incorporated from various publications and secondary sources. Access is free. [Link]
US: The New York State Military Museum online more than 50,000 pages of New York National Guard reports dating between 1858 and 1955. This is a good source for biographical information on higher-ranking officers, many of whom were profiled in the various publications. Access is free. [Link]
US: The University of North Carolina has a new Digital Library on American Slavery. The online archive contains detailed personal information on slaves, slaveholders and free people of color. The searchable database spans records between 1775 and 1867 in all 15 slaveholding states. Access is free. [Link]
US: Hamilton County, Ohio (which covers the city of Cincinnati) has put online over 1 million probate court documents dating back as far as 1791. Included are birth records, death records, marriage records as well as estate records and naturalization records, etc.. Check out the actor Spencer Tracy’s marriage record here when he was first married at the age of 23. Access is free. [Link]
December 2009
US: The University of Delaware library has increased its online digital collection of material from the American Civil War. Included in the new collections are lithographic prints and photographs from the Civil War. Access is free. [Link]
Scotland: FamilyRelatives.com has added over 250,000 Scottish trade records from 1889. These records contain lists of professionals, landowners, farmers, nobility, gentry and clergy including the addresses of the individuals listed. Access is by subscription. [Link]
Germany: Ancestry has put online the World War I Bavarian Personnel Rosters. These records show the military service records of 1.5 million German soldiers in World War I. Included is the First World War service record of Adolf Hitler. Access is by subscription. You can click on the image below to get a free trial subscription.
Canada: The New Brunswich Provincial Archives website has put online 65,000 new government documents from 1786 to 1833. This website contains about 1.8 million records, including historic vital statistic records (birth, marriages, etc.) [Link]
US: The US Army Heritage and Education Center has unveiled a digitized collection of some 23,000 Civil War photographs. This collection of Civil War photos is considered by historians to be the best and most extensive collection in the world. Known as the MOLLUS Massachusetts Photograph Collection, it contains many photographic portraits of individuals. Access is free. [Link]
Ireland: The Irish Times newspaper is making their digital archives free until December 14, 2009 in honour of their 150th anniversary. The archives run from 1859 to the present. This is an excellent source for the usual genealogy newspaper announcements such as births, deaths, etc. Hurry if you want to take advantage of the free offer. [Link]
UK: This is a pre-announcement. The Financial Times historical archive will launch in January 2010. Every article, advertisement and market listing ever printed by the UK's leading business newspaper from 1888 to 2006 will be available in searchable form. If you are keen, you can register now for a pre-trial. [Link]
UK: FindMyPast.com has now completed indexing the 1851 UK census. FindMyPast.com is now the only website that has the complete collection of England and Wales census records from 1841 to 1911 inclusive. Searching is free but there is a fee to view transcripts and original records. Alternatively, most Family History Centers offer access to FindMyPast.com at no charge. [Link]
November 2009
Canada: Ancestry has now completed indexing Canadian ship passenger lists from 1919 to 1924. Ancestry now has the complete passenger lists of ocean arrivals from 1865 to 1935. Access is by subscription. You can click on the image below to get a free trial subscription.
UK: Ancestry has put online the Gretna Green, Scotland marriage registers from 1795 to 1895. Gretna Green was a popular place for young English couples to get married because it was just across the border from England. At the time, the age of consent was 21 years in England but just 16 years in Scotland. Couples younger than 21 required both sets of parents to consent to a marriage in England, something which could not always be obtained. Many young English couples simply avoided the problem by going to Gretna Green, Scotland to get married. Access is by subscription. You can click on the image above to get a trial subscription.
US: GenealogyBank has added an additional 100 million new newspaper articles in fully searchable form. The additions come from newspapers in New Orleans (1837-1942); Cleveland (1845-1955); Trenton, NJ (1883-1973); Seattle (1923-1939); Dallas (1885-1978) and Augusta, Georgia (1783-1977). Access is by subscription. [Link]
Europe: The UK's World War II aerial photographic archive has finally been opened to the public. Known as The Aerial Reconnaissance Archives (TARA), it contains more than ten million declassified aerial reconnaissance images taken by Allied forces during the war. Offering a fascinating way to view your ancestor's homes and landscapes at a pivotal point in history, this is a compelling website. Aerial photographs circa 1940s are currently available for the following countries: Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands and Poland. The site also offers mosaics, whereby historic city images are overlaid with with modern satellite images. This is a very useful tool to help people locate their ancestor's home. Access to most low-resolution images on this government website is free. Access to high-resolution aerial photographs requires a subscription. The website has a limited-time special offer of a two-year subscription for £15. [Link]
US: Footnote.com has launched a Native American records collection. The collection contains more than 1.8 million records. Included are Indian census rolls (which include name, age, place or residence and degree of Indian blood); ratified Indian treaties; Dawes packets (applications to establish Indian eligibility) and Dawes enrollment cards (1898 to 1914). The focus of much of the collection appears to be on Midwest Indian tribes. Access is by subscription. [Link]
Brazil: FamilySearch has digitized almost 600,000 Catholic Church records in Brazil from 1805 to 1979 (birth, baptism, marriage, etc.). This is an ongoing project where the digital images will be indexed over time. [Link]
UK: FamilyRelatives has added 1 million new military records from 1808 to World War I. Access is by subscription. [Link]
October 2009
Scotland: The National Library of Scotland has put online free air photo surveys of Scotland taken at the end of the Second World War. These historic air photos can be overlaid with Google Maps to see how the landscape has changed over the past 50 years. A fun tool for any genealogist. [Link]
US: The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) and the University of Virginia have put online 5,000 previously unpublished documents from the founders of America. Included are letters and papers of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson amongst others. It is interesting, for example, to spend some time reading online the diaries of George Washington. Access is free. [Link]
UK: Ancestry has put online the UK Incoming Passenger Lists for 1878 to 1960. The collection spans 82 years and contains 18 million records of immigrants and tourists who arrived in the UK during this period. Each record includes the passenger's name, age, occupation and intended address in the UK. During much of the time period covered by the collection, citizens of British colonies were able to freely migrate to the UK under British Nationality Law. Many citizens of British colonies migrated to the UK in search of jobs and a better life. For example, 2.6 million of the 18 million records are of Canadians who migrated or traveled to the UK during this period. Access is by subscription. You can click on the image below to get a free trial subscription.
Wales: The National Library of Wales has digitized and indexed over 190,000 wills, most of which date before 1858. Prior to this date, it was common for wills filed with the Welsh ecclesiastical courts to be deposited at the Welsh National Library. The vast majority of the wills are written in English. A potentially excellent way to trace your Welsh ancestors. Access is free. [Link]
Argentina: FamilySearch has completed indexing the 1895 Argentina census and has updated the indexing and images for the 1869 Argentina census. Access is free. [Link]
Ireland: The Irish National Archives has launched a new collection of 70 historic Irish maps dating from 1558 to 1610. This spans the period of time when the English were colonizing Ireland. These colorful and fascinating maps were often used as a tool by English colonists who were claiming land ownership from native Irish residents. The maps were also used by the English government to inform and influence government policy. The time period also coincides with the rise of mapmaking as a profession and many of the maps show amazing and colorful details such as rabbits and other woodland creatures. For anyone with Irish ancestry, these maps are definitely worth looking at. Access is free. [Link]
Mexico: FamilySearch has substantially completed indexing the 1930 Mexican census. Access is free. [Link]
Europe: The US National Archives and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum have partnered with Footnote.com to create an interactive database with over one million Holocaust-related records. The collection includes interactive personal stories from the Holocaust Museum; Concentration Camp maps, stories and facts; reference to looted Holocaust valuables and original documents and photos from the National Archives. Access to the collection on Footnote.com is free for the month of October. [Link]