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The National Archive announces free access to its digital records

 

The National Archives (TNA) have announced that they are making digital records available on their website free of charge for as long as their Kew site is closed to visitors because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Registered users of the TNA's website will be able to order and download up to ten items at a time, to a maximum of 50 items over 30 days. The limits are there to try and help manage the demand for content and ensure the availability of TNA's digital services for everyone.

To access the service and download for free, users will be required to:

  • Register/sign in to their Discovery account before adding items to their basket (maximum ten items per basket)
  • Abide by the terms of TNA's fair use policy
  • Complete the order process to receive a download link, which will remain active for 30 days. (The link will also be saved in ‘Your orders’ in your account for 30 days)

The National Archive's usual terms of use still apply – digital copies can be downloaded for non-commercial private use and educational purposes only, and bulk downloads and web crawlers are not permitted.

For more information take a look at this on their website:

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/news/digital-downloads/

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Historic Cost Calculator from The National Archives

 

Ever wanted to know how much a sum of money was worth in the past?

The National Archives in the U.K. has this handy currency calculator on their website,

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency-converter/

 

So if you want to know how much £1 would have bought you in 1270 it reveals that it is the equivalent of £729.83 (2017 value).

But more than that you can see that your £1 would have bought you a horse, or two cows, or 7 stones of wool. If you wanted  6 quarters of wheet, then your £1 would buy you that amount. And if you were to find a skilled tradesman to employ in 1270 then for £1 he would give you 100 days of work. This shows that value of a sum of money can be very different depending on what it was used for as I doubt a skilled tradesman would work for 100 days for just shy of £730!

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Kensington & Chelsea 1910 Lloyd George Domesday Records with maps

  

 

Map Showing the areas covered in this latest release (red) and current total coverage (green)

 

TheGenealogist is releasing the field books and detailed annotated maps for Kensington and Chelsea as the next part of this exciting record set, The Lloyd George Domesday Survey - a resource that can be used to find where an ancestor lived in 1910. Covering the areas of Brompton, Chelsea East, Chelsea West, Holland Park, Notting Hill East, Notting Hill West and South Kensington the newly added records contain 49,608 individuals who owned or occupied property in this upmarket part of London.

 

This unique online combination of detailed maps and residential data held by The National Archives is being digitised by TheGenealogist and can locate where your ancestor’s house had been on large scale (5 feet to the mile) hand annotated maps which show the outlines of property plots.

 


Beatrix Potter's childhood home at 2 Bolton Gardens, Kensington

 

 

Details of the Potter’s lavish family home, including 6 bedrooms, 2 dressing rooms, 3 WCs and a servants hall

 

Previously, researchers would often not be able to find where ancestors lived for several reasons. Road names changed over time, the Blitz saw areas bombed to destruction, developers changed sites out of all resemblance from what had stood there before and lanes and roads were extinguished to build estates and office blocks. All this means that searching for where an ancestor lived using a website linked to modern maps can be frustrating when they fail to pinpoint where the old properties had once been.

 

  • TheGenealogist’s new release will link individual properties to extremely detailed ordnance survey maps used in 1910
  • Locate an address found in a census or street directory down to a specific house
  • Fully searchable by name, county, parish and street.
  • The maps will zoom down to show individual properties on roads as they existed in 1910

Complementing the maps on TheGenealogist are the accompanying field books that will also provide researchers with information relative to the valuation of each property, including the valuation assessment number, map reference, owner, occupier, situation, description and extent.

 

This huge project includes over 94,500 Field Books, each having hundreds of pages to digitise with associated large scale IR121 annotated OS maps, and is therefore ongoing.

 

The initial releases from TheGenealogist have begun in London and will continue to expand outwards across the country with cross linked maps wherever they are available.

 

Find out more at: TheGenealogist.co.uk/1910Survey/

 

Or read the feature article: Kensington and Chelsea Lloyd George Domesday Survey finds famous authors and actors https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2019/kensington-and-chelsea-lloyd-george-domesday-survey-finds-authors-and-actors-1069/

 

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