Welcome to the Family History Social

News from The National Archives (TNA)

Join The National Archives (TNA)'s experts as they introduce you to the key 20th century sources for family history, including the 1939 Register, and the census records.

You will learn how to maximise your use of these popular sources, setting you on your way to discover more about your family tree.

This webinar is presented by Jessamy Carlson, Family and Local history engagement lead at TNA.

Tuesday 16 May at 14:00

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/researching-your-family-history-20th-century-sources-tickets-546100309727

The 1871 Census for England, Scotland and Wales has, for the first time, been georeferenced on TheGenealogist. This is the process of linking a record to a geographical spot and means you can now see where a household stood with links to detailed maps on the powerful Map Explorer™. This is set to make investigating the places where ancestors lived in this year even more interesting for family and house historians. 

Viewing a household record from the 1871 census on TheGenealogist will now show a map pinpointing its location. Clicking through from this preview map opens the powerful Map Explorer™ with its georeferenced modern and historical maps. This then enables subscribers to explore their ancestors’ area in much greater detail than on other census sites.

1871 census household pinpointed on Map Explorer™ 

Joining the earlier census releases, which saw the 1911, 1901, 1891 and 1881 census linked up to the powerful mapping tool, researchers can now easily identify with just the click of a button where their forebears had once lived and get a sense of the routes their ancestors used. 

Using these linked maps allows researchers to trace the thoroughfares that ancestors may have walked down as they went shopping, or popped into their local pubs for a drink. Researchers can likewise, work out the routes that their forebears may have taken to get to their nearby churches, or find the shortest way to their places of work and the direction they needed to go in order to reach their nearby park for relaxation. Historical maps can also reveal where the nearest railway station was to their home, important for understanding how our ancestors could have travelled to other parts of the country to see relatives or to visit their hometown.

With this powerful resource, Starter, Gold and Diamond subscribers of TheGenealogist can look into their ancestors’ neighbourhood from home on their computer screens, or even access the census and the relevant maps on their mobile phone as they walk down the modern streets.

The Greater London Area, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire along with most towns and cities can be viewed down to the property level, while other parts of the country will identify down to the parish, road or street.

Albert Mansions and Albert Hall

In this particular census year, Queen Victoria opened the Royal Albert Hall, Gilbert and Sullivan premiered the first of their light opera collaborations at the Gaiety Theatre in London and a technologically advanced lighthouse was switched on near Tyne and Wear. 

Read TheGenealogist's article “Putting 1871 on the map” to discover more as Nick Thorne takes a look at events in 1871 and brings context to the census records. https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2023/putting-1871-on-the-map-1673/ 

About TheGenealogist

TheGenealogist is an award-winning online family history website, who put a wealth of information at the fingertips of family historians. Their approach is to bring hard to use physical records to life online with easy to use interfaces such as their Tithe and newly released Lloyd George Domesday collections. 

TheGenealogist’s innovative SmartSearch technology links records together to help you find your ancestors more easily. TheGenealogist is one of the leading providers of online family history records. Along with the standard Birth, Marriage, Death and Census records, they also have significant collections of Parish and Nonconformist records, PCC Will Records, Irish Records, Military records, Occupations, Newspaper record collections amongst many others.

TheGenealogist uses the latest technology to help you bring your family history to life. Use TheGenealogist to find your ancestors today!

It has been announce that RootsMagic 9 UK Edition, has been released. This is the latest version of the award-winning genealogy software which makes researching, organizing, and sharing your family history easy and enjoyable.

To celebrate this launch, for the first week S&N Genealogy Supplies are offering 20% off RootsMagic 9 UK Upgrade and 10% off RootsMagic 9 UK Standard and Platinum Edition Downloads - But HURRY, this offer ends 8th March!

To celebrate this launch, for the first week they are offering 20% off the RootsMagic 9 UK Upgrade - making it only £19.95! This is all you need if you have any previous version of RootsMagic.

https://genealogysupplies.com/product/Software-Downloads/RootsMagic-UK-Version-9-Upgrade-Download-PC-Mac/

TheGenealogist has once again expanded its Landowner and Occupier Collection with the release of over 134,000 new Lloyd George Domesday land tax records. This latest addition covers more than 355 square miles of Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, including areas around Watford, St Albans, and Hemel Hempstead, and extending up to Luton, Dunstable, and Toddington. The records provide a fascinating insight into the lives of our ancestors, enabling researchers to uncover the owners and occupiers of properties between 1910 and 1915, as well as details about the size, state of repair, and value of their homes.

The Corn Exchange, Luton

The scanned field book pages (IR58) have been meticulously linked to large scale Ordnance Survey maps from the time and are fully searchable by a person's name, county, parish, and street. TheGenealogist's powerful Map Explorer™ tool provides an easy way to switch between georeferenced modern and historical maps, allowing researchers to explore the area and see how it has changed over time.

• Individual property details can be found in these IR58 1910 Valuation Office records
  
• Fully searchable records by a person’s name, county, parish and street
  
• Survey books are linked to large scale maps used in 1910-1915 and viewable on the powerful Map Explorer™ 
  
• The historic OS maps locate individual plots georeferenced to a modern street map or satellite map underlay
  

Area covered by this release of Lloyd George Domesday Records

Included in this release are the IR58 property records for the following areas:

Abbots Langley, Aldbury, Aldenham, Barton, Berkhamsted Rural, Berkhamsted Urban, Billington, Bovingdon, Bushey and Oxhey, Caddington, Chalgrave, Dunstable, Eaton Bray, Eggington, Flamstead, Flaunden, Great Gaddesden, Harpenden, Heath and Reach, Hemel Hempstead, Houghton Regis, Hyde, Kensworth, Kings Langley, Leighton Buzzard, Linslade and Soulbury, Little Gaddesden, Luton, Markyate, Nettleden, Northchurch, Puttenham (Tring Rural), Puttenham (Tring Urban), Redbourn, Rickmansworth and Chorleywood, Ridge, Sarratt, St. Albans, St. Michael, Stanbridge, Streatley, Studham, Sundon, Tilsworth, Toddington, Totternhoe, Tring Urban, Tring Urban (Tring Rural), Watford and Wigginton.

Read TheGenealogist’s article: The “seeds” of the Ryder Cup in Land records for Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2023/the-seeds-of-the-ryder-cup-in-land-tax-records-for-hertfordshire-1668/ 

About TheGenealogist

TheGenealogist is an award-winning online family history website, who put a wealth of information at the fingertips of family historians. Their approach is to bring hard to use physical records to life online with easy to use interfaces such as their Tithe and newly released Lloyd George Domesday collections. 

TheGenealogist’s innovative SmartSearch technology links records together to help you find your ancestors more easily. TheGenealogist is one of the leading providers of online family history records. Along with the standard Birth, Marriage, Death and Census records, they also have significant collections of Parish and Nonconformist records, PCC Will Records, Irish Records, Military records, Occupations, Newspaper record collections amongst many others.

TheGenealogist uses the latest technology to help you bring your family history to life. Use TheGenealogist to find your ancestors today!

The February 2023 edition of Discover Your Ancestors periodical has been published.

See: https://discoveryourancestors.co.uk/current-issue/

In this magazine: 

Lonely hearts from history: As Valentine's Day returns, Jayne Shrimpton shows that small ads and dating services are not a new phenomenon...

Sign up today for only £24.99 and receive the following:

• 12 monthly issues of the Periodical
• Access to 500,000,000 birth, marriage and death records
• Free data: Titanic passenger list
• Free ebook: London 1823 Pigot's Directory

Subscribe today: https://discoveryourancestors.co.uk/subscribe/

TheGenealogist.co.uk has just added over 342,500 new records to the 1939 Register for England and Wales. Researchers can now see all people born in 1922 opened under the 100 year rule along with those who have passed away since the last release. 

TheGenealogist’s version of the 1939 Register is matched to its powerful mapping tool, Map Explorer™ so that researchers can see more accurately where their ancestor’s house was situated on maps down to house, street or parish level, giving more detail than ever before. With its SmartSearch family historians can discover even more from the records in the 1939 Register not just where their ancestors were living as the Second World War began in Britain, but potential birth and death records.

Sir Christopher Lee in the 1939 Register as a 17 year old

TheGenealogist’s unique and powerful search tools and SmartSearch technology offers a hugely flexible way to look for your ancestors at this time. Searching the 1939 Register on TheGenealogist also allows researchers to take advantage of some powerful search tools to break down brick walls. For example there is the ability to find ancestors in 1939 by using keywords, such as the individual’s occupation or their date of birth. Researchers may also search for an address and then jump straight to the household or, if you are struggling to find a family, you can even search using as many of their forenames as you know.

Having discovered a record in the 1939 Register, TheGenealogist then gives its subscribers the ability to click on the street name and so view all the residents in the road. This feature can be used to potentially discover relatives living in the area and can therefore boost your research with just a click.

The 342,543 newly opened records from the 1939 Register, linked to the detailed mapping tool on TheGenealogist, is a tremendous way for family historians to discover where their forebears lived in September 1939.

See TheGenealogist’s article: The “Count” and the Contessa found in the 1939 Register

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2023/the-count-and-the-contessa-found-in-the-1939-register-1661/ 

About TheGenealogist

TheGenealogist is an award-winning online family history website, who put a wealth of information at the fingertips of family historians. Their approach is to bring hard to use physical records to life online with easy to use interfaces such as their Tithe and newly released Lloyd George Domesday collections. 

TheGenealogist’s innovative SmartSearch technology links records together to help you find your ancestors more easily. TheGenealogist is one of the leading providers of online family history records. Along with the standard Birth, Marriage, Death and Census records, they also have significant collections of Parish and Nonconformist records, PCC Will Records, Irish Records, Military records, Occupations, Newspaper record collections amongst many others.

TheGenealogist uses the latest technology to help you bring your family history to life. Use TheGenealogist to find your ancestors today!

The Family History Show Online is just two weeks away on Saturday 18th February 2023 and the subjects of the expert talks have been announced for this year’s virtual event.

Featuring All New Talks for the show!

The Restless Spy: the Secret Life of Ernest Oldham

Nick Barratt - Historian, Author and Professional Genealogist

Exploring how to research and write your family history to publication standard using a real case study.

Walking in the footsteps of our ancestors

Keith Gregson - Professional Researcher & Social Historian

This talk explores how with research and the right tools you can step back in time looking at where your ancestors lived, worked and spent their leisure time. Follow the routes they may have taken on old maps and look at the views they may have seen.

The Techniques of Building a DNA Research Tree

Donna Rutherford - DNA Expert

Learn how to build out your tree for doing DNA research, with a look at different methods and ideas.

Understanding and Dating Photographs

Stephen Gill - Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society

Learn how to investigate and date your old photographs.

Professionally presented and recorded, these lectures are not just streamed screen shares, and each talk will be available for 72 hours, so don't worry if you're in another time zone. These presentations will cover a wide variety of family history topics from multiple speakers and will be available throughout the day.

The Family History Show Online, organised by Discover Your Ancestors magazine, is a great opportunity for you to put your research questions to an expert, watch free talks and to speak to family history societies, archives and genealogical suppliers by text, audio, video chat or email from the comfort of your own home.

Make a date in your diary and snap up an early bird ticket now for only £7! You'll also get a downloadable goody bag worth over £10.

Societies, Archives and Companies

Visit exhibitors, societies, archives and companies in our virtual exhibition hall. Here there will be the opportunity to talk to some of the stallholders by text, audio or video from the comfort of your own home.

Show Partners

SoG, AGRA, TheGenealogist, GenFair, S&N Genealogy Supplies

Early Bird Ticket Offer: Buy your tickets in advance and save - tickets to attend The Family History Show Online are available from the website at just £7.00 each. You will also get a FREE virtual goody bag on the day worth over £10. https://thefamilyhistoryshow.com/online/tickets/

The National Archives (TNA) has released almost 600 Cabinet Office files (PREM 49) that cover the period 2000-2002. Some 170 of which can be downloaded from Discovery on TNA's website

The newly released files shed light on a range of subjects both at home and abroad at the time when the government was led by Prime Minister Tony Blair. An example of the types of files that are being released include:

PREM 49/2352 USA. UK/US relations. This file contains a range of material in the wake of the US Presidential election in late 2000 and the victory of George W. Bush as the President.

Also included are files which cover the United Kingdom's relations with other countries including China, Japan, France, and South Africa.

Read more about the release in TNA’s blog: https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/stories-from-home-and-abroad-in-the-cabinet-office-file-release/

Press Release written by The Family History Show

We wanted to share some great news with you: The Family History Show is back online next month!

The success of last year’s online event, much appreciated in the family history community, has convinced the organisers of The Family History Show, Online to bring it back this February 2023. With new talks and all the features of a physical family history show, this virtual event can be easily accessed from around the world in the comfort of your own home.

The Family History Show, Online, organised by Discover Your Ancestors magazine, is busy making preparations for its return on Saturday 18th February 2023.

You'll have the opportunity to put your research questions to an expert, watch free talks and to speak to family history societies, archives and genealogical suppliers by text, audio, video chat or email from the comfort of your own home.

Make a date in your diary and snap up an early bird ticket now for only £7! You'll also get a downloadable goody bag worth over £10.

Save the date in your diary and snap up an early bird ticket now for only £7! You'll also get a downloadable goody bag worth over £10.

Featuring All New Talks

Watch the New Talks given by Nick Barratt – Historian Author and Professional Genealogist; Keith Gregson – Professional Researcher & Social Historian; Donna Rutherford – DNA Expert; and Stephen Gill – Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society (keep an eye out for further announcements about the content of each speaker’s presentation).

Societies, Archives and Companies

Visit exhibitors, societies, archives and companies in our virtual exhibition hall. Here there will be the opportunity to talk to some of the stallholders by text, audio or video from the comfort of your own home.

Show Partners

SoG, AGRA, TheGenealogist, GenFair, S&N Genealogy Supplies

Early Bird Ticket Offer

Buy your tickets in advance and save - tickets to attend The Family History Show Online are available from the website at just £7.00 each. You will also get a FREE virtual goody bag on the day worth over £10. https://thefamilyhistoryshow.com/online/tickets/

Press Release from TheGenealogist.co.uk:

TheGenealogist has today released 371,400 Kildare Catholic Parish Registers covering 323,923 records of baptisms, 46,914 marriages and 563 burials to make it easier for its Diamond subscribers to discover their Irish ancestors from this eastern part of Ireland.

Also released at this time are more than 29,000 individuals recorded as Irish Tithe Defaulters. These records from 1831 can be a useful stand-in for the 1831 Irish census which was almost completely destroyed in 1922. 

The Irish Anti Tithe Agitation The Affray at Carrickshock, 1831

Tithes were levied on all occupiers of agricultural land, no matter what their religion was and the Roman Catholic population of Ireland particularly resented paying these tithes to the Church of Ireland (the Established Church) on top of often supporting their own priests. Refusal to pay the tithes came to a head in the years 1831 to 1832, beginning what is known as the ‘Tithe War’ in Ireland.

To alleviate the Church of Ireland’s shortfall The Clergy Relief Fund was established in 1832 by the Recovery of Tithes (Ireland) Act 1832. This provided the affected clergy compensation in return for providing the government with the names of the defaulters.

Many of the non-payers named were ordinary folk such as labourers, farmers and widows who would most likely have been Roman Catholics and so not part of the congregation at their local Church of Ireland parish church, but surprisingly there are also Magistrates, Peers of the Realm and even Knights.

These new releases, now available to all Gold and Diamond subscribers of TheGenealogist will be a welcome resource for those family historians wanting to research their Irish ancestry.

Read TheGenealogist’s featured article: Can’t Pay or Won’t Pay – The Tithe Defaulters

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2023/cant-pay-or-wont-pay--the-tithe-defaulters-1651/ 

About TheGenealogist

TheGenealogist is an award-winning online family history website, who put a wealth of information at the fingertips of family historians. Their approach is to bring hard to use physical records to life online with easy to use interfaces such as their Tithe and newly released Lloyd George Domesday collections. 

TheGenealogist’s innovative SmartSearch technology links records together to help you find your ancestors more easily. TheGenealogist is one of the leading providers of online family history records. Along with the standard Birth, Marriage, Death and Census records, they also have significant collections of Parish and Nonconformist records, PCC Will Records, Irish Records, Military records, Occupations, Newspaper record collections amongst many others.

TheGenealogist uses the latest technology to help you bring your family history to life. Use TheGenealogist to find your ancestors today!