Welcome to the Family History Social

Pinpoint your English and Welsh Ancestors on the map

TheGenealogist has announced the completion of its project to link all the National Tithe Record Collection for England & Wales with its powerful Map Explorer™.

Family historians are now able to view their ancestors’ land and homes plotted on historic Tithe maps that have been georeferenced, allowing you to see the location on today's Modern Street and Satellite maps to see how the area has developed over time. 

Tithe record books and maps cover the majority of England and Wales and were created by the 1836 Tithe Commutation Act. This required tithes in kind to be converted to monetary payments, known as tithe rentcharges. The Tithe Survey was established to find out which areas were subject to tithes, who owned them, who occupied the various parcels of land, the usage of the land, how much was payable and to whom. These maps and apportionment books were the product of that survey and have been digitised by TheGenealogist.

Tithes usefully record all levels of society, from wealthy landowners to tenant farmers and cover the majority of England and Wales. They are a valuable resource for family and house historians as they can provide insights into land and property ownership, occupancy and usage, dating back before the first searchable census. 

TheGenealogist has painstakingly georeferenced their tithe maps, which means you can view them layered on top of modern day maps and satellite images, using their intuitive Map Explorer™. This allows you to pinpoint a record to the exact same location on various historical and modern maps, even when the landscape has completely changed over the years.

“This final release of the Welsh tithes marks the completion of our project.These records, in combination with Map Explorer, make it easier than ever to learn about our ancestors’ lives and the places they lived and worked.” Mark Bayley, Head of Online Content at TheGenealogist.

This week’s release adds to the many types of records that can be viewed in Map Explorer™. This includes the Lloyd George Domesday land tax records, the UK census 1871-1911, the 1939 Register, the Headstone Collection, War Memorials and the Image Archive.

To learn more about TheGenealogist’s powerful Map Explorer™, please visit https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/maps/

Feature Article Case Study

Read our feature article where we use the records on Map Explorer™ to take a look at Thomas Rees, an agricultural labourer, leader of the first Rebecca Riots and, under a unique Welsh tradition, a freeholder of a cottage that he built in one night!
https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2023/found-in-the-welsh-tithe-records-the-cottage-built-in-one-night-6801/

About TheGenealogist

TheGenealogist is an award-winning online family history website, which puts 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 and 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!

Over 1,100 square miles of searchable property records from the 1910s released

TheGenealogist has now completed the 1910s land tax records for Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. These Lloyd George Domesday Survey records are a fully searchable resource that family and house historians will find invaluable in their research. Using the field books and maps enables you to discover more about the type of property that your ancestors had once occupied and to see the actual location on a range of contemporary and modern maps.

[Bedford High Street]

Using the power of TheGenealogist’s Map Explorer™ family and house historians can now see the same georeferenced plot on a modern map and investigate how the area may have changed over the last hundred years or more, as well as click through to read the surveyor’s field book entries.

• Find individual properties on extremely detailed 1910-1915 maps, zoomable to the exact plot
• Discover fascinating details about the house; surveyor’s Field Books often revealing the size and number of its rooms
• See the features of the neighbourhood in which an ancestor lived on the historic maps
• Search using the Master Search or by clicking on the pins displayed on TheGenealogist’s powerful Map Explorer™ 
• View how an area changed over time as historic maps are layered over modern street maps 
• This ongoing project is set to cover the rest of England & Wales
• Available exclusively on TheGenealogist

The Lloyd George Domesday Survey records released this week means that TheGenealogist, with over 2 Million land tax records searchable online, now covers all the boroughs of Greater London plus  Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Oxfordshire and Middlesex.

Find out more about this record set: thegenealogist.co.uk/1910Survey

You can read TheGenealogist’s latest feature article: “Bernard Shaw’s house and an explorer’s family pile in Hertfordshire '' to find out more about this release.

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2023/bernard-shaws-house-and-an-explorers-family-pile-in-hertfordshire-6296/ 

About TheGenealogist

TheGenealogist is an award-winning online family history website, which puts 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 and 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!

Another whole county’s worth of Irish parish records now bolsters the record collections of TheGenealogist! Today, one of the leading providers of family history resources has added the records of 510,007 individuals from County Laois to its site in their latest release.

[County Laois, once known as Queen's County from 1556 to 1922]

County Laois, once known as Queen's County from 1556 to 1922, is a double landlocked county in the Eastern and Midland Region of the Republic of Ireland. As the Irish diaspora has spread out across the globe, especially during the terrible events of the Great Famine of 1845–49 which devastated the county at the time, many people from across the world will be able to trace their roots back to this part of Ireland.

Searching TheGenealogist’s transcriptions provides an easy way to find records which then provides a handy link to the National Library of Ireland (NLI) in order to see the digitised image of the actual register. TheGenealogist’s transcription greatly benefits from its powerful SmartSearch that can be used to identify possible siblings, as well as parent’s potential marriage details.

We have secured a great offer for our readers of a 6 months Diamond package for only £39.95 (after £40 Cashback) for a short time only - That's better than half price! https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/MGBPRS923

To find out more about how to use these records see TheGenealogist’s article:  Searching for ancestors in the Laois parish records

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2023/searching-for-ancestors-in-the-laois-parish-records-5099/

About TheGenealogist

TheGenealogist is an award-winning online family history website, which puts 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!

Discover judges, barristers and other court officials in Lawyer lists from 1780 to 1911

Finding that an ancestor belongs to a profession or occupation can be a great way into researching a family tree. Many of them will be recorded in specially produced lists or directories, such as those lawyer lists that are being released online today by TheGenealogist.

For researchers with forebears that belonged to the legal profession, a great set of new historical data has just joined the ever expanding Occupational Record set on TheGenealogist. These book records can give family historians fascinating facts about an ancestor, often revealing to researchers useful details of their lives beyond simply their professional particulars. 

[The Royal Courts of Justice, London]

These resources can be used to reveal:

• addresses of ancestors in the legal profession
• confirm or unearth relevant dates
• some biographical entries will even give names of other family members
• schools and universities that forebears attended
• the qualifications that an ancestor had gained
• details of judges and lawyers involved in an ancestor’s cases
  
  

With the release of thousands of records online Diamond subscribers of TheGenealogist can now look for members of legal professionals in a number of listings with a legal flavour from 1780 to 1911.

Read TheGenealogist’s article, An Ancestor Bar None:

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2023/an-ancestor-bar-none-4119/ 

About TheGenealogist

TheGenealogist is an award-winning online family history website, which puts 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!

Over 1,000 square miles of searchable property records have been released

Today sees the launch of a superb new resource for family historians, providing a great way to discover what type of property our ancestors once occupied. TheGenealogist has just added records covering every head of household and property owner in Oxfordshire around the period 1910-1915 with their latest release. Known as the Lloyd George Domesday Survey, the site now has over 2 Million records searchable online from this collection, covering all boroughs of Greater London plus Middlesex, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and West Hertfordshire, along with the newly added Oxfordshire.

High Street, Oxford TheGenealogist’s Image Archive

The records were created when one of the most important government surveys took place in Britain as a result of David Lloyd George’s 1910 Finance Act. The Board of Inland Revenue Valuation Office Survey, or The Lloyd George Domesday Survey as the records have become known, is safely held by The National Archives at Kew. 

Following many years of collaboration between The National Archives’ conservation and records team and TheGenealogist’s digitization staff at Kew, the project to publish these records, comprising of the IR 58 Field Books and accompanying IR 121 to IR 135 Ordnance Survey maps, has now reached a major landmark.

This latest release of Oxfordshire records from The National Archives joins the millions of records in TheGenealogist’s powerful tool, Map Explorer™.

• The Lloyd George Domesday Survey identifies individual properties on extremely detailed 1910-1915 maps, zoomable to the exact plot
• The surveyors’ field books provide fascinating details about the house, often revealing the size and number of its rooms
• Maps reveal the features of the neighbourhood in which an ancestor lived
• Search using the Master Search or by clicking on the pins displayed on TheGenealogist’s powerful Map Explorer™ 
• Historic maps are layered over modern street maps, allowing you to see how an area changed over time
• The project will expand to cover the rest of England & Wales

Dr Jessamy Carlson, Family & Local History Engagement Lead at The National Archives, said:

“The Valuation Office maps are a key resource for house and local history, and this project is an exciting development for future research. Oxfordshire is an excellent addition to this growing set of online resources, and the variety of residences it covers reveals some fascinating insights into communities before the First World War.”

Mark Bayley, Head of Online Content at TheGenealogist, said:

“This release marks a major milestone in the Lloyd George Domesday Project, with now over 2 Million records available for family historians to search. These records enable genealogists and researchers to gain insights and reveal the intricacies of our ancestors' homes, gardens and property ownership.”

Oxfordshire is the latest release of TheGenealogist’s Lloyd George Domesday Records

Visit thegenealogist.co.uk/1910Survey for more information.

Read TheGenealogist’s article in which these records were used to find the property of Oxford resident William Morris: The Cyclist Champion who built a Car Empire

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2023/the-cyclist-champion-who-built-a-car-empire-3795/

About TheGenealogist

TheGenealogist is an award-winning online family history website, which puts 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 and 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!

TheGenealogist has just released a significant batch of The Jewish Chronicles from the First World War and The Jewish Echo (Scotland and Ireland’s only Jewish paper from the time) covering years during the build up to World War 2.

These newspapers offer the opportunity to traverse through time and witness the pivotal moments that shaped the lives of the Jewish community throughout the war. Accompanying this great resource are the seatholders for the Crosby Street Synagogue in New York, with fascinating details of how it came to be. These records join the substantial holdings of Jewish records on TheGenealogist, including Seatholders of London Synagogues between 1920 and 1939, The Jewish Year Books from 1896 to 1939 and the Jewry Book of Honour (1914-1918).

• Researchers can use these resources to find Jewish ancestors in the news
• Learn what was happening from community notifications
• Find Births, Deaths, Engagements, Marriages, Obituaries and Wills
• Unearth dates for Bar Mitzvahs 
• Track down when Tombstones were to be Set
• Discover relatives that contributed to the many charitable funds supporting victims of the War
• Learn about ancestors’ Military Promotions and listings in Casualty Lists

Read TheGenealogist’s article on how we used records in this release to set history straight and discover the truth about a WW1 Aviator, Businessman and Playboy:

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2023/setting-history-straight--discovering-the-truth-about-a-ww1-aviator-businessman-and-playboy-3261/ 

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!

ScotlandsPeople have announced that four volumes of Lightkeepers Records, spanning 84 years (1837-1921) have been added to their website. Sourced from the Lightkeeper registers of the Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses,  2,047 images capturing the entries of 1,363 lightkeepers can now be searched online. 

Lightkeepers can be searched by name, age and the year they entered service. Alternatively, searches can be undertaken by searching for the name of a specific lighthouse, the county or locality.

https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/advanced-search/employment-records#record-type

TheGenealogist has just released a range of records that will appeal to many British family historians with seafaring roots. As an island nation, we have seen countless ancestors go to sea, especially in the two World Wars. Whether our forebears served in merchant vessels or in warships, this latest release has records of interest for those with both types of sailors in their family trees.

Researchers can use these records to reveal names, dates and information about ancestors who were recorded in a number of Navy Lists for the Royal Navy (RN) that cover both WW1 and WW2. Family historians looking for Merchant Navy (MN) mariners killed or who died on service in WW1 will also find something in this release for them, as well as gaining access to names for merchant seamen honoured with medals and awards between 1914-1918. 

For those who have lost seafarers, whether in either the Royal Navy or the Merchant Navy, then this collection of records is a useful addition. Family history researchers will be able to look for ships that were sunk. The new resources include Merchant Shipping Losses 1914-1918, and the British Merchant Vessels Lost or Damaged by Enemy Action During the Second World War 1939-1945. For the Senior Service’s vessels, the Returns Showing the Losses of Ships of the Royal Navy 1914-1918 will give details of the ship and where it was sunk.

Fully searchable by name or keyword from TheGenealogist’s Master Search. The new additions include records from a variety of sources, including:

• The Navy List 1914
• The Navy List January 1916
• The Navy List April 1918
• The Navy List August 1937
• The Navy List October 1937
• The Navy List July 1943
• The Navy List April 1945
• Return Showing the Losses of Ships of the Royal Navy 1914-1918
• Merchant Adventurers 1914-1918
• Merchant Shipping Losses 1914-1918
• British Merchant Vessels Lost or Damaged by Enemy Action During Second World War 1939-1945

To learn more about how this collection of records helped in the research of a mariner whose daring deeds earned him a VC read TheGenealogist’s article: Under the “Red Duster” and the White Ensign.

https://thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2023/under-the-red-duster-and-the-white-ensign-2246/ 

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 seems to have been a long time coming!

The General Register Office (GRO) for England and Wales has just announced that family history researchers can now get instant-access images of birth records from 1837-1922 and deaths from 1837-1887.

Civil birth and death registration records from selected years are now available as instant-access digital images via the GRO's website at: https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/login.asp

Civil registration in this part of the UK began in 1837 for Births, Marriages and Deaths (BMDs) and until now researchers could not get an instant-access digital image. 

Family history researchers have previously had to make do with ordering records as either a print record for £11, or as a PDF for £7. At this price you would need the GRO index references and then have a wait of up to four working days for orders to be despatched.

However, the GRO has now launched a scheme for births from 1837 to 1922 and deaths from 1837 to 1887 to be available as digital images (JPEGS). The online service is the cheapest and simplest way of placing an order but you do still need to order with the GRO index reference number. Their website says that it takes around 10 minutes and you’ll need a debit or credit card and the JPEG cost £2.50.

- Find out more about ancestors who were writers, artists, actors and more

A new release of records by family history website TheGenealogist allows English, Scottish and Welsh family historians to discover useful information on a myriad of people. From ancestors who were writers, artists, actors and many other professions, this collection opens up the lives of these people for the researcher. 

Using entries recorded in a number of biographical resources Diamond subscribers of TheGenealogist can fill in gaps with tantalising facts about the person. Facts which can lead on to all sorts of other records and avenues for investigation.

[Biographical Records from TheGenealogist]

The name rich resources that make up this release augment TheGenealogist’s already extensive Occupational Records. Fully searchable by name or keyword from TheGenealogist’s Master Search, the new records come from a variety of publications, including:

• Contemporary Biographies at the Opening of the 20th Century, Volume I
• Contemporary Biographies at the Opening of the 20th Century Volume II
• The Green Room Book 1907
• The Dramatic List 1879
• The Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook 1908
• The Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography 1863

Researchers can use these records to fill in gaps in the lives of individuals, discover stories and anecdotes about the person, read facts which may lead you on to research other records and point you towards more avenues for investigation.

To learn more about how this collection of records helped us in the research of A Child Actress who Managed The Prince of Wales’s Royal Theatre read our article here:

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2023/a-child-actress-who-managed-the-prince-of-waless-royal-theatre-2051/