TheGenealogist has now completed transcribing birth, marriage and death records for England and Wales giving a third of a billion fully searchable records. These are also linked into their unique 'SmartSearch' facility taking you through a person’s life events.
This release marks the completion of a hugely successful project for TheGenealogist, now providing family historians with fully transcribed BMD records dating back to the start of civil registration in 1837.
What makes this unique is the linked in ‘SmartSearch’ feature, which makes life even easier for the family historian.
Mark Bayley, Head of Online Content, explains: "The transcriptions allow us to harness the full power of 'SmartSearch' and allow our users to swiftly jump from one record to the next. It's now possible to move through your ancestral line with unparalleled speed. No other site makes searching for your ancestors so straightforward."
There's more details on the completion of this project at www.TheGenealogist.co.uk
Family History Social has received news of a new online genealogy magazine now available in the UK. The magazine is 'Discover Your Ancestors', the quality genealogy publication previously only available in print as an annual magazine.
Now this valuable content can be enjoyed all year round by family historians.
'Discover Your Ancestors Periodical', online magazine now available
You can subscribe to the online magazine which will be monthly. It's well worth taking a look.
If you are interested in subscribing to 'Discover Your Ancestors Periodical', you will find details here
According to the Editor, Andrew Chapman, if you subscribe today you will also receive, for free, access to more than half a billion index records, the complete Titanic Passenger lists and a PDF copy of The History of Signboards. This is a fascinating account during times of limited education when signs were used instead of wording for identification. This book explores the meaning of these signs.
Each month new free data sets will be made available to subscribers of Discover Your Ancestors Periodical to help move your research on at pace.
The new monthly online magazine represents great value for money at just £1 a month for over 20 beautifully designed pages of high-quality research advice, social history, places in focus, book reviews and much more.
This forthcoming Saturday (4th May 2013), sees Gloucestershire Family History Society holding their Fair and Open Day. It's at Gloucester Rugby Club, Kingsholm Stadium, Kingsholm Road Gloucester GL1 3AX. Entrance is free and car parking is free. There's a selection of speakers including Dr Nick Barratt and Martin Davies from Gloucester Rugby Heritage and a number of exhibitors including the SoG Census Detectives, Hidden Heritage and S&N Genealogy . There's more details here. It should be an event well worth attending. Are you going?
Gloucester Family History Society Fair and Open Day
The fire over the weekend on the roof of the National Library of Wales seems to have unfortunately damaged some of the new collections housed there. The fire broke out on the roof and the water used to put out the flames unfortunately soaked through and damaged some of the valuable collections stored there.
The library has millions of books plus manuscripts, archives, maps, pictures, photographs, films and music.
Some of the damaged items have been taken to Oxford by a team of salvage experts to hopefully restore. There's more at the BBC website.
Latest news from The National Archives is on the 30th April they will switch off their old catalogue, and 'Discovery' will become the only way to search TNA collections.
The Catalogue was a groundbreaking tool when first launched over a decade ago. However, the TNA reached the point where it was no longer practical or cost-effective to maintain or update it, and started work three years ago on building a new catalogue: Discovery.
Both catalogues were kept operational to allow users to get to grips with the new version. However, TNA has now said due to budget cuts it can no longer maintain two systems so the old catalogue is to be switched off on the 30th April and Discovery will be the only way to search the vast collections. There's more information here.
Which system do you prefer? A number of family historians have not been that impressed with the new Discovery catalogue system and preferred the old one!
Here's our tip for the week. Once you have collected those precious documents, photos and other memorabilia as part of your family history research, it's worth remembering to keep it safe and protected! For example, standard PVC sleeves can suffer from leaching of plasticizer, which will lift print off pages and ruin your valuable material.
To ensure that your collection of certificates and research documents are preserved in pristine condition, they should be kept in specialist binders with inert, archival quality sleeves. This keeps them in the best condition possible whilst still making them accessible, should you need to check your sources or share your research with friends and family.
I use the binders from S&N Genealogy Supplies. I particularly like the new A4 Springback binders they offer. Unlike ring binders, you don't have to punch any holes in the paper - you simply choose the sheets you want, fold the covers of the binder back, and place the paper into the spine. You can add or remove pages as many times as you like.
This binder has hardback covers with an acid-free lining, and has a 25mm capacity, which can hold up to 200 A4 pages. There's more details available here. Do you have any tips or advice that you use to protect all your valuable research?
Oxfordshire Family History Society has launched a new project offering two free DNA tests to members of their society. It is open to members only who have at least 3 generations of Oxfordshire ancestors going back into the mid-19th century or earlier.
All you have to do is submit 400-600 words on why you feel a DNA test would be useful to help you discover more about your Oxfordshire family/families using DNA, including a short summary on your family and your family history 'brick walls'. Send to [email protected] before 30th May 2013. Terms and conditions apply and are available from the Editor of the Oxfordshire society.
If you are not yet a member of the family history society, but have Oxfordshire ancestors and want to enter the competition, then why not join? It's well worth the cost of the membership to have a chance of winning a DNA test. See www.ofhs.org.uk for membership details.
If you'd like more information in general regarding DNA testing for family history research, please use this link.
Latest news from the National Archives is the proposed new release of more colonial administration records, covering the many territories under British administration before they gained independence. The National Archives is working with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to transfer and begin releasing these records, referred to as the 'migrated archives', between April 2012 and November 2013.The records cover a wide range of subject matter relating to colonial administration. The material reflects events in the territories generally pre-independence and reflects Her Majesty's Government's views at the time.The records are being released in tranches. The fifth tranche of files will be made available on site at The National Archives from Friday 26 April 2013. This release will contain records from Ceylon, Kenya, Malta, Mauritius, New Hebrides, Nigeria, Northern Rhodesia, Nyasaland, Palestine, Sierra Leone and Singapore.
Well worth taking a look if you had ancestors living in these countries pre-independence! There's more on the National Archives website.
The programme of local family history fairs for 2013 starts off with a 'Family history day' this Sunday 14th April, run by the Northern branch of the Wiltshire Family History Society. It runs from 10am to 3pm and is at the Haydon Centre, Haydon Wick, Swindon. There's a talk on 'The workhouse- the lot of the poor' by Barbara Fuller and 'Asylums and their Records' by David Chilton.
It promises to be a good day, if you're in the area, it's well worth a visit. There's more information on their website.
Latest news from The National Archives at Kew. Over the last few months they have been digitising part of the WO 95 record series which consists of unit war diaries from the First World War. The project has now been completed. The series is apparently one of the most requested in their reading rooms and digitising these diaries will enable them to publish online, making them more accessible for the First World War centenary commemorations happening next year.
There's more details available from the National Archives website here.
First World War Unit Diary digitisation now complete
