Welcome to the Family History Social

TheGenealogist has added to its Australian records a set of new resources which can be used to find ancestors who lived in this country in the past. These name rich resources are sourced from a diverse range of historic books and directories which can be useful for finding out information such as where ancestors lived and what their occupation was.

Use these records to: 

• Add details to the lives of your Australian ancestors 
• Locate ancestors homes and business addresses in street directories
• Discover lists of Doctors, Chemists, Dentists, Lawyers and Teachers
• Find Municipality officials, Magistrates, Clergy, Secretaries of Clubs and Societies
• Search for Australian Military personnel (Army & Navy)
• See advertisements for traders, hoteliers and ship owners, etc.

This latest release expands TheGenealogist’s International records collection and includes the following useful resources:

South Australian Directories 1882-3, 1904, 1910, 1920 and 1936; Australasian Handbook 1906; The Victorian Municipal Directory and Gazetteer 1886; Horse Cattle and Sheep Brands Directory for South Australia 1879; Our Early Possessions & Pioneers of Settlement South Australia; Return of the Names of Official Chaplains (Self Governing Dominions); Johns’s Notable Australians and Who is Who in Australasia 1908; Walch’s Tasmanian Almanac 1889; Red Cross and Order of St John Australian Branch Enquiry List August 1 1917 Wounded and Missing; New South Wales Army and Navy Lists 1898; and Commonwealth of Australia Navy Lists April 1919, January 1921, July 1922, October 1919 & October 1922.

You can also read TheGenealogist’s article, ‘Learning more about our Australian cousins and their lives down under’: https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2020/australian-records-online-to-find-your-ancestors-1284/

Many people would like to find out more about the history of their house and if this sounds like you then there is a great book that is both compact and filled with practical information.  The book is equally of interest to those who live in a manor house or a small cottage cottage, a tied house, a two up and two down Victorian terrace, a twentieth-century council house or even a converted warehouse

In Tracing Your House History the author, Gill Blanchard, shows the reader how to trace the history of their home be it a house or a flat. All this is done in a series of concise, information-filled chapters that will help you understand the lives of the people who lived in your home before you as well as understanding how to fit what you discover into the wider history of your city, town or village.

Gill Blanchard explores what can be found in a wealth of historical evidence that is available to researchers in libraries, archives and record offices as well as in books and in online resources. The book looks at these resources in detail and explains their significance before pointing the researcher towards finding the most relevant, and revealing, aspects of them. Gill has made the research process understandable, accessible and fun in this book, and she manages to demystify the sometimes obscure language and layout of the documents that people doing their house history will come up against.

• The ideal introduction for anyone researching the history of their house and home
• Identifies the key local and national sources that researchers can use
• Shows you how you can discover who lived in your property in the past
• Describes how buildings are adapted as times change
• Explains the development of regional architectural styles
  
  Paperback available from S&N Genealogy Supplies 
  

   

  ISBN: 9-781848-842540

  No. of Pages: 212

  Order your copy: https://genealogysupplies.com/product/Books-on-Genealogy/Tracing-Your-House-History-A-Guide-for-Family-Historians-by-Gill-Blanchard/

To mark the 80th anniversary of the start of the Battle of Britain (10 July 1940 - 31 October 1940)  TheGenealogist is releasing over 2 million new RAF records. These records not only cover this important fight for Britain’s survival, but also encompass all of the Second World War period for a number of squadrons. This release brings the total ORBs records to 3.7 million and are part of TheGenealogist’s extensive Military records collection.

The ORBs are fully searchable by name, aircraft, location and many other fields, making it easy for researchers to find their aviation ancestors. These ORBs are the latest release to join TheGenealogist’s large military records collection which is always being expanded.

Hawker Hurricane I R4118 of No 605 Squadron,  Image: Arpingstone / Public domain

The fascinating pages from these diary-like documents tell the stories of brave aircrew, including those at the time of the Battle of Britain, 10 July 1940 - 31 October 1940. Recording patrols flown, the daily journal records give insights into the everyday lives of the personnel on bases. Researchers can use the collection to follow an airman’s war time experiences from these fully searchable Air Ministry Operations Record Books which cover various Royal Air Force, dominion and Allied Air Force squadrons that came under British Command. Sourced from The National Archives the AIR 27 records allow the family history researcher an interesting insight into relatives who had served in air force units under wartime conditions. 

The ORBs provide a summary of daily events. Some are ordinary entries, such as the names of new pilots posted to the squadron, entertainment on the base, or even noting the fact that an officer has become engaged. Sadly, these ORBs also record the death of pilots, crashes, or names of airmen that were missing in action. As names of personnel are recorded in these reports, for a family history researcher wanting to follow where an ancestor was posted to and what may have happened to them in the war, ORBs are often very enlightening documents. 

Use these records to: 

• Read the war movements of personnel in air force units
• Discover if a pilot, navigator, radio operator or gunner is mentioned in the action
• Find if an airman is listed for receiving an Honour or an Award
• Add colour to an aircrewman’s story 
• Note the names of squadron members wounded, killed, or did not return
• Easily search these National Archives records and images
  
  
  

Read TheGenealogist’s article: Ace in a day

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2020/ace-in-a-day-1278/

These records and many more are available to Diamond subscribers of TheGenealogist.co.uk

The National Archives reopens:

The National Archives (TNA) will welcome visitors back into its reading rooms from Tuesday 21 July. At this time it will be offering a limited service to visitors, who will be required to book their visit and order their documents in advance.

It will be open from Tuesday to Friday, 10am to 2.50pm. See https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/news/coronavirus-update/

_{Image: National_archives_2007_02_03.JPG:Nick Cooper at en.wikipediaderivative work: Harumphy / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)}

TheGenealogist has added over 85,500 individuals to their Parish Records for Worcestershire to increase the coverage of this English county. 

Released in association with Malvern Family History Society this is an ongoing project where high quality transcripts of Parish Records are made available for family history researchers to find their ancestors.

• 54,948 individuals have been added to the Worcestershire baptism records
• 8,703 new individuals join the marriage records for this county
• 3,558 individuals newly released for Worcestershire banns of marriages records
• 18,293 individuals added to the burials records for Worcestershire

These new records can be used to find your ancestors’ baptisms in fully searchable records that cover parishes from this part of the English midlands. With records that reach back to the mid 16th century, this release allows family historians to find the names of ancestors, their parents’ forenames, the father’s occupation where noted, and the parish where the event took place.

Parishes in this release include Abberton, Abbots Morton, Acton Beauchamp, Alderminster, Alstone, Alvechurch, Areley Kings, Bayton, Belbroughton, Bewdley St Anne’s, Oldberrow, Shipston-on-Stour, Tidmington and Tredington.

This is an ongoing project where family history societies transcribe records for their areas to be released on both TheGenealogist and FHS-Online, the website that brings together data from various Family History Societies across the UK while providing a much needed extra source of funds for societies.

These new records are available as part of the Diamond Subscription at TheGenealogist. 

If your society is interested in publishing records online, please see www.fhs-online.co.uk

You can read TheGenealogist’s article: ‘Worcestershire parish records trace family events back through the centuries.’ which confirms a teenager transported to Australia on the First Fleet had Worcestershire roots. https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2020/worcestershire-parish-records-trace-family-events-back-through-the-centuries-1272/