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United Kingdom

DECEASED ONLINE

Deceased Online is the first central database of statutory burial and cremation registers for the UK and Republic of Ireland - a unique resource for family history researchers and professional genealogists. Searching is free, and can be restricted as required to country, region, county, or individual burial authority or crematorium. However, once you find a record of possible interest, you do have to pay a fee to read all the details.

The company expects to add at least 2 million more burial and cremation records for areas right across the UK over the next 6-9 months. You can read more at http://www.deceasedonline.com/

READING OLD HANDWRITING

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/Palaeography/

FROM LOST COUSINS NEWSLETTERS

Welsh parish register found after 75 years

A register from the parish of Llandeilo Graban which went missing in 1935 has mysteriously resurfaced and been handed to Powys Archives for safekeeping, according to a news article on the BBC website. Because the register records baptisms, marriages, and burials from 1669-1812 it could enable some researchers to add several generations to their tree - let's hope that this isn't the last missing register to turn up.

Missing from the census?

In most cases, people who seem to be missing from the census are merely misrecorded or mistranscribed - but it's important to be aware that there are parts of some censuses that have been lost over time. Fortunately there's a useful list of the missing sections of the 1841, 1861, and 1871 censuses on the findmypast site, and you don't need to be a subscriber to see it - click here to go direct to the relevant page (the list is halfway down the page, in the section headed 'known issues').

WW1 service records complete - at last

Ancestry has at long last finished digitising the surviving service records for British soldiers who served in the Great War. Many of the records were lost as a result of enemy action in WW2, but nevertheless the career records for over 2 million have survived. The amount of information varies, but the average is 16 pages per individual, and typically includes date and place of birth, next of kin, medical records, as well as dates and places in which the soldier served.

Newsletter - December 15, 2009

Missing sections of the 1851 Census

In my last newsletter I mentioned that findmypast has a detailed list of sections of the 1841, 1861, and 1871 England & Wales censuses that are missing. I'm grateful to Scott in New Zealand who reminded me that Ancestry has a list of missing sections of the 1851 Census.

Scott also mentioned that he'd found relatives on the 1851 Census at findmypast who were missing from the Ancestry version - not because of a bad transcription, but because the records for that district were completely missing. Some time ago findmypast announced that they were adding 160,000 individuals whose records were previously omitted from all published versions of the 1851 Census, because the original pages had been badly damaged

CanadianHeadstones.com

LostCousins member James McKane runs CanadianHeadstones.com which already has over 23,000 photographic records of gravestones all over Canada. I hope that you'll support Jim's volunteer project, not just by searching for photographs of your relatives' headstones, but also by contributing any relevant photos that you may have.

Newsletter - January 2, 2010

Did your ancestors elope?

The Marriage Act of 1753 outlawed irregular marriages in England & Wales, such as those carried out at the Fleet Prison in London, and led to the practice of couples travelling to Scotland - where the requirements were less stringent - to marry. In the late 18th century Gretna Green acquired a reputation as the place to go, a reputation that continued well into the 20th century.

Marriage records for more than 20,000 people who married at Gretna Green between 1794-1895 are now available at Ancestry.

Wartime rationing in the UK

From 1940 to 1954 food and certain other items, such as clothing and petrol, were subject to rationing - I can remember that my mother used to qualify for an extra egg when I was a toddler in the early 1950s. On Friday afternoon am interesting program called Ration Book Britain aired on the Yesterday Channel (formerly UKTV History),which is available on Freeview or Sky - don't worry if you missed it, as I'm sure it will be re-shown before long. Given the shortage of meat and imported goods many recipes were devised to make the most of home-grown vegetables, such as the infamous "Woolton Pie", named after the Minister of Food, Lord Woolton. If you're feeling nostalgic there's a copy of the recipe here - by all means add turnip if it's a particularly special occasion.

Finding records in London

Searching for baptism, marriage, and burial records in London has been a lot easier since Ancestry launched their London Metropolitan Archives collection - but did you realise that there's a big hole in the middle?

Hundreds of registers for the old City of Westminster, which includes the civil parishes of St Anne Soho, St Clement Danes, St George Hanover Square, St James Piccadilly, St Margaret and St John Westminster, St Martin-in-the-Fields, St Mary-le-Strand, and St Paul Covent Garden are held not at the London Metropolitan Archives, but at the Westminster City Archives - and so aren't included in the LMA collection at Ancestry.

BMD records for 2007-08

At Ancestry the BMD indexes for England & Wales only go up to 2005; at findmypast they go up to 2006. However I recently learnt from LostCousins member Pete that the London Metropolitan Archives has microfiche copies of the indexes that go right up to 2008 - and on January 25th-26th representatives from the GRO will be at the LMA talking about their work. See the events pages at the LMA website for more details.

My spies tell me that there's a chance that these registers may start appearing online in 2011. In the meantime there's a list of the Westminster City Archives holdings here (and some of the records are indexed in the IGI).

Even if the records you're seeking are held at the London Metropolitan Archives, it can be difficult to find them - because of the way that records are filed under the names of the modern boroughs. Fortunately there's an invaluable index on the London Generations website which relates places and parishes to the relevant borough. You'll find this invaluable if you're searching at Ancestry - and another handy guide to London is the facsimile of the 1938 London A-Z, which shows the city and its environs before they were ravaged by 6 years of war.

Two final tips: when searching for records in London, don't forget that the parts of London south of the River Thames were not in Middlesex, but Surrey or Kent; also, findmypast have just added more London and Middlesex parish and probate records - click here for more details.