Blog
Archive for March, 2009
Seven new 1901 census counties
Seven complete counties, comprising 3.8 million records, have been added to the 1901 census and are ready for you to search.
The new additions are:
- Warwickshire
- Cheshire
- Nottinghamshire
- Lincolnshire
- Derbyshire
- Leicestershire
- Rutland
Search the new 1901 census counties today
19.7 million 1901 census records
We now have over 19.7 million 1901 census records, each one freshly and faithfully transcribed from original documents, and made available alongside newly scanned high-quality images. This means that well over half the census is now online. The remaining counties will follow soon.
Find your ancestors in the 1901 census now
New parish records for London's docklands
We’ve just added over 44,000 new baptisms for London’s docklands to our Parish Records Collection. These new additions, released in partnership with Docklands Ancestors, date from 1770 through to 1880 and are invaluable to anyone tracing their east London roots.
The people included in these new records are a diverse mix. Among them you will find many professions associated with the docks including watermen and lightermen, stevedores and dock labourers, clerks, carmen, customs officials and crane drivers.
The parishes and years covered by the new records are:
St Dunstan Stepney 1770-1798
St Mary Whitechapel 1758-1774
St Anne Limehouse 1854-1877
Christ Church Stepney 1842-1860
All Saints Mile End 1840-1880
Search for your docklands ancestors today
23 million parish records
Our baptisms for London’s docklands form just a small part of one of the largest online repositories of parish records. The findmypast.com Parish Records Collection holds over 23 million baptisms, marriages, and burials dating from 1538.
Search the Parish Records Collection now
New parish records for London’s docklands
We’ve just added over 44,000 new baptisms for London’s docklands to our Parish Records Collection. These new additions, released in partnership with Docklands Ancestors, date from 1770 through to 1880 and are invaluable to anyone tracing their east London roots.
The people included in these new records are a diverse mix. Among them you will find many professions associated with the docks including watermen and lightermen, stevedores and dock labourers, clerks, carmen, customs officials and crane drivers.
The parishes and years covered by the new records are:
St Dunstan Stepney 1770-1798
St Mary Whitechapel 1758-1774
St Anne Limehouse 1854-1877
Christ Church Stepney 1842-1860
All Saints Mile End 1840-1880
Search for your docklands ancestors today
23 million parish records
Our baptisms for London’s docklands form just a small part of one of the largest online repositories of parish records. The findmypast.com Parish Records Collection holds over 23 million baptisms, marriages, and burials dating from 1538.
Search the Parish Records Collection now
1911census.co.uk – 1.9 million new records
Three new areas are now complete and have been added to the 1911 census: the county of Durham, and the East and North Ridings of Yorkshire – an addition of 1.9 million records. The records are already live and can be searched immediately.
Search for your ancestors on the 1911 census now
If you have an ancestor in Gateshead – please bear with us. Due to a peculiarity in the administration of the 1911 census, the area was enumerated as part of Northumberland, rather than with Durham, and the records will be added as part of Northumberland in accordance with the way the census was taken.
The three remaining English counties: Cumberland, Northumberland and Westmorland will be added shortly.
You can use your findmypast.com sign in details on the 1911census.co.uk website and your findmypast.com PayAsYouGo credits are also valid. Please make sure you sign out of findmypast.com before you sign in to 1911census.co.uk.
Finding Alexander Fleming
Sir Alexander Fleming, the nobel-prize winning scientist who discovered the antibacterial effects of penicillin, travelled extensively during his lifetime and crossed the Atlantic several times, with the journeys logged on the Passenger Lists.
Fleming was born in East Ayrshire, Scotland in 1881. This event, along with many other Scottish records can be found on our sister-site, ScotlandsPeople.
Search for your Scottish ancestors now
Fleming spent the first four years of his career working in a shipping office, but after being left an inheritance by an uncle, he decided to follow the career path of his elder brother, Tom, a physician.
He studied at St Mary’s Medical School, London University from 1901. Fleming can be found on the 1901 census, living in Marylebone, London, as a medical student (click image to enlarge):
Search for your ancestors in the 1841-1901 censuses
After qualifying with distinction in 1906, Fleming joined the research department at St Mary’s as an assistant bacteriologist. He served throughout the First World War as a Captain in the Army Medical Corps, working in battlefield hospitals on the Western Front.
Fleming was ‘mentioned in dispatches’ (a report that was issued in the London Gazette, which recorded noteworthy actions) for his conduct in the war. Many soldiers who served or died in the First World War can be found among the findmypast.com military records.
Search for your ancestors in the military records now
During the war Fleming had repeatedly witnessed the deaths of soldiers from septicaemia that resulted from infected wounds, and he became convinced that antiseptics on deep wounds served to hinder a patient’s chances of recovery. When he resumed his post at St Mary’s he resolved to find a better alternative.
In spite of Fleming’s undoubted brilliance as a researcher he was also a somewhat careless and chaotic lab technician. It was his carelessness in leaving some cultures unattended whilst on holiday in 1928 that led to the discovery of the world’s first antibiotic, and revolutionised medicine.
Fleming gave many lectures on his work overseas, and can be found aboard the Aquitania in 1939, on a trip to the USA:
In recognition of his contribution to medicine, Fleming was knighted in 1944. The following year, alongside fellow pioneers Howard Florey and Ernst Chain, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his discovery of the bactericidal effect of penicillin. Here is Fleming on the Passenger Lists four years later, bound for America aboard the Queen Elizabeth:
Alexander Fleming died 53 years ago this month, on 11 March 1955, and his ashes were interred at St Paul’s Cathedral. His death is recorded in the findmypast.com death indexes.
Search the birth, marriage and death indexes now
Here is Fleming’s final Passenger List voyage, aboard the Queen Mary, again bound for the USA, in 1950:
Search for your ancestors in the Passenger Lists now
Our Presentation from WDYTYA LIVE!
You can now download our presentation from the WhoDoYouThinkYouAre LIVE show at Olympia.
The first half shows just the slides, the second half repeats the slides but with our presentation notes on them, which is probably much more useful. Please be aware that it is quite a hefty download (6Mb). We have provided it in PDF format so everyone should be able to view it by downloading free Adobe Acrobat reader software.
Family Tree Explorer 3 – multiple spouses now added
We have now added support for multiple spouses within Family Tree Explorer 3.
You will notice that there are now arrows pointing upwards and downwards from each individual: use these to add a new partner to somebody in your family tree.
Once a secondary partner has been added, a tab will appear next to the individual, indicating multiple spouses.
findmypast.com video tutorials now available online
Many people at the WDYTYA LIVE show asked us how they could get hold of the findmypast.com video tutorials, after watching them in the 1911 census classroom.
We have now put the tutorials online so you can watch from the comfort of your own home. We hope you find them useful – they guide you through the basic first steps with a particular focus on BMD (Birth, Marriage, Death) and Census records. Let us know if you find them helpful.
Click on the image below to view the tutorials.
findmypast.com at WDYTYA Live
We had a fantastic time at the WhoDoYouThinkYouAre LIVE! show – many thanks to those of you that came to say hello and ask us questions about the service. We only wish we had had more time to talk to you all!
For those that could not make it, we will post our presentation from the 1911 classroom (which covered how to use the 1911 census and findmypast.com to start building your family tree) on the blog soon.
In the meantime, there are a few more photos available : click on any photo below to get to them.
