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1901 census – Yorkshire added

The county of Yorkshire, including the North, East and West Ridings, has been added to the 1901 census. That’s over 3.7 million records that are ready for you to search.

As ever, the images are newly scanned at a high resolution and the records freshly transcribed. If you can’t find certain ancestors on other versions of the census, there’s a good chance they’ll appear among these new records.

Search for your ancestors on the 1901 census now

Australian records are here

Despite large disparities in climate and terrain, and their separation by thousands of miles of sea,  Australia and Great Britain share a similar culture, the same Queen, and in many cases the same ancestral lines.

We’ve just added over 863,000 records for the states of Victoria and New South Wales in Australia, which include government notices, burials, and convict arrivals.

Convict arrivals in New South Wales (1788-1842)

This index, built from government indent records, holds the details of 97,797 convicts who arrived in New South Wales between 1788 and 1842. With the index you can discover the name, date of arrival, and the ship transported on for each convict.

The majority of convicts remained in the state of New South Wales, but some were sent elsewhere in Australia after arriving. Upon arrival the indent list would be checked against the convicts, before the convicts were handed over to the New South Wales authorities.

The convict records are found in our ‘other records’ section.

Search for your forebears in the convict arrival records now

Cemetery Burials and Memorial Inscriptions for Victoria (1835-1997)

This index, which comprises over 185,000 records, is built from transcriptions of cemetery memorials and burial registers. It covers 197 cemeteries in Victoria, plus a few in other Australian states. It details the name and title of the deceased, the Australian state or territory, whether the event was a death or burial, the year of the event, and the cemetery.

These records form part of our Parish Records Collection.

Search the Parish Records Collection now

Victoria funeral notices (1981-1997)

This index, built from funeral notices from the Melbourne Herald Sun, contains over 119,000 records for the period 1981-1997. The name and title of the deceased is listed along with the year of the funeral, the Australian state, and details of the cemetery or crematorium.

Again, these records are held in our Parish Records Collection.

Search the Parish Records Collection now

Names in Government Gazettes, Victoria (1858-1900)

This is an index of over 461,000 records gathered from notices printed in the Victorian Government Gazette between 1858 and 1900. The nature of the notices varies considerably, covering everything from the leasing of land; law and order; licensing; tenders and contracts and other subjects.

These records form a part of our ‘other records’ section. They contain all the information that was published in the Government Gazette.

Search for your ancestors in the Government Gazette records now

New East London eighteenth-century baptisms

Over 17,000 baptisms for the East London parish of St Mary, Whitechapel, for the period 1775-1792, have just been added to our Parish Records Collection.

There are now a total of over 407,000 baptism records for London’s dockland areas. Find out which parishes and years are covered.

Search over 23 million parish records today

Discover the workers who lit a fire under the trade union movement

In July 1888 just over 700 young men and women struck a blow for social justice when they walked out on strike in protest at poor pay and unfair working conditions, from the east London factory where they were employed.

The impoverished young men and women, some barely in their teens, were match workers at the Bryant and May factory. Despite their lack of schooling and position in society they forced their employers to bow to their demands, and today the strike is considered a landmark event in the history of British trade unionism. It resulted in the formation of the Union of Women Matchmakers and inspired the formation of other unions across the country.

Findmypast.com has added records for the 700 strike participants and now you can discover the names, home addresses, occupations, and wages of those involved. Find out how much they were paid from the strike fund, what their marital status was, and who they lived with.

Was your ancestor involved in the match-workers strike?

Read more about the match-workers strike

Victorian credit crunch…

The stigma of debt was one that was ingrained deep into the psyche of the Victorian people, and was a subject that popular writers such as Dickens and Gaskell returned to repeatedly in their novels.

The consequences of debt could be dire. The debtor’s home and assets could be seized, and in the early part of the Victorian era they could be thrown into Debtors’ prison – along with their wife and children – until they had paid what they owed. If they were unable to pay, they could declare bankruptcy but not before all their belongings and home had been taken.

Findmypast.com has just added 33,000 records from The Bankrupt Directory.  These reveal the details for all bankruptcies, between December 1820 and April 1843, which appeared in The London Gazette.  The level of detail differs from record to record, but usually you will discover a person’s home street and town, their occupation or trade, and the date that they appeared in The London Gazette. The records cover a large number of counties across England and Wales. They cost eight credits each, or are free to view with an Explorer subscription.

Sample bankruptcy record

Search for your ancestors in the bankruptcy records now

New memorial inscriptions dating from 1131

We’ve just added over 319,000 monumental inscription records for the county of Cornwall to our Parish Records Collection. These new records cover the period 1131-2007, which means that findmypast.com now holds some of the oldest parish records available anywhere online.

Search for your ancestors in our Parish Records Collection now

The Cornwall inscription records are the result of two decades of work by transcribers from Cornwall Family History Society, who have diligently noted down the details from gravestones and other monuments across the county.

The memorial inscription records will appear as part of the results when you search for a burial within the Parish Records Collection. Some contain basic information such as the parish and date of death, whereas others are more in-depth, depending on what was written on the headstone, and which of the information has survived.

Pricing for inscriptions is six, eight or 12 credits, depending on the amount of detail they contain. Or they can be viewed free with an Explorer subscription.

Cornwall memorial inscription sample record

The new records cover around 90 per cent of Cornwall’s parish churchyards, but there are a large number of non-parish burial grounds that aren’t yet included. Cornwall FHS aims to transcribe these in the near future.

Cornwall FHS is just one of a large group of family history societies involved in preserving and transcribing historical records, nationwide. If you would like to get involved in a project like this, contact your local family history society.