Blog
Archive for October, 2009
Eight new 1851 census counties now live
We’re only weeks away from completing the 1851 England and Wales census. We’ve just scanned, transcribed and added eight complete counties:
* Worcestershire
* Devonshire
* Bedfordshire
* Essex
* Cambridgeshire
* Gloucestershire
* Suffolk
* Cumberland
Locate your missing ancestors for the first time
We’re confident our transcription is the best you’ll find online. If you’ve struggled to find your ancestors on other versions of the 1851 census, the findmypast.com edition could for the first time lead you to them.
Find your ancestors in the 1851 census today
Halloween exclusive – spirits stalk UK homes
With Halloween just around the corner, findmypast.com has commissioned some spooky research to find out just how haunted Britain’s homes are. The results reveal that a staggering one in five Brits has felt some kind of ghostly or otherworldly presence in their home.
Spooky Scotland
Scotland seems to be Britain’s ghost capital – 23 per cent of those we spoke to admitted they’d felt a spooky presence in their home. London, it seems, is the safest place to spend Halloween, as just 17 per cent confessed to feeling a paranormal presence.
Discover who’s haunting your house
With ghosts apparently widespread in UK homes, more and more people are turning to the internet for an explanation. It’s estimated that two in five homes in England date back over 90 years. If your house was built before 1911, you can find out who lived there and perhaps uncover a skeleton or two with our 1841-1911 census collection.
If you’re staying in this weekend, why not get into the Halloween spirit and find out who could be haunting your home?
Find the root of your ghostly presence in the only complete online census collection (1841-1911).
Enumerators' summary book images are live
We’ve added a full set of enumerators’ summary book (RG78) images to our 1911 census records. When you view a 1911 census image you will now see links to the accompanying summary book pages in the frame above the image (as shown below).
Find out what it was like in your ancestors’ neighbourhood
The enumerators’ summary book (RG78) images are filled with useful information about the neighbourhoods in which your ancestors lived and they can also reveal details of relatives living nearby. The new images include:
• the front page of the volume in which the enumerator’s summary sheet was stored.
• enumerator’s summary original page – this not only shows the names of heads of households and how many people occupied the houses (showing you the neighbours), but also lists other buildings, whether houses or not.
• population statistics for the area.
• a description of the Enumerator’s walk.
• a map of the Enumerator’s walk (in some cases).
See annotated sample images of the enumerators’ summary book pages
New household schedule images
As well as the RG78s, we’ve added some extra RG14 household (or institution) schedule images, which also make interesting viewing:
• the address panel from the back of the schedule, showing the address as written by your ancestors and the registration district and subdistrict
• the front page of the volume in which your schedule was stored, giving more detailed information on parishes and districts
Find out more about our new 1911 census subscription
Please note: some household schedules do NOT have Enumerators Summary Books, as a small number did not survive.
Enumerators’ summary book images are live
We’ve added a full set of enumerators’ summary book (RG78) images to our 1911 census records. When you view a 1911 census image you will now see links to the accompanying summary book pages in the frame above the image (as shown below).
Find out what it was like in your ancestors’ neighbourhood
The enumerators’ summary book (RG78) images are filled with useful information about the neighbourhoods in which your ancestors lived and they can also reveal details of relatives living nearby. The new images include:
• the front page of the volume in which the enumerator’s summary sheet was stored.
• enumerator’s summary original page – this not only shows the names of heads of households and how many people occupied the houses (showing you the neighbours), but also lists other buildings, whether houses or not.
• population statistics for the area.
• a description of the Enumerator’s walk.
• a map of the Enumerator’s walk (in some cases).
See annotated sample images of the enumerators’ summary book pages
New household schedule images
As well as the RG78s, we’ve added some extra RG14 household (or institution) schedule images, which also make interesting viewing:
• the address panel from the back of the schedule, showing the address as written by your ancestors and the registration district and subdistrict
• the front page of the volume in which your schedule was stored, giving more detailed information on parishes and districts
Find out more about our new 1911 census subscription
Please note: some household schedules do NOT have Enumerators Summary Books, as a small number did not survive.
1911 census subscription launched on findmypast.com
We’ve just officially launched the first and only 1911 census subscription available anywhere online, making us the only site to offer a complete 1841-1911 census collection. You can now access the England and Wales 1911 census for a fixed fee and without the worry of spending PayAsYouGo credits.
Find out more about our full subscription
Special offer – Save 20% on a full subscription (offer ends in 10 days)
Our full subscription can be bought at the following special discounted rates, but only until 31 October:
12 month full subscription – £119.95 (includes 20% discount)
6 month full subscription – £74.95 (includes 20% discount)
Existing subscribers don’t lose out
If you’ve got an existing subscription, we’ll automatically discount the price to reimburse you for any time left on your old subscription, plus you’ll also get the 20% special discount. The refund on your old subscription will be calculated at a pro-rata daily rate to ensure you don’t lose out. The precise price you’ll pay is shown on our payments page.
Claim your special 20% discount, buy our full subscription today.
What’s so good about 1911?
1911 is the most recent available England and Wales census – it holds the key to your nineteenth and twentieth-century ancestors. The 1911 census contains information you simply can’t find elsewhere and without it your family history is incomplete.
See your ancestors’ handwriting in crisp full colour
For the first time you’ll see scans of the actual forms filled in by your ancestors. These can reveal the quirks of your ancestors’ handwriting, as well as any mistakes or extra comments they made, in crisp high-quality colour.
New, in-depth information
The 1911 census holds more information on your ancestors than any census before it. You can discover:
- how long a couple had been married.
- how many children were born to that marriage (and how many of them had died).
- details of nationality.
- more detailed occupational information.
We hope you enjoy the new subscription,
The findmypast.com team
New parish records – trace your Dorset ancestry back to 1538
We’ve added over 30,000 new parish records for Dorset and some of them date from as early as 1538.
Combined with our existing records, these new baptism, marriage and burial records mean there’s more chance than ever of tracing your Dorset forebears from the early nineteenth century and beyond.
Over 23 million parish records in one place
The findmypast.com Parish Records Collection is one of the largest repositories of pre-1837 records online. It exists thanks to the efforts family history society volunteers (and similar contributors) nationwide. These dedicated individuals have scoured churchyards and record offices up and down the country – deciphering the faded inscriptions of old headstones, leafing through fragile 400-year-old books, and recording their findings in full – so that you don’t have to. You can search over 23 million of these rare records from the comfort of your own home using findmypast.com.
We have millions of parish records from counties all across England and Wales. If you’ve hit a brick wall with the 1837 cut-off for BMDs, you could well find the result you need within our vast collection.
Search over 23 million parish records today
Three more 1851 census counties – over three million new records
We’ve just added three more complete counties to the 1851 census. You can now search for your ancestors in Middlesex, Hampshire and Surrey. As ever, these records are newly transcribed from a set of crisp new images. We’re confident our transcription is the best you’ll find online.
Find your ancestors in the 1851 census today
1851 census almost complete
Two thirds of the 1851 census are now available for you to search, and we’re just weeks away from completion. Bookmark this page and return regularly to hear about new developments first.
Enumerators' summary book pages coming soon
The 1911 census RG14 household forms are available in full. This means that you can search the census and find full details of your ancestors in the same way as you can on the 1841-1901 censuses.
To meet customer demand we have made the RG14s available at the earliest opportunity. We’re in the process of adding the accompanying enumerators’ summary book (RG78) images but, because of the vast number of images, these aren’t available just yet.
We’ll make all the surviving RG78s available very soon.
Enumerators’ summary book pages coming soon
The 1911 census RG14 household forms are available in full. This means that you can search the census and find full details of your ancestors in the same way as you can on the 1841-1901 censuses.
To meet customer demand we have made the RG14s available at the earliest opportunity. We’re in the process of adding the accompanying enumerators’ summary book (RG78) images but, because of the vast number of images, these aren’t available just yet.
We’ll make all the surviving RG78s available very soon.
Increase in fair usage limit
We’ve increased the fair usage limit for all our subscriptions from 1,000 credits to 5,000 per month (over a rolling three month period). That way you are able to look at lots of different images and transcriptions (particularly useful for the newly-added 1911 census) without running out of credit.
We have needed to set a limit in order to protect against abuse and the limit shouldn’t adversely affect the family historian.