We have just published 277,834 new Thames and Medway parish baptism records on the site for the period 1721 to 1970.

These baptisms are transcriptions, not indexes, and include, among others, such key London historical periphery parishes as those in Brentford, Deptford, Ealing, Greenwich and Rotherhithe.

As well as the Thames-side parishes, the coverage extends down the estuary and the north Kent coast to the Medway towns. This release of records represents the first part of a collection licensed from local specialist Rob Cottrell.

We plan to publish burial records in August and marriage records soon after. In due course, occupational records of Thames watermen and lightermen will also go online at findmypast.co.uk

Search our parish baptisms for your Thames and Medway ancestors.

If you’ve been tuning into programmes like Victorian Farm or Secrets of World War II on the Yesterday channel recently, you might have caught findmypast.co.uk’s new TV sponsorship ads. This is our very first foray into the world of TV advertising, and as marketing manager for findmypast.co.uk, I was lucky enough to be there at the filming.

This was my first experience of working on a TV campaign and I was surprised by just how many people were involved in bringing our ads to life. As well as the five actors who you see on screen, there were lighting crew, cameraman, runners, sound man, make-up artist, wardrobe mistress, producer, production manager and assistants, props team, assistant director, scriptwriter and creative team - around 30 people in total - who all had to squash into a tiny nursery to film the “But I can’t be your great-grandmother” ad.

Of course there was our brilliant director Alan Grint, of Lark Rise to Candleford, Catherine Cookson mini series and Midsomer Murders fame. He ensured that we had no dramas of our own, with filming running perfectly to schedule (which apparently never happens) and all taking place on one day at Cragside House, a stunning National Trust property in Rothbury. A day later we found out that gunman Raoul Moat had been on the loose in the village all the time we were filming! Fortunately for us the only problems we encountered were the house alarm going off whenever a smoke machine was used to create the atmospheric haze in the ad set in the kitchen and the occasional RAF jet flying low overhead between takes.

Cragside House was the home of Lord Armstrong, a Victorian inventor, and it is filled with all sorts of his gadgets, such as a forerunner of the soda stream, with a rather dauntingly oversized gas cylinder attached. This was the first house in the world to be lit by hydroelectricity, so our production team had to disguise some of the electric light fittings to make them look like gaslight and more in keeping with the period. The staff at Cragside House were incredibly patient with us and the whole crew really worked well together - we all had a fantastic day.

I hope you like the results - watch our four bumper ads now. Our film company did some behind the scenes filming of the day - watch the video and let us know what you think!

We’ve just added 184,650 records and 1,003,794 images to our Chelsea Pensioners collection for the period 1760-1854.

This brings the total amount of Chelsea Pensioner records and images on findmypast.co.uk to 691,520 records and 4,200,729 images.

These records are of men pensioned out of the British Army 1760-1913. The connection with ‘Chelsea Pensioners’ is that the pensions were administered through The Royal Hospital at Chelsea.

Remember that these records are free to search, like all the records on findmypast.co.uk. Even if you don’t think that any of your ancestors could have been Chelsea Pensioners, give searching the records a go - your ancestor may have only served in the army for a short time before they were pensioned out.

When you’ve viewed these records you’ll realise how special they are. They help you to build up a picture of your ancestor as they contain detailed descriptions of a soldier’s physical appearance and any distinguishing features, such as tattoos or scars. The records are the next best thing to looking at a photograph of your ancestor; there are usually six or seven records for each soldier.

We’re working in association with The National Archives and in partnership with FamilySearch on this ongoing project. Here’s a full breakdown of which records we’ve already published on the site and which are still to come:

We’ll be releasing records for 1900-1913 shortly.

Search for your ancestors now in our Chelsea Pensioner records.

This week it was actor Rupert Everett’s turn to trace his family history. The programme focused mainly on Rupert’s grandfather, Cyril Frederick Cunningham Everett.

Rupert Everett (copyright Vicki Neave)

Cyril was born on 12 June 1886 at 20 Porchester Terrace, Hyde Park, to Georgina Teague and Frederick William Cunningham Everett. Here we can see Cyril Everett, aged 4, living as an ‘inmate’ in The Home For Little Boys in Horton Kirby, Kent on the 1891 census:

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The 1901 census reveals that Cyril Frederick still lived in the Home For Little Boys in Kent.

In 1908 Cyril went to Nigeria, where he worked on Lagos port. He travelled to and from Nigeria many times in the following years - we counted 15 separate journeys from the UK to Nigeria in our passenger lists. Here you can see one of the many journeys Cyril made:

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This records Cyril as a Civil Servant and also informs us that his last address in the United Kingdom was Browning Avenue in Boscombe.

Our passenger lists show that Cyril’s wife, Marcella, visited him several times in Nigeria. The journey she made in 1923 is recorded here - she’s recorded as Mrs C F C Everett:

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Cyril’s mother (Rupert’s great-grandmother), Georgina Everett nee Teague, appears on the 1871 census with her parents, Rupert’s great-great-grandparents, George and Esther Teague. George was a Railway Porter, Esther a Housekeeper and the family was living in Marylebone:

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The 1881 census shows Georgina living with her widowed mother Esther. Georgina was a Dressmaker while her mother was a Housekeeper. They were living at a ‘home for old ladies’ in Marylebone:

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Georgina Teague is a bit of a mystery: she literally disappears after the 1881 census and her marriage to Frederick William Cunningham Everett in 1883. Can you find out what happened to her? If you have any luck, post your findings underneath this blog post.

Don’t forget to watch the next instalment of Who Do You Think You Are? on BBC1 at 9pm tomorrow (26 July). This week follows actor Rupert Everett as he traces back the paternal side of his family.

This promises to be a really interesting episode as Rupert learns about his paternal grandfather Cyril who worked for the Colonial Service in Nigeria. Tune in find out what Rupert discovers and if it’s what he expects…

Hello from the head of findmypast.co.uk

I’m Paul, head of findmypast.co.uk, and welcome to the first in a series of blogs I’ll be writing. I wanted to get in touch to talk about what we’ve achieved over the last year and let you know what’s in the pipeline for the future.

It has been a very busy and rewarding year at findmypast.co.uk. Just over a year ago we added the eagerly anticipated 1911 census for England and Wales to the site. We also completed the remaining censuses to be able to proudly offer you the only complete England and Wales census collection anywhere online. We’ve also added hundreds of thousands of parish records to the site to make ours the largest online collection of parish records in partnership with the Federation of Family History Societies.

More recently we’ve launched our fully indexed birth records that cover the period from 1837 to 2006.  There are over 100 million individual records. We’re very excited about these records and judging from the fantastic feedback we’ve received so far, you share our enthusiasm about the value of these records to family historians.

All of these projects were a key part of our continued commitment to you to:

• Deliver rich family history records to connect you to your past
• Provide a complete census collection for England and Wales 1841 to 1911
• Ensure our records are as easy as possible to search

This makes it the perfect time to introduce this new series of blogs which will share knowledge with our customers and the wider family history community. You’ll be hearing from me and other members of the findmypast.co.uk team on a regular basis about a wide range of topics, from records and data to products and marketing. The findmypast.co.uk team will keep you informed with new developments at findmypast.co.uk and give you a backstage pass into life behind the scenes at findmypast.co.uk

Of course we really want to hear your views and thoughts so you can help to shape the service we offer you. Please feel free to comment on any of our blog posts – you can do so underneath each post.

The next year is going to be even more exciting than the last one. We’ve got some fantastic new records which we’ll publish exclusively on findmypast.co.uk, including the fully indexed marriages and death records which will complete our BMD collection. Along with new search features and functionality, I hope this will make our site even more useful and engaging for you.

I hope you enjoy the ride as it promises to be a very exciting and rewarding journey on findmypast.co.uk

Thanks to all of you who sent us your experiences of researching your family tree. Read on for Anne Young from Canberra, Australia’s experience:

‘I have been researching my tree for quite some time and I have enjoyed very much the connections I have made with distant cousins who share the interest in family history. I have also found that understanding my own family history makes larger events much more comprehensible and immediate.

Perhaps the strangest coincidence I discovered was the brother of my great great great great grandmother (my 4x great uncle) having afternoon tea one day with the husband of my husband’s great great great great aunt (4x great aunt’s husband).

Both men were living in the Australian colony of Victoria before the gold rushes and both men were interested in Aborigines. Francis Tuckfield, related to my husband by marriage, was a notable Methodist missionary. My 4x great uncle, Henry Dana, formed a police force staffed by Aboriginal men. Perhaps it is not surprising they met, but it still gave me a thrill to find such a stretch of the tree meeting on 17 February 1840.’

If you have an experience you’d like to share with us and our readers, email casestudies@findmypast.co.uk with ‘My experience’ in the subject line. We look forward to reading your stories!

Thanks to all of you who sent us your experiences of researching your family tree. Read on for Glenda Lightowler’s experience:

‘I have been desperately trying to find out anything about my grandmother’s (Margaret McDermott) reputed stage career, prior to her marriage. I did not expect to have it handed to me so easily. It took me some while to find her in the 1911 census, as I expected to find her in S Shields Reg district.

Suddenly, I saw this name in a Merthyr Tydfil district and thought: I wonder..? There she was with four other lasses, all called actresses. I suspect they were chorus, but that I cannot find out.

I was given this stage information briefly when I was 10 - I am now 75, so it is a bit of a success story for me, all her family contemporaries being deceased.

Sadly, I cannot find grandfather Alfred Lightowler in 1911. They were married in Yorkshire in 1912. He was not recorded with his family (Head Sam Lightowler) in Hulme, Manchester.’

If you have an experience you’d like to share with us and our readers, email casestudies@findmypast.co.uk with ‘My experience’ in the subject line. We look forward to reading your stories!

Our expert Stephen Rigden, pictured above, answers your questions.

From Sandra Lockwood in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia:

‘My grandmother’s father had two wives - the first is the one we cannot find. Her name was Elizabeth Hunt, born around 1861 - where we are not sure, but we were told it could have been Wilton, Wiltshire. Elizabeth had two sons to Joseph Manning, my great grandfather; we have the two boys’ birth certificates. The first boy was born Joseph Thomas Manning on 4 October 1881 at 10 Helmsley Street, Hackney, to Joseph and Elizabeth Manning, nee Hunt.

The second boy was born William Manning on 23 February 1885 in Alderbury at the Malt House Cottage Salisbury. His mother was Elizabeth Manning, nee Hunt. We know she existed but we cannot find a birth, marriage or death certificate for her - we know Joseph married Elizabeth Freak in 1889 and my grandmother was born 1890. I have been searching for over 12 months - can you help me?’

Steve says:

‘This is an interesting question. Assuming that you are absolutely certain that Elizabeth Hunt and Elizabeth Freak are definitely two different women, I think the most likely explanation for your predicament is that Joseph Manning and Elizabeth Hunt were never legally married.

Of course, this is not to say that they did not live as man and wife for a number of years, and may have presented themselves as married (the births of their children are certainly registered as if the parents were married). If you check the 1889 marriage certificate of Joseph to Elizabeth Freak, you may find that he is described as a bachelor rather than a widower; if you have not obtained a copy already, you should do so.

If they were not married, however, this gives rise to two other possibilities. Firstly, if Elizabeth, nee Hunt, did indeed die before 1889, her death may have been registered under Hunt not Manning. Secondly, perhaps Elizabeth did not die and the couple simply separated, with the sons Joseph and William staying with their father and their mother going her own way (and perhaps marrying another man as Elizabeth Hunt).

Unfortunately, while these possible explanations are worth considering, they do not make your job any easier, as of course Elizabeth Hunt is a very common combination of names. You would also need to bear in mind at least two geographically distinct areas - Greater London and Wiltshire - and possibly all stops in between and elsewhere.

You mention that Elizabeth Hunt may have been from Wilton, Wiltshire. As you may have noticed, on the April 1881 census there is a domestic servant of her name, aged 20 (born circa 1860/61) and born in Wilton, residing at 13 George Street, St Pancras, London. This could conceivably be your Elizabeth Hunt, unmarried and three months pregnant with Joseph Thomas. There is, however, no way of telling from this document in isolation.

Not all problems in family history are soluble. On all lines of all our family trees, sooner or later we come across a brick wall we cannot break down. Of course we all hope that the brick wall is reached later rather than sooner but sometimes we have to have the wisdom to accept that we can go no further. You may not be at that point in your research yet but I worry that there appears to be no straightforward way of advancing your research on this line.

Perhaps some of the family historians on findmypast.co.uk might have some ideas for you?’

If you’d like to send your question to Steve, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account.

Our expert Stephen Rigden, pictured right, answers your questions.

From Charlotte Paton in King’s Lynn, Norfolk:

‘I am trying to trace the family of Lilian (Lillian) Alexander who was murdered in Edingthorpe in April 1901, aged 8. She was born in 1892. She had a sister Alice who gave evidence at the trial of her murderer who was born in 1890. Dad was the ‘late’ Matthew Alexander on Lilian’s death certificate.

I can find nothing on any of the censuses about the family, who Mum was etc. Can you find them and explain why I can’t please?’

Steve says:

‘Many thanks for your question. I think the best way forward for you is actually the simplest - namely, to purchase the birth certificate of Lilian (which you can do online at the official government website). Her death was registered in June quarter 1901 in Smallburgh registration district; the death index gives her age as 8 years, as you say, which means that she would have been born circa 1892/93.

Checking the birth index, you can find her birth in 1892 in Smallburgh. The birth of her sister Alice is also there in 1890. The birth certificate of Lilian should confirm the names of her parents. Once you have the certificate, you could look confidently for the marriage of the parents (to get their respective ages at marriage), after which you can search for their births, his death and so on, as well as finding them on earlier census returns.

Of course, you could speculate that her father is the Matthew in the death index who died aged 54 years in September 1893 but it is always best to work systematically and from what you know to be correct and true, rather than guessing or gambling and taking a wrong step.

Smallburgh is a coastal registration district and one reason why you have not been able to find Matthew in the 1891 census is that he may have been at sea, for instance if he was a fisherman or a mariner.’

If you’d like to send your question to Steve, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account.