Blog

277,834 Thames-side parish baptism records just added to findmypast.co.uk

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.

Behind the scenes: making our TV ads with marketing manager Debra Chatfield

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!

Chelsea Pensioners 1760-1854 just launched

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.

Who Do You Think You Are? – Rupert Everett's discoveries

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:

Click to enlarge

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:

Click to enlarge

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.

Who Do You Think You Are? – Rupert Everett’s discoveries

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:

Click to enlarge

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:

Click to enlarge

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:

Click to enlarge

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:

Click to enlarge

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:

Click to enlarge

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.

Proof of Titanic letter-writer's fated trip found in findmypast.co.uk's passenger records

A letter from a first class passenger aboard the Titanic to his wife fetched a reported £55,000 at auction on Saturday 17th April at Devizes, Wiltshire, and we’ve found the author in findmypast.co.uk’s passenger lists.

The letter was written by an Adolphe Saalfeld, a 47-year old German manufacturer of perfumes living in London and was dated 10th April 1912, the first day of the ill-fated trip. He described in detail a near collision with another liner at Southampton, the lunches and dinner he enjoyed, and the comfort on board. According to the auctioneers, it is the most detailed first person account of life aboard the Titanic in existence.

Mr Saalfeld’s passenger records, along with all those who travelled on the Titanic, can only be found on findmypast.co.uk. Saalfeld’s passenger transcript states details of his port of departure at Southampton, and expected port of arrival, effectively verifying the letter. He did in fact arrive at his expected destination of New York, having boarded a lifeboat and been rescued when the ship hit the iceberg.

Here you can see the passenger list for the Titanic:

Titanic passenger list

Debra Chatfield

Debra Chatfield, findmypast.co.uk’s marketing manager, said: “When we heard about this amazing letter, we were keen to look up the original passenger record for Adolphe Saalfeld online at findmypast.co.uk. Passenger lists are so useful for finding out when people travelled and to where, for example when and where they emigrated or travelled on business.

There are so many details you can see in the records, from who travelled with the passenger, to exactly when they left, their year of birth and their occupation. In this case it proved an important historic document as it meant the letter was hugely likely to be the genuine article.”

Search findmypast.co.uk’s 1890-1960 passenger lists today.

Second episode of Who Do You Think You Are? – Rupert Everett

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…

Behind the scenes at findmypast.co.uk

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

Your experiences – chance meeting

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!

Your experiences – stage career

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!