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More than 14,000 new London docklands baptism records published

You can now search 14,803 new London docklands parish baptism records on findmypast.co.uk

These records pre-date civil registration (the introduction of the compulsory registration of births, deaths, and marriages in 1837) which makes them especially useful when trying to find your otherwise potentially untraceable ancestors.

More details about these records are as follows:

This brings the total amount of London docklands baptism records on findmypast.co.uk to 518,514. You can find full details of the coverage of these records in our knowledge base.

We are working on this ongoing project in association with Docklands Ancestors and you can expect to see more updates soon. Find out more about this project.

Search for your London ancestors now in the London docklands baptisms records.

Over 1.4 million new Hampshire parish records published

You can now search for your ancestors in 1,447,671 new baptism, marriage and burial records for Hampshire on findmypast.co.uk

This substantial new release of records will really benefit those with Hampshire roots.

The table below provides the details about these new records:

The Hampshire Genealogical Society provided findmypast.co.uk with these records, in association with the Federation of Family History Societies.

Search these records now – how many ancestors will you find today?

What did The Times report the day after the 1911 census?

Following our look at The People newspaper from 1911 census day, we’ve turned our attention to The Times from 3 April 1911 – the day after the 1911 census was taken.

In an article called ‘The Taking of the Census’, the newspaper describes the royal household’s completion of the 1911 census. It reports that the royal family ‘set an excellent example in the careful and accurate filling up of the Census schedules.’ Not all the credit should go to the royals themselves, however, as the article goes on to say, ‘the Royal Family did not supply the details personally, but the necessary particulars were carefully compiled and returned on their behalf.’

Looking at a very different section of society, the article then focuses on how homeless people were recorded in the 1911 census. It reports that the Salvation Army walked the streets of London on census night ‘to gather men in from the highways for food and rest and enumeration and classification.’

Regent’s Hall was ‘prepared for some hundreds of wanderers’ and, although midnight was given as the official opening time, ‘an hour earlier scores of men, shabby in appearance and too poor to pay for a bed in the cheapest “doss-house,” had lined up on the pavement in front of the Westminster shelter.’ It’s easy to understand the incentive for these men to be included in the census: after being enumerated, each man received soup and bread and a place to sleep until 4am when they were sent back to the streets with ‘two big hunches of bread and margarine’.

The police had orders to take a census of anyone they found living on the streets on census night but the Salvation Army’s work had ‘practically cleared the streets of its usual nomads’. We discovered 10 homeless men who were recorded in the 1911 census as being ‘found in open air’:

Click to enlarge

In another article in the same newspaper, ‘A Last Word on the Census’, The Times poignantly comments: ‘We are all, by faithfully writing a line or two in the great Book of the Nation, helping each other; and, to an extent and in ways in which we can now imperfectly realize we are also helping ages to come.’ We couldn’t have put it better ourselves!

February newsletter competition winner

We’ve picked the winner of our February newsletter competition in which we asked you this question:

‘We’ve found a woman with the last name ‘Bank’ in the Bank of England Wills Index we recently published. What are her first names?’

Congratulations go to Heather Peacock from North Yorkshire who correctly answered ‘Rebecca Palmer’.

Heather searched our Bank of England Wills Extracts 1717-1845 to find the correct answer. She wins a 12 month subscription to Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine.

Many thanks to all of you who entered – look out for the next competition question in our newsletter this Friday.

Ask the Expert – soldier in South Africa

Our resident military expert Paul Nixon, pictured below, answers your queries.

From Auriel Abrahams in Johannesburg, South Africa:

‘I have an ancestor who served in the 72nd regiment of foot. He left the army, was a Chelsea Pensioner and settled in South Africa where he married and died. I have been able to establish that John McKenzie was born in Dingwall, Urguhart, Ross and Cromarty in 1787 via WO97/843/31.

His papers do not give his parents’ names so I am stuck and cannot see from baptism records who his parents were. I also cannot find the muster rolls in the British Archives. I assume the muster rolls will indicate his parents – or is this a will that the soldiers had to complete when they signed up which would indicate their next of kin? Any suggestions as to how I can go further back?’

Paul says:

‘This is probably a case of checking pay books and muster rolls in class WO12 at The National Archives. Use the information contained within the WO97 document to work out when John McKenzie enlisted and then consult the muster rolls and/or pay lists for this man. WO12 is organised by regiment and the date on which his name first appears should give more information about him.

Supplemental evidence about his physical description may appear in WO25, although this series tends to cover records from the first half of the 19th Century only. It was not obligatory for a soldier to make a will when he signed up.’

If you’d like to send your question to our experts, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account. Unfortunately our experts only have time to answer a few queries each month. If yours wasn’t answered this time, you could be lucky next month!

Ask the Expert – which William?

Our resident military expert Paul Nixon, pictured below, answers your queries.

From Gail Quirt in Toronto, Canada:

‘I have hit the proverbial brick wall in finding out about my great-great-grandfather, William Booth. I have a registration certificate from the General Register Office for the birth of his son, Joseph Booth, in Benares, East Indies on 27 January, 1864. I know he was in the British Army in India (since his son was born there) and the family stories have him fighting in the Crimea War.

William must have died around the time Joseph was born, as Joseph ‘is recorded as a child of the marriage of 1403 Lance Corporal Edward Lee and Rosannah Booth, Widow’, but I am unable to find the date and place of his death.

Using findmypast.co.uk’s military records, there are a few William Booths who seem to have been in the Crimea and India at the right times. I have no information on when or where William Booth was born and I’m not sure which of the William Booths is my ancestor. Would you be able to find out which is the right William Booth, and when and where he was born and died?’

Paul says:

‘The excellent www.dnw.co.uk website gives three possibilities for a William Booth who fought during the Indian Mutiny and appears on the Indian Mutiny Medal Roll. These three men, all named William Booth, served with the 34th Foot, the 2nd Dragoon Guards and the 8th Hussars.

Finding a man on the Crimean war medal roll is far more difficult purely because the condition of much of the roll is best described as ‘shocking’ and, at worst, ‘unreadable’ or ‘missing’. There is, however, a William Booth with the 8th Hussars (number 1350) who is possibly the same man who later served during the Mutiny.

I thought that he might be a possible candidate until I checked our Chelsea Pensioners records and found that he was discharged from the army (and, therefore, still very much alive) in 1866. Remember too that the Chelsea Pensioners’ data is only for men who were discharged to pensions. If a man was discharged without a pension, or if he died, he won’t be in the Chelsea Pensioners WO97 records.

Later in the year we’ll be releasing records from the WO119 series which is Kilmainham Pensioners’ discharge documents. These are similar to WO97 but only cover the period up until 1821 and so we can rule that out. You may, however, find a death for William Booth in the Indian collection which we’re currently working on with the British Library. Read more about this fantastic project.’

If you’d like to send your question to our experts, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account. Unfortunately our experts only have time to answer a few queries each month. If yours wasn’t answered this time, you could be lucky next month!

The People's advice on how to prepare for the 1911 census

In the lead up to the 2011 census on Sunday 27 March, we’ve been looking at The People newspaper from Sunday 2 April 1911 – the day that the 1911 census was taken.

In an article named ‘Numbering Nobs’, the paper informs readers about the different census questions, the problems they could pose and offers tips on completing the form.

Directed at the head of the household, the article stresses the importance of filling in all the questions: ‘any evasion is treated with the severest penalties’. Slightly menacingly, the paper goes on to state that, ‘No one, however great or however insignificant, can escape the census’.

On the issue of how to approach potentially sensitive questions when filling in the census, the article uses the example of a cook who is separated from her husband. The head of the household is advised to ‘postpone his questions till after dinner – otherwise the dinner may be spoiled.’

Here you can see a 1911 census return which suggests that the head of this household didn’t read The People’s advice on how to fill in the form:

Click to enlarge

The article also mentions the suffragettes, saying ‘the avowed determination of the suffragists to withhold all information about themselves is likely to lead to considerable friction in some quarters.’ It goes on to say that ‘the more hardy’ protesters would probably spend the night in Trafalgar Square. We know all about one famous suffragette’s whereabouts on census night – Emily Davison spent the night hiding in the House of Commons.

It’s fascinating to read about how the nation prepared for the 1911 census. Perhaps in another 100 years, future generations will be doing the same with the 2011 census.

The People’s advice on how to prepare for the 1911 census

In the lead up to the 2011 census on Sunday 27 March, we’ve been looking at The People newspaper from Sunday 2 April 1911 – the day that the 1911 census was taken.

In an article named ‘Numbering Nobs’, the paper informs readers about the different census questions, the problems they could pose and offers tips on completing the form.

Directed at the head of the household, the article stresses the importance of filling in all the questions: ‘any evasion is treated with the severest penalties’. Slightly menacingly, the paper goes on to state that, ‘No one, however great or however insignificant, can escape the census’.

On the issue of how to approach potentially sensitive questions when filling in the census, the article uses the example of a cook who is separated from her husband. The head of the household is advised to ‘postpone his questions till after dinner – otherwise the dinner may be spoiled.’

Here you can see a 1911 census return which suggests that the head of this household didn’t read The People’s advice on how to fill in the form:

Click to enlarge

The article also mentions the suffragettes, saying ‘the avowed determination of the suffragists to withhold all information about themselves is likely to lead to considerable friction in some quarters.’ It goes on to say that ‘the more hardy’ protesters would probably spend the night in Trafalgar Square. We know all about one famous suffragette’s whereabouts on census night – Emily Davison spent the night hiding in the House of Commons.

It’s fascinating to read about how the nation prepared for the 1911 census. Perhaps in another 100 years, future generations will be doing the same with the 2011 census.

BBC Radio 4 features suffragette hiding in House of Commons in the 1911 census

This morning’s Woman’s Hour on BBC Radio 4 featured a piece on suffragette Emily Davison in the 1911 census. Many people don’t know that Emily hid in the House of Commons on the night of the 1911 census so she could be enumerated within Westminster.

Last year, we made the fascinating discovery of the census returns that prove this. They reveal Emily’s hiding place and the errors in recording which kept these documents secret for so long.

Listen to Jane Garvey on Radio 4 as she meets historians Jill Liddington and Elizabeth Crawford to find out more.

Competition winners – Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE 2011

A big thank you to everyone who entered our competition at the Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE exhibition at Kensington Olympia this year! The prize of a 12 month Full subscription was offered on each day of the show, along with two runner-up prizes of a 6 month Full subscription.

We’re pleased to announce that these prizes have now been awarded to the following lucky winners:

12 month Full subscriptions – Barbara Parsons, Pam Buckmaster and T Marshall

6 month Full subscriptions – Janet Evans, Darren Grosvenor, Robert Moore, Duncan Graham, Barbara Brooks and Janet Pegg.