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New Yorkshire parish records to search

We’ve published 4,625 new parish records for Yorkshire on findmypast.co.uk

Any of you with Yorkshire roots will want to search these records to see if they hold new information to add to your family tree.

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

See the table below for more information about the records:

Search the parish records now

Ask the expert – mystery brother

Our resident expert Stephen Rigden, pictured below, answers your queries.

From Richard Geard:

‘My grandfather, Edmund Geard, a priest, was born on my father’s side on 28 December 1866 in Camberwell London, and died in 1929 (April-May-June). He had a brother whom nobody talked about – we think he was named William. We believe he did something criminal and was sent abroad, possibly to Australia. I cannot, however, find any details about it. His mother (my paternal great-grandmother) was Nanny Geard, born Downing in 1830 I think, died in 1919 I think, and was married on 10 May in Penzance to Edmond Geard Merchant of Chypponds and died on 23 November 1870. I have really got stuck here and don’t seem to be able to go anywhere. I would be most grateful for tips and advice.’

Stephen says:

‘Thanks for the question, Richard.

I think the underlying complication here is twofold: that your great grandfather Edmund Geard Snr married not once but twice, and spent many years outside England.

His first wife was Emma Grace Budle – he married her in December quarter 1837 in Manchester. It seems that Emma died and her death was registered in June quarter 1866 in Penzance – the very same quarter in which her widower Edmund Snr then remarried Nanny Downing, the mother of his son, your paternal grandfather, Edmund Jnr, born at the end of 1866 (in Newlyn, Cornwall, rather than Camberwell mentioned in your email). I was struggling to find Edmund Snr and Emma Grace on the 1841, 1851 and 1861 censuses when I noticed that a death notice was place in the Sydney Morning Herald of 23 July 1866 – this speaks of:

“GEARD. April 22nd, at her residence, Chypons Villa, near Penzance, Cornwall, after a long and painful illness, Emma Grace, the beloved wife of Mr Edmond, late of Wollongong, New South Wales, aged 52 years.”

I then found a long series of Australian newspaper mentions of Edmund Snr, including:

1. 29 April 1839: Edmund Geard announced in the Sydney Herald that he “has now, for public approval, upwards of one thousand splendid cap and bonnet flowers and wreaths, at London prices – Manchester House, corner of King & Pitt Streets, Sydney”.
2. 21 July 1843: Edmund Geard placed a notice in the official NSW Government Gazette to the effect that he was “no longer a member of the Mutual Fire Insurance Association” – King Street, Sydney, as of 12th July 1843.
3. 13 January 1848: entry in the Sydney Chronicle referring to an Edmund Geard of Wollongong taking out a district licence, seemingly to practise as an auctioneer.
4. 1 December 1851: entry in Sydney Morning Herald, again relating to the granting of a district auctioneer’s licence to Mr Edmund Geard of Wollongong.
5. 19 April 1855: entry in Sydney Morning Herald, Edmund Geard contributing £5 to the Wollongong District Patriotic Fund.
6. 1856: a Mr E Geard constructs “Brighton Villa” on 30 acres of land fronting Mount Keira Road, West Wollongong
7. 6 May 1864: at the Supreme Court of NSW it was alleged that Edmund Geard owed a total of £399 19s 10p to various plaintiffs and that “the said Edmund Geard does not reside within this colony or its dependencies” and a “writ of foreign detachment” had been issued.

The last reference suggests that Edmund Geard Snr had been accused of misappropriating funds and had returned to England circa 1863/64.

You can search various Australian records at our sister site www.findmypast.com.au – Edmund is likely to appear in the various NSW Government Gazettes which are searchable there.

It is, therefore, possible that your grandfather’s half-blood siblings (if there were any) would have been born in New South Wales.

Edmund Geard died on 23 November 1870 at Paul in Cornwall. He left a will, and an estate valued as “effects under £3,000”, probate to which was granted on 19 November 1870. You can obtain a copy of the will and grant of probate by writing to the Leeds District Probate Registry (which deals with all postal applications for copies of wills) at the address given here. The will may of course mention children other than your grandfather, although equally it could be very brief and relate only to his widow Nanny – you won’t know unless you apply for a copy!

Incidentally, unless you know otherwise, if all your searches continue to draw a blank for a William, you might want to consider the possibility that he and any other that half-blood siblings were not on the Geard side of the family but on the Downing side.

Good luck with your research, Richard!’

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 – Indian mysteries

Our resident military expert Paul Nixon, pictured below, offers advice on how to solve your military family history mysteries.

From Jean Field in Australia:

‘Can you help? My ancestor Alexandra Sophia Letitia Elizabeth was born in Bombay, India on 11 May 1889. Her father was Alexander Clarkson, Sergeant Instructor G.I.P Railways Igalpura. Alexander was born in England in 1860 and married Letitia Stewart in 1880, also in India. I have his service records from your site.

I just wonder if you have any information as to what Alexander would have been doing on the railways as he served in the British Army?

He returned to England without his wife and child. Any idea what happened to them? This wife and child were not known to the family. He went on to have another family in Manchester! Any help or direction would be most appreciated.

I also wondered if you can help with regard to Timothy Finucane, born in Mallow, Cork, Ireland in 1833. He had a long army service, although I am unable to find his service records. I have him listed in a private army (aged 18yrs) in 1855 and by 1861 he was at Hythe School of Musketry. He later became an Instructor of musketry and served in the 107 Regiment of Foot (2387) in India.

Any idea where I could find his service records? In 1855 he was listed in a private army – would that have anything to do with the East India Trading Company? Many thanks for your advice.’

Paul says:

‘I’m going to try and answer both your queries in one.

GIP Railways it Great Indian Peninsular Railway and Igatpuri is now a city but was then a smaller hill station in what is today the Indian state of Maharashtra.

Alexander Clarkson’s marriage details, noted on his service record, state that he was a sergeant instructor with the East Yorkshire Regt; key service details below.

• 29 April 1880 – Attests with 11th Brigade at Fleetwood for six years with the colours and six on the reserve. Is already a serving member of 1st Royal Lancashire Militia, number 3165
• 11 March 1882 – 10 May 1890 – serving in India
• 13 November 1882 – Transferred to 1st Bn King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regt
• 21 March 1885 – Extends service to complete 10 years with the colours
• 2 December 1885 – Transferred to Unattached List with the rank of sergeant instructor
• 31 January 1886 – Transferred to 2nd East Yorkshire Regt (number 2076)
• 27 February 1888 – Marries Letitia Stewart at St Thomas’s Cathedral, Bombay
• 28 April 1892 – Transferred to Section D Army Reserve
• 27 April 1896 – Discharged

I couldn’t see anything on his service record that mentioned the GIP Railway and apart from the period when he was on Section D Army Reserve, he was a full-time soldier engaged in full-time soldierly duties. Note, however, that the Unattached List was comprised of NCOs from British Regiments who wished to stay in India. Later they would become supernumerary men attached to British Regiments before promotion to warrant officer rank or sub-conductor and then conductor (and then further promotions after that). Your man does not appear to have attained those ranks but he did have two good conduct badges which would have appeared as two chevrons attached to his tunic on his lower left arm.

I have been unable to find out what happened to Letitia and Alexandra when Alexander left India. Is it possible that they died in India before he returned to the UK?

On your other relative, looking through documents in WO12 (Pay books and muster rolls) and WO25 (description books) at The National Archives should help you in the absence of a service record. If Australia is a little too far for you to travel from, you could engage a researcher to do the work for you. The 107th Regiment of Foot was an Indian raised regiment – The Bengal Light Infantry – which was originally formed by the Honourable East India Company in 1854 as the 3rd Bengal (European) Light Infantry. After the Indian Mutiny it was, along with all of the other European units of the Company, moved into the British Army. This happened in 1862 when it was ranked 107th Regiment of Foot. In 1881 it became the 2nd line battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment.’

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 photo expert – female ancestors

Our photo expert, Jayne Shrimpton, analyses your family photos.

Andrew Elliot sent us his photo and asked:

‘Please find attached an old photograph of three women. It is a glass plated photograph – perhaps an ambrotype – in a framed case. The scratches on the image are from the negatives when I photographed many years ago with film! Any dating based on the clothing would be great. The photograph would have been taken in Fife, Scotland.’

Click to enlarge

Jayne says:

‘Ambrotypes, as you point out, are photographic images on a glass plate and are often mounted in a frame or presented in a hinged case. Most ambrotypes taken in photographers’ studios date from the later 1850s or early 1860s, being rapidly superseded during the 1860s by the new card-mounted carte de visite photographs, although outdoor ambrotypes may date from as late as 1890. If you are correct about the format of this photograph, then it is a relatively late example of a studio ambrotype, dating from the 1870s.

Dress clues invariably provide the best evidence for the timeframe of an unidentified photograph and the appearance of young women, like these pictured here, generally offers the most accurate dating clues. Female fashions in clothing and hairstyles changed regularly in the past and the up-to-date modes favoured by young women in particular can provide a very close date range. Here we see three female ancestors, the girl in the centre the youngest figure here and probably aged no more than 14 or 15 years old, judging from her juvenile hairstyle showing the hair dressed in youthful ringlets.

The standing women (possibly the girl’s older sisters?) wear adult fashions, their elaborate hairstyles typical of the 1870s. The drawing back of the hair off the face during the later 1860s and 1870s inspired the vogue for long pendant earrings, as worn here, while the height of many 1870s coiffures necessitated the wearing of neat hats tilted well forward on the head, as seen on the left. This lady looks especially fashionable and the style of her dress, buttoned down the centre-front, suggests that she is wearing the narrow ‘Princess’ dress that followed the elongated cuirass line. Introduced around mid-decade, this new silhouette replaced the early-1870s bustle shape and helps to date this photograph to c.1875-79 – a close timeframe that may help you to positively identify these ancestors.

Another interesting feature of this picture is the knitting! Photographs depicting women and girls (and, occasionally, men) knitting by hand date back to at least the 1860s, for knitting has a long history in Britain, being especially associated with fishing communities that produced traditional fishermen’s ganseys. This embryonic garment, however, is no sturdy blue seaman’s jersey, but a delicate white or pale-coloured article taking shape on small needles – a baby’s garment, perhaps?

Looking at the lady occupied with her knitting, she appears to have a pronounced ‘bump’ below her waist, strongly suggesting that she is pregnant and might therefore be preparing her unborn baby’s layette. This kind of subject is rarely seen in family photograph collections and adds a fascinating extra dimension to this scene. Have any findmypast.co.uk followers seen anything similar to this photograph?’

Jayne Shrimpton

If you’d like to send your photo to Jayne Shrimpton, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account. Jayne only has time to analyse two photos each month, but if yours wasn’t chosen this time, you could be lucky next month!

Ask the photo expert – old school photo

Our photo expert, Jayne Shrimpton, analyses your family photos.

Roger Thomas sent us his photo and asked:

‘This photograph is about 17cm by 11cm: the mount is stiff cardboard with a plain back. I can only assume it was taken at a school in Plymouth, Devon. I would like to know the date, please.’

Click to enlarge

Jayne says:

‘Old school photographs feature in many of today’s family photograph collections. As early as the 1850s photographers were hired to record the pupils of elite academies and schools like Harrow and Eton and certain studios built their reputations on academic portraiture, like Hills & Saunders (established 1852). School photography for the wider population, however, developed after the passing of the 1870 Elementary Education Act, which led to larger numbers of children from ordinary families attending school. Regular photographer visits to local schools were also encouraged by technical advances during the later 1870s, particularly the introduction of convenient dry photographic plates, which facilitated photographic work away from the studio. Most surviving school photographs, therefore, date from the end of the 1870s onwards.

You mention that your photograph was possibly taken in Plymouth, Devon, perhaps because that’s where your ancestors lived. The card mount specifies Birmingham, but this may be a ‘red herring’. Internet research reveals that George Watkins Holden, manager of the Elementary Schools Photographing Company operated in many different locations, as listed on the decorative columns on this mount, including Plymouth. There is an interesting biography of him on the website of Brett Payne

This indicates that by the late 1870s, Holden was travelling widely around the country (or possibly used local agents) and was specialising in scholastic photography. Several examples of his school photographs are uploaded here and if you scroll down you’ll see an elementary photograph taken at Plymouth in 1895: the mount is identical to yours.

Usually school children were photographed in their class groups, or, sometimes, two or more classes combined. They were carefully positioned so that each small face was visible, as it was hoped that every parent would purchase a copy – just like today. Generally in Victorian photographs like this, the children were lined up in rows in the playground, flanked by the head teacher and/or class teacher on one or both sides, as seen here. Sometimes a slate was positioned in the middle of the picture stating the year, school and class: when present this provides very useful historical information.

Dating local school photographs that have no helpful slate involves dating the style of dress worn by the pupils. Children didn’t usually wear a school uniform as such, but were told to ‘come clean’ for the photographer’s visit and would have made an effort to wear their best clothes. Here we see girls from what look to be several year groups as they appear to be different ages, ranging perhaps from around seven to 11 years old – coinciding with what we would today call junior school. The younger girls wear loose smock dresses hanging in folds from the chest – a style of frock introduced for young girls in the early-mid-1890s.

Some girls, especially several of the older pupils, wear a more fitted version with a tighter bodice and accentuated at the waist with a waistband. They all wear the puffed sleeves fashionable in the 1890s. I would date this photograph to c.1894-9, a close timeframe that should hopefully help you to identify one of these girls as an ancestor – possibly someone who also appears in other family photographs.’

Jayne Shrimpton

We publish 2 million new Welsh parish records

We have just published 2 million new Welsh parish registers.

These new records follow the first release of Welsh parish registers earlier this year. This is the first time that the complete Welsh parish baptism, marriage and death records have been made available online.

You can now search 5,924,611 records of Church in Wales parish registers on findmypast.co.uk:

• Baptisms: 2,083,430 records covering 1538-1912 – see detailed coverage (PDF)



• Marriages: 1,226,650 records covering 1539-1927 – see detailed coverage (PDF)
• Banns: 557,078 records covering 1603-1927 – see detailed coverage (PDF)
• Burials: 2,057,453 records covering 1539-2007 – see detailed coverage (PDF)

These records cover the following counties: Anglesey, Brecknockshire, Caernarvonshire, Cardiganshire, Carmarthenshire, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Glamorganshire, Merionethshire, Monmouthshire, Montgomeryshire, Pembrokeshire and Radnorshire.

We are proud to be working with the Welsh County Archivists Group and the National Library of Wales to bring you these records, which make up the Wales Collection

Search the Welsh parish records now

New Royal Household records just published

We’ve just added more than 25,000 new Royal Household records to our collection:

• Establishment Lists for Master of the Household’s Department 1835-1924: 7,158 records
• Establishment Lists for the Royal Mews 1717-1924: 18,281 records

The new records represent an addition to the Royal Household records we published earlier this month.

This release brings the total number of Royal Household records on findmypast.co.uk to more than 75,000.

Find out more about our Royal Archives Collection

Click to enlarge

The reasons range from ‘discharged for being late’, ‘drunkenness’ and ‘kept bad time’ to the slightly more alarming ‘attempted suicide cut his throat’ and ‘improper conduct to horse’.

We’re working in association with the Royal Archives to bring you these fantastic records, which make up the Royal Archives Collection.

Search the Royal Household records now

Search 70,000 new Sheffield parish records

We’ve just published almost 70,000 new parish records for Sheffield on findmypast.co.uk

The records span the vast period 1767 to 1986 and will be essential to anyone with ancestors from Sheffield.

The Sheffield & District Family History Society provided findmypast.co.uk with these records, in association with the Federation of Family History Societies.

See the table below for further details of the records:

Search the parish records now

New WWI and WWII Prisoner of War records published

Search for your ancestors in new WWI and WWII Prisoner of War records published today on findmypast.co.uk

These records hold vital information about men taken prisoner of war during both World Wars. Naval and Military Press provided findmypast.co.uk with these records.

Prisoners of War 1914-1918

Search records of 7,703 British Army Officers who were Prisoners of War between 1914 and 1918.

The records will usually tell you the following about your ancestors: first and last names, rank, service, section, date they went missing and date they were repatriated.

Some records have additional notes, for example, death in captivity.

Search Prisoners of War 1914-1918 records

Prisoners of War 1939-1945
Search for your ancestors in the following sets of records:

• Prisoners of War 1939-1945 – British Navy & Air Force Officers: 19,229 records
• Prisoners of War 1939-1945 – Officers of Empire serving in British Army: 39,808 records
• Prisoners of War 1939-1945 – British Army held in German territories: 107,000 records

The records will usually provide you with the following information about your ancestors: name, rank, regiment, army number, camp number, Prisoner of War number, camp type, camp location and extra notes, where applicable.

Search Prisoners of War 1939-1945 records

Royal competition winner

We’ve picked the winner of our Royal competition! In the email we sent you about our new Royal Household Staff records, we asked you how many records we’ve published as part of this collection.

Congratulations go to Margaret Harlock from Bristol who correctly answered ’50,000′! Margaret wins a copy of Tracing Your Servant Ancestors by Michelle Higgs.

Thanks to all of you who entered!