You can now search 97,515 records of men who were pensioned out of the British Army between 1873 and 1882 on findmypast.co.uk. We're working in association with The National Archives and in partnership with FamilySearch on this ongoing project. Here is a breakdown of the records you can find on the site and which are still to come:

Whereas many other military records provide information about officer-class soldiers, these records relate to ordinary, non-officer class soldiers. This makes it more likely that you will be able to find details about your ancestors. The connection with 'Chelsea Pensioners' is that the pensions were administered through The Royal Hospital at Chelsea. The great majority of pensioned soldiers were out-pensioners and did not reside at the Hospital itself.

What makes these records so special?

The records provide rich detail and colour to our ancestors' lives to a level that is difficult to find elsewhere. There are usually six or seven records per soldier, whereas an individual would only get one line in, say, a 19^th century census record. Most of the service records note all of the regiments in which a soldier served, with both start and end dates, ranks attained, and the total service rendered, again in years and days, in each rank and regiment. Service in either the East or West Indies is noted separately.

The reason for the soldier's discharge (illness or wounds) is given, as are remarks on general conduct while in the service, and notations on height, complexion, eye and hair colour, and civilian occupation. The form is dated and signed by both the soldier and commanding officer. In the absence of photographs, these records are an essential tool in providing an insight into what your ancestors actually looked like. These records are among the most popular at The National Archives as family historians and genealogists have realised how valuable they are. You can find more information about these records on our knowledge base page.

The Chelsea Pensioner Service Records are made up of servicemen from all over the British Empire. Below is a percentage break down of where the servicemen were born:

• England = 68.9%
• Ireland = 17.6%
• Scotland = 8.3%
• Wales = 2.2%
• West Indies = 0.6%
• India = 0.4%
• Sark = 0.00073%

Start searching for your Chelsea Pensioner ancestors now.

We have increased the amount of credits you will be charged to view an 1841-1901 census record from 3 to 5. This is the first time we’ve increased our credit pricing in 4 years and we hope you’ll understand our need to reflect the current market rates in our pricing. The 1881 census transcript images will remain free to view.

Findmypast.co.uk has complete census records 1841-1911 - more records than anyone else. We also have more searchable fields than anyone else which makes finding your ancestors as straightforward as possible.

PayAsYouGo credits can be a great way to start your family history research, but with a subscription you can enjoy unlimited usage of our records without having to worry about running out of credits. Visit our ‘Subscribe‘ page for more information about subscribing to findmypast.co.uk.

You can now find the complete records for Lavendon Village, Buckinghamshire, on the 1851 census.

There are a total of 795 records for Lavendon on the census for you to search. The Latter Day Saints provided the data for this update.

Search the 1851 census for your Buckinghamshire ancestors today.

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We have added a total of 204,501 new baptism and burial records for Wiltshire, Manchester and Dorset to findmypast.co.uk.

These records were provided by the Wiltshire Family History Society, the Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society and the Dorset Family History Society.

See the table below for a breakdown of the records:

Visit our parish baptisms and parish burials pages to search these records.

We have just added 15,590 new parish baptism records for St John Wapping, provided by Docklands Ancestors. See the table below for a breakdown of the new records:

This means that you can now find 32,671 records for Wapping and a total of 423,148 records of baptisms for the London docklands area on our site. We will be adding plenty more new records in the coming months so make sure you keep visiting the site for updates.

Visit our help and advice page for more information on these records.

Get searching our parish baptisms to find your London docklands ancestor.

We’ve updated our site with new memorial inscriptions for Essex, provided by the Essex Society for Family History. The number of records has increased from 156,930 to 170,875. These records cover the years 1100 to 2007. Visit our parish burials page for more information.

We’ve increased the amount of Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records 1883-1900 on our site by around 20,000 so there are now 270,334 records for you to search.

We’ll keep you posted on all the new updates we make to these records - you can expect to see many more in the coming months.

Get searching our Chelsea Pensioners records today.

We’ve just unearthed nearly 95,000 new records to add to the 1851 census for Isle of Man, Hampshire, Buckinghamshire and Carnarvonshire. See below for a breakdown of the records:

 
Get searching the 1851 census now.

The Knowledge Base section of our site contains our Parish Records Collection. We’ve just alphabetised the parish list so finding the one you need should now be much easier. Have a look at our parish list now.

Findmypast.co.uk is pleased to offer a collection of records to help people track down their London-based ancestors and unearth the milestone events of famous Londoners from the past. The London Collection includes records of baptisms, marriages and burials which date back to 1538. These include significant dates in the lives of famous Londoners including Charles Dickens’ marriage in Chelsea in 1836, captured in the West Middlesex Marriage Index, and William Blake’s somewhat mysterious burial in 1827 at Bunhill Fields, detailed in the City of London Burial Index.

The collection also includes the records of baptisms in London’s Docklands, some of which provide a fascinating insight into popular baby names of the 1700s, including exotic-sounding names such as ‘Hephzibah’, ‘Delight’ and ‘Philadelphia’.

The findmypast.co.uk ‘London Collection’ includes:

• City of London Burial Index – records from all the churches in the City of London from 1813 to 1890
• West Middlesex Marriage Index – detailing 84,863 marriages in 61 parishes from 1538 to 1837
• London Docklands Baptisms – comprising 407,558 baptisms for London’s docklands areas 1712 to 1933
• London and West Kent Probate Indexes – mainly detailing wills and administrations from 1750 to 1858
• The Matchworkers’ Strike – listing participants of the strike of over 700 men, women and teenage boys and girls working at the Bryant and May factory in East London in 1888, the same year as the Jack the Ripper murders