We’re very pleased to announce that our parent company, brightsolid, has been awarded Best Genealogy Organisation of 2011 in the GeneAwards 2011.

The award recognises the millions of new records that findmypast.co.uk published last year and highlights our investment in quality records. Also cited are the launch of findmypast Ireland and the British Newspaper Archive, as well as Find My Past the TV show.

See all the details of why we won

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

From Keith Griffiths:

‘I’m trying to trace any record of my grandfather Howell Lewis Griffiths. He was born on 11 April 1878 in Carmarthen, Wales and is said to have fought in the 2nd Boer War in South Africa. I have not been able to trace a record as I do not have a regiment to which he may have been attached. Any help would be appreciated.’

Paul says:

‘You’re going to struggle with this as the medal rolls for the 2nd South African War often only list initials rather than first names. There is one H L Griffiths listed who served with the Commander in Chief’s bodyguard (number 22647) but you’d need more evidence to positively identify this man as your relative.

Why not try the local papers for the time and see if he is named either as going out to fight, or returning home? brightsolid online publishing and the British Library have just launched the British Newspaper Archive, where you’ll be able to search 4 million newspaper pages, rising to 40 million over the next 10 years. Read more about this and register here: www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk‘

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!

Today marks the launch of the British Newspaper Archive, where you can search up to 4 million pages of historical newspapers online.

The British Library and brightsolid are working in partnership on this ground-breaking project, which will transform the way that historical newspapers are used to find out about our past. The website offers access to up to 4 million fully searchable pages, featuring more than 200 newspaper titles from every part of the UK and Ireland.

The newspapers - which mainly date from the 19th century, but which include runs dating back to the first half of the 18th century - cover every aspect of local, regional and national news. Thousands of new pages will be added to the collection every day, to reach up to 40 million pages over the next 10 years - this is an unmissable resource for your family history research.

Alongside first-hand accounts of historic events, such as the wedding of Victoria and Albert and the Charge of the Light Brigade, the newspapers also provide numerous rich details about how our ancestors lived. You can search a wealth of material to help your family history research, including family notices, announcements and obituaries. The ability to search by name, location, date and newspaper title means that you can search hundreds of thousands of pages at a time to track down those elusive ancestors.

Findmypast.co.uk’s marketing executive, Amy Sell, has made a fascinating discovery of her own in the archive. She found an article about her great-great-great-grandfather, Richard Howard, who was accused of stealing a pocket watch. We learn Richard’s fate at the end of the article: ‘Verdict: “Not guilty” - this caused much surprise in court.’

As well as adding new and colourful information to her family tree, the article also tells Amy the following about her great-great-great-grandfather:

• His age in 1867 (30)
• His occupation (chimney sweep)
• Where he was from (Hitchin, Hertfordshire)
• His father (Amy’s great-great-great-great-grandfather)’s name (James Howard) and the words he used to describe his son’s character
• Information about her ancestor’s whereabouts in the 1850s - his father said “he has been at Biggleswade for ten years, and works for all the gentry”.

Search the British Newspaper Archive now

Today sees the launch of findmypast Ireland, a joint venture between findmypast and Eneclann, the award-winning Irish history and heritage company. Findmypast Ireland will host the most extensive collection of Irish land records available anywhere online and will be a valuable resource for those 80 million people worldwide who claim Irish ancestry.

Findmypast Ireland, which is aimed at those of Irish descent including 13 per cent of the US population, carries the most detailed and thorough collection of Irish records ever seen in one place – over 4 million records. These include land records, directories, wills, obituaries, gravestone inscriptions and marriages.

The earliest records date back to the 13th century (wills) and include several important collections from the 18th century (The Elphin Census 1749 and the 1798 Rebellion records). The collection includes the exclusive publication of the Landed Estates Court records, a crucial resource for the mid- to late-19th century, which includes details of over 500,000 tenants on Irish estates.

Take a look at our infographic about the impact of the Irish

Start searching findmypast Ireland today for your Irish ancestors.

Findmypast.co.uk are very excited about an upcoming event that our parent company, brightsolid, is sponsoring: RootsTech. This new family history and technology conference will take place in Salt Lake City, Utah, US on 10-12 February.

If you’re in the area, come and visit brightsolid’s stand, no. 401, where you’ll be able to access the site for free, watch demonstrations of our sites, and meet our friendly team. FamilySearch has organised RootsTech and you can find out more about it here.

We hope to see you there!

You may have read in the news today that findmypast.com’s parent company, brightsolid, has bought Friends Reunited Group, which includes the Friends Reunited and Genes Reunited websites. We’re delighted to confirm that this is true.

We’re really excited by this development. In the future there will be opportunities for us to provide enhanced services for the customers of findmypast.com , 1911census.co.uk and the Friends Reunited websites.

For now the websites will continue to be run independently so if you have any queries regarding accounts on Genes Reunited or Friends Reunited, please contact their Customer Support Teams as usual.