We’re currently having a few problems with the connection between findmypast and Family Tree Explorer, meaning that you cannot access your family trees at the moment. Rest assured that they are safe, and we are working on a fix now to make them visible gain. We hope to have this fixed soon.

UPDATE: 24/09/10 14:03 - this is now fixed. Apologies again for the interruption in service.

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 has just carried out a survey which has revealed that young Brits shy away from jobs that require hard graft and instead, one in six 18-24 year olds aspire to become a famous singer, actor or member of a band.

There has never been such a stark contrast between the career choices of today’s young people when compared to the manual jobs of their ancestors. In the 1911 census some of the most popular occupations recorded include working in domestic service, agriculture, mining, building and the cotton industry. In contrast, less than 1% of young Brits in the 21st century would like to have a manual job such as a builder or plumber.

Here you can see a 1911 census return for singer Tom Jones’ maternal grandparents, Albert Rees and Ada Jones, who were in the coal-mining industry. Jones is Tom’s stage rather than birth surname.

Click to enlarge

Debra Chatfield

Our marketing manager, Debra Chatfield (pictured right), says: “It seems the growing obsession with celebrity has really impacted on young people’s career choices these days, as our study reveals how the more non-traditional jobs now come high up on the wish-list.

“Times have certainly changed when it comes to young people’s career choices. A look at the 1911 census provides a fascinating insight into the professions of our ancestors and you can really see how times have dramatically changed. On the other hand, in some cases, it can be interesting to see how some families have carried the same profession down through the family tree to the modern day. In our recent study it was revealed that, worryingly, a fifth (22%) of those aged 18-24 years do not know what their ancestors did for a living.”

Find out what your ancestors did in our complete census records from 1841 to 1911.

We have now added support for multiple spouses within Family Tree Explorer 3.

You will notice that there are now arrows pointing upwards and downwards from each individual: use these to add a new partner to somebody in your family tree.

Once a secondary partner has been added, a tab will appear next to the individual, indicating multiple spouses.

Many people at the WDYTYA LIVE show asked us how they could get hold of the findmypast.com video tutorials, after watching them in the 1911 census classroom.

We have now put the tutorials online so you can watch from the comfort of your own home. We hope you find them useful - they guide you through the basic first steps with a particular focus on BMD (Birth, Marriage, Death) and Census records. Let us know if you find them helpful.

Click on the image below to view the tutorials.

We have added a number of new features to Family Tree Explorer version 3 - here’s a quick summary for those of you using this version:

• Improved “import” support for different types of GEDCOM files. Although GEDCOM is a standard file format, files do vary very slightly depending on what software has been used to generate them: we have added support for more common types
• No limit on file size of GEDCOM to be imported
• Ability to delete an individual
• Ability to change the default/root individual
• Auto-capitalisation on most input fields
•  Faster start up when loading the application

Next on our list:

• Multiple relationship/spouse supported
• Help / User Guides