This weekend the Society of Genealogists will be 100 years old and findmypast.co.uk is proud to be their centenary sponsor.

The Society has a host of activities planned to celebrate its 100th year. Upcoming events include a Reception and Gala Dinner on Friday 6 May and the Centenary Family History Conference on Saturday 7 May, both of which findmypast.co.uk is looking forward to attending.

You can find out more information about all of the Society’s centenary celebrations on their website

You can search millions of records from the Society on findmypast.co.uk, including the Great Western Railway Shareholders Index 1835-1932 and the Civil Service Evidence of Age 1752-1948

See a full list of the Society’s records you can search on findmypast.co.uk

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.

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

12 month Full subscriptions - Robert Forrester, Pamela Freeman and Katherine Harris

6 month Full subscriptions - Rosemary Atkins, Jeremy Briggs, Mrs B Catchpole, Janet Henwood, Jack Miller and David Taylor

You can read more about the events at this year’s Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE exhibition here.

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.

This weekend saw the fourth Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE exhibition at Kensington Olympia. Hundreds of people visited the findmypast shop and kept our Edwardian shopkeepers busy selling vouchers and giving out free Family History Starter Packs.

The findmypast tram proved a popular feature with all the departures pulling a large crowd. Our clippies gave engaging and informative talks throughout the weekend which described in detail how to use findmypast when researching your family history. Here you can see the journey in action:

Our research bay was busy all weekend, with members of the findmypast team answering queries and helping people with their research. Mary, who uses findmypast.co.uk in her research, came to the exhibition with the hope of overcoming a problem. We helped Mary to track down her maternal great-great grandmother who was proving elusive to trace. Our experts also found Mary’s great-great grandmother’s parents, which meant that she now has new avenues of research to explore.

The event was hugely successful and we received lots of valuable feedback about our stand and our website. We’d like to thank everyone who visited our shop, tram and research bay and hope you enjoyed the event as much as we did.

The UK’s biggest family history event returns to London’s Olympia on 26-28 February 2010 for its fourth fascinating year and findmypast.co.uk will be there. Come and visit our stand where you can take your free seat on the findmypast.co.uk ‘tram’. There will be several ‘departures’ every day, each featuring a talk on how to start your journey into the past. There’s no need to book, just check the ‘departures board’ when you arrive to choose the time that suits you. 

You can also pick up some fantastic deals from our Edwardian shopkeeper in the 1911 shop. Offers include £25-worth of PayAsYouGo vouchers for £19.99, a three month subscription for £45 instead of £50 and a 12 month subscription for £135 instead of £150. These subscriptions include access to the 1911 census records as well as all the other great features we have to offer. When you buy any voucher worth £9.99 or more you’ll get a Family History Starter Pack with a free copy of our new video tutorials, designed to help you get the most out of our site.

There will be free access to the findmypast.co.uk website in our research bay so come along and get stuck into your research - you can meet the findmypast.co.uk team and pick their brains for tips!

We look forward to seeing you there.

As a UK-based family history website specialising in UK records, we have decided to change the name of the website - findmypast.com will soon become findmypast.co.uk.

From later this week, you will start to see our new name appear when you visit. It will take a while for our name to change completely, so don’t be surprised if you continue to see references to findmypast.com for the next few weeks. We hope to have everything complete by New Year.

You will need to add the new name to your bookmarks, but apart from that, you should not notice any changes. The findmypast.com name will continue to work in your browser: you will automatically be taken to findmypast.co.uk.

We have tried to make the change as simple as possible, and most people who use the ‘Keep me signed in’ option will get automatically signed in to findmypast.co.uk. However, there may be a few people who find that they are signed out when you visit.

If you are, don’t worry. Just go to the ‘Sign in’ page, tick the ‘Keep me signed in’ box again and you’ll be signed in as normal from that point. If you have forgottten your password, simply use the ‘forgotten password’ feature and a new one will be sent to your email address.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Customer Support Team, who will be happy to help.