Leading UK family history website, findmypast.co.uk has today launched an easier way to find the births of English and Welsh ancestors online. The company has reindexed over 100 million birth records, as a first instalment of a completely new version of the England and Wales Birth, Marriage and Death (BMD) records on its website. Fully indexing these records involved rescanning 170 years of records and transcribing the quarter of a billion names within them. Over 1,000 people have worked on this exciting two-year project.

The fully indexed births make finding ancestors much simpler as the revamped records will provide you with a number of new benefits:

• Your search results will be in the form of a list of individual names, so you won't have to check through pages of records to find your ancestors
• You can search the complete 1837-2006 set of birth records in one go or by one or more counties at a time
• The images of the index pages are completely new and very high quality
• We've added smart search features including name variants
• There are clever search results to get around the quirks of the records, including the GRO's procedure of initialising second names, and records of children unnamed at registration (very common in the Victorian period)
• You can now search by mother's and father's name at the same time to help find those elusive births

With this new resource now available, findmypast.co.uk has uncovered some interesting facts about the births that were registered between 1837 and 2006.

• 10 babies named Fish Fish born between 1840 and 1883, bizarrely, all in Lancashire. The list includes one Fish Fish Fish born in Blackburn in 1864.
• Just five Ringos were registered in 1964 and 1965, compared with 2,414 Georges, 36,877 Johns and 56,170 Pauls.
• Six Dick Turpins were registered between 1854 and 1916 – a highwayman from the 1700s.
• Four Maradonas were registered in 1986, the year of the infamous ‘Hand of God’ goal. Eight more were registered between 1999 and 2006, including two Diego Maradonas and two Ronaldo Maradonas.
• Eight Peles were registered between 1970 and 1972, following the footballer’s 1000^th goal in 1969.
• Eight babies have been given the forename Hercules, with a further 51 bearing it as a middle name.

Debra Chatfield, Marketing Manager at findmypast.co.uk, said, “As the first company to publish birth, marriage and death records online, findmypast.co.uk is committed to making family history research more accessible. Findmypast’s brand new birth indexes now provide an easier route into our families’ pasts than ever before.

We are currently working on reindexing the marriage and death records and once complete, findmypast.co.uk will have digitised over a quarter of a billion records. Thanks to initiatives like this, family history is more popular than ever and the amount of historical records that are now available to search and view online will help even more people to start to uncover their own family tree.”

Findmypast.co.uk was the first company in the world to put the complete Birth, Marriage and Death indexes (BMDs) for England and Wales online on 1 April 2003. Previously these were only available offline on microfiche or in registry books, at a selected number of locations. This landmark achievement was recognised in 2007, when findmypast.co.uk won the Queen’s Award for Innovation.

For more information go to www.findmypast.co.uk

July 7, 2010

SALT LAKE CITY - A valuable resource for Jewish genealogical research has expanded to include records from all over the world. The popular Knowles Collection from FamilySearch is a free database connecting Jewish records of 115,000 people in 30 countries. The combining of those records into one collection makes it easier for researches to find family sources.

“One of the biggest problems with Jewish records is that they are held all over the place and one person can have records in multiple locations,” FamilySearch research consultant and the collection’s manager, Todd Knowles, said. “That means someone just starting to research their Jewish ancestry will have to drive from archive to archive and from synagogue to synagogue to find what they are looking for. What this collection does is put all the records in one location, which is an incredible time and cost savings for patrons.”

Knowles started the database in 2007 to help him find his own Jewish ancestry. The collection began with 6,500 records from the British Isles, but has now rapidly expanded into five geographically-based databases with over 115,000 names:

• The Jews of the British Isles (82,000 names)
• The Jews of the Americas (10,300 names)
• The Jews of Europe (18,697 names)
• The Jews of the Caribbean (2,200 names)
• The Jews of Africa and the Orient (367 names)

The Knowles Collection is compiled from over 200 different sources that have been transcribed and combined by volunteers. There is also a complete list of where the original records can be found. The entire collection is now linked electronically as families and fully searchable on FamilySearch’s Community Trees project, found at http://histfam.familysearch.org. Researchers can also download GEDCOM versions of each collection from www.familysearch.org.

According to Knowles, much of the growth of the collection is due to the continued donations of family records by people throughout the world.

“We have received donations from families in the British Isles, Germany, Russia, Jamaica, and many places in the United States,” Knowles said. “We also have a great collection of synagogue records from Mattersdorf, Hungary, as well as burial records from Charleston, South Carolina, and New Orleans, Louisiana. It seems as word spreads, more and more custodians of these types of records want to be involved by donating copies of their related work to help expand the collection.”

Those interested in donating their Jewish family records to the Knowles Collection can contact Todd Knowles at knowleswt@familysearch.org.

ABOUT FAMILYSEARCH INTERNATIONAL
FamilySearch International is the largest genealogy organization in the world. Millions of people use FamilySearch records, resources, and services to learn more about their family history. To help in this great pursuit, FamilySearch has been actively gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical records worldwide for over 100 years. FamilySearch is a nonprofit organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Patrons may access FamilySearch services and resources free online at FamilySearch.org or through over 4,600 family history centres in 132 countries, including the renowned Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The National Archives Labs is a new venture which aims to be a more interactive and engaging way for our customers to influence the development of our innovations. Whether these are improvements to existing services or completely new ways of presenting the rich and varied information we hold, we want to engage you in the development process. Essentially, The National Archives Labs is a test area for you to try out our new ideas without affecting the main website and to allow you to tell us what you think.

http://labs.nationalarchives.gov.uk/wordpress

For more details http://labs.nationalarchives.gov.uk/wordpress/index.php/about

1921 Census, England and Wales

Guy Etchells, who campaigned for the early release of the 1911 census, is now calling for the early release of the 1921 census.

You can read more about this at http://yourfreedom.hmg.gov.uk/restoring-civil-liberties/allow-access-to-the-1921-census-now

1926 Census, Ireland

Those with Irish ancestors may be interested to know of a petition for the early release of the 1926 Census in Ireland.

The Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations (CIGO) states in its petition “Catastrophic destruction befell Irish sources for genealogy and history when the Public Record Office of Ireland was consumed by fire in June 1922. The 1926 census was the first compiled since the foundation of the State and includes a few basic facts about the lives of the many Irish people then living who were born before civil registration began in Ireland in 1864. Over 82 years have passed since the 1926 census was first compiled and given this almost every adult alive at that time is now deceased.”

Further details can be seen at www.cigo.ie

Roger Lewry
FFHS Archives Liaison
archives.liaison@ffhs.org.uk

July 2010 http://www.ffhs.org.uk/ezine/ezine1007.htm

See http://www.devon.gov.uk/the_1911_census_2010.pdf for details

Latest News about the Future of Plymouth & West Devon Record Office

Lambeth Palace Library is one of the earliest public libraries in England, founded in 1610 under the will of Archbishop Richard Bancroft. In celebration of its 400^th anniversary in 2010, the Library is opening a fascinating exhibition to the public in the Great Hall of Lambeth Palace. More information can be seen on the website at http://www.lambethpalacelibrary.org/content/treasuresexhibition

Mary Comer
Lambeth Palace Library
Lambeth Palace Road
London
SE1 7JU

or email at mary.comer@c-of-e.org.uk

Roger Lewry
FFHS Archives Liaison
archives.liaison@ffhs.org.uk

For the attention of Devon Family and Local Historical Societies

Dear all

We are an online historical archive that covers the period 1896 to 1970 and we have found over 500 newsreel clips relating to Devon’s cities, towns and villages, some of which date back to 1902. There are a lot of newsreels from both world wars and many other fascinating films covering a variety of topics in Devon up until c1970 which we thought the Local Historical Societies in Devon would be interested in exploring. I have put a few into a workspace as an example of what is in there:

http://www.britishpathe.com/workspace.php?id=5232&display=list


We are keen for members of the public to find items that may relate to their own family history and region. With 90,000 newsreel items within the archive, there will be many Devon clips that just wouldn’t have been watched since their original screenings in the cinemas many decades ago. Searching the archive can be time consuming but hopefully fascinating at the same time - we have had nearly 1000 emails in the past year of people finding either themselves or ancestors hidden within the archive.

The British Pathé archive is now entirely managed via our website which is free and accessible to anyone and part of my role is to point relevant societies, associations and organisations in the direction of our website to let them know that there is historical footage on our site that may be significant, important or of general interest. The website was traditionally designed as a resource for researchers and producers within the broadcast industry. However, we are changing a number of features to make it more useful for the general public.

You are more than welcome to link to the website on your site or to use a still to link through if you think it is suitable for your local history societies. If it would be more helpful to put together a workspace relating to a particular town or village we can also do this. The key for us is that people know the resource is available and at the same time we hope that you are able to uncover some exciting clips.

I hope you enjoy looking through the website and I have attached a note on the history of British Pathé.

Victoria Spiegelberg

British Pathé Ltd
The Media Centre
3 – 8 Carburton Street
London
W1W 5AJ

Tel: 0207 665 8348

www.britishpathe.com

Car park charges to apply from 27 April 2010
There will be flat-rate charge of £5 per day. Annual pre-pay tickets, offering a substantial discount, will also be available. Visitors who drive to The National Archives without having booked and paid for a space will not be able to access the car park. Full details can be found from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/news/446.htm

Copies of documents
A new online process to order copies of documents that are not already downloadable from TNA’s website will be available from Monday 19 April 2010. This new streamlined service will provide an instant quote based on the average cost of copying similar documents and means customers will no longer have to wait ten days for a quote. As some documents can contain hundreds of pages, where a customer does not know which pages within a document they need copies of, a search fee of £45 will be introduced to recover the cost of searching for the information. The full announcement can be seen at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/news/445.htm

Roger Lewry
FFHS Archives Liaison
exec.member.rl@ffhs.org.uk
18 March 2010

We have received notification of increased fees coming into force from 6 April for people ordering birth, marriage and death certificates from the GRO.

The standard fee will rise from £7.00 to £9.25. This is an increase of just over 32%.

This new standard rate will also apply where the reference is not known or where the order is not placed online; representing a reduction in the fee.

Full details can be seen in the press release at http://www.ips.gov.uk/cps/rde/xchg/ips_live/hs.xsl/1569.htm.

The fee for all priority orders will become £23.40. This represents a small increase from £23.00 where the order is made online quoting the reference. Where no reference is known or where the order is not placed online there will be a reduction compared to the current fee.

The fee for a certificate issued by a Superintendent Registrar will increase from £7.00 to £9.00. Details of other fees to be charged by the Local Registration Service are contained in the press release referred to above.

In the light of recent comments about additional administration fees being charged by some local offices, it is strange that the new fee of £9.00 is less than the new fee to be charged by the GRO. I have heard from one Registration Service manager explaining the need for charging more than the current fee of £7.00. He wrote “The arrangement of records at local offices is very different to those of GRO. For instance the GRO ref is of no use. Similarly marriage certificate requests involve searching in each church - there are no centralized indexes. Many requests (often rambling) are accompanied by the usual (must be son of …) which means after an extensive search, we are unable to issue the certificate, and return the fee, despite considerable time being wasted.”

I suspect we have not heard the last about this.

Roger Lewry
FFHS Archives Liaison
exec.member.rl@ffhs.org.uk
2 March 2010

Click here for a report

The General Register Office has just announced that the digitisation of GRO’s births, marriages and deaths records is moving forward and a new project, called the Digitisation and Indexing (D&I) Project, has been initiated.

The new project covers the digitisation of the records themselves together with indexing and upgrading the online certificate ordering process. The digitisation page on the IPS corporate website has been updated and further details including a Q & A can be accessed via http://www.ips.gov.uk/cps/rde/xchg/ips_live/hs.xsl/1090.htm

Roger Lewry
FFHS Archives Liaison
exec.member.rl@ffhs.org.uk
6 November 2009

The National Archives has today announced that records from the General Register Office: Miscellaneous Foreign Returns, 1831-1964 (RG 32) have been added to the online service at BMD Registers. Searching the records is free, but there is a charge to download images of the original documents.

The records contain largely non-statutory documents relating to births, baptisms, marriages, deaths and burials abroad, and on British as well as foreign ships, of British subjects, nationals of the colonies, the Commonwealth and countries under British jurisdiction. Events affecting some foreign nationals are also included.

More information can be seen at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/news/stories/381.htm?news=rss

Roger Lewry
FFHS Archives Liaison
exec.member.rl@ffhs.org.uk
3 November 2009

Click here for details

On 24 September 2009, the Chief Executive of The National Archives (TNA), Natalie Ceeney, announced plans to make £4.2m operational savings.

Her plans include:

• Charging £5 per day for car parking
• Closing to the public on Mondays
• 35 staff redundancies across the organization
• 12 staff lost from the specialist Archives and Record Knowledge section
• Withdrawal of microform series from instant access in the reading rooms, including GRO indexes to civil registration

However, we have discovered that the public are being misled about the rationale behind these cutbacks, and serious concerns have emerged about the entire consultation process, as well as the overall governance of TNA.

Action 4 Archives has been established to co-ordinate opposition to these proposals, and to date over 8,000 people have visited to our website representing academics, family historians, professional researchers, archivists, librarians and concerned members of the public.

If you share our concerns about TNA’s proposals, we’ve created a website to provide you with campaign information and relevant articles, as well as link you to TNA’s plans for change as set out on their website. We can be found at www.action4archives.com and you can contact us via email admin@action4archives.com to comment on the proposals, or provide your own suggestions for change. We also urge you to contact your MP to request a review.

It’s not too late to make a difference – because it is likely that more cuts will follow after the next election.

Open to the public: Saturday 19^th September

For the first time in its history Scotland Yard’s Crime Museum (formerly known as the Black Museum) will be loaning objects to be used in an innovative and multilayered experimental exhibition blending aspects of the traditional museum interpretation and contemporary installation at the Galleries of Justice museum, in Nottingham.

For further details:

http://www.galleriesofjustice.org.uk/strike-1984-exhibition/

Philippa McCray
Administrator FFHS
admin@ffhs.org.uk

ScotlandsPeople has announced that the following records have been added to their site:

1. New 1881 census indexes and images: this now completes the set of Scottish census records 1841-1901, uniquely available on ScotlandsPeople. Please note that this new version is in addition to the current LDS version of the 1881 census (which does contain images)
2. Old Parish Records (OPR) Deaths & Burials indexes and images have also been added from 1538 to 1854
3. Coats of Arms 1672-1907 (free to search) have been added.

More modern Birth, Marriage and Death (BMD) records have also been added to the site. This now increases the range of statutory records, so you can trace your more recent ancestors:

• Indexes of Scottish births and deaths now run from 1855 to 2006 with marriages from 1855 to 1933. Indexes to modern marriages will be added later this year.
• Images of births are now available from 1855 to 1908, marriages from 1855 to 1933 and deaths from 1855 to 1958.

The address of their website is www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk.

Roger Lewry
FFHS Archives Liaison
exec.member.rl@ffhs.org.uk
19 June 2009

The 1911 census is complete - all remaining records have been added, and so have the RG78 enumerator’s summary book pages.

Records for the Channel Islands of Alderney, Guernsey, Jersey and Sark, Isle of Man, troops stationed in overseas military bases, and crew serving on Royal Navy ships are now ready for you to search.

Find Britain’s soldiers and sailors all over the globe

In 1911 the British Empire was nearing the peak of its powers. The empire, which was the largest in history, spanned much of the globe, and the overseas military records from the 1911 census - which include both military establishments and Royal Navy ships overseas – reflect this. Soldiers can be found in such disparate locations as Cyprus, Hong Kong, Malta, India and South Africa, as well as in other places not within the empire, such as Alexandria in Egypt and Tientsin in China.

View the enumerator’s summary-book pages at no extra cost

The pages from the enumerator’s summary books, which are now available for the entire census, can add depth to your 1911 census research. The summary books are a combination of descriptive and statistical information from the district. The information to be found in the List and the District description are probably of most interest to the family historian and can give you an overall picture of your ancestor’s neighbourhood and its character.

The enumerator’s summary pages are included in the cost of viewing an image. If you’ve already viewed 1911 census images, you can now view the corresponding summary-book pages at no extra cost.

website http://www.1911census.co.uk

• Online access to the records of 2.4 million people living in Wales in 1911
• Major new family history resource

2.4 million people were recorded living in Wales in the census taken on the night of Sunday, 2 April, 1911. Today, after nearly 100 years, the Welsh census records are available to the public at www.1911census.co.uk.

Due to public demand for access to the 1911 census, the records have been released as soon as each region's records have been digitised. Following the initial release of 1911 records in January 2009, the records of people living in Wales in 1911 are being made available today for the first time.

The 1911 census records contain details about the lives of the ancestors of many of Wales' famous sons and daughters, such as Richard Burton, Dylan Thomas, Kylie Minogue and Tom Jones.

The census covered Wales, England, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, as well as recording those aboard Royal Naval and Merchant vessels at sea and in foreign ports and, for the first time in a British census, full details of British Army personnel and their families in military establishments overseas. It is the most detailed census since UK records began and the first for which the original census schedules have been preserved - complete with our ancestors' own handwriting - providing a fascinating insight into British society nearly a century ago.

www.1911census.co.uk is easy to access and enables the public to view high quality colour images of their ancestors' original handwritten census returns. Transcribed text versions of the records ensure they are fully searchable by name or address.

Public demand for the 1911 census, which will be a key resource for family historians, has resulted in the records being released earlier than the scheduled 2012 date. To make this early online release to the public possible, the 1911 census team worked around the clock for two years - scanning on average one census page per second. In line with data protection legislation, certain sensitive information relating to infirmity and to children of women prisoners will be held back until 2012.

Comprehensive and rigorously tested, www.1911census.co.uk has been developed by UK-based family history website findmypast.com, owned by brightsolid, in association with The National Archives.

Debra Chatfield, Marketing Manager at findmypast.com, said: "This latest release from the 1911 census offers a crucial new entry point to Welsh family history research for a wide range of people, from novice family historians to seasoned genealogists who have hit a 'wall' in their family tree research. As well as helping people trace their Welsh ancestors, these records shed more light on our predecessors' day-to-day lifestyles, providing a snapshot of a day in their lives, with details of their occupations, housing arrangements and social status."

The 1911 census is huge - occupying over two kilometres of shelving - an incredible eight million paper census returns have been transcribed to create over 16 million digital images. This makes the 1911 census one of the biggest digitisation projects ever undertaken by The National Archives in association with a commercial partner.

Oliver Morley, Director of Customer and Business Development at The National Archives, commented: "This is a major achievement. By teaming up with findmypast.com, we are bringing history to life for millions. This remarkable record is available online to researchers and family historians all over the world for future generations. The 1911 census is a poignant reflection of how different life was in early 20 century Wales, before the Great War."

Handwritten records
Completed by all householders in Wales and England on Sunday, 2 April 1911, the census records show the name, age, place of birth, marital status and occupation of every resident in every home, as well as their relationship to the head of the household.

People will also have unique access to their ancestors' handwriting as the original householders' schedules were preserved and used as working documents rather than copying the details in to summary books as was the case in previous census years. The launch of the records also creates a starting point for people to trace their own family tree by looking up their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents who were alive in the year 1911.

'Fertility Census'
The 1911 census was the first to ask questions relating to fertility in marriage. Married women were asked to state how long they had been married and how many children had been born from that marriage. The census also provides a fascinating snapshot of the population of the country just a few years before a whole generation of young men perished in the Great War of 1914-1918.

How to use the 1911 Census records

• Log on to www.1911census.co.uk and register for free
• Search for an ancestor in 1911 by entering their name
• If the name is common you can enter their approximate year of birth, which will help to narrow down the results
• Search for an address to look up the history of your house or an ancestor's address in 1911
• Pay as you go to view each record. You will be charged 10 credits per transcript and 30 credits for each original household page. Visitors to the website can buy 60 credits for £6.95.
• Findmypast.com vouchers are also valid on 1911census.co.uk. Vouchers can be purchased from The National Archives bookshop and redeemed on findmypast.com. Credits can then be spent on both findmypast.com and 1911census.co.uk.
• For more information about using the 1911 census for family history research, 'Census: The Expert Guide' by Peter Christian and David Annal is available from The National Archives online bookshop at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Charles Surman’s extraordinary biographical card index of Congregational ministers includes the names of about 32,000 individuals, and, where known, their dates, details of their education, ministries or other employment, together with the sources used. It covers the period from the mid-seventeenth century to 1972.

Though it focuses on England and Wales, it includes Congregational ministers serving abroad provided they trained or served as ministers in Britain. Although intended as an index of Congregational ministers, it also gives details of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Presbyterians.

Further information can be found on the website where the index can now be freely searched online http://surman.english.qmul.ac.uk.


Philippa McCray
Administrator (Acting)
Federation of Family History Societies
PO Box 8857
Lutterworth
LE17 9BJ

Email: admin@ffhs.org.uk
Tel: 01455 203133
www.ffhs.org.uk

The State Library of Queensland has just re-released the British Convict Transportation Registers Database (over 123,000 convicts sent to Australia between 1787 and 1867).
The original underlying software has been changed as it did not cope adequately with the amount of traffic experienced - the new system is much better equipped to cope with demand.

A new feature of the database is the ability for researchers to post comments on a chosen convict’s record. This comment field is a great way for researchers to share their notes on a convict’s life.

http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/info/fh/convicts

To write a comment simply find your convict on the database, click on the link under “Don’t have a login?” and then signup for a “One Search Guest” account.

Example of a comment written:

"Thomas Dowse was born in Hackney, London in 1809. In 1824, at the age of 15 he was convicted at the Old Bailey for theft and sentenced to death, which was later commuted to transportation for life. He spent the next few years onboard English hulks (the Bellerophon and the Euryalus) awaiting transportation. In January 1828 he arrived in New South Wales onboard the convict transport Florentia. After receiving his pardon he made his way to Moreton Bay . Between 1862 and 1869 he became Town of Clerk of Brisbane . Thomas died on 9 November 1885 and is buried in Toowong Cemetery."

Dates of conviction are continuing to be added to each record - this will be an ongoing project.

Philippa McCray
Administrator (Acting)
Federation of Family History Societies
PO Box 8857
Lutterworth
LE17 9BJ

The National Archives has just announced that BMDregisters.co.uk have added to their website more than 100,000 records of births, baptisms, marriages, deaths and burials of British subjects overseas and on board ships. This information is from the TNA's RG33 series.

The records mostly date from the 19^th and 20^th centuries although some records date from as far back as 1627; if your ancestors travelled the world or married at sea during this period, you may find them there.

With records ranging from Methodists and Baptists to Presbyterians and Quakers, this website is useful for tracing non-conformist ancestors.

Roger Lewry
FFHS Archives Liaison
The Federation of Family History Societies http://www.ffhs.org.uk
10 April 2009

The complete counties of Northumberland, Cumberland and Westmorland, which comprise 443,204 new records, are now live on 1911census.co.uk. In addition, the Gateshead data, which comprises 84,195 new records, has been added to Durham. This means that the whole of England is now online and searchable.

We now look forward to the addition of the records for Wales and those for the Isle of Man, Channel Islands, Royal Navy (ships at sea at time of census) and Military Establishments (overseas).

Roger Lewry
FFHS Archives Liaison
The Federation of Family History Societies http://www.ffhs.org.uk
10 April 2009

1 in 2 Brits with ancestors in collection, including J.K. Rowling, David Beckham and Patsy Kensit

• 77 million records when complete, including workhouse, parish, school.
• Famous names include Oliver Cromwell, Samuel Pepys and William Blake, as well as ancestors of contemporary celebrities JK Rowling, David Beckham, Patsy Kensit and Britney Spears
• An estimated 165 million people around the world has an ancestor in the collection, including more than half of the British population

The definitive collection of records detailing the rich history of London and its inhabitants over 400 years is available online for the first time today at leading social and family history website Ancestry.co.uk, in partnership with London Metropolitan Archives and Guildhall Library Manuscripts following a competitive tender by the City of London to digitise and exclusively host their collection online.

Starting with records from London's infamous Victorian workhouses memorably depicted by Charles Dickens in Oliver Twist, the London Historical Records, 1500s-1900s will include more than 77 million records, providing an unprecedented insight into the colourful history of one of the world's greatest cities.

Key record types include parish and workhouse records, electoral rolls, wills, land tax records and school reports. According to a recent family history survey, more than half of the current British population will have an ancestor in the London Historical Records, 1500s-1900s.

Furthermore, it is estimated that approximately 135 million people from the U.S., Canada and Australia will also be able to trace ancestors in the collection due to London's status as the city at the centre of the British Empire for centuries.

Assembled over time direct from various London institutions, the collection includes the names of millions of ordinary Londoners alongside famous and infamous figures from the city's past. Notable examples include Oliver Cromwell's marriage record, the baptism record for poet Samuel Pepys and the burial register listing for writer and statesman John Milton.

A number of modern day celebrities can also find ancestors within the collection. JK Rowling's 3x great-grandfather, William Richard Rowling, appears in the Mile End marriage registers for 1872, while Patsy Kensit's ancestor Thomas Kensit can be found in Shoreditch Baptism records from 1815. David Beckham's London roots are also well documented; with his 3x great- grandparent's marriage listed in the collection. Even international pop star Britney Spears can find her great-grandfather, George Portell, listed in the Tottenham marriage records for 1923.

The workhouse or 'Board of Guardians' records now online contain the names of anyone who was born, baptised or died in a London workhouse in the 19^th and early 20^th century. During this time, men, women and children who couldn't support themselves were forced to live in these institutions, working long hours in tedious jobs in exchange for minimal food and board.

The conditions were kept intentionally poor to deter others and unofficial beatings or starving of inmates were not unheard of. Overcrowding was also a major problem, compounded by the influx of Irish immigrants after the potato famine of the mid 19^th century. While conditions improved slightly in the early 20^th century, the workhouses were still a feared 'last resort' by most until their abolition in 1930.

The workhouse records cover 12 key London regions. Also included today are a variety of workhouse creed registers, admissions, discharges, apprenticeship papers and lists of 'lunatics'. Records launched today cover 12 major London regions: Poplar, Paddington, St Marylebone, St Pancras, Southwark, Islington, Stepney, Westminster, Lambeth, Wandsworth, Holborn and Hampstead. The remaining regions will launch online in the coming months.

Workhouse records are just one of the record types which comprise the London Historical Records, 1500s-1900s. Others include:

• Parish Registers - from 1538, priests had to keep records of all baptisms, marriages and burials in their parish. These records are taken from over 10,000 Greater London parishes, and as they pre-date both civil registration and census, they are the essential 'next step back' for people wishing to trace their family history beyond the 19^th century
• School Admissions and Discharges - contain records taken from 800+ London schools dating from the early Victorian times through to 1911. They provide admission details and information about millions of London students
• Non-Conformist Registers - details the birth, baptism, death and burial of religious dissenters who did not worship at the established church in England from 1694 to 1921. The majority of the records are for Methodist, Baptist and United Reformed churches, although there are smaller collections of other denominations such as Quakers and Seventh Day Adventists
• Diocesan Divorce Exhibita - one of a number of interesting records from the London diocesan courts, when applying for divorce, a husband or wife would submit evidence for their partner's marital failings, including love letters, witness accounts and sworn testimony, which were then kept on record.

Josh Hanna, Senior Vice President of Ancestry, comments: "We estimate that half of Brits will be able to find an ancestor in this collection, which pre-dates civil registration and censuses, and documents the history of a great city and its people, their birth, poverty, fortunes, faith, education, marriage and death.

"No city in modern history other than London can claim to have been the capital of such a far reaching empire, which really is why this collection is of such significance not only to Brits, but also to many others around the world with ancestral ties back to England."

Dr Deborah Jenkins, Assistant Director of the City of London's Department of Libraries, Archives and Guildhall Art Library, comments: "We are delighted to work with Ancestry.co.uk to digitise this impressive collection of documents.

"Not only will this mean that millions of people will be able to access this resource from the comfort of their own homes all over the world - it also ensures that we will be able to support the long term preservation of the documents and provide fast, free access to researchers who visit our sites."

The London Historical Records, 1500s-1900s, can be accessed directly at www.ancestry.co.uk/lma

ABOUT ANCESTRY.CO.UK
Ancestry.co.uk has more than 820 million names in collections including the most comprehensive online collection of England, Wales and Scotland Censuses from 1841 to 1901, the England and Wales Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes, 1837-2005, World War One British Army Service and Pension records, UK and Ireland Parish and Probate Records and the British Phone Books, 1880-1984.

Ancestry.co.uk was launched in May 2002 and is part of the global network of Ancestry websites (wholly owned by The Generations Network, Inc.), which contains seven billion names in 27,000 historical record collections. To date more than 9.3 million family trees have been created and 915 million names and 16 million photographs uploaded. 7 million unique visitors logged on to an Ancestry website in January 2009.

The Ancestry global network of family history websites: www.ancestry.com in the US, www.ancestry.co.uk in the UK, www.ancestry.ca in Canada, www.ancestry.com.au in Australia, www.ancestry.de in Germany, www.ancestry.it in Italy, www.ancestry.fr in France, www.ancestry.se in Sweden and www.jiapu.com in China.

^*comScore, Unique Visitors, January 2009

About London Metropolitan Archives
London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) is the largest local authority record office in the United Kingdom. It manages and provides public access to 80KM of archives, photographs, plans, audio-visual and printed material dating from 1067 to the present day - an enormous amount of information about the capital and its people. LMA is the premier destination for family historians tracing their roots in the London area and for learning about any aspect of the capital's past.

About Guildhall Library
The Manuscripts Section of Guildhall Library is the local record office for the City of London (the "Square Mile"). Its holdings date from the 11^th century and include the archives of the Diocese of London, St Paul's Cathedral, the City wards and parishes, and around 80 of the City livery companies.

For full details see the BBC News website http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7940540.stm

Detective work by a British historian, Peter Barton, has unearthed information that could enable thousands to piece together their family histories. There could be 20 million sets of details, carefully entered on card indexes, or written into ledgers, which held in the basement of the Red Cross headquarters in Geneva. According to Peter Barton, the UK's copies no longer exist, but the originals are still there and are immensely important.

It presents the Red Cross with an unprecedented challenge; the paper records must now be conserved, and digitised. More than £2m has already been set aside for a project that will begin this autumn, and which is likely to involve experts from all over Europe.

The Red Cross hope to have the archive online by 2014, 100 years after the start of World War I. They believe that the care and patience of their volunteers during the conflict, coupled with today's technology, will provide a key to unlock the past.

The Devon FHS CD "Rich man, poor man, beggar-man thief" is reviewed in issue 75 of Your Family Tree magazine:

"Anyone looking for ancestors in Devon is in for a treat with this fabulous resource".

Exeter City Council has scanned their bereavement index cards up to 2005 onto their web site.

This can be viewed at http://pub.exeter.gov.uk/asp/bereavement

Cards relate to Higher, Exwick and Topsham cemeteries, with some 100,000 interments.

Charles Robert Darwin was born on 12 February 1809 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. In 1831, he joined a five year scientific expedition on the survey ship HMS Beagle, which sailed from Plymouth, Devon, in December 1831.

There are several Darwin 200 events taking place in Plymouth during the year.

Following a request from Plymouth University, Devon FHS is hoping to find descendents of the crew that sailed on the Beagle in 1831, many of whom came from Devon or Cornwall.

The pay list of the Beagle has been transcribed from the document held at the National Archives (TNA reference ADM 32/292)

I have already been contacted by several descendents, and the plan is to set up a display showing items of family research at the Plymouth Local Studies Day on 9th May 2009. http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/pages/view.asp?page=25340

Please contact chairman@devonfhs.org.uk

Maureen Selley

Devon FHS

There is a petition on the the official site of the Prime Minister's Office, asking the Prime Minister to allow full and open access to registers of Birth, Marriage and Death from 1837 to 1908.

"Having full and open access to the registers of births, marriages and deaths from 1837 to 1908 will make it easier for genealogists to research the records and ensure they get the copies they require. If copies were put on the internet this would simplify the process. These records are over a hundred years old and should now be accessible to all with a small fee to cover the cost of copying the originals."

To sign, go to http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/OpenBMDrecords

On 25 October 2007 the Prime Minister announced that he had asked Paul Dacre, working with Professor David Cannadine and Sir Joseph Pilling, to chair an independent review of the '30 year rule', under which most government records are transferred to The National Archives and made available to the public by the time they are 30 years old.

The review team's final report was published on 29 January. Details can be found here http://www.30yearrulereview.org.uk/default.htm

Roger Lewry

(FFHS Archives Liaison)

Today the 1911 Census has gone live on the Internet at http://www.1911census.co.uk. The site is a pay per view site in partnership between FindMyPast and The National Archives. The site will not be part of the FindMyPast system and will not be available for viewing as part of their subscription services, although log-in details and pay per view credits will work on either site.

The census will go live on the FindMyPast subscription site later in 2009.

The Federation of Family History Societies hopes that you will be able to further your research and carry it forward into a key period of the 20^th Century, which included the build up to the First World War and Suffrage for Women. There will only be one more census that we can use in the first half of the 20^th Century and that is the one for 1921 as the Census for 1931 was burnt during the Second World War and there was no census taken in 1941 due to the war, although a National Register was made for the issue of identity cards.

The release is ahead of the usual release date of the first working day of the year following the 100^th anniversary of the taking of the census; for the 1911 this would have been the 3^rd of January 2012.

The Information Commissioner has made a RULING in 2006 about the availability of the 1911 Censes and the early release is explained in this ruling.

The 1911 Census also differs from the previous census in that it is the original householder's schedules that have survived and not the enumerators' books we are used to. As a consequence of this the amount of data is greatly increased and the paper copies are stored on 2 kilometres of shelving, approximately 8 times larger than previous census.

This increase has meant that it has taken much longer to prepare them for public access and much credit goes to the teams at the TNA and FindMyPast for getting this done.

From today there will be a staggered release of the information in the 1911 census. This will include images and transcription data, but with sensitive data held back, in line with the Information Commissioner's recent ruling. From 3 January 2012 the public will have full access to the entire 1911 census, including the information not accessible in 2009. Researchers anywhere in the world will be able to search across the fields of the census by name, address or The National Archives catalogue reference, and download high-resolution digital images.

Natalie Ceeney, Chief Executive of The National Archives said:

"The 1911 census holds more information than the 1901 census. It is also the first census where the householder's schedule has remained the master entry, rather than the enumerator's notes, so researchers are actually able, in most cases, to view their actual ancestors' handwriting when looking at 1911 census entries. This will be an invaluable resource for anyone who is working hard to trace their family's history."

Also available are the enumerators' summary sheets which give information and statistics on their locality. These will be added to the site when all the household schedules are complete.

The following counties are online now and the others will follow as soon as possible, with Nottinghamshire and the West Riding of Yorkshire going live very soon.

Bedfordshire
Berkshire
Buckinghamshire
Cambridgeshire
Cheshire
Cornwall
Derbyshire
Devonshire
Dorsetshire
Essex
Gloucestershire
Hampshire
Herefordshire
Hertfordshire
Huntingdonshire
Kent
Lancashire
Leicestershire
Lincolnshire
London
Middlesex
Nottinghamshire
Norfolk
Northamptonshire
Oxfordshire
Rutlandshire
Shropshire
Somersetshire
Staffordshire
Suffolk
Surrey
Sussex
Warwickshire
Wiltshire
Worcestershire
Yorkshire (West Riding)

Counties not available for launch:

England:

Durham
Cumberland
Northumberland
Westmorland

Wales:

Anglesey
Brecknockshire
Carnarvonshire
Cardiganshire
Carmarthenshire
Denbighshire
Flintshire
Glamorgan
Merionethshire
Montgomeryshire
Monmouthshire
Pembrokeshire
Radnorshire

Other

Isle of Man
Channel Islands
Royal Navy overseas
Military Establishments overseas

For those of you like me who were there during the release of the 1901 Census you will remember the 'Great Crash' and the subsequent wait for some months before it finally got up and running. For the 1911 Census this should not happen for a number of reasons.

Firstly there will be 24 Computer servers providing the resources to keep it running under normal access levels. It is however expected that in the initial roll-out there will be a higher demand and to ensure that this does not fall down like the 1901 Census certain steps have been taken. These include the staged addition of some 'server hungry' features and therefore initially there will be no wildcard searches. This feature and others will be enabled once the initial rush has died down so at this stage you will need a surname or a street address to find an individual or family.

An additional safeguard is the ability to redirect visitors that exceed the capacity of the site to a page that informs them that the site is busy. This will be an irritation to those who read it but will ensure that overload cannot happen.

Basic facts about the 1911 census
The 1911 census of England and Wales was taken on the night of Sunday 2 April 1911. Over 8 million schedules were delivered to householders around the country.

The completed forms provide us with personal details of the 36 million people who were living in England and Wales at the time, offering a fascinating insight into the state of the nation nearly 100 years ago.

The census shows the name, age, sex and marital status of each person, as well as giving details of their occupation, birth place and nationality. The 1911 census also asks for additional information about married women: how long they have been married and how many children have been born to that marriage.

The 1911 census has been called 'the fertility census' as it lists the total number of children that a woman had given birth to; this information is especially valuable to family historians as it accounts for children no longer living at home as well as those who had died before 1911.

Census returns are a key source for people tracing their family history, as well as those studying local, social and political history. For family historians, one of the main attractions of the 1911 census is that, for the first time, it is the original householder schedules that have survived so we can see our ancestors' own handwriting, complete with any unsolicited additional comments that they might have made.

Information recorded for each person:

• Name and Surname
• Relationship to head of family
• Age and Sex
• Marital condition
• Profession or Occupation
• Birthplace
• Nationality
• Infirmity (eg deaf, dumb, blind, lunatic, imbecile etc.) Note: this information will not be available to view until the census is officially opened in January 2012. At the request of the Information Commissioner these details have been obscured in the images that are made available prior to that date.

Additionally, details recorded for married women:

• Years married
• Children born to present marriage, living or deceased

Some interesting entries found by the transcription team include:

• A mother of five children whose occupation is listed as 'slave to family'
• An opinionated household head, evidently affronted by the invasive nature of the census, who writes:
  'Put some charge on goods coming from abroad... Could you not find something better to do than ask about children that have been dead over 56 years?'
• The return for one household lists the family cat as a domestic servant, giving the feline's nationality as 'Persian'. We hope the enumerator appreciated the joke.
• One householder, apparently objecting to the intrusive nature of the census, writes on the return:
  'Would you like to know what our income is, what each had for breakfast and how long we expect to live on anything else?'
• We've found a disparaging comment made by the head of a household about a woman in his service. Scrawled on the bottom of the census return is:
  'This woman calls herself "about forty" and refuses to say more. She looks 60. She leaves my service tomorrow.'

I hope that this release will enhance the research experience for those of you who probably thought that they would need to wait another three years for the information.

Best wishes for successful research in 2009

David HOLMAN
Chairman
Federation of Family History Societies (FFHS)
Registered Charity (England & Wales) Number 1038721
Chairman@FFHS.org.UK

Online launch of Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865 - 1935 reveals the four million Brits who settled Canada

Records include detail on 150,000 foster children re-settled as part of Britain's Child Emigration Scheme One of the largest scale migrations in Britain's history - more British emigrants than to Australia

The records of millions of British emigrants who headed for a new life in Canada are available online for the first time. Now available at Ancestry.co.uk, the Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935, the originals of which are held by the Library and Archives Canada, contain 7.2 million names, including those of more than 5.6 million immigrants from all over the world who headed to Canada for a better life, of which the vast majority - over four million - were British.

Advertised by British colonial authorities as 'The Last best West' in an attempt to draw prospective immigrants away from the American prairies and into the North West territories, Canada's immigration heyday took place at the end of the 19th Century and lasted until the onset of the Great Depression. With its fertile land and long agricultural season, millions journeyed into the Canadian wilderness in search of prosperity. Pitting themselves against long winters and harsh conditions in their struggle to settle the land, the movement became one of the largest scale migrations in Britain's history.

The passenger lists are indexed by name, year of arrival, port of arrival and departure and ship name, revealing fascinating detail about passengers, from their health to religion and even the amount of cash they had in hand when they disembarked. Serving as a record of the voyage, they also contain information on the vessel, the crew, births and deaths and even marriages, which sometimes took place on board and were overseen by the ship's Captain.

The most popular ports of departure were Liverpool and Glasgow, and as the records show, the voyage to Canada was sometimes not without its perils.

Among the 4000 plus recorded voyages detailed in the collection was that of The Empress of Ireland, a passenger ship carrying 1,477 people, which was rammed in dense fog on the St Lawrence River near Quebec on the 29th of May 1914. She sank in just 14 minutes, drowning 1,012 passengers and crew - a larger loss of life than the Titanic. The Titanic's rescue ship, RMS Carpathia, is also listed in the collection.

Also included are the details of over 150,000 'home children' who were sent overseas alone as part of the Child Emigration Scheme, a Government-supported programme to aid settlement of British colonies and raise the prospects of orphan and foster children.

These children worked as indentured farm labourers and domestic servants until they were 18 years old, and while some were placed in loving homes, others were exploited as cheap labour. For the descendants of these children, the records will be a first step to tracing their roots back to Great Britain and discovering their lost heritage.

The Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935 is available to Ancestry.co.uk Worldwide members and through a 14-day free trial and can be viewed at www.ancestry.co.uk/CAPassengerLists.

Maggie Loughran
Joint Administrator, Federation of Family History Societies
Email: admin@ffhs.org.uk
www.ffhs.org.uk

In the FFHS Ezine of October 2007 we drew attention to the e-petition "to ensure that the General Register Office of the ONS completes asap, as promised, the digitisation of, and online index to, the national BMD ledgers dating back to 1837 previously held in the Family Records Centre in London."

The petition closed on 26 July and the following response has just been posted on the Internet.

"The General Register Office (GRO) has a statutory obligation to make index data for registration records publicly available. Since the closure of the Family Records Centre in March 2008, it has provided copies of the indexes in microfiche format at several libraries and record offices across England and Wales. Many people who would previously have had to visit London to view the indexes are now able to do so much closer to home. Further details on where to search the full range of GRO indexes from 1837 to 2008 can be found at http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/research/groindexes/holders_of_the_gro_indexes.asp

GRO recognises that the creation of a publicly-accessible online index will be of even greater value to many family historians. GRO was transferred on 1 April 2008 from the Office for National Statistics to the Identity and Passport Service (IPS). IPS has confirmed that the creation of an accessible online index is a commitment which GRO will continue to work towards.

A necessary pre-requisite is that all the registration records from 1837 must be created in a digitised format. The project to achieve this has encountered delays, with about half the records currently digitised. IPS is investigating a new project to complete the work and to address the requirement for an online index. At this stage options for the best method of implementation are being reviewed, and new timescales will be announced as soon as decisions based on the outcome of the review can be taken."

Roger Lewry
Archives Liaison Officer
Email: legislation@ffhs.org.uk
www.ffhs.org.uk

25 August 2008

Partnership Enables Broader Research of Jewish Ancestry Through Powerful Search Tools in One Centralized Location (USA)

CHICAGO USA - Aug. 19, 2008 - The Generations Network, Inc., parent company of Ancestry.com, and JewishGen, a non-profit organization dedicated to researching and promoting Jewish genealogy and an affiliate of the Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, (based in New York USA) today announced a partnership designed to provide easier online access to millions of important Jewish historical documents. JewishGen's collection of databases will be integrated and be made available for free on Ancestry.com, making these historical Jewish records and information more accessible than ever before. As part of the agreement, the JewishGen site will also be hosted in Ancestry.com's data center.

For the first time ever, those interested in researching Jewish ancestry will be able to search JewishGen's databases on Ancestry.com, taking advantage of Ancestry.com's powerful search technologies, including tree hinting and the ability to search all JewishGen databases through one simple interface. The agreement will also give researchers the ability to make connections within family trees and to perform broader searches - searching JewishGen's databases in combination with the other 7 billion names and 26,000 databases available on Ancestry.com. In addition, visitors will be able to network with millions of Ancestry.com members to connect with others interested in Jewish genealogy and discover distant relatives.

Under the new agreement, some of the important JewishGen content that will be available on Ancestry.com includes databases from many different countries, the Holocaust Database, Yizkor Books (memorial books from Holocaust survivors), The Given Names Database and JewishGen ShtetlSeeker, among others. The JewishGen collections will be available on Ancestry.com by the end of the year.

To learn more about this important agreement, or if you would like a sneak peek of the Jewish collections that will be available on Ancestry.com, visit www.ancestry.com/JewishHeritage.

About JewishGen

JewishGen, www.jewishgen.org, became an affiliate of the Museum on January 1, 2003. An Internet pioneer, JewishGen was founded in 1987 and has grown from a bulletin board with only 150 users to a major grass roots effort bringing together hundreds of thousands of individuals worldwide in a virtual community centered on discovering Jewish ancestral roots and history.

Researchers use JewishGen to share genealogical information, techniques, and case studies. With a growing database of more than 11 million records, the website is a forum for the exchange of information about Jewish life and family history, and has enabled thousands of families to connect and re-connect in a way never before possible.

About Ancestry.com

With 26,000 searchable databases and titles and nearly 3 million active users, Ancestry.com is the No. 1 online source for family history information. Since its launch in 1997, Ancestry.com has been the premier resource for family history, simplifying genealogical research for millions of people by providing them with many easy-to-use tools and resources to build their own unique family trees. Ancestry.com is part of The Generations Network, Inc., a leading network of family-focused interactive properties, including www.myfamily.com, www.rootsweb.com, www.genealogy.com and Family Tree Maker. In total, The Generations Network properties receive nearly 8.5 million unique visitors worldwide (© comScore Media Metrix, March 2008). To easily begin researching your family history, visit www.ancestry.com.

Maggie Loughran
Joint Administrator, Federation of Family History Societies
admin@ffhs.org.uk
www.ffhs.org.uk

Online Volunteer Indexers Sought to Improve Select Collections

SALT LAKE CITY - FamilySearch have announced that it is joining forces with findmypast.com, The Origins Network, and Intelligent Image Management-companies that specialize in providing online access to British family history resources-to make significant British historical record collections more broadly available online. The first joint initiative seeks to publish online indexes to censuses for England and Wales from 1841 to 1901. The 1841 and 1861 Census indexes are the first targeted under the agreement and are accessible now at FamilySearch.org and findmypast.com.

In the agreement, FamilySearch, in conjunction with The Origins Network, will provide digital images for the 1851, 1871, and 1881 Censuses. It will also extend the 1871 Census index. Findmypast.com will provide FamilySearch copies of its English and Welsh Census indexes from 1841 to 1901. The Federation of Family History Societies will help complete the index for the 1851 Census.

Initially, users of FamilySearch.org will be able to do a free search by record type, given name, surname, age, gender, place of birth, and relationship to head of household (relationship was not recorded in the 1841 Census). The free search capability at FamilySearch.org will include additional fields of data in the future. Users will be able to search the full indexes and view original images for free at FamilySearch's 4,500 Family History Centers or for a nominal fee at findmypast.com.

The addition of findmypast.com's English and Welsh Census Collections to FamilySearch's online databases will increase the use of the valuable record sets and increase traffic to findmypast.com.

FamilySearch will utilize its impressive online community of volunteer indexers to add more fields of data to select censuses. When finished, the improved census indexes will be available on FamilySearch.org, findmypast.com, and Originsnetwork.com. Individuals interested in volunteering as online indexers for British historical projects can do so at FamilySearch.org.

About FamilySearch
FamilySearch is a nonprofit organization that maintains the world's largest repository of genealogical resources. Patrons may access resources online at FamilySearch.org or through the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, and over 4,500 family history centers in 70 countries. FamilySearch is a trademark of Intellectual Reserve, Inc. and is registered in the United States of America and other countries.

About findmypast.com
Findmypast.com is the leading UK family history Website (formerly 1837online.com) and has been instrumental in creating the widespread and growing interest in genealogy seen in the UK today. It has 800,000 active registered users, millions of historic document images, and 600 million records online dating back to 1538. The comprehensive collections include military records, census, migration, occupation directories, current electoral roll data, birth, marriage, and death indexes. It manages the ancestorsonboard.com Website for The National Archives of the United Kingdom and offers a range of online tools to help people discover and share their family history more easily. Findmypast.com's parent company is brightsolid (formerly Scotland Online).

About Intelligent Image Management, Inc (IIM)
Intelligent Image Management, Inc., helps companies of all sizes reduce the challenges and high costs of managing data processing and other labor-intensive, back-office operations. It has a proven track record of delivering accurate, reliable offshore outsourcing operations, for a growing list of leading global firms and growing enterprises. It has delivered superior results for highly demanding clients in a wide variety of industries since 1996. IIM has 1400 dedicated full-time employees and is comprised of privately owned companies in the U.S., India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. All onshore and offshore companies are 100 percent owned.

About Origins
The Origins Network (formerly Origins.net) was founded in 1997 and offers online access to some of the richest ancestral information available to help you research your family history. Origins Network services include subscription access to exclusive genealogy related collections on British Origins and Irish Origins, plus expert Scottish Old Parish records research on Scots Origins. OMS Services developed and operates The Origins Network (incorporating British Origins, Irish Origins, Scots Origins) & Burke's Peerage Online genealogical database services. Its unique, primary genealogical data for researching family history online includes marriage registers, wills, court and apprentice records, as well as downloadable images of original maps and plans used in 19th surveys. Most of this information is not available anywhere else on the Internet.

Maggie Loughran
Joint Administrator, Federation of Family History Societies
admin@ffhs.org.uk
www.ffhs.org.uk

New 1900 Census Images Now Available on Ancestry.com; Volunteer Indexers Sought to Improve the 1920 U.S. Census Index

SALT LAKE CITY - Ancestry.com and FamilySearch, have announced that they will exchange records and resources to make more historical records available online. The first project is a joint initiative to significantly enhance the online U.S. Federal Census Collection (1790 to 1930). The original census records are among the holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

FamilySearch is digitally converting master microfilm copies of the original U.S. Federal Censuses from 1790 through 1930 and, under this agreement, will give these improved images to Ancestry.com. All census images and indexes will be available on Ancestry.com for subscribers. As projects are completed, images will be available for free in NARA reading rooms and FamilySearch's 4,500 Family History Centers.

Ancestry.com, which currently offers indexes and images to the entire publicly available U.S. Federal Census Collection, will give FamilySearch copies of its existing census indexes. Through its online indexing system and community of volunteer indexers, FamilySearch is already indexing select censuses. FamilySearch will merge the Ancestry.com indexes with the new FamilySearch indexes to create enhanced census indexes, which will be added to both sites. Indexes to the enhanced censuses will be free on Ancestry.com for a limited time as they are completed. Indexes will also be available for free on FamilySearch.org.

The first census exchanged is the 1900 U.S. Census. FamilySearch completed a 1900 index in addition to Ancestry.com's original. In the new index, FamilySearch added several new fields of searchable data, such as birth month and birth year, so individuals can search for ancestors more easily. The two indexes will be merged into an enhanced index, available on both sites. The new 1900 census images are now available on Ancestry.com. The enhanced 1900 index will be available for free for a limited time at Ancestry.com and ongoing at FamilySearch.org.

Ancestry.com will also provide FamilySearch its original 1920 U.S. Census index. Using the Ancestry.com index as a first transcription, FamilySearch will create a new second index with added fields and arbitrate any discrepancies between the two indexes. The 1920 project is currently in progress. Individuals interested in helping create the improved index can volunteer at FamilySearch.org. Once completed, the enhanced 1920 index will be available on both sites and will link back to images on Ancestry.com.

The 1850 through 1870 (partial) and 1880 and 1900 U.S. Census can be searched currently at FamilySearch.org; all publicly available U.S. Census are already available on Ancestry.com.

About Ancestry.com

With 26,000 searchable databases and titles and nearly 3 million active users, Ancestry.com is the No. 1 online source for family history information. Since its launch in 1997, Ancestry.com has been the premier resource for family history, simplifying genealogical research for millions of people by providing them with many easy-to-use tools and resources to build their own unique family trees. Ancestry.com is part of The Generations Network, Inc., a leading network of family-focused interactive properties, including http://www.myfamily.com/, http://www.rootsweb.com/, http://www.genealogy.com/ and Family Tree Maker. In total, The Generations Network properties receive nearly 8.5 million unique visitors worldwide. (© comScore Media Metrix, March 2008). To easily begin researching your family history, visit http://www.ancestry.com/.

About FamilySearch

FamilySearch is a nonprofit organization that maintains the world's largest repository of genealogical resources. Patrons may access resources online at FamilySearch.org or through the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, and over 4,500 family history centers in 70 countries. FamilySearch is a trademark of Intellectual Reserve, Inc. and is registered in the United States of America and other countries.

Maggie Loughran Joint Administrator, Federation of Family History Societies admin@ffhs.org.uk
www.ffhs.org.uk

In January 2009, the British Library will be starting a collection moves programme of low-use items. This is the largest programme of moves that have been undertaken since the opening of St Pancras in 1998.

The transfer of low-use items to a new storage facility in Boston Spa, West Yorkshire, will take place in phases. This first phase will see 10.6% of their total collection transferred to Boston Spa. During the first phase, these low-use collections will become unavailable to Readers. The embargo period will start in January 2009 and last for a minimum of nine months. This period of restricted access will not affect St Pancras' high-use material such as rare books, manuscripts, maps, sound archive and music scores.

The collection moves are taking place as the British Library needs to vacate current leasehold storage buildings. Firstly, they fail to provide adequate environmental conditions. Secondly, the Library does not have the opportunity to extend the leases. The moves will allow the British Library to rationalise their collection storage, provide future growth space and continue to act as guardians of the national collection.

The planned closure of the newspaper library in Colindale and the transfer of the newspaper collections form a part of Phase Two of the Collection Moves programme, starting at the end of 2009. The material stored at Colindale will be transferred on a staggered basis, and will only be unavailable to Readers whilst in transit. This is expected to be a matter of weeks. Moving the hard copy collections to the state-of-the-art storage conditions in Boston Spa will considerably improve their lifespan. Microfilm will be stored and available at St Pancras.

More information on this can be found at: www.bl.uk/news/2008/pressrelease20080717.html

The background to Colindale Newspaper Migration Strategy can be found at:

http://www.ffhs.org.uk/news/news070604.php

http://www.ffhs.org.uk/news/news071016.php


Maggie Loughran
Joint Administrator, Federation of Family History Societies
admin@ffhs.org.uk
www.ffhs.org.uk

DoVE Update - July 2008

What is DoVE?
This is the project to scan, digitise and index birth, death and marriage records for England and Wales from 1837 to 2006 (Digitisation of Vital Events ). In 2005, Siemens IT Solutions and Services was awarded a three year contract to undertake this project. The contract with Siemens expires at the end of July this year and both Siemens and the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) have mutually decided not to extend it.

Which types of records have been digitised?
Siemens has currently delivered over 130 million records; this is approximately half the total number of General Register Office (GRO) records of birth, death and marriage. Siemens has undertaken to complete the birth records (from 1837 to 1934) and death (1837 to 1957) records. These are the record types most requested by members of the public applying to GRO for copies of certificates, often for the purposes of family history research.

What has happened to the records which have already been digitised?
The digitised records are now being used by GRO within a system known as EAGLE (Electronic Access to GRO Legacy Events ). The use of digitised records in handling certificate applications enables a quicker and more efficient system to be used for identifying and printing certificates. As well as a database and image store, the EAGLE system also allows for the recording and tracking of customer orders.

What happens next?
IPS and GRO are now undertaking a comprehensive review of the digitisation programme to define the next steps. IPS and GRO remain committed to delivering the project to digitise Births, Deaths and Marriage records.

When will the digitised Index be made available online?
The project to produce the digitised index and make it available to the public online is the MAGPIE project (MultiAccess to GRO Public Index of Events). This project is dependent on the completion of DoVE. Given the developments with DoVE, clearly the availability of the online index is likely to be delayed further.

Where can I get further information?
Updates will appear on the General Register Office website, as information becomes available.

http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/aboutus/lookingahead/Digitisation_of_Vital_Events.asp#0

Alternatively, you can contact GRO by emailing to: gro.communications@ons.gsi.gov.uk

In July 1999, following an extensive procurement exercise, a 25-year PFI contract was awarded to Iron Mountain "for the provision of data handling and storage services for Probate Records for England and Wales". By virtue of this contract, Iron Mountain holds all Probate records from 1858 on behalf of the Probate Service, and provides copy documents to the Registries as requested by the public.

As part of their obligation under the contract to update delivery of the service as advancements in technology allow, Iron Mountain is in the process of digitising the Probate Calendar (index of grants of probate/letters of administration issued). The Calendar back to 1858 has been scanned and those scanned images are currently being quality checked. In the future, all that will be required is for the user to type in the name and date (or range of dates) of death of the person for whom details are required. IT equipment has been supplied to the Registries so that when a search of the Calendar is being sought and a record will appear on screen if a match is found. Copies of grants can then be requested electronically.

Iron Mountain has supplied a public terminal for each Registry and most sub-Registries to facilitate public searching of the calendar (which will be available in full outside of London and York for the first time). The corrected digitised Calendar dating back to 1921 has already been loaded onto the equipment in the Registries, and as further corrections are made, the corrected Calendar will be uploaded in batches from 1921 back to 1858. You will therefore see we are working hard with our PFI partner to improve public access to our records.

We are acutely aware of the public interest in the records held by the Probate Service, and the importance of making them even more accessible. To that end, we have begun internal discussions about amongst other suggestions, making the digitised Calendar available over the Internet. These discussions are currently in their infancy, and may take some time to come to fruition. As those discussions proceed, we will ensure that direct public access to the Probate Calendar is taken into consideration, as those discussions develop.

Many of us owe our first forays into Family History to Don Steel, following his involvement in the TV programme about Gordon Honeycombe's ancestry and Don's book "Discovering your Family History".

Don was a Devon FHS member and a regular visitor to our Conferences and other events.

Maureen Selley
Chairman Devon FHS

News from the Federation of Family History Societies

Many of you will be saddened to learn of the death after a long illness on Monday 7 April of Don Steel. Don was instrumental in the founding of a number of family history societies, but also, perhaps most importantly, the founding of the Federation of Family History Societies in 1974.

As an accomplished author Don was a driving force behind the early volumes of the Society of Genealogists' 'National Index of Parish Registers' series. Later as education officer for BBC South West, Don was the pioneer behind the 1979 BBC TV series 'Family History', narrated by Gordon Honeycombe and based on Gordon's own researches. The following year Don wrote 'Discovering Your Family History' to accompany the series.

For over 40 years Don Steel made a major contribution to the family history world as a speaker and author. He was also a Fellow of the Society of Genealogists.

Maggie Loughran

Joint Administrator, Federation of Family History Societies

www.ffhs.org.uk

A new and extended service is now available to family historians in the Plymouth area, following the closure of the Family Records Centre in London on 15 March.

Plymouth Central Library has been selected as one of only four new regional centres around England and Wales to offer complete indexes on microfiche to birth, marriage and death certificates from 1837 to 2006/7. For the first time, details of civil partnerships and of adoptions are now available outside London.

The microfiche indexes are a vital tool for family historians, as they help them to identify the key events in their family's history. Having done that, they can then order copies of the certificates they are interested in. Last year, some 2.1 million certificates were ordered nationally, up 800,000 on the number issued five years ago.

To assist researchers to make the best use of the new indexes, representatives from the General Register Office will be available in the Central Library on Tuesday 8 April from 9am to 3pm to give advice on topics such as how to make the best use of the indexes, how to read information on the microfiches which is unclear, and how to order certificates online. This advice will be given in an informal 'one-to-one' basis. It is free, and there is will be no need to book in advance.

Welcoming the plans, Registrar General Karen Dunnell said, 'Family history has become immensely popular in recent years and I am delighted that many researchers should now be able to consult the indices they need more easily. These proposals would be a real improvement for many people interested in their family history but who can't easily get to London'.

The indexes are available for use on the first floor of the Central Library in Drake Circus, and will continue to be there at least until free, online access to them can be provided, probably in 2010.

For further information, please contact

Joyce Brown
Local and Naval Studies Librarian
Plymouth Central Library
Drake Circus
Plymouth
PL4 8AL

Local and Naval Studies Library Tel 01752 305909
Email joyce.brown@plymouth.gov.uk

In response to growing demand, The National Archives has agreed free onsite internet access to the birth, deaths and marriages indexes, through findmypast.com, the UK family history website. For more information on this visit: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/news/stories/180.htm?news=rss

Maggie Loughran
Joint Administrator, Federation of Family History Societies
Email: admin@ffhs.org.uk
www.ffhs.org.uk

I work in the Drama Radio department at the BBC in Manchester. If its possible, I'd like to make a request and direct you to a really useful page on the BBC website that some of your members may like.

I'm currently researching a new Radio Drama series called Writing the Century in which we aim to dramatise the letters and diaries that tell the story of the century from many different perspectives.

We're looking for as many interesting correspondences and personal logs/diaries as possible and I felt your site would be a great way to gain input. Basically, as part of our appeal for these diaries and letters, we have a BBC webpage set up called Memoryshare, where anyone can contribute memories from 1900-2000.

Along with a link to Memoryshare, http://www.bbc.co.uk/memoryshare this would be an interesting way for the public to immortalise their treasured documents on the radio and to pass onto future generations.

Joanne Clement On Behalf Of The Whole Writing the Century Team

Listen to talks, lectures and other events presented by The National Archives.

The National Archives Podcasts Series allows you to listen to talks via your computer.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/rss/podcasts.xml

The Devon Record Office has organised a display showing samples of the many books produced jointly with Devon Family History Society. This excellent display uses a large window in the entrance to the Record Office opposite the Refreshment Room. Details on display include information on Dartmoor convicts with associated items such as a ball & chain, handcuffs etc

The major part of the window concentrates on the various booklets produced including Lunatic Paupers at Exminster Hospital, Return of Deaths, Vaccination Registers, Boys' Reformatory School, Exeter Friendless & Fallen Girls and Apprentice Registers.

We have had favourable comments and if you are in the area please visit the Devon Record Office and see the display.


Details of all Small Projects booklets can be found at http://www.devonfhs.org.uk/publications.htm#Joint

Diana Lewis
Small Projects Co-ordinator

On 25 June 2007 a report entitled Caring for our collections was published by the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee. Devon FHS submitted evidence to the Select Committee, which was quoted in the report.

For more details, see http://www.ffhs.org.uk/news/news070701.php

Maureen Selley

Chairman Devon FHS

Historic newspaper collection to move from Colindale in North London to Boston Spa in Yorkshire. http://www.ffhs.org.uk/news/news070604.php

The National Archives is delighted to announce that Scotland Online will partner the UK government's official archive in the forthcoming project to put the 1911 census for England and Wales online.

Scotland Online was established in 1995, and is one of the UK's leading Internet business solutions providers. In 2002, in partnership with the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS), Scotland Online established what is now one of the world's leading genealogy websites ScotlandsPeople www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk.

The 1911 census (document references RG14 and RG78) is huge - it currently occupies 2 kilometres of shelving at The National Archives. Comprising over eight million householder schedules and a further 38,000 enumerators' summary books, it details information relating to approximately 35 million people then living in England and Wales.

Once digitised the census will take up an equally large ½ a petabyte of computer memory or, physically, 800 data tapes. The digital scanning alone in preparation for digitisation will create 18 million images - 14 times the number of images created in advance of the 1901 census being launched online in 2002.

From 2009 there will be a phased release of the information in the 1911 census starting with the major conurbations. This will include images and transcription data, but with sensitive data redacted in line with the Information Commissioner's recent ruling. From 3 January 2012 the public will have full access to the entire 1911 census, including the information not accessible in 2009. Researchers anywhere in the world will be able to search across the fields of the census by name, address or The National Archives reference, and download high-resolution digital images.

For more information on this and the status of the 1911 census for Scotland and Ireland see the April edition of FFHS Ezine - due next week.

Maggie Loughran
Administrator, Federation of Family History Societies www.ffhs.org.uk

To subscribe to the FFHS's new Ezine visit www.ffhs.org.uk/ezine/subscribe.php

Family historians will be interested to learn that the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have today issued two News Releases.

Firstly, ONS intends to close its public search facility, currently located at the Family Records Centre (FRC) in Islington, and instead to make indexes available at The National Archives (TNA) in Kew. The relocation is expected to be complete by April 2008. The services currently provided by ONS in Islington will then cease. (When TNA announced earlier this year that it intended to relocate from the FRC 1st Floor to Kew, ONS said that it would be reviewing the services it offered at the FRC on the Ground Floor.)
The News Release can be read at http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/frc0107.pdf but, as its wording is open to misinterpretation, the FFHS has contacted the Project Manager of the Digitisation of Vital Events (DoVE) team at Southport for clarification.

The heading of the Release states "Births, marriages and deaths records to go on the Internet" and in its main body it states "This will enable researchers to access records yet to be digitised in paper or microfiche format."

What we have been told will be available at Kew are the indexes to Births, Marriages and Deaths, not the records themselves (i.e. full registration details will still only be obtainable by purchasing copy certificates).

Furthermore, the DoVE Project will not have been completed at the time the relocation takes place. For those records that have been digitised and re-indexed, the newly produced indexes will be accessible on computer screens at Kew. Where digitisation will not have been completed, it is the existing indexes that will be made accessible: we understand that ONS have not yet established with TNA whether these will be the binders currently in use at the FRC or whether, because of space constraints, they will need to be provided in microfiche format.

The FFHS is scheduled to hold its periodic liaison meeting with the DoVE Team next week, and we will continue to keep you posted with the latest information on the DoVE Project as soon as it is available.

The second announcement from ONS today is that is also proposing to close its London headquarters at Drummond Gate, Pimlico, by 2010.

Most of the 600 staff will move to Newport, South Wales, as part of a government programme to move jobs out of London, the ONS said. A small number of staff will go to Titchfield, in Hampshire, whilst the remainder numbering 100 or so will move to the FRC building.

Although this news does not apparently appear on the ONS website, fuller details can be viewed at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6267087.stm

Geoff Riggs,
Chairman,
Federation of Family History Societies
www.ffhs.org.uk

People looking to track ancestors who emigrated from British ports will from Wednesday be able to search online passenger lists of the ships that carried them to new lands.

Released by Britain's National Archives, the passenger manifests give an insight into all long-distance trips made by 30 million travellers from the country's ports between 1890 and 1960, including that of the Titanic which sank in 1912.

"We hope the digitization will open up a hugely valuable resource for genealogists and social historians all over the world," said Dan Jones, National Archives' head of business development.

The records, available at http://www.ancestorsonboard.com, or via commercial Web site http://www.findmypast.com/ which was licensed by The National Archives, also show the passages of trans-European migrants.
Many were Jews fleeing persecution, who began their journeys in continental Europe and travelled to British ports like Southampton and Liverpool to catch cheap sailings.
During this period, thousands of Britons were propelled by economic reasons to seek new beginnings abroad. Between 1890 and 1914 an estimated 125,000 Britons emigrated every year to the United States, with 50,000 going to Canada and 25,000 to Australia.
Trips to all continents are covered with sailings to South America, the Caribbean, West Africa and all parts of Asia.

Initially only the period from 1890-1900 will be available but subsequent decades will be put online over the next few months.

The lists provide an intriguing glimpse of individual voyages. What, for example, did 40-year-old Glaswegian spinster dairy maid Elizabeth Barr make of New Zealand when she arrived in 1923 on the steamship Remuera?
Did she perhaps strike up an onboard friendship with John Woodrow, 21, a rabbit-catcher from Warwickshire or maybe she built a new life with another fellow passenger, 33-year-old London fireman Rufus Workman?

Although the passenger lists have been available at the archives' offices in Kew, southwest London, for some time they are indexed by port of departure only and not name, making it difficult to find a particular individual.

The passenger lists, which are available online in their original form vary. Some are typed, others are handwritten. Some record tantalizingly little detail while others give occupations, address and ultimate destination overseas.

In response to great public demand The National Archives is developing an online 1911 census service, covering most parts of the census, with an external partner; we are actively investigating the possibility of launching this digital service in 2009. Over two kilometres of census records, containing the details of 35 million UK ancestors, will be digitised. This will provide an online service, across most fields of the census, enabling researchers anywhere in the world to search and download digital scans of images from the census. As with our current online census services it will be both address and name searchable. It is anticipated that it will be available from 2009. It will offer a much cheaper and speedier access to the census returns than the planned FOI service. The full 1911 census won't be released until 2012.

For further details see http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/1911census/ and
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/13dec2006.pdf

The Friends of Devon's Archives have launched their new website on http://www.foda.org.uk/

Please visit this new site to show your support of the group.

The Friends of Devon's Archives were founded in 1998 and exist to promote the preservation and use of historical records throughout Devon and to raise public awareness of their importance for research and education.

The Devon and Exeter Oath Rolls 1723 http://www.foda.org.uk/oaths/ can now be searched by name or parish.

Projects include

• Eighteenth century Devon: people and communities
• Tithe apportionments project
• Black History
• Devon maps and mapmakers

The London Gazette at http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk has now extended its online coverage of archived issues back to 1752.

With a complete overhaul of the church's FamilySearch.org Web site planned for the months ahead, even those who have no experience researching family history will be able to "do something meaningful without having to learn anything prior," according to Steve W. Anderson, online marketing manager for the church's Family History department.

The digitizing project will eventually allow the images of such information as census records, birth, death, marriage, tax and land records - now contained on its 2.4 million rolls of microfilm - to not only be placed online, but to be indexed in order to allow nearly instant access.
The project is estimated to take from five to 15 years to complete.
After that anyone looking for access to literally billions of individual documents will be able to search for them in minutes online.


For more information, see http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,650194998,00.html

James Strachan, Director of Public Services and Marketing at The National Archives (TNA), presented A New Vision for The National Archives, 2006 - 2011, at public meetings at the Family Records Centre (FRC) on 29 June and at Kew on 30 June. To read a summary of the Questions and Answers about future plans, including TNA's planned move of its holdings from FRC to Kew, see http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/news/stories/124.htm

The National Archives is committed to making census data available online. We know from our own experience the huge excitement generated by the release of any new census and recognise the great historical and research value of census information. So we are already making plans to make the 1911 census available online in just under six years' time, on the first working day of 2012.

The release of the census returns after 100 years is determined by long-standing government policy. The 1911 census form included the following emphatic assurance to householders: 'The contents of the Schedule will be treated as confidential. Strict Care will be taken that no information is disclosed with regard to individual persons.' In 1966 the Lord Chancellor determined that ALL decennial census returns should be closed for a period of 100 years, on the grounds that they contained personal information supplied by citizens about themselves.

Since then successive governments have consistently maintained this position, and from 1981 onwards there has been an explicit assurance on census forms that they will remain closed to the public for 100 years. This is the assurance that we all receive when we provide sensitive personal information in our completed census forms.  The Government continues to believe that the 100-year closure period strikes the right balance between protecting confidential data about us as individual citizens and releasing the information, which is so valuable to researchers and historians alike.

Under the Freedom of Information Act, The National Archives considers requests for access to information contained in the 1911 census returns in consultation with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) as the department that transferred the record to us. On the specific enquiries received to date it has not been possible to release the information that has been sought, on the grounds that it is exempt under section 41 of the Act, which relates to information provided in confidence.

The 1911 census is a huge document - more than 12 times the size of the 1901 census, with 35,000 volumes containing the details of our 35 million ancestors and occupying some 2 kilometres of shelving. They are in good condition and suitable for scanning, with less than 5 per cent requiring more extensive conservation work to be scanned safely. In addition there are also 38,000 volumes of enumerators' summary books that are in excellent condition. These are likely to be included in the online project as they contain useful and unique information that supports the census information. However, they do not provide the level of personal details that can be found in the actual census schedules.

By far the best option for providing access to the census is online delivery, making the returns available to the widest possible audience and preserving the integrity of the original records. Proposals are well underway to find the very best company to work with us in order to provide a good reliable service for millions of potential users. We have published our requirements in the Official Journal of the European Union and over the next couple of months will seek to create a shortlist of potential suppliers.

Learning from previous experience and building on our current plans, The National Archives is eagerly looking forward to launching the 1911 census online in January 2012, which we are confident will rapidly become a major resource for family historians of British descent throughout the globe.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/news/stories/110.htm

Did you know that historical patterns of people's movements, from Anglo-Saxon invasions to those of the Vikings and Normans, may have an impact on 21st Century medical science?

To investigate this, three Oxford professors have been given funding by the Wellcome Trust to launch a study to analyse the geographical variation in Britain's genetic history.

If you have settled in the same rural area as your parents and all four grandparents and would like to volunteer or learn more about the project, get in touch with Susan Tonks or Bruce Winney on 01865 228 627, by e-mail susan.tonks@clinpharm.ox.ac.uk, bruce.winney@clinpharm.ox.ac.uk, or by post Dept. of Clinical Pharmacology, Radcliffe Infirmary, Woodstock Road, Oxford, OX2 6HE.

www.peopleofthebritishisles.org

The UK's leading archive bodies have set the course for a revolution in online access to archives.
http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/2021

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