Posts Tagged ‘New records’
We’ve been busy adding lots of international records to the site. This week we would like to announce the British records just added. In these records you will discover everything from schools registers, dental and medical registers, various directories, police indexes and much more! Search the following recently added useful British records today on findmypast.com.au.
Nether Hallam, Sheffield 1831 Census
Glamorgan Schools Admission Registers
Suffolk Testator Index 1847-1857
Lincolnshire Parish Apprentice Indentures
Corfe Castle and District 1790 census
Manchester Industrial School Registers 1866-1912
Manchester Jewish School Admission Index
Lincolnshire Settlement Examinations
Lincolnshire Settlement Certificates
Thames Watermen & Lightermen 1688-2010
Prestwich Asylum Admissions 1851-1901
Dental Surgeons Directory 1925
Bury Workhouse Creed Registers
Pigots Directory of Herefordshire
Findmypast.com.au has published 2.5 million British criminal records for the first time ever
Feb 2013
Find your family villains with new online records
Findmypast.com.au has published 2.5 million British criminal records for the first time ever
Use the promotional code ‘criminal‘ for 20 free credits to test this amazing collection out.
Today we launched Britain’s biggest collection of historical criminal records, allowing Australians to uncover any villains lurking in their family trees.
Over 2.5 million records spanning 1770-1934 from The National Archives of the United Kingdom will be easily searchable and provide a wide variety of colour, detail and fascinating social history, chronicling the fate of criminals ranging from fraudsters, counterfeiters, thieves and murderers and their victims.
They contain mugshots, court documents, appeal letters, examples of early Edwardian ‘ASBOs’- where habitual drunks were banned from pubs and entertainment venues - and registers from the prison ‘hulk’ ships, which were used when mainland prisons were overcrowded. One such hulk, the ‘Dolphin’, housed 6,000 prisoners between 1829 and 1835.
There are details of Victorian serial killers including Amelia Dyer, who, between 1880 and 1896, is believed to have murdered 400 babies by strangling them with ribbon and dumping them in the Thames. She was hanged at Newgate Prison in 1896 aged 57.
Another particularly gruesome murderer who appears in the Crime, Prisons and Punishment records is Catherine Webster, who killed widow Julia Martha Thomas, 55. She pushed her down the stairs, then strangled her, chopped up her body and boiled it. Julia’s head was found in David Attenborough’s garden in 2010.
Vicki Dawson, General Manager, findmypast.com.au said: “We have been eagerly anticipating making these records public. It will be an incredible resource for Australians with British heritage links to locate any criminal history in their family tree.
“The records include entire registers containing mugshots of habitual drunks that feature incredible descriptions of criminals’ appearances, demeanour and identifying marks.
“There are also a number of newspaper articles that are available on findmypast.com.au which provide unparalleled detail and show how the crimes were reported when they were committed. This supplements the new criminal records and makes searching through as enjoyable as it is easy, whether you are researching your own family history or are interested in social history.
“These records span several government series and show the evolution of the criminal justice system in the nineteenth century, which shaped Australia’s own judicial system.
“They record the intimate details of hundreds of thousands of people, beginning with judges’ recommendations for or against pardons, to petitions through which criminals and their families could offer mitigating circumstances and grounds for mercy, and later, licences containing everything from previous convictions to the state of a prisoner’s health.
“As well as the Georgian highway robber, the Victorian murderer and the Edwardian thief, the courts often dealt with the rural poacher, the unemployed petty food thief or the early trade unionist or Chartist. The records are a fascinating source for family, local and social historians.”
The information in the records comes from a variety of British Government departments including the Home Office, Prison Commission, Metropolitan Police, Central Criminal Court and the Admiralty. The records from 1817-1931 will be published first followed by the period 1770-1934 in the coming months.
Search the records in this intriguing set of records today:
Home Office: Criminal petitions
Metropolitan Police: Habitual criminals and miscellaneous papers
Central Criminal Court: Calendars of prisoners
Home Office and Prison Commission: Prisons records
Home Office: Calendar of prisons
We are really pleased to announce that we have new records available. Discover these new records that will help you find out more information about your ancestors from South Australia and Queensland. The records include catholic baptisms, crown land sales and census records.
South Australia Catholic Baptisms 1840-1863
Prior to 1875 parents were under no obligation to register births and Catholics were actively encouraged not to do so. Therefore these early South Australian Catholic baptism records can be useful as Catholics often failed to register births prior to 1875. A loophole in the legislation meant that if a birth was not registered within six months it could no longer be registered and no fine was applicable. In 1874 legislation corrected this problem and parents then faced a fine for failure to register regardless of the time lapse beyond the 42-day window to register a birth.
Search South Australia Catholic Baptisms 1840-1863
1841 South Australia Census
This is an index of the 1841 South Australia Census containing 7000 records. The page numbering outlined in this listing was created after the papers were transferred to the Archives from the Colonial Secretary’s Files held in the Chief Secretary’s Office in 1920. The records were originally held in geographical order.
An attempt has been made to link the names in the census with those in the following material:
• Register of Emigrant Labourers seeking Free Passage 1836–1841
• 1840 SA Directory
• 1841 SA Directory
• SA Births 1842–1906
• SA Marriages 1842–1916
• SA Deaths 1842–1915
• Biographical Index of South Australians 1836–1885 [BISA]
• Hotels and Publicans in South Australia
• Government Gazettes to 1842
This should enable the user to identify some of the occupants in households other than the head. The material in each biography only relates to the circumstances of the family up to the census and therefore later births, deaths etc. are not included. Although this information is useful, please be careful and confirm all material as only the most cursory research has been done.
Search 1841 South Australia Census
Crown Land Sales in Queensland 1842-1861
These records are an index of land sales in Queensland spanning 1842 to 1861. Early records in the database are for lands sold before the separation of Queensland from New South Wales while later records, from December 1859 to February 1861, contain details of lands sold after Queensland became a separate colony.
The 1842-1859 records cover lands sold in what later became Queensland. Details recorded in the register include the date of sale or offer at auction, no. of lot, date of selection, county, parish town or place, area (acres, roods, perches), allotment or portion, section, upset price, realized, amount of purchase money, purchaser, residence and remarks.
The registers covering the 1859-1861 period list the date of sale or offer at auction, no. of lot, date, county, parish town or place, area, allotment or portion, upset price, realized, amount of purchase money, purchaser and residence. Places where sales were conducted are Ipswich, Brisbane, Warwick, Drayton, Rockhampton, Dalby, Maryborough, Gayndah, Callandoon, Condamine, and Gladstone.
Search Crown Land Sales in Queensland 1842-1861
Crown Land Sales in Queensland 1860-1911
These records are an index of land sales in Queensland covering 1860 to 1911. These records have been indexed from material created by the Queensland Lands Department and held at the Queensland State Archives, Brisbane.
The main series indexed are as follows:
• Triplicate Deeds of Grant - Land Purchase A Registers (Series ID 47; formerly SRS 47) – this series starting in 1860 consists of copies of the original Deeds of Grant. The deed may contain information such as deed number, folio number, county, parish, date of purchase, date of surrendered certificate of title and so much more
• Town Lot B Registers (Series ID 46; formerly SRS 46) – this series starting in 1860 consists of deeds issued under various land acts. The information contained on each deeds includes deed number, folio number, county, parish, town, date of purchase, area, plan catalogue number and much more
• Registers of Land Purchase Deeds under Pre-Emptive Right (Series ID 10373; formerly A/66816, A/66817 and A/66818) - Under 1847 regulations, lessees of runs in unsettled districts were allowed to purchase portions of their runs before the leases expired. The regulations were repealed in 1869 – there are just two entries in the database after that date. Information in the registers usually includes the name of the purchaser, residence, the amount paid, the area in acres, county, portion and description.
Search Crown Land Sales in Queensland 1860-1911
Return of Crown Lands 1854
These records are an index of land records in Queensland in 1854. The districts listed in this database include: Albert, Bligh, Burnett, Clarence River, Darling Downs, Gwydir, Lachlan, Liverpool Plains, Lower Darling, Macleay River, Maneroo, Maranoa, McLeay, Moreton, Murrumbidgee, New England, Wellington and Wide Bay.
There are six tables that have been indexed:
(1) Return of Crown Lands held under pasture and promise of lease. The number of stock, as given in this return, for each run, is taken from the assessed grazing capabilities of the runs, as far as they have been returned. The government is not in possession of the number actually depastured.
(2) Return of new runs of Crown Lands, under promise of lease, obtained and rented under accepted tender
(3) Return of adjusted, vacated, and forfeited runs of Crown Lands, rented under accepted tender, and under promise of lease
(4) Return of lands brought within the Settled Districts, and at present held, under Order in Council of 19 June, 1850
(5) Return of leases of runs of Crown Lands beyond the Settled Districts issued
(6) Return of applications to purchase portions of Crown Lands beyond the Settled Districts, showing date of application, number of acres applied for, run of which purchased, date of sale, and amount paid where purchase has been completed
The information provided in each of the six tables is not consistent hence some fields have data in only a small number of entries.
The Green Redcoats
• Military record found of “Green Redcoat” Hugh Burke shot in the Battle of New Orleans (1815)
• Part of a collection of almost 20,000 new soldiers’ records published
• First major coordinated release across the findmypast family of international sites
Records of an Irish soldier, Private Hugh Burke, one of the so-called “Green Redcoats”, have been published online today for the first time by leading family history site findmypast.com.au. These records are part of a major collection of newly-digitised records of those pensioned from the British army by the Royal Hospital Kilmainham.
The records, including those from the Royal Hospital Chelsea and those of Imperial Yeomanry from the War Office, represent the first major coordinated release across the findmypast family of international sites after it launched its world collection in August.
These records contain the names and discharge documents of almost 20,000 soldiers held at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham from 1783-1822. The task of cataloguing the records took a team of 14 people from the Friends of The National Archives volunteer group just over 3 years and includes the records of 19,109 soldiers. The Royal Hospital Kilmainham, the building that now houses the Irish Museum of Modern Art, was established in 1681 to house sick and veteran troops from the British Army.
The records show details of soldiers, including their height, weight, colour of hair and eyes and any distinguishing features such as a tattoo or scar, as well as where they served and their regiment.
Among them is Private Hugh Burke from Wicklow, who was pensioned from the army on the 26 June 1816 after four years’ service. He was deemed unfit for further service after receiving “a gunshot wound to the left shoulder received in action near New Orleans in America on the 8th of January 1815.”
The Battle of New Orleans is famous because it was the last major battle between the British and American forces in the War of 1812 and was fought after a peace treaty had already been signed. The Treaty of Ghent, which signalled the end of the war, came into effect at the start of February 1815 but due to slow communications the news did not reach New Orleans until two weeks later. Unfortunately for Private Hugh Burke this left him with “a mark on each side of his left shoulder” - entry and exit wounds from the bullet.
Brian Donovan, a family historian from findmypast said: “The number of Irish men who fought in the British army was extensive and these records allow us to glimpse the lives and careers of these soldiers. What makes the Kilmainham series so exciting is how far in time they stretch back. There is detailed information about rank and file soldiers born before 1750, about the regiments they served with, where they travelled, and injuries received. Scanned in colour, indexed and published online for the first time, these records are a fantastic addition to the findmypast collection.”
William Spencer, military expert at the National Archives added: “Many soldiers born in Ireland served in the British Army from the 18th-20th centuries yet the careers of these brave men have been hidden amongst some fragile and complex records. The digitisation of the Kilmainham papers in WO 119, will at last provide access to the brave men of Ireland.”
The Royal Hospital Kilmainham pension records are part of a larger collection of military discharge documents today released by findmypast including:
- Royal Hospital, Kilmainham: pensioners’ discharge documents 1771-1821 (known as WO 119 at the National Archives)
- Royal Hospital, Chelsea: pensioners’ discharge documents 1760-1887 (WO 121)
- Royal Hospital, Chelsea: pensioners’ discharge documents, foreign regiments 1816-1817 (WO 122)
- War Office: Imperial Yeomanry, soldiers’ documents, South African War 1899-1902 (WO 128)
- Royal Hospital, Chelsea: documents of soldiers awarded deferred pensions 1838-1896 (WO 131)
Written by professional genealogist Vicki Eldridge, this wonderful blog talks about 19th century electoral rolls and which are available on findmypast.com.au
Early on in my researching life I rather looked on Electoral Rolls at face value – considering them along the lines of directories providing a name and address at a particular time. I subsequently discovered they could actually tell me more and in many cases provide a clue to further records. Electoral rolls should be considered as a census substitutes particularly as we lack such things in our Australasian records.
Yesterday, as today, a person had to ‘qualify’ for the right to vote but the rules were not always the same. The qualifications, as applied at the time, may add further to your family’s history should you find an ancestor on an electoral roll.
Each colony, including New Zealand, had its own electoral laws so it is important not to apply the rules in one colony across all the others. There were no national qualifications during the 19th century. For example, while manhood suffrage was introduced in New South Wales in 1858 it was still in conjunction with the property-based qualifier. This meant it was possible for a man to vote in more than one district and therefore appear on more than one roll. One man, one vote did not happen until 1893 in New South Wales.
Elections and therefore rolls were necessary for City of Sydney elections which were first held on 1 November 1842. The franchise applied to adult males, occupying “a house warehouse counting house or shop” and paying rates on property within the boundaries of the municipality (then also the Sydney Police District) with an annual value of £25. While there are no electoral rolls for this election, the rate assessment books, the basis on which the ratepayer qualified, survive from 1845 and are available online at the City of Sydney Archives. (See also Hilary Golder’s “Short Electoral History of the City of Sydney Council 1842-1992” for further clarification.
The first New South Wales Legislative Council elections were held in 1843 and cast a wider net not only in area but also by reducing the annual value of the property thus the franchise was for all males:
- Over the age of 21 and a British subject and, who either owned freehold property valued at no less than £200, or occupied a dwelling house (leasehold) with an annual value equal of or exceeding £20
- It was also possible for one person to qualify in multiple electorates if he met the criteria in each
This was varied in 1851 to £100 value for freehold property or a dwelling house or leasehold with an annual of no less than £10 or a pastoral lease. This was extended prior to the 1856 election to include those men receiving an annual salary of £100, and those paying £40 per annum for board and lodgings or £10 per annum for lodgings only.
In 1858 the Electoral Act (NSW) extended the franchise to all residents while retaining the property qualification for non-residents. Thus, every adult (over 21) male, with six months residency in an electorate prior to making the Electoral list, who was also either ‘natural born’ (born in the colony) or had been naturalised and had lived in the colony for three years, was qualified. The property qualification meant that a person could also vote in an electorate where he was not resident. As elections were held on different days in different electorates, this facilitated those who qualified for more than one vote.
The information shown in the rolls varies little through to 1890 and were compiled under:
- Electoral District and gave the voter’s name, residence, qualification (to be on that roll) and, the location of the property giving him the qualification – this may be the full residential address or the address of other ‘property
For New South Wales surviving electoral rolls for the later part of the 19th century are available at the State Library and State Records of NSW has some but not all. This similarly applies also to the other States and New Zealand where they can be found in their local repositories.
New Zealand
The first elections were held in 1853 with voting rights granted to all male British subjects aged 21 years and over who owned freehold property worth £50 or more; or, paid at least £10 a year to lease property; or lived in a house with an annual rental value of at least £10 (in a town) or £5 (outside a town).
In 1867 all Maori men over 21 could vote for their own representatives and from 1879 the franchise was extended to all males of 21 and over regardless of whether they owned or rented property. In 1889 plural voting was abolished; one man, one vote.
Women were enfranchised in 1893.
New Zealand Electoral Rolls for the 19th century start from 1853 on findmypast. Search these wonderful records today.
You will also find Queensland State Electoral Rolls pre 1900 on findmypast.com.au . The 1895 Roll has a bonus for anyone with ancestors in Queensland. In addition to showing how they qualified in terms of property, the roll includes the voter’s age!
Further references may be found in the collection of Government Gazettes on findmypast. For example: This from the New Zealand Government Gazette of 1880 p. 1262-3. Polling places could change or be changed; sometimes the Polling place was a residence of business premises….perhaps belonging to an ancestor…
Grow your family tree with millions of new records available to search
• Over 56 million new Australian & New Zealand records
• 24 million passenger list records available to Australia/New Zealand subscription holders
• New World Collection brings the total records to over 1.5 billion
• PayAsYouGo credits for added flexibility
Findmypast.com.au is has just launched 56 million new records covering Australia and New Zealand. Members can now also access ship passenger list records as part of their Australia/New Zealand subscription. This brings the total to over 135 million records for people searching their Australian and New Zealand family history.
Many of the records just released are invaluable resources to those researching their family history. We have published electoral rolls for Australia and New Zealand which are an alternative to census records, providing important information about ancestors. Many other significant records have also been released such as Birth, Death & Marriage records for South Australia, police and government gazettes, directories and even unique records such as numerous runs of Radio Call.
Vicki Dawson, General Manager of findmypast.com.au commented: “This is just the start of many new and exciting developments in the future for findmypast.com.au. We are committed to delivering a great service and continually adding new records to the site. It’s all about enhancing the experience for our members and making the family history search even more rewarding.”
This follows the recent launch of the new World Collection which gives members access to over 1.5 billion records from Australia, New Zealand, England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the United States. The British Collection includes England, Wales and Scotland census records from 1841 to 1911, the most comprehensive online index of birth, marriage and death records in England and Wales as well as many more invaluable records.
The Irish Collection contains the Irish Prison Registers 1790-1924, Griffiths Land Valuation 1847-1864 and many more great records. The United States Collection includes all US censuses 1790-1930, World War I Draft Cards and the 1940 states will be added as they become indexed.
The collection of records on findmypast.com.au is continually growing. Coming soon are millions of new records for Australia and New Zealand, and many more international records. The British Newspaper Collection will be available in the near future giving members’ access to over five million British newspapers and growing each day.
Findmypast.com.au offers a PayAs YouGo credit option for new members wanting to trial the website. This unique way to view records offers more flexibility for members. There are also new subscription options available.
Search the new World Collection
See the full list of Australian and New Zealand records available to search
You will find the Queensland Funeral Directors records in the Life Events (BDMs) record category. Although many years are covered, keep in mind that not all years are covered for all funeral directors or cemeteries. These records are indexes of memorial inscriptions from many Queensland cemeteries and lone graves. Lone graves relate to people who were buried on private property because they were too far from a cemetery. They also contain indexes to records from Queensland funeral directors, including:
- Metropolitan
- K M Smith
- Lorisch
- Alex Gow
- S R Le Grand
- Cannon & Cripps
- Tucker and Nankivel
The funeral directors records may contain information about the address of the deceased, who paid for the funeral, how much was paid, sometimes give names of other family members and sometimes the date and cause of death. They also often mention notices put in the newspaper. These records are held at the Genealogical Society of Queensland in Brisbane.
Search the Queensland Funeral Directors records.
Learn about your ancestors’ travels across the ocean with this informative blog by Kerry Farmer. Try searching the Passenger Lists leaving the UK 1890 - 1960 today and see what you can find.
It’s a common experience for genealogists – tracking ancestors forward through the UK censuses – to find that suddenly the whole family seems to vanish from the records. Eventually it might occur to us to wonder, did they migrate somewhere? If so, where did they go?
This is where the Passenger lists leaving UK 1890–1960 on findmypast.com.au can be so useful. These are the digitised and indexed lists of passengers embarking on long-distance voyages made from all British ports (England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales). If the ship stopped en route at additional ports, such as in Europe, passengers disembarking at those stops are also included. The original documents are held in The National Archives UK in series BT 27 (BT = Board of Trade). Findmypast has indexed together all departures from all British ports, allowing researchers to enter their ancestor’s name of interest and determine the destination.
The most common way of searching for immigrant ancestors is to search the archives of the destination country. But which government archives to check? In the case of passengers to Australia, the individual colonies (and then states) administered immigration separately until 1922, after which immigration control became a function of the Commonwealth Government. (A further complication when looking for immigration records is that, just as today, immigration is typically handled at the first port of call.)
Using findmypast.com.au, there is a better way. Look under ‘Travel & migration’ and select the record set ‘Passenger Lists Leaving UK 1890-1960’. I was searching for the migration of my grandmother, Olwena KELLETT, who was born in Lancashire in 1901. I entered her name (with first name variants) and searched between 1901 and 1907. It is a free search – not even requiring a subscription to do the search.
I selected ‘name variants’ – which also allows for the fact that some passenger lists only identify people by an initial. I found her in 1905, where she travelled from Britain to South Africa.
The above information is as far as you can go with a free search. It requires a subscription or PayAsYouGo credits to see the transcription of the results or full image of the page. The amount of information available on the passenger lists varies widely over time. Some only have minimal information about the passengers, while others include their dates of birth, occupations, and addresses in Britain before departure as well as their ultimate destinations overseas.
I had already found the record of the family’s arrival in Australia, and had assumed they had travelled on that same ship from London to Sydney. But instead little Olwena travelled with her mother to South Africa first, and then 2 years later the family travelled on to Sydney.
As many of the passenger indexes available in Australia concentrate on ships that came from British ports, ancestors who travelled first to places like South Africa or North America might not be included in the indexes of arrivals in Australia. Looking instead at the departures from Britain might help us understand what happened.
Just as today, not every person travelling was an immigrant. Apart from the seamen, many of our ancestors (such as merchants) travelled for work and people travelled for holidays. Families who had already migrated travelled back to Britain to visit family and friends. In other words, a surprising number of our ancestors appear in passenger lists crossing the oceans. Using the indexes of passengers leaving Britain provides a very useful additional way of tracking their journeys.
Published for the first time ever, these records cover schools in the Coffs Harbour District of New South Wales, some of which still exist today and others that no longer operate. There are over 4200 records spanning from 1891 to 1981, making them a truly fantastic resource. There is a 30 year exclusion period, as recommended by the Department of Education and Communities NSW.
This index is developed from School Admission Registers, photocopies of which the Society has been able to acquire. The information included in these records is surname, given name, school name, date of admission and source document reference. The original documents provide additional information on the pupil and their parents, guardians or care givers which the Society is able to access.
If a researcher locates a family member on the Index, they may contact the Society to access the school admission register copies that are held. These copies may include additional information such as whether the pupil started their education at a particular school or transferred from another; the name and possibly the occupation of the parent, guardian or care giver; and in some instances, where the pupil continued his/her education or if they joined the workforce on leaving a particular school or their relocation to another area. Therefore these records are really valuable as they can lead to even more information.
This database indexes names drawn from schools in:
Corindi Public: 1940-1971
Karangi Public: 1892-1954
Lower Bucca Public: 1915-1970
Orara Public: 1891-1926
Upper Orara Public: 1926-1945, 1963-1980
Raleigh Public: 1894-1961
This photo was taken in 1976 of Raleigh School, which is one of the Schools in the Index. This was the new school building built in 1956 and replaced an older building which had been built in 1874. Raleigh was a one teacher school until the early 1980s.
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Over 56,000 Waverley and South Head Cemetery Transcriptions have been added to the Life Events (BMDs) category on our website. These cemeteries in Sydney’s eastern suburbs began in the 1800’s.
Waverley Cemetery had its first internment in 1877 now has now grown to over 80,000 interments in 50,000 gravesites and memorials over 40 acres. South Head General Cemetery had its first internment in 1869 and now has over 6,000 gravesites and memorials in 4 acres.
These records include the full details transcribed, and also denomination, section, row and plot number. Nearby graves are also listed. These records are really valuable for anyone searching for ancestors from the Waverley and South Head areas.
There are a number of people that have been laid to rest in the Waverley Cemetery. From poets and beer brewers, to judges and cricketers, this list is worth a look as there are definitely people from all walks of life! Some of these people include:
• Dorothea Mackellar - Poet
• Edmund Resch - Beer brewer
• Eliza Winstanley - Australia’s 1st leading lady of the stage
• George & Charlotte Sargent - Meat pie bakers
• Harold Hardwick - champion swimmer & boxer
• Harry Rickards - Tivoli Theatre owner
• Henry Lawson - Writer & poet
• Jules Francoise Archibald - founder and editor of The Bulletin newspaper, public benefactor & provider of the annual portrait prize in his name
• John Fingleton OBE - Australian Cricketer & ‘Bodyline’ veteran
• John Sands - Greeting card manufacturer & stationer
• Lawrence Hargrave - Aviator and inventor
• Oscar Eliason - ‘Dante the Great’ (magician & conjurer)
• Sarah (Fanny) Durack - Olympic gold medal swimmer
• Sir Frances Forbes - 1st Chief Justice of NSW
• Victor Daly - Poet
• Victor Trumper - Test Cricketer
• William Dymock - Book seller
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