News and articles
9 June 2009
An assortment of new records
New memorial inscriptions dating from 1131
We’ve just added over 319,000 monumental inscription records for the county of Cornwall to our Parish Records Collection. These new records cover the period 1131-2007, which means findmypast.co.uk now holds some of the oldest parish records available anywhere online.
Search for your ancestors in our Parish Records Collection now
The Cornwall inscription records are the result of two decades of work by transcribers from Cornwall FHS, who have diligently tracked down gravestones and other monuments across the county and carefully recorded the details. Thanks to their hard work, our collection of memorial inscriptions now spans 14 counties. See coverage details here.
More to come – join up and help out
The new records cover around 90 per cent of Cornwall’s parish churchyards, but there are a large number of non-parish burial grounds that aren’t yet included. Cornwall FHS aims to transcribe these in the near future.
Cornwall FHS is just one of a large group of family history societies involved in preserving old records, nationwide. If you would like to get involved, then please contact your local family history society.
Were your ancestors bankrupted?
Findmypast.co.uk has just added records for every entry from The Bankrupt Directory by George Elwick – a total of over 33,000 new records. These reveal the details for all bankruptcies between December 1820 and April 1843 that were printed in The London Gazette. The people featured in these records were from all walks of life and held all manner of occupations.
The level of detail differs from record to record, but usually you will discover a person’s home street and town, their occupation or trade, and the date that they appeared in The London Gazette. The records cover a large number of counties across England and Wales and offer a special insight into an aspect of our ancestors’ lives not covered by the censuses or BMDs.
Search for your ancestors in the bankruptcy records now
New East London eighteenth-century baptisms
Over 17,000 baptisms for the East London parish of St Mary, Whitechapel, for the period 1775-1792, have just been added to our Parish Records Collection.
There are now a total of over 407,000 baptism records for London’s dockland areas. Find out which parishes and years are covered.
Search over 23 million parish records today
Discover the workers who lit a fire under the union movement
We’ve just added records for the participants of the matchworkers strike, the famous strike by over 700 employees at the Bryant and May factory in the east end of London, which took place in July 1888.
The strike resulted in the formation of the Union of Women Matchmakers, and is considered to be a landmark event in the history of British trade unionism, inspiring the formation of other unions across the country.
Discover the names, home addresses, occupations and wages of those involved in the strike. Find out how much they were paid from the strike fund, what their marital status was, and who they lived with.
Delve into the lives of everyday nineteenth-century workers with these new records
Read more about the match-workers strike and discover its cause
