Vintage photos from World War 2 and beyond online for the first time

3-4 minute read

By Liam Kelly | May 8, 2020

Findmypast Fridays: VE Day photos

We're marking the 75th anniversary of VE Day with an exciting release of rare wartime photos and a bumper collection of World War 2 records.

75 years on from Victory in Europe Day, two major wartime record collections have joined the site. Here are the details on what's new this week.

Findmypast Photo Collection

Our unique vintage photo collection brings together original snapshots capturing the events of the Second World War and VE Day, as well as local news of sports, schools and life events. What's more, the photos are captioned as they were in the papers they were originally printed, providing additional rich context.

Dogs in World War 2

The collection has been created in partnership with Mirrorpix/Reach PLC and also features photographs from Library and Archives Canada.

VE Day troops in France, 1945

With photos taken by photographers who worked for newspapers which are a part of the Mirror Group, the shots come from the following newspapers:

The Daily Mirror pioneered the use of photography in news reporting, re-launching as a daily picture paper in 1904 to serve an untapped market interested in more accessible photo-illustrated news stories. The success of its innovation led to many other publishers quickly following suit and in no time national and local newspapers across the UK were covering events large and small in both words and picture collages.

Schoolboy footballers, 1970s

Vintage photographs not only provide rare windows into the world in which our ancestors lived, but they also give the past a human face, allowing for far deeper connections with those who came before and a greater appreciation of the stories they left behind.

World War 2 Allies Collection

Browse this unique collection of wartime records, handpicked by our in-house military experts. It brings together over 15 million records from the Allied Forces. The collection includes service records, draft registrations, enlistment records and prisoners of war, as well as casualty lists, cemetery indexes, and rolls of honour from those who served during the Second World War.

These military records can reveal fascinating details for your family tree including:

From the British Armed Services, the following record sets are included in the collection:

While from the United States Armed Forces, you'll find:

There's also a special 'Faces of the Second World War' collection from Canada.

This all adds up to a must-search collection of family records if you've got relatives who served WWII.

Findmypast Fridays live

We'd love to hear about your discoveries in this week's special VE Day releases. Reach out to us on social media using #WhereWillYourPastTakeYou?

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Liam Kelly FindmypastLiam Kelly